Go Mad. Better People Than Either of Us Have Tried It. I Loved You Once But I Do Not Know the Future.

I hate snow, I hate Giftmas, I like having a 102 fever as long as no sore throat - what better time for obamapology?

Maybe Obama is the best America can do.

Proof? Yglesias ranks Your Fucking Washington Posts Top Ten Fuckwitted Everlards of the decade:

10. Michael Kelly
9. David Broder
8. Jim Hoagland
7. Robert Novak
6. Michael Gerson
5. Fred Hiatt
4. Robert Samuelson
3. George Will
2. Robert Kagan
1. Charles Krauthammer

Henley can't resist re-ranking:

10. EJ Dionne
9. Robert Kagan
8. Robert Samuelson
7. David Ignatius
6. George Will
5. Jim Hoagland
4. Richard Cohen
3. David Broder
2. Charles Krauthammer
1. Michael Gerson

Whee! That'll shame them!

Ranking the fuckwits and fuckwads: Every bit as empowering, every bit as satisfying, every bit as effective at nailing pussy as stuffing dollar bills into strippers' garter belts.

• When bleg everlards argue.
• HCR Ponies v Shit Sandwiches.
• National Mythology and Dog Whistles.
• Republican virtue and equality.
• Hots On for Ozone Baby.
• I'd meant to write about this past Sunday's Frank Rich column, but Crusader Axe already has. Though it again begs the thought: Maybe Obama is the best America can do, and insulting progressives is part of that plan.
• As much as I enjoy reading Crusader Axe, an added benefit is every time I see his name I think of Crusader Rabbit.
• UPDATE! What if Obama is the best America can do. And did you pray hard enough Senator?
• The Oral Tradition.
• Your Fucking Washington Post.
• Ten of the world's most dangerous roads.
• The Solar System in Maine.
• World Cup diary.
• UPDATE! If you want, take your head to the left or right of your computer screen, and if it's like mine you'll see this bleg as olive, then a brilliant blue, then maroon down the center.

• Kensington Whine (via the town listserv): I just saw county plow on a small pick-up scraping the bare asphalt on Saul Rd. while bypassing Oldfield.  Our street has yet to see sanding or scraping - not surprising since we're essentially a one-block island. There have been past storms where a plow never showed up. But I'll hold off on complaining for now.
• Waah?

• On Modernization and Its Discontents.
• When we had dinner w/Hamster a couple of weeks ago, he asked me where I had abandoned The Kindly Ones - when Aue was wounded and evacuated from Stalingrad - and I've been thinking about the book ever since, and now Dan's excellent essay is going to make me think about it more, and fuck, I need to finish it, which means I probably need to restart it.
• Some holiday lit linkages.
• Lethem reviews new Highsmith bio.
• Best Music Books of 2009?
• High Zappadan.
• Shaggadelic Zappadan.
• Darkblack's Sunday Overnight.
• New Fruit Bats reviewed, w/MP3s.
• Today's Listening Assignment.
• Today's Listening Assignment.
• UPDATE! I was going to hold this until December 30 when I do her annual birthday post, but now I don't have to worry about remembering.
• Today's Listening Assignment.

Single of the Year:

Or is it this?

Or is it this?

A POEM WITHOUT A SINGLE BIRD IN IT

Jack Spicer

What can I say to you, darling,

When you ask me for help?

I do not even know the future

Or even what poetry

We are going to write.

Commit suicide. Go mad. Better people

Than either of us have tried it.

I loved you once but

I do not know the future.

I only know that I love strength in my friends

And greatness

And hate the way their bodies crack when they die

And are eaten by images.

The fun’s over. The picnic’s over.

Go mad. Commit suicide. There will be nothing left

After you die or go mad,

But the calmness of poetry.

More Spicer.

Sixty-one today: