What a man.
David Smiley, rest in peace. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →Confucius, Œc. Vol.
Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu.
Siamo tutti fascisti adesso.
We’re all fascists now, says Michael Ledeen. He’s right, of course. The cartelization of industry under state control (and partial ownership)—exactly the “bailout’s” mandate—is textbook fascist economics (as the Volgi pointed out frequently when the Clintons attempted to cartelize the … Continue reading →
The Czar’s Okhrana reports back with the following
Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →Poland & Missile Defense
Rule Number One of international politics is to know who your friends are. And Poland has been a great one, participating jointly with the United States in virtually every enterprise they have been asked to do, including NATO and Iraq. … Continue reading →
FFPE: Russia
Read Matthew Kaminski on Russia. And re-read five times this succinct summary of the Fallacy of Foreign-Policy Egocentrism: The conceit is we can win the Kremlin over by modifying our behavior. Great conclusion: Ultimately it’s up to the Russians to … Continue reading →
You thought we were kidding.
Oh no. We’re not kidding. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →Repressed subtext of the day
From today’s Post: One of the most jarring images of the exhibition is an elegant and austere 1932 poster showing Hitler’s face hovering like a disembodied mask against a dark background, with a single word — “Hitler” — written underneath … Continue reading →
And some might have learned to adjust | But then it never was a matter of trust [Updated]
Now this is worrisome: Perhaps even more important than job-creation efforts is the threat of diminished trust among Americans—in each other, in those responsible for large public and private institutions, and in their own ability to get ahead by investing … Continue reading →
More reports from the hinterlands
The Czar submits yet more sightings of Gormogonical influence. (And we therefore reward him, a dog lover, with this link.) From Japan (you wouldn’t believe the stuff we’ve got going on there): Damn right: An’ from da grayder Chicawgolänt ärea: … Continue reading →
“Mutual respect?!”
That’s what the President hopes can characterize our relationship with Iran? Uh, ok. Can we wait until they show us some deference and respect first? Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →More from the Czar
Man, he’s good. Digging up the occult clues we leave everywhere. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →More Russian provocations
This is, in theory, technically feasible for the Russians and Chinese, but I’m not sure this isn’t just a probe to see what we’ll say and do (or won’t). Clearly, though, the Russians are feeling a lot more emboldened in … Continue reading →
The tentacles of the Gormogons surface
The Czar has been driving around Muscovy painting icons. And, of course, this again. Oh yeah. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →Keep watching the skies
And working on ballistic-missile defense. Meanwhile, there’s some disturbing strategery (or politicking) afoot on Team Obama. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →Kanye says, “President Obama hates white people!”
No, not really, but this does make a decent point about what a raw deal Bush got relative to Katrina (compounded, of course, by his and his administration’s typically expressive-aphasic communications), which apparently destroyed him and the GOP politically. Confucius, … Continue reading →
U.S. out of Kyrgyzstan!
Or perhaps that should simply be a period. Looks like Russia is pulling another former SSR closer into her orbit. This is neither catastrophic nor irreversible at this point, but it shows how weak the U.S. is (or is perceived … Continue reading →
Twenty million Chinese back to the countryside?
Confucius saw that headline in the Financial Times today and remarked to a bystander, “If the economic crisis goes on—and protectionism starts seriously affecting foreign trade—this is the kind of thing where the Mandate of Heaven gets withdrawn and tens … Continue reading →
Line of the day
Well played, Mr. Good: [President Obama] said: I am not in favor of concealed weapons. There has not been any evidence that allowing people to carry a concealed weapon is going to make anybody safer. So let’s have him order … Continue reading →
Ghettoputer’s directing and starring in films?
Why didn’t you tell us, man? Via Film Drunk. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →Hey, who’s this guy?
I kind of like him! “Interference of the State, the belief in the omnipotence of the State: that is a reaction to market failures,” Mr Putin said in his keynote address at the opening of the four-day meeting. “There is … Continue reading →
More Dubya mistakes
From the Weekly Standard. A total lack of a North Korea policy. Neglect of the navy in the face of a Chinese build-up. (Aircraft carriers are pure force-projection platforms—there’s nothing defensive about them.) One does worry about relative foreign-policy tyros … Continue reading →
No New New Deal!
Notwithstanding reports that all economists are now Keynesians and that we all support a big increase in the burden of government, we the undersigned do not believe that more government spending is a way to improve economic performance. More government … Continue reading →
So Bush’s diplomacy wasn’t great
Now Obama has made an unauspicious beginning. Or so argues Fouad Ajami. “To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect,” President Barack Obama said in his inaugural. But in truth, the … Continue reading →
Thanks a lot, President Bush
A commenter (dag, E.K.!) e-mails that we are too hard on President Obama and have whitewashed the enormities and foibles of President Bush. Our position: we started this blog after all the Bush controversies were long settled into obsessive partisan … Continue reading →
Behold: L’ŒUF DE FORCE!
¡El huevo de la fuerza! Das (or het) Machtei! Яйцо властей! بيض الإستطاعة! Obama’s magic egg. Let’s all hope this is a put-on, but if it’s not… you know, it’s not the silly instantization of the proverb from the land … Continue reading →
Redundant backup posting for your protection.
Hmm. Guess I should have read the blog today before posting the Beaker link. Unless this is some sort of subtle Gormogonical conspiracy. Oops. I’ve said too much. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →Our D.C. homey.
Yeah, that guy’s all over. I once saw him playing cowbell for Rare Essence. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →READ THIS NOW.
NOW. NOW! Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →Like we said about the ’70s
The Twisted Spinster writes: …For those who were born too late and therefore are under the impression that the Seventies was a gloriously innocent time of day-glo colored discoball party fun fun fun, that decade was actually when the American … Continue reading →
Thank you, Ed!
Ed Driscoll kindly writes, in re our initial post on the “servant” video: Headline of the day award goes to The Gormogons: “Paging Vernon Reid”. We aim to please. And in gratitude, welcome to the Gormogons’ blogroll, Mr. D. Just … Continue reading →
Monday-Morning Ghostwriter
Friend of the Gormogons David Frum has a neat post at his new site on what Obama shoulda said. Check it out. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →Your tax dollars at work
Vince from Film Drunk notes: Chrysler, which has received $4 billion in taxpayer bailout money (because God forbid we let shitty companies go bankrupt), recently announced plans to help underwrite Terminator Salvation for an undisclosed amount. To be fair, Chrysler … Continue reading →
Obama blows off Medal of Honor winners?
If this is true, it’s both tacky and somewhat disturbing. He’s the Commander-in-Chief now. Please, let’s not have a rerun of the early Clinton Administration’s disdain for the military. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. … Continue reading →
Inauguration in black and white
Friends of the Gormogons Jonah Goldberg & Steve Hayes have some very perspicacious comments on how great it is to have elected a black president—even not having voted for him and hoping that his policy agenda goes down in flames. … Continue reading →
The Czar: Benedict’s Eggs, kicked.
Well, since GorT hasn’t had the opportunity to reply to Dirk Benedict’s loopy jeremiad against the new Battlestar Galactica, here’s a guest commentary by the Czar of Muscovy, a Gormogon auxiliary: If I may. Dirk, here are the facts. I … Continue reading →
Article of the month
In short, Hertzberg is one of that legion of individuals for whom the contest between political ideologies seems to have become reduced to a competition over education levels and IQs. According to one gratifying myth recently circulating in the blogosphere, … Continue reading →
Paging Vernon Reid
Who’s probably playing at one of the inaugural balls, alas. Look into my eyes, what do you see? | The cult of personality Via Mike Goldfarb. This stuff is just creeping me out. Why? I’m not worried about the Republic … Continue reading →
Re: Disfunctional Alcholoics
I repeat: “Disfunctional Alcholoics.” Apparently GorT’s homebrew has blinded him, as we always warned him it would. His parish priest was right, they are a bunch of dysfunctional alcoholics. He’s just a good ol’ boy. Never meanin’ no harm. Beats … Continue reading →
Russian parkour
Excuse the vulgar URL on screen. Via With Leather. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →Minchiatta! Stronzo! Cazzata! Infame! SILENZIO!
Jody Bottum writes: Cardinal Martino is the former representative of the Holy See to the United Nations, and he now heads the Vatican’s Council for Justice and Peace—from which perch he recently commented, to an interviewer at Il Sussidiario, about … Continue reading →
The Road to Washington
Ghost Breakage you can believe in. Via Andrew Leigh Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →Intemperate Screeds Я Us
Apropos this, which GorT will love as he’s a generation-theory lover: The Boomers hate Gen X because we’re the kids who looked at them with the cold, wide eyes of children, saw who they were and didn’t fall down in … Continue reading →
Richard John Neuhaus (1936–2009)
Fr. Neuhaus has died. Here you’ll find some of his wise thoughts about death, based on looking it in the eye. His lord said to him: Well done, good and faithful servant: because thou hast been faithful over a few … Continue reading →
People am stupid, Chapter 531
Via Buttle. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →Hell, yes.
F-22s for Japan? Damn right. There are a handful of countries who can afford the F-22 and be trusted with its technology. Japan is one. Australia is another. ラプター! ラプター! ラプター! If South Korea is really upset about this, they … Continue reading →
Read Hayek.
Read Hayek. Read Hayek. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →Dona ei requiem, Domine…
…et lux perpetua luceat ei. Richard John Neuhaus, arguably the most important—and easily the most prolific—public intellectual on religious issues over the past two decades, is said to be on his death bed. Fr. Neuhaus (a Lutheran minister who converted … Continue reading →
Baby, baby, don’t you wanna go…
…to that same old place, sweet home Chicago? Chicago public school bureaucrats skirted competitive bidding rules to buy 30 cappuccino/espresso machines for $67,000, with most of the machines going unused because the schools they were ordered for had not asked … Continue reading →
Reuben Johnson on Russia’s Ukrainian gas cutoff
Reuben Johnson, with whom the Volgi worked with back in Russia’s old Wild East days, writes a great piece on how Western appeasement of Russia encourages her encroachment on the liberties (and independence) of her neighbors. Read it. Confucius, Œc. … Continue reading →
Wilkommen, bienvenue, welcome
Well, as we try to do, the Gormogons extend a personal welcome to our latest follower, the preemptively-named ObamaScandals. Alas for the Republic, he or she will probably be busy. (Baby, don’t you want to go | To that same … Continue reading →
For your consideration
Jonathan Last’s Alexandra DuPont’s Frank Miller’s Will Eisner’s Goddamn Spirit receives a nomination. Via Film Drunk. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →Hail, Cal!
The Volgi is a huge admirer of President Coolidge and therefore refers you to this article. The whole ‘Silent Cal’ moniker has always struck the Volgi as a nickname relative to the windy politicians of the turn of the century. … Continue reading →
לנצח את המלחמה
That is, win the war. Anyone who hopes for a durable and lasting peace has to hope that Israel decisively defeats Hamas, even at the price of an armored assault and re-occupation of the Gaza Strip, thereby demoralizing any other … Continue reading →
Obama & Abortion
Depressing look at the transition’s published abortion agenda. He concludes: So, buckle up. As the size and scope of government continues to bloat under Obama, look for the size and scale of the abortion industry to follow suit. And evangelicals … Continue reading →
The last roundup
Meanwhile, the supervillain plots his revenge. Congratulations to the Eagles, whose fan base is in self-loathing withdrawal…. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →Tintin on the way
Sony/Paramount seem to have figured out how to get these movies made, as the Gormogons advised. All this is prologue to recommending this terrific essay on Tintin and Hergé from the Economist. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that … Continue reading →
The Phoenix PD gets a merry Christmas…
…from an unlikely though decidedly elfin benefactor. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →Natale hilare de Gormogonis
Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →Meanwhile the universe denies Ghettoputer…
…his dearest Christmas wish:Via Film Drunk. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →Required reading: National defense.
Stuart Koehl & Martin Feldstein. Sorry for the light posting. Your Volgi is beat and running around like a madman due to various family obligations. But you need to read these items. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that … Continue reading →
NICE!
This is a “great” “blog.” Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →Yurtta kargaşa, dünyada kargaşa
Friend of the Gormogons Claire Berlinski pens a terrific, terrific article on some deep fault lines in Turkish government and society that may be headed for a crisis. Read it now. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass … Continue reading →
Josef Vissarionovich Stalin, né Jugashvili…
…the Great Omelette Maker. Russia begins sinking back into a miasma of lies. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →America’s greatest living novelist…
…Mark Helprin fires off another jeremiad on America’s neglect of her own defenses and her political class’s incompetence in prosecuting the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →Greatest football player ever, RIP
Sammy Baugh is dead at 94. For those who would doubt the assertion in the subject line, consider the following (insert “arguably” if you want to be a pedant). Baugh invented the modern quarterback position. He led the league in … Continue reading →
Pennsylvania Nazis.
I hate Pennsylvania Nazis. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →Upstate
(a) Upstate New Yorkers, like Ohioans, ARE Midwesterners, even if it’d crush their remaining aspirations towards East Coast sophistication to admit it. But guess what, folks, if the Great Lakes are your “ocean,” you’re a Midwesterner. (b) You guys went … Continue reading →
’Puterjr.: Advice for the Perplexed
You remember the IBM PCjr, right? Well, what you didn’t know is that there’s a Ghettoputerjr, as well. And he’s a chip off the old fatherboard. Mr. & Mrs. ’Puter were at a parent-teacher conference when the -teacher party bushwhacked … Continue reading →
Beginning of the end for Google?
Hard to imagine their brand going down, but look what they did to Yahoo! But here, they admit their search engine’s primary merit, algorithm-based objectivity, is false. Time to move to ask.com? Via Buttle’s World. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent … Continue reading →
Obit follow-ups
Read Jody Bottom’s definitive obituary for Cardinal Dulles in the Times of London. Stephen Hunter’s wonderful tribute to Bettie Page, with just the right tincture of jaundice, in the Washington Post. And, yes, this post may mark the only time … Continue reading →
Bettie Page, RIP (con’t.)
Be sure to check out ’Puter’s distaff Canuck soulmate in spleen, Kathy Shaidle, who’s as great on the late Ms. Page as I expected she’d be when I considered holding my obit for her post last night. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t … Continue reading →
Bawl more
As Washingtonians, the Gormogons are required to endorse—heartily—this beautiful piece of Baltimore-bashing by Mike “Christmas Ape” Tunison (of Silver Spring) over at KSK. While we all enjoy Old Bay on our fries, loved to watch Homicide, and at least one … Continue reading →
FotG Jeff Gedmin on RFE/RL
Great interview. Read the whole thing. We just had a reporter kidnapped and then released after four days in captivity with the Taliban in southern Afghanistan. Our man was moved around during that period of time. What he encountered was … Continue reading →
Around the Church
Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., the American Church’s greatest theologian this century—indeed, made a Prince of the Church for his writings—has died at the age of 90. Requiescat in pace. First Things and America both post archives of his work for … Continue reading →
Re: Willful ignorance
Confucius* says, “Ha.” Sorry, ’Puter, with card-check a-comin’ in the Transformation into Obama Nation, you’re going to see more and more unionization, with more and more parts of public life coming under the sway of the thugs who can pay … Continue reading →
Bettie Page, RIP
Along with Forrie Ackerman, another iconic cult figure passes from the scene. Bettie Page 1950s pin-up, Playmate, and under-the-counter-nudie-pix goddess has died at 85. When Page left the public eye in the 1960s and became a devout Baptist, a “whatever … Continue reading →
And now a public-service announcement
Courtesy of the Beast. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →Pimpin’ ain’t easy, #2
Thanks for the link, JJV at Potpourri for $500, a stylin’ group blog the Gormogons hereby endorse. And, hey, if you like us too, stick us on your blog and we’ll return the favor. Right over there! Under Blogpimpin’. Unless … Continue reading →
Descent into Madness
“Subbasement Thirteen, paranoid delusions of seventh-grade-girl conspiracies. Enjoy your stay, Mr. Owens.” Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →The Gormogons endorse Kirk Lazarus
Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →Vocative particle, vocative particle, vocative particle!
Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →Live from Chicago—Follow-up
Our correspondent expands: Rodomir and Barack… not the best of pals. In fact, what much of the national media seems to be missing is that Rodomir is almost universally hated by Dems and GOP alike. He is a man, bereft … Continue reading →
Live from Chicago
One of the Gormogons’ many collaborators on the ground (we’re everywhere) reports in on Rocket Rod Blagojevic’s spectacular flameout, worth of the great corrupt Chicago pols of the past: As you can imagine, it’s a zippity-do-day here for me. Not … Continue reading →
Forrest J. Ackerman (1916–2008), RIP.
A good and, within a tiny subculture, great man has died. I hadn’t even finished the tribute issue of Rue Morgue I picked up just because of the cover with him on it. I was never a devoted FM reader, … Continue reading →
Confucius* says…
…octopuses are freakin’ awesome. *For those who came in late: Confucius (孔夫子) is the given name of the Gormogons’ Œcumenical Volgi. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →America, fearsome enemy, unreliable friend.
“One Arab ambassador told me recently that the Iranians are reminding Arab leaders that America didn’t help Fuad Siniora, the prime minister of Lebanon, or Mikheil Saakashvili, the president of Georgia, when they got into trouble—that in fact Washington left … Continue reading →
Amen!
More from Holy Taco here, including the First Church of Jesus Christ, Greatest American Hero: Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →Gormogonmobiles
Well, you ask, given the predilection for Cav nostalgia in these parts, what are the Gormogons driving today? Your answer is here. The Œcumenical Volgi, kickin’ it Honda-style: Gort, whom you don’t want to cut off in traffic: And Ghettoputer, … Continue reading →
Man, if only Fred Thompson had run for president!
Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →“Why do they hate us?”
Well, arguably because we tell them we’re hateful. Hollywood’s basic trope since c. 1970 is that any American authority figure is likely a villain—or as the Volgi likes to put it, It’s Always the Highest-Ranking White Guy in A Suit … Continue reading →
The FFPE*, yet again
Beautiful examples right here. *For those who came in late: Click here. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →Dr. D on Britain’s regression…
…to a vulgar and drunken rabble. Brilliant essay and a signal warning about society’s vulnerability to seemingly harmless or “enlightened” reform. Tradition is the democracy of the dead and is trifled with at one’s peril. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent … Continue reading →
Beat. Down.
Even if you haven’t been following the nitty-gritty of this contretemps, this is one of the most entertaining smackdowns you’ll ever read, by the great Mark Steyn. For ’Puter: underage sex and bestiality! Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like … Continue reading →
India, we stand with you.
The Gormogons express their sympathies to all the Indians and other nationals wounded, or terrorized by the recent attacks in Bombay, and especially to the loved ones of those killed. Requiescant in pace. May the civilized nations of the world … Continue reading →
Jawohl, Frau Doktor Kanzlerin
Merkel speaks the truth: Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, turned the tables on her international critics on Wednesday by accusing the US and other governments of making “cheap money” a central tool of their economic management, thus planting the seeds … Continue reading →
All things Cav
Ah, le Cav. Well, since the ‘Puter has been wallowing in Cavstalgia, your Volgi might as well weigh in. Yeah, my dad had a 1982 Cav with its 1.8L GM 122 engine cranking out a massive eighty-two horses of sheer … Continue reading →
Jonah Goldberg on Sidwell, D.C. schools, etc.
Friend of the Gormogons Jonah Goldberg has a good column today in which he channels both the Volgi: But you know what? Who cares? Personally, I would think less of the Obamas if they sent their kids to bad schools … Continue reading →
Václav Klaus to be EU president?
Be still my beating heart. Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →And now for something completely different
Why teenage boys are the dumbest form of life in the known universe, Part MMDCCCLXXVIII. Via With Leather. Where else? Confucius, Œc. Vol.Don’t ask impertinent questions like that jackass Adept Lu. 3.14.242.153
Continue reading →