Writing tip for Erick Erickson: Put the funny part last

By Dan Brooks in Republican Candidates 0 Comment
Erick Erickson struggles under the weight of previous Erick Ericksons.

Erick Erickson struggles under the weight of previous Erick Ericksons.

After Donald Trump suggested that crystalline superbeing Mygyn Kylly questioned him aggressively at the debate because she was on her period, Erick Erickson disinvited him from the annual RedState Gathering. Explaining his decision, Erickson wrote:

[Trump] is not a professional politician and is known for being a blunt talker. He connects with so much of the anger in the Republican base and is not afraid to be outspoken on a lot of issues. But there are even lines blunt talkers and unprofessional politicians should not cross. Decency is one of those lines.

In response to his call for decency, Erickson got approximately one million internet articles reminding us of the time he tweeted this:

I know nothing of Justice Souter’s relations with goats and will not judge Erickson for his decency. His tweet did, however, violate an important rule of discourse: put the funny part last.

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Friday links! I did it for the money edition

By Dan Brooks in Uncategorized 1 Comment
Benicio del Toro enjoys some on-the-nose dialogue with James Caan's bagman in The Way of the Gun

Benicio del Toro enjoys some on-the-nose dialogue with James Caan’s bagman in The Way of the Gun.

“Fifteen million dollars is not money,” some hard case says in Christopher McQuarrie’s The Way of the Gun. “It’s a motive with a universal adaptor on it.” That criticism of contemporary screenwriting applies even better to contemporary society. We all agree you shouldn’t do things just for the money, but an awful lot of what we do now compensates us little else. From financial services to country music, society encourages growing numbers of people to perform empty tasks joylessly for money. What used to be a sad admission around bar close has become an operating principle. Today is Friday, and if you don’t take whatever money they offer you to do anything, you’ll starve. Won’t you buy in with me?

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After Ferguson, man frames ex-girlfriend for racism

By Dan Brooks in Contemporary Media 1 Comment
Free and democratic discourse from Tumblr

Free and democratic discourse from Tumblr

For the last week or so, one of my favorite Twitter feeds has been Yes, You’re Racist, which retweets racist posts about Ferguson. It’s awesome for several reasons, one of which is the irony of people who want to use a global platform to disseminate their views freaking out when people across the globe read their views. That’s good fun. I’m mostly a believer in shame as an enforcement tool, but it’s important to remember that not everyone on the internet is speaking with her own voice. Consider Brianna Rivera, who became the object of a campaign to get her fired from her job after her ex-boyfriend spoofed her Facebook account to post racist status updates. Props to Willy for the link. Today is December 2, 2014, and you can frame people for racism now.

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Fleet of tweet, Gingrich tastes defeat

By Dan Brooks in Go berserk? 3 Comments
Former Speaker of the House Newton Gingrich

Former Speaker of the House Newton Gingrich

Watching nine TVs at once in search of a way to either reverse his aging or end his childhood, Newt Gingrich saw President Obama praise American pilots for flying missions against ISIS “with courtesy.” It was right there in the closed captioning on C-SPAN. Quickly, Gingrich turned to Twitter to express astonishment at the president’s strange diction:

Newt Fruitin'

That’s a screenshot from my phone, so remember that those two tweets appeared in reverse order. They also arrived one minute apart, q.v. The Washington Post. Gingrich could not believe that anyone, least of all the president, would apply “courtesy” to the act of bombing military targets. Seventeen minutes later, he figured out how to rewind his DVR:

Tweet Gingrich

Poor Newt—it turned out he could believe the president said “courteous” and was in fact the only person capable of doing so. And he came pretty close to admitting he was wrong.

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SpaghettiOs and Pearl Harbor: Go berserk?

By Dan Brooks in Go berserk? 0 Comment
A zero we can all remember fondly

A zero we can all remember fondly

(Ed.: An earlier draft of this post contained the phrase “pubic service.” While the error persisted for some time, Combat! blog assures you that it was an error, and we would never perform such services for free.) Now that the cat video thing has died down, the internet has one fundamental purpose: to show us things we can get offended about. Our sense of righteous indignation is like our sense of beauty, however: engage it too often and we risk dulling it. It is therefore by way of public service that Combat! blog examines the recent quote-unquote controversy over SpaghettiOs’ Pearl Harbor tweet, along with the nested controversy of Natasha Leggero’s remarks thereon. There’s a lot of information out there on the internet and precious little time to get offended by all of it. Today we ask the question: Go berserk?

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