Atrios's Wanker of the Day: Anne "Hamlet" Applebaum

[BurtWorm]

He sums up very well what bugs the shit out of me about columns like Applebaum's.

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_07_15_archive.html#6475054902535595010

Paralysis

Aside from leading me close to accepting that maybe there is someone in elite punditry who is even stupider than Gregg Easterbrook, Applebaum's column highlights something inflicted many of our elites at the moment. They're all Hamlet, unwilling to decide on a course of action, and more than that all they can do is disparage anyone who tries to do so. All of this serves to reinforce the primacy of the status quo - George Bush's continuing epic fuckup - instead of allowing for any possibility that sensible people will be able to make any decisions.

But they're very serious and humble.

[BurtWorm]

1. Kevin Drum to Applebaum: Spare me!

Again, well said!

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_07/011695.php

SPARE ME....Today, Anne Applebaum takes to the Washington Post to sniff at all the people who have offered ideas about what we should do in Iraq. Apparently, they are all unserious:

More troops? I hardly need to elaborate on what's wrong with that plan.

....Fewer troops?....So, in the midst of a vast civil war, small groups of Americans will withdraw to some neutral outposts and announce that they would no longer like to be shot at, please?

....No troops?....How many of the people who clamor for intervention in Darfur will also be clamoring to rush back into Iraq when full-scale ethnic cleansing starts taking place?....I'm not saying there will be such a catastrophe, but there could be.

Well, we have to do something, don't we? The least serious approach of all is to sit back, pretend that no one else recognizes the gravity of the situation, and then explain patronizingly that "there are no obvious solutions in Iraq." Thanks for the tip, Anne.

[Richard Steele]

3. What a monumental NOTHING that "editorial" was! Why is space wasted on this person? nm

[BurtWorm]

4. Because she is just so full of

gravitas. :eyes:

[MADem]

2. That's fabulous!!!!! So damned true!!!!! They're all like Chauncey Gardner's advisors!!

Throwing out bullshit platitudes!!! Repeating shopworn themes!!! Harrumphing!!!

Waiting for a sign!!

[Ezlivin]

5. "There will be growth in the Spring."

"I like to watch."

Chauncey Gardner is full of sage advice. Peter Sellers should have won an Oscar for his performance in "Being There."

[MADem]

6. And some of the worst of them aren't just the pundits, they're advising the nitwit