Though NewsBusters is normally in the business of critiquing the liberal media, not praising the conservative, I want to ensure that as many of our readers as possible have the pleasure and profit of reading Mark Steyn's recent column: We're in the fast lane to Bailoutistan.
With its mordant, don't-know-whether-to-laugh-or-cry take on our current fix, it's my nominee for best column of the year.
I urge you to read it all, and marvel at its insight and wit. Let me tempt you with a few morsels:
The UAW is AARP in an Edsel: It has three times as many retirees and widows as "workers" (I use the term loosely). GM has 96,000 employees but provides health benefits to a million people.The Terminator makes Gray Davis look like Calvin Coolidge. Care to terminate a government program, Governor? Hey, great idea! We'll hire 200 people to do an impact study on terminating the Department of Impact Study Regulation and get back to you in a decade.
Gov. Paterson is said to be considering appointing Princess Caroline of Kennedy to Hillary Clinton's vacant Senate seat. After two and a third centuries of republican experiment, America has finally worked its way back to the House of Lords.
And much more.
Steyn is roughly the same age Shakespeare was when, at the height of his powers, he wrote The Tempest. Prospero's renunciation of his dark arts in its Act V, Scene I ["Ye elves," etc.] might be the single finest passage in English dramatic literature. If punditry gets any better than this Steyn column, I'd love to see it.
Do yourself a favor and have a read.
—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.
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Thanks, Mark
December 20, 2008 - 16:52 ET by littlemissmuffinWhat a great column. He also gets my vote for best column of the year.
Cantaffordya.....just brilliant.
"If we conservatives moved to those seven non-existent States, the government couldn’t find us and tax us to death!"
LMM
December 20, 2008 - 20:36 ET by DoktorFrankenAlthough I agree with your assessment, how does one choose from all of Mark's writings? Best Columnist of the year would be more apropos.
Wow...two of my favorite
December 20, 2008 - 17:15 ET by bigtimerWow...two of my favorite Mark's made my day here.
Thank you Mark...Steyn deserves a Pulitzer!
I loved this column, I am also passing this on to a few others who I know will appreciate the words of wit and wisdom immensely...as I did.
He said it all...in only the way Mark can.
I loved the summation he made about Ca. and NY too.
The girlyman and the Princess Caroline of Kennedy references were... Priceless.
"America isn't the problem...America is the solution." ~ Rush Limbaugh
I don't care who you
December 20, 2008 - 17:17 ET by MidAmericaI don't care who you are, that's funny...... and sad.
After two and a third
December 20, 2008 - 17:44 ET by Jack BauerI'm sure some thought was I was joking after pointing out on a couple of threads, that the unelected UK House of Lords has more diversity than the elected US Senate.
Ethnically, intellectually (more consevatives), judicially (fewer lawyers), genderally (more women), trangenderally (more cross-dressers than cross-benchers) et al.
You get what you vote for. Of course, the Lords doesn't have any actual power to legislate
The socialist majority House of Commons manages to bollix everything all by itself. Well what power that hadsn't been stolen by the supranational super-welfare state of the EU.
"The socialist majority
December 20, 2008 - 18:25 ET by Chris Norman"The socialist majority House of Commons manages to bollix everything all by itself."
We're not content having the peasants in the shabby House of Representatives bollix everything here, Jack - we need the much more prestigious Senate to help with the bollix (I love that term). :)
"Hopey Changemas"!
Hopey Changemas
December 20, 2008 - 18:25 ET by bigtimerLOL Chris...
I loved that from Mark Steyn too.
"America isn't the problem...America is the solution." ~ Rush Limbaugh
Steyn is dead on: the myth
December 20, 2008 - 19:16 ET by motherbeltSteyn is dead on: the myth of the "Big Three" is exactly that: a myth.
I didn't realize how NON-big they are until reading this.
Too big to fail should be "too flabby to support."
What they basically want is the money to support all their retirees!
Jeez, my husband and I are watching our retirement portfolio shrink, and we're supposed to give more to GM retirees??????
Let them fail.
I need more duct tape!
→ Swash 700
December 21, 2008 - 08:33 ET by Cool ArrowSorry I'm late. I was in the can reading Jackie O's better loved poems when suddenly water was shooting up my . . . never mind.
This is by far the funniest lampoon of major malfeasance I've ever read.
Great idea there Steyn. Caroline Kennedy for GM CEO. We're saved!!
Steyn is Great
December 21, 2008 - 12:02 ET by River City"GM has 96,000 employees but provides health benefits to a million people."
Based on this wonderful tidbit provided by Mark I think it is safe to say GM is really in the insurance and pension business NOT the car business. The cars are a lowsy front and a poor way to finance the insurance business. Boy, we are suckers.
"Money is the scourge of the men who attempt to reverse the law of causality--the men who seek to replace the mind by seizing the products of the mind." Ayn Rand