establishment journalism

Robert Bork poised to do something uninteresting

by on June 21, 2010 @ 9:28 pm · 2 comments

in Legal System, Vulgar Politics

Have you ever wondered what happened to Robert Bork? Neither have I. Today, the big media outlets breathlessly reported that Robert Bork opposes the Supreme Court nomination of Elena Kagan.

This wouldn’t be reported at all if Bork were simply some other aging federal judge. Bork isn’t a famous person anymore, and he’s not particularly influential in the Conservative movement from where he occasionally mutters something about something.

The fact that his opposition to Kagan is being reported simply provides us with an excellent illustration of how the media reduces everything to a matter of melodrama and personality conflict.

Why do we care that Bork opposes Kagan? Oh, because he was rejected for a Supreme Court seat by the Senate about a hundred years ago. So, this is being played up as some kind of parting shot from a defeated loser from long ago. It’s tit for tat! It’s Bork’s Revenge! Or something.

Kagan is a shill’s shill when it comes to shilling for the establishment, and she therefore deserves to be rejected by the Senate with extreme prejudice. But, I can virtually guarantee you, dear reader, that Bork’s reason for opposing her will have nothing to do with any consistent or principled opposition to a massive overweening government. So, you can safely get back to ignoring Bork immediately.

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Great Moments in Presidential History

by on June 18, 2010 @ 9:52 am · 2 comments

in Anti-Statism, Humor, Vulgar Politics

In an earlier post, I mentioned how important it is that we stop treating presidents like gods and recognize they’re just ordinary jerks.

In that spirit, here’s a transcript (and audio) of LBJ ordering some pants, belching, and talking about his “nuts” and “bunghole.”

It’s not as good, though, as the incident Gene Healy recounts in The Cult of the Presidency, in which “asked by a reporter why America was in Vietnam, LBJ unzipped his fly, wagged his member at the audience and exclaimed, ‘this is why!’”

Healy suggests LBJ’s behavior there was the result of being intoxicated by power, but maybe it was just those uncomfortable pants.

In any event, perhaps it says something encouraging about the present times that the press would no longer suppress such a story.  (Would they?)

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