Ace of Spades HQ

April 26, 2010

Steel cage match: Yglesias vs Goldberg
— Purple Avenger

Place your bets ladies and gentlemen, the main event is about to start.

In the red(star) corner we have Matthew "raging bull" Yglesias, weighing in at 4 paragraphs of envious screaming attack frenzy.

If youÂ’re a connoisseur of people pointing out that Jonah Goldberg isnÂ’t a very intelligent man while simultaneously being too polite to come out and say so directly...

Matt of course attended Harvard and studied "philosophy" rendering him an unimpeachable expert on all things political, defense, scientific, economic, and public policy. What's that? I'm hearing cackling from the peanut gallery heckling "Yea right, that plus a buck will get you a cup of joe at Dunkin Donuts out in the real world!".

In the American corner we have Jonah Goldberg who attended Goucher college in Baltimore. Goucher college? WTF is that? Charlie Gibson just tweeted he's never heard of it, and neither have I. Must be one of those matchbook cover mail order diploma mills. Certainly nothing to compare to fracking Harvard!!! Jonah, dude, an uneasy mood seems to be settling into this crowd, I'm just saying... Oh, wait, he did a year overseas as an English teacher. That sounds sort of like a real job. The crowd seems placated for the moment...

Yglesias is hopping up and down gesticulating wildly now talking smack in a big way and throws this zinger down:

...ThereÂ’s this nice, very cushy gravy train out there awaiting anyone who wants to be a loyal footsoldier and one consequence of that is that the standards in terms of the personnel are quite low.

A strange calm comes over Goldberg after that last throw down and he utters a single hushed word in response:

Indeed.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 01:27 PM | Comments (58)
Post contains 289 words, total size 2 kb.

1 painful. just painful at this point. Where's Joe Biden? We need another gaffe to go unreported.

Posted by: Calypso at April 26, 2010 01:31 PM (eoYse)

2 Good Lord. I wonder if he's just dishonest or doesn't realize the reason there are "think tanks" on the right is the cushy academic jobs are closed off to any body who isn't far to the left of normal Americans.

Posted by: Ace's liver at April 26, 2010 01:33 PM (XIXhw)

3 Without clicking on the links (because I'd rather get a full-body dry-shave by Nancy Pelosi than give Yglesias a hit) this is a positively Delphic post.

Posted by: Waterhouse at April 26, 2010 01:38 PM (rOd1g)

4 Goldberg is funny, and does not take himself too seriously on occasion. Yglesias is an arrogant prick, close minded and never admits his side is ever at fault.

Posted by: John at April 26, 2010 01:39 PM (6FYZ6)

5 Goucher College.

Posted by: NJConservative at April 26, 2010 01:40 PM (LH6ir)

6 Will somebody please pop the bubble that is the intellectual credentializing of people with wussmanities degrees from the Ivy League?

You. Would. Not. Last. A. Day. In. Calculus.

Posted by: AmishDude at April 26, 2010 01:40 PM (T0NGe)

7 Amazon sales rank for Matthew Yglesias's book, Heads in the Sand: How the Republicans Screw Up Foreign Policy and Foreign Policy Screws Up the Democrats: #347,467

Amazon sales rank for Jonah Goldberg's book Liberal Fascism: #4,055.

Price of Matthew Yglesias's envy of Goldberg's influence: priceless.

Posted by: T at April 26, 2010 01:45 PM (Q5RJh)

Goucher College, not Groucher.

Jeez.

Posted by: Wm T Sherman at April 26, 2010 01:46 PM (w41GQ)

9 I never heard of a "Groucher College" near Baltimore. there is a Groucher, though -- it's where Midshipmen go to get laid but only if they can't score at Towson. St. John's is, of course, a lost cause in that regard.

Posted by: The Atom Bomb of Loving Kindness at April 26, 2010 01:49 PM (CnrIa)

10 Ack, I typed Groucher myself. Goucher. No R. Except at the end.

Posted by: The Atom Bomb of Loving Kindness at April 26, 2010 01:50 PM (CnrIa)

11 ...ThereÂ’s this nice, very cushy gravy train out there awaiting anyone who wants to be a loyal footsoldier and one consequence of that is that the standards in terms of the personnel are quite low.

He's talking about college professorial jobs, right?

Posted by: Unclefacts, AoSHQ Professional Debate Team at April 26, 2010 01:51 PM (erIg9)

12 There's a Groucher College.

I took it. Got an A in "Get Off My Lawn 101"

Posted by: AmishDude at April 26, 2010 01:53 PM (T0NGe)

Jonas became famouse first because of "Willies Wild Wanger' and a bunch of chicks, including his mother. At first I didn't think he could write fer shit, but as I kept readings stuff that kept popping up, Like 'Billy's Boner', I realized that he has a great deal of talent!

Keep up the good fight Mr. Goldberg!

Posted by: JDFALCON IN VEGAS at April 26, 2010 01:54 PM (jHBnk)

14 Again, projection is one of the central aspects of leftist thought...

Perhaps Yglesias can call Goldberg uncivil, like all those teabaggers, next?

Posted by: 18-1 at April 26, 2010 01:55 PM (7BU4a)

15 Certainly nothing to compare to fracking Harvard!!!

So Harvard is engaged in hydraulic fracturing?

Why, yes, my daddy was in de awl bidness.

(Sorry. I got nothin' on the actual topic.)

Posted by: Meiczyslaw at April 26, 2010 01:57 PM (vEhUz)

16 I, too, thought he got his job because of his mother. However, he does write well and has a good sense of humor. I would rather read Goldberg than a whole bunch of people on the left and right. For example, that dweeb Rich Lowry continually demonstrates both his cluelessness and his elitism, and he is one on the right that I do not like.

On the left, they are all tiresome and annoying, with the occasional exception of Christopher Hitchens and Camille Paglia.

Posted by: Miss Marple (redneck teabagger) at April 26, 2010 01:58 PM (4DwVn)

17 There's a Groucher College.

I think the School of Misanthropy offers PhDs in Curmudgeon Studies.

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at April 26, 2010 01:58 PM (VY5KX)

18 Posted by: The Atom Bomb of Loving Kindness at April 26, 2010 05:49 PM (CnrIa)

Pretty much how I rolled while I was a middie.

Posted by: DCA at April 26, 2010 01:59 PM (B/ptC)

19 ...ThereÂ’s this nice, very cushy gravy train out there awaiting anyone who wants to be a loyal footsoldier and one consequence of that is that the standards in terms of the personnel are quite low. EVERYTHING a liberal accuses a conservative of being or doing is what they are. Liberalism is nothing but projection and hate. And you all know what Yoda said about hate...

Posted by: brian at April 26, 2010 01:59 PM (y05cf)

20 brian, is this what you were thinking of?

Posted by: IllTemperedCur at April 26, 2010 02:02 PM (VY5KX)

21 "Because the vision of the anointed is a vision of themselves as well as a vision of the world, when they are defending that vision they are not simply defending a set of hypotheses about external events, they are in a sense defending their very souls - and the zeal and even ruthlessness with which they defend their vision are not surprising under these circumstances." Thomas Sowell - Intellectuals and Society.

Looking at you, Iggy, the Writer from Mars.

Posted by: Garbonzo the Garrulous at April 26, 2010 02:05 PM (zgd5N)

22 Wait a minute. I'm a conservative, a writer AND I went to an Ivy League school. Can I get one of these cushy jobs he's talking about? Who I do call? That would be so cool.

Posted by: mr.frakypants at April 26, 2010 02:08 PM (pffBj)

23 And you all know what Yoda said about hate...
Posted by: brian

"Makes for intense sex, it does..."

Posted by: mr.frakypants at April 26, 2010 02:09 PM (pffBj)

24 I have a science degree from the urban campus of a state university.

I must be down there with plankton on the food chain, as far as Yglesias is concerned.

Of course, I will bet he doesn't know how to find oil or coal, how to prime a pump, how to can tomatoes, or how to train a dog, which I do.

On balance, I think I am happier being who I am, than being the bitter clinger (to liberal ideas) which Yglesias is.

Posted by: Miss Marple (redneck teabagger) at April 26, 2010 02:12 PM (4DwVn)

25 Personally, I like it when Yglesias sings, "To all the girls I've loved before . . "

Posted by: Sphynx at April 26, 2010 02:17 PM (xilNI)

26 "Who've traveled in and out my door . . ."

Posted by: Sphynx at April 26, 2010 02:18 PM (xilNI)

27 "I'm glad they came along . . . "

"To mess with my ding dong."

"To all the girls I've looooved befooooooore."

Posted by: Sphynx at April 26, 2010 02:19 PM (xilNI)

28 Getting the high hat from a Harvard grad with an hispanic surname doesn't float without producing a high school transcript and SAT scores. Absent those, it's Harvard* not Harvard.

Posted by: Binky at April 26, 2010 02:30 PM (fkgyi)

29 Goddamn, Ygelias (sic, but f$#% him) is the dumbest SOB in any room he walks into. Seriously, that submoronic jagoff is the reason people look down their noses nowadays at matriculating from Harvard. If you're going to be stupid, at least crank the volume down to 9, instead of 11. (Refer to any single paragraph he has ever scribbled out on a keyboard.)

Posted by: Vercingetorix at April 26, 2010 02:33 PM (N8eC4)

30 Yo momma so dumb, she couldn't get into Vassar.

Posted by: david brooks-frum-smythe at April 26, 2010 02:36 PM (ocax6)

31 @ 31 Oh Snap!

Posted by: Oilfield Dude at April 26, 2010 02:38 PM (Cx5cx)

32 #32 Sorry, old man. But he had it coming.

Posted by: david brooks-frum-smythe at April 26, 2010 02:40 PM (ocax6)

33 Please, let's not pick on widdle MattY, to paraphrase Molly Ivins, he was born with silver head in his ass.

Posted by: DelD at April 26, 2010 02:47 PM (G79kj)

34 Goucher? Heck, we used to go to Hood back in my day. That's where it took guts to go... If you didn't pick up a girl there, you'd merely drive home and hope your friends that got lucky could get a ride back to Annapolis.

If you didn't pick up a girl at Hood, you slept in the car, 'cus it was too far to drive back that night.

Posted by: JFH at April 26, 2010 02:48 PM (cPQlR)

I like Jonah. He is a witty guy. He doesn't take himself seriously. He is the guy on the Corner who will post some snippet "worrying" about the upcoming zombie apocalypse, just to lighten the mood. His book is a great gift to the knowledge bank of mankind. And I just LOVE it that his very existence at a place like National Review irritates the snot out of lefties still bitter over Monicagate. But - and I say this as one of his fans - he is no Buckley. He has talent, sure, but he will engage in his own set of cheap debating tricks when he starts to lose an argument. That's not entirely bad, but it is a bit disappointing to see sometimes.

Posted by: chemjeff at April 26, 2010 02:50 PM (pTyL2)

36 Oh, and I just read the comments on that Yglesias article. It is highly amusing to see all of the 'smart' 'educated' 'rational' liberals attempt to dissect and analyze us conservatives. Apparently, the prevailing theory is that the only reason Jonah, the stupid mediocre writer that he is, has his job at a place like NRO is because we conservatives are idiots and Jonah is just pandering to our anti-intellectualism. These liberal idiots live in liberal enclaves, read liberal papers, visit liberal blogs, listen to liberal news, have liberal friends, and maybe have 1 or 2 token conservatives in their circle of friends, and suddenly they've become the anthropological expert on us.

Posted by: chemjeff at April 26, 2010 02:53 PM (pTyL2)

37 True that, 37. We understand the left far better than they understand us, and I don't even think it's debatable. If it were otherwise they wouldn't need to lie and fabricate memes with such appalling frequency, nor would they be such epic fails whenever they attempt to sockpuppet conservatives. God knows there's nothing remotely difficult about mimicking them.

Posted by: Abe Froman at April 26, 2010 03:00 PM (fkgyi)

38 Groucher? I barely know her.

Posted by: michael scott at April 26, 2010 03:05 PM (ocax6)

39 #38 Abe Froman

You know why we understand them better than they do us? Because a lot of us used to BE them!

I was a democrat voter until Carter. After 4 years of Carter, I RAN to the polls to vote for Reagan. And I have been a conservative Republican ever since!

Posted by: Miss Marple (redneck teabagger) at April 26, 2010 03:07 PM (4DwVn)

40 re: 26

I prefer it when he sings his ode to obama: "you can be my hero"

Posted by: A.G. at April 26, 2010 03:23 PM (BgD0W)

41 Jonah went to Goucher college.
Yglesias went to Gauche college, like most leftists.

Posted by: A.G. at April 26, 2010 03:26 PM (BgD0W)

42 which, oh yeah, gauche in frenchie means "left" anyway so...

Posted by: A.G. at April 26, 2010 03:27 PM (BgD0W)

43 1. If this is indicative of his writing, Iglesias has pulled these ideas from other people and meshed them into his own ideas. Everybody can do that, even idiots. Further, he is quite clearly a shitty writer. I can read anything you put in front of me, but if your structure and diction are so 'deep' and 'complex' that I have to re-read your writing more than twice a page, I put you down after a chapter. This guy falls into this pretentious category. 2. The people Iglesias pulls his data from are also idiots. Julian Sanchez writes ONLY about technology/nerdy issues from a libertarian standpoint (Iglesias: teabagging conservative!). He complains that it's hard to be hired on writing as a moderate conservative (David Brooks is mentioned several times), but easy if you strictly tow the party line. Okay, well how hard is it for a moderate liberal in the same position? When was the last time Iglesias didn't tow the party line? Friedersdorf spends the majority of the time lambasting portions of a Goldberg article, only to later admit that the same closed-mindedness is occurring on the left. Hilarious. 3. This article reminds me that Jonah writes in a way that is easy to follow, funny, and thoughtful. Not the blowhard way of these other douchenozzles.

Posted by: Oilfield Dude at April 26, 2010 03:43 PM (Cx5cx)

Matt Yglesias: Mr. Independent.

No footsoldier, he!

Posted by: Karl at April 26, 2010 03:46 PM (e+ke9)

I guess we're all supposed to forget that Matthew makes a living blogging for Think Progress, which, the last time I checked, was the Official House Organ for the Center for American Progress. And the last time I checked, they qualified as perfect examples of Sanchez's "generously funded ideological publications and think tanks". [...]

I'd suggest the next time Matthew decides to slag someone for taking the easy way out, that he goes off on someone who doesn't fit the bill as his doppelgÃ¤nger.
Another take on the hypocrisy factor. Via Linkiest (formerly Conservative Grapevine).

Posted by: andycanuck at April 26, 2010 03:51 PM (ocax6)

46 And thank you, pixy misa template. The first two paragraphs in #48 are quotes from the linked site.

Posted by: andycanuck at April 26, 2010 03:53 PM (ocax6)

47 "ThereÂ’s this nice, very cushy gravy train out there awaiting anyone who wants to be a loyal footsoldier and one consequence of that is that the standards in terms of the personnel are quite low."-------I didn't actually read his article but is Yglesias talking about himself here? The guy writes boilerplate liberal pablum. He is the definition of the Obama-loving thrill-legged full libtard.

Posted by: RickS at April 26, 2010 04:04 PM (hKB1N)

48 College? Fuck that shit.

Posted by: iowahawk at April 26, 2010 04:33 PM (veL4N)

49 >>>God knows there's nothing remotely difficult about mimicking them.

Still waiting for the thread where we all pretend to be moonbats.

Posted by: evil midnight bomber what bombs at midnight at April 26, 2010 06:17 PM (hCQG5)

I am the Philosopher King!

Thus, I need only point out your peronsal short-comings and I win the argument. Or as Descartes used to say: You suck, therefore I am. Thinking is pretty over-rated.

Posted by: Mr. Barky at April 26, 2010 07:19 PM (bZW6t)

"Liberal Fascism" may now be #4000 something on Amazon, but it was on the NYT Best seller list for quite some time.

So what really really pisses off Yglesias and other snotty lefties is that Goldberg's book has made him a millionaire several times over, it now being in its fifteenth printing or thereabouts.

Posted by: effinayright at April 26, 2010 08:12 PM (3sB5l)

52 No offence, but Goldberg is pretty dumb. If it wasn't for his mom, he wouldn't be writing at NRO. Goldberg can be an entertaining read but he is no intellectual. I don't like Yglesias much at all but he is far smarter than Goldberg despite Ygelsias's bogus degree at Harvard. Also, I should mention that Ygelsias doesn't know much about anything. At least with Ezra Klein, you know he knows something about economics, but with Yglesias he takes a generalist approach to everything and is an expert on nothing.

Posted by: rex at April 26, 2010 08:57 PM (6ffcS)

And Jonah observes the eternal rule:

Never punch down you fucking moron!

Which is why he is the smarterer more successful thinkerizer.

Marketplace measurement:

books known about: JG-1 MY-0

books owned: JG-1 MY-0

Jonah wins! Yay!

Posted by: Kyle Kiernan at April 27, 2010 01:45 AM (7kiqh)

54 I banged a chick at Vassar once. Maybe she was yo mama.

Posted by: Fritz at April 27, 2010 03:48 AM (GwPRU)

55 Jonah was in the first co-ed class at Goucher. I live about 3 miles from there.

My next door neighbor recruited Jonah to be in that first co-ed class. Apparently, Jonah fucked off in high school a bit and didn't get in to the Ivy's.

As far as Jonah not being smart, read Liberal Fascism and get back to me. It was very well researched and written. Yglesias is an ass clown of a tool.

Posted by: Hedgehog at April 27, 2010 05:46 AM (oQIfB)

56 Jonah has excreted more important and coherent things into the toilet bowl than Yglesias. And this makes Matt simply brown with envy.

Posted by: physics geek at April 27, 2010 08:18 AM (MT22W)

57 What's that? I'm hearing cackling from the peanut gallery heckling "Yea right, that plus a buck will get you a cup of joe at Dunkin Donuts out in the real world!". Purple Avenger, I call bullshit on this. Any degree from Harvard can get you a well paying job at lots of places. A Harvard degree is bought status and signifies that you are part of the elite class. Deriding a *Harvard* degree reeks of class envy.

Posted by: rex at April 27, 2010 08:55 AM (6ffcS)

58 toby928: Physician, heal thyself. *All* college degrees are bought status because the university isn't merit based anymore (see Michelle Obama). The difference is that if you went to a college like Goucher you are signalling that you are middle class whereas if you went to an Ivy, you are signalling that you are part of the elite class. The only thing I was deriding was Ygelsias's Philosophy major. That's the second easiest undergrad you could take, with the easiest being Women's Studies. If he knew he wanted a career in politics, he should have taken Poli Sci, History, or Economics, that way he'd at least have some expertise in _something_.

Posted by: rex at April 28, 2010 06:36 AM (6ffcS)

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