Wonkette
Former Wonkette warring companion and current nut Erick Erickson of RedState has written a delightful post entitled, “The Peter Principle.” Surely you all went to Sunday School — FYI, if we discover any non-Christians reading Wonkette, we will decapitate & eat them — and know about ol’ Peter, the Rock of Jesus. Erickson writes, “Peter, under pressure and fear, denied Christ not just once, but three times. Peter, though, feared death. The strain on Peter was great. The rest of us, though, typically fear the opinions of others.” And the rest of us, the modern-day Peters, Erickson suggests, are behaving the same way w/r/t three (3) modern-day Jesuses: Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, and Dick Cheney.
The incidents of late with Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Dick Cheney, and others is why I raise this. Putting it bluntly, were these guys on the left, their fellow leftists would at best be cheering them on and at worst silently nodding along. There wouldn’t be any on that side rushing to the nearest microphone to condemn them.
Compare that to the right, where they actually are. A large number of us are standing up to express our support for them and we’re met by derision from our own side. “Are you supporting what Mark Levin said to that woman?” one might ask derisively. Whether I am or not is not the point. The point is Mark Levin does a hell of a lot more for the cause than pretty much anyone asking the question, so shut the hell up and leave him alone.
Oh, in case you’re wondering “What Mark Levin Said To That Woman” is (did someone post that already?), here’s a snippet from his radio show:
LEVIN: Answer me this, are you a married woman? Yes or no?
CALLER: Yes.
LEVIN: Well I don’t know why your husband doesn’t put a gun to his temple. Get the hell out of here.
Eh, we side with Levin, sometimes people are just annoying. (100% of the time.) But it is all part of a larger fight between Levin, Conor Friedersdorf, David Frum, Rod Dreher, Dan Riehl, and other Internet babblers. Maybe Intern Riley can quicklink a nugget about this later, or we can just move on and write up anything else.
ANYWAY, Remember, Limbaugh/Levin/Cheney are Jesus, so go die if you disagree:
Peter denied Christ three times. Our goal should be to not deny Christ and also to not deny the valuable members of our own movement. Embracing them does not mean we embrace every word and every deed. But it should likewise mean we don’t race to the nearest microphone to condemn our own when they do something indiscrete. The people we should shun are the ones who are quick to throw the rest of us out for daring to stand up for our friends.
Because you don’t want to go to hell, right?
The Peter Principle [RedState]
Well, it true that there’s nothing worse than a strained Peter.
Also, I’m an Atheist. Eat me.
Huh, I always saw it Denoucing Cheney=Denouncing Satan. Thanks for clearing that up Erikson!
Who’s principle?
Putting it bluntly, were these guys on the left, their fellow leftists would at best be cheering them on and at worst silently nodding along
Michael Moore makes me blush sometimes.
Am I still going to hell?
I confuse Jesus and Mark Levin ALL THE TIME.
More importantly, can Mark Levin see his denier’s house from up on that cross?
In the column, he also insinuates that William Buckley was a Judas as well. Its all those schismatics destroying the True Church, apparently.
“Were these guys on the left”. I love this argument. We can be horrible, because no matter how horrible we are, our horrible enemies are more horrible then us.
How about putting, I dunno, basic human decency above tribal loyalty and calling it a day?
Cheney could be crucified upside down and given motor oil to drink, but he still wouldn’t inspire a movement.
Also, Jesus was a very reluctant torturer. (Although his followers seem to like torturing kids with the idea of hell.)
I thought the Peter Principle referred to that propensity of redstate DICKS to talk out their assholes.
Erick Erickson? Not very imaginative parents.
alt text = Cold day in hell.
The Peter Principle states that a person will keep climbing the ladder of responsibility until they reach a level where they are incompetent.
Yes, that does apply to the whole Bush/Cheney administration, come to think of it.
So the three of them constitute Jesus, who is one-third of the Trinity, which constitutes the Almighty GOP. Do I have this right yet, and if I do, does that really mean that there are only 9 asshole conservative pundits left in the world?
Cheney is NOT, I repeat NOT Jeebus, you morans.
As long as Rush Markdick (Rushmark Dick?) ends up crucified I am totally cool with the analogy.
Mark Levin is a dumb. Yet still I listen to him, maybe cause his shouty-ness keeps me awake. Anywho, he said he was going to “expose” bloggers who take issue with/ mock/ openly deride him. Lets all start Mark Levin blogs, just to see if we can make his eponymous Google Alerts ’splode. Again, he is a dumb and I will send $10 to anyone who can get on his show and says so.
My intellectual/spiritual commentary on the Dark Lord vice (presidency), is a comparison to the Sgt. Pepper’s Movie from a gazillion years ago. Bad. Very bad.
http://blingee.com/blingee/view/91604794-THE-WORST-MOVIE-EVER-MADE-MEETS-THE-WORST-VICE-PRESIDENT-PRESIDENT
Clips of possibly the 2 worst movies ever made Sgt. Cheney (Pepper’s)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6tiJDnY350&feature=related & Beyond the Valley of the Dolls http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvpV_tVpH_w. You won’t believe this trailer. You just won’t.
Thanks to everyone for their good wishes as I recuperate from my brain smack. I’m crazier than ever….Beware!
I think that when Douchick Douchickson speaks of “The Pee-Pee Principal” he is stating that as an American you have to love EVERYTHING America does, even when America is wrong because that’s what it means to be an American. America. Reagan. Waterboarding is not torture OH MY GOD PRECIOUS FREEDOMS!!1!
“If these guys were on the left?” If my aunt had balls …
rikitikitavi: And here I thought the Peter Principal had something to do with being fondled in a Catholic high school.
I tell you what, my vast store of mental nuggets just keeps-a-growin’–indeed it do.
sanantonerose: Alt text=Eat a bag a’ peters, dick…
“Many of these weak minded fools are not really fellow travelers. Like a vulture flying in flock with swans, they benefit from the work the rest of us are doing to gain themselves credibility. The media plays along calling the vultures swans so others, they hope, see ugly ducklings around the vultures instead of swans.”
Great. My mixed metaphor detector just blew a fuse. And what the fuck does Erick Erickson (if that’s his real name) have against the noble vulture, anyway?
I also like that he quotes that sadistic, circumcision-obsessed pedophile, Saul of Tarsus.
And speaking of atheism, I got a complete stranger to say “Fuck Baby Jesus” in a bar the other night. It has kept me smiling for days.
Perhaps my fellow Wonkette commenters are familiar with the “Magical Fruit Theorem” which states that the more legumes one ingests, the greater the likelihood of flatulence. However, the more one releases built up flatulence, the better one feels, thus it is important to eat legumes at each meal.
The only thing less logical than the bible is the republican party. Also. Rush would make some real flubbery communion wafers.
Custerwolf: I thought that was the foundation plank of the Repuke Party Platform.
This guy is paid by the word, right?
So Rush, Cheney and Levin are all myths? Who knew?
sanantonerose: Beautiful.
SayItWithWookies: sadistic, epileptic, circumcision-obsessed pedophile, Saul of Tarsus
The parable from the Bible refers to denying knowing someone or realizing their true nature. Calling Dick Cheney a lying criminal is the opposite. It’s called telling the truth. If someone of a group I am connected with does something venal or stupid I can rightly call them on it.
Which is the difference with the right. No matter how stupid some prominent member’s statement is (the world is only 6000 years old, abortion causes breast cancer, there is no global warming, etc.) they are supposed to agree with it without thinking. Which is the only way to agree with such asinine statements.
Jim, I agree that people are annoying. Thanks for making a whole wonderful internet site about it, with ken and sara. Hopefully an alien race is reading Wonkette and laughing and planning to put us out of our misery. (But they’ll soon find that Earth is located in an American galaxy, and get lost.)
Cheney cannot actually be the AntiChrist, since it is very likely that the AntiChrist will be teh geigh (according to this Wasilla newspaper).
I don’t think he means Levin/Limbaugh/Cheney. I think he really means Christ, as in Jesus Christ, the honorary lifetime chairman of the RNC.
Thanks to everyone for their good wishes as I recuperate from my brain smack. I’m crazier than ever….Beware!
My intellectual/spiritual commentary on the Dark Lord vice (presidency), is a comparison to the Sgt. Pepper’s Movie from a gazillion years ago. Bad. Very bad.
http://blingee.com/blingee/view/91604794-THE-WORST-MOVIE-EVER-MADE-MEETS-THE-WORST-VICE-PRESIDENT-PRESIDENT
Can you say Messiah complex?
SayItWithWookies: Turkey Vulture = Cathartes aura. Interesting choice of latin terminology: “air purifier.”
Also, they are more correctly called “buzzards.”
And now you know.
Today we are all truly Pontius Pilate
rikitikitavi: And Dubya hisself is a classic example of Percussive Sublimation. Or maybe a Free Floating Apex; a guy at the top with no authority.
“A large number of us are standing up to express our support for them and we’re met by derision from our own side.”
I see three distinct possibilities here:
1) When your opponents mock you, you take it in stride and soldier on because that’s what your adversaries are supposed to do, and you know it going in.
2) When people on your own side mock you, a rational, sensible, sane person might pause for thought and wonder why even your closest friends and supporters say you’re an insufferable asshole.
3) Erick The Red, Dickhead Cheney, Rushing Oxy-baumb and others who claim the world is flat and that Oswald killed Kennedy, no matter how much even their friends advise them to remain silent.
‘Tis better to be thought of as a fool than to write for RedState and remove all doubt.
NewSpence: How about putting, I dunno, basic human decency above tribal loyalty and calling it a day?
Then all the Catholics would be voting Dem; not just the edjumacated ones. I bring up your point about brand loyalty fairly often with my conservative GOP Catholic mom. Then she changes the subject. The senior citizen version of sticking fingers in the ears and saying “NEENER NEENER NEENER NEENER I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”
“Mom, do you even have any idea how much pure, unadulterated EVIL you’ve been loyally supporting and voting for, since, like Reagan?”
No one here but us Christians, heh heh. Sure do love that Christ fellow, HENGGH? *nervously loosens tie* Yeeeek….
Custerwolf: You say potato, I say turkey vulture. Either way, they are highly intelligent, adaptive, playful, social and are given far less credit than they deserve.
Those who choose to continue to judge Timothy McVeigh and the 9/11 hijackers, heed the last sentence: “It should be that the sum total of our work is the measure by which we are judged. The tendency is the opposite. We tend to cling to the one indiscretion and show no forgiveness.”
Another effing Repug who can’t spell. “Indiscrete”?
The Peter Principal, which has absolutely nothing to do with St. Peter, is the management theory proposing that every person rises to the level of their own incompetence. However inadvertantly, Erickson seems to prove this quite nicely.
I always always always turn on Levin as I’m driving home. It is SO much fun to listen as he starts in on something or other, knowing that in mere moments, he will be hysterically ranting and raving… Then he scares the shit out of me as I realize there are millions of people who agree with him, and I switch over to NPR, which is so goddamn peaceful after a Levin rager, I almost feel like crying.
So by this reasoning, David Frum is going to go to San Fransisco and build a fucking enormous church dedicated to Dick Cheney that gets blown up by anti-matter planted by the Illuminatii?
I’m sorry but that’s a little far fetched.
SayItWithWookies: Oh you do carrion.
The Gospel According to RedState
SPeter: Listen, whether or not I agree with Jesus’ recent statements regarding the use of torture, reverse-racist Mexican dumbos, and mouthy women who do not submit to their husbands–as God demands of them, I should remind you–is not the issue here. The fact is Jesus has done more for Jews than anyone since Moses. Also, he’s the Son of God, which means he has access to classified information that we don’t know about. We should just defer to his judgment.
yellowdogdem: Damn - that’s an eye-catching avatar. Nice.
Lascauxcaveman: I think your Mom must be friends with my sister. We no longer discuss politics. Ever. Also.
x111e7thst: sadistic, epileptic, homophobic, paranoid delusional, hypocritical, megalomaniacal, fork-tongued, slithering, bullying, self-aggrandizing, circumcision-obsessed pedophile, Saul of Tarsus — in short, just the person you’d want to hijack your religion.
Hart88: Except Rush. He’s Paunchest Pilate.
Every time I think the right has gone as low and flat-out nuts as they can go, they dig down and find a whole ‘nother level of crazy.
Custerwolf: Hey thanks! It’s my comic fave, Zippy the Pinhead.
yellowdogdem: Also “impuning” and “vultures in our mist.”
I guess this gets me off the hook in saying anything bad about these douchebags since as a Jew, my people have already killed Jesus.
chascates: The world is 6,000 years old? I heard 4,200, and it was started on a Thursday, which is why we celebrate the first of the week on a Thursday to this day, and which, by no mean coincidence, today is a Thursday.
Custerwolf: *slow clap builds to standing ovation*
The only holy trinity I support unfailingly is Larry, Curly and Moe.
agentstinky: I follow the principle of loving the sinner and hating his religion.
Lascauxcaveman: My mom is a good Catholic who used to draw devil horns and a goatee on every picture of George and his cabal she happened to see.
Nope, nothing wrong with the republican party at all. Everything’s a-okay.
“modern-day Jesuses”
Shouldn’t that be Jesi?
yellowdogdem: I think your Mom must be friends with my sister. We no longer discuss politics. Ever. Also.
Clearly you two aren’t drinking enough good red wine together. At our family dinners, after a couple bottles of wine, somebody always cracks. Then the fun starts!
Last time I checked, the best documented account of Jesus laying a beating down on someone was on a bunch of of smugly “pious” profiteers. I’d say former executives of Haliburton are probably at the top of Jesus’ current list.
If these people were on the left they wouldn’t be these people, now, would they, Erick?
Erick is definitely ongoing proof that a = a, where ‘a’ is shorthand for ’stupid crazy person.’
How come someone who (presumably) gets paid to write for a living doesn’t know the difference between “discreet” and “discrete”? Here’s an example of proper useage: Although Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney are two discrete organisms, the casual observer may have difficulty telling them apart due to their nealy identical doughy old evil white man appearance and shared love of torture, abuse of power, and discreet drug enhanced buttsex.
Jesus is coming. And boy, is he pissed!
The logic in that article makes absolutely no sense; sorry I couldn’t weave in a handjob reference with this post, I’m just amazed that a tax paying adult would actually argue that kind of point.
The Schadenfried PAC: I’m still praying God brings back my cat and takes Cheney instead. It hasn’t worked yet, so I’m putting Rush into the deal.
This is bizarre–criticize the “left” because we never eat our own (that’s a laugh) then go on to criticize his own fellow nut house travelers for not embracing the Republican trinity: Rush, Cheney, and whatever freaky clown has just shot his/her mouth off on “Hardball.”
Next column by Douche Doucheson: The Butt Plug In My Ass Is Not For Pleasure; It’s To Keep Gays Out.
Lascauxcaveman: “Clearly you two aren’t drinking enough good red wine together.”
Drunk or sober, you’re not welcome in our family unless you’re a Democrat. Makes holidays more relaxed.
yellowdogdem: You don’t think that was intentional? Damn that Dick Cheney and his inability to be broken up into individual, distinct parts!
I expect Cheney to release a cover of the Beatles “ballad of John and Yoko” with some new lyrics…
SayItWithWookies:
The vulture is a noble bird
Whose beak is democratic
Its praise is quite oft deferred
And taste quite enigmatic
Meh. Not quite there.
If this Erickson guy is so smart, why does he live in Georgia?
yellowdogdem: Spelling is not Republicans’ forte.
My favorite catch from a Sarah Palin supporter’s YouTube comment was “rederick”, for, presumably, “rhetoric.” All instances of “to” and “their” were also misspelled in this person’s post, but “rederick” was the real standout.
Canuckledragger: “‘Tis better to be thought of as a fool than to write for RedState and remove all doubt.”
Why can’t Republicans learn from the way we Democrats found our way out of the wilderness and into a partisan empire: Just shut up and let the other side self-destruct. And I’d go a little easier on the mexcuns.
populucious: That’s “Peter Principle.” Please stop spelling like a Republican.
Custerwolf: GROAN!
rikitikitavi: Actually, I think the Bush administration is a repudiation of the Peter Principle. If the principle were correct, wouldn’t Bush still be at some failed oil company? *Blissfully contemplates another dimension where the last eight years did not exist.*
iolanthe: Rederick? Wasn’t that Steve Martin’s character’s alter ego in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels? No, wait, that’s Ruprecht, who if he was a 21st century GOPer would probably get an editorial column in the NYT. Preferably photographed with trident.
P.S. I think the redhead in the scene played the mother in Six Feet Under.
BTW: Maybe the U. Methodist church gets it wrong, but I thought Jesus was the tortured, not the torturer. We must be reading the New Democratically Revised Standard Version.
I’ve studied a bit of haitian vodou - from an anthropological perspective. once had some jesus men and women decry homosexuality on campus. i playfully picked some flower petals paced around an angry, shouting man and dropped petals in a circle around him. He looked at me from the corner of his eye, stopped shouting and proceeded to mumble some prayer to himself.
The great thing about the religious loudmouths is that it’s a battle of who can psych out the other the most.
So…Jesus could not get Peter to stand up for him?
american mutt: It’s tricky packing a double-edge sword.
They are both Jews. I see where he is going with this.
I don’t get that picture. Who’s the pasty Russian in the middle who’s dressed for the Siege of Leningrad?
Turd Way: Cheney could be crucified upside down and given motor oil to drink, but he still wouldn’t inspire a movement.
or die.
Limbaugh=Jesus. I love RedState soooo much.
Nerdalicious: HEY YOU!!! How’d I miss that comment. Thank goodness you’re okay!!XXXXOOOO
Our goal should be to not deny Christ and also to not deny the valuable members of our own movement.
Did that bitch just split an infinitive? Split infinitives = split skulls in my neck of the wooods. Erick Rickson, be told!
AKAM80TheWolf:
Apparently my Obscure Internet Spellchecker got the best of me on that one.
AKAM80TheWolf: Doncha’ love it when you’re being a snooty bitch about grammar and you make a spelling mistake. I’m always like, “ooh, ooh, I know something smart to write” and type it so fast I hit submit without proofing.
I hate to fuckup like that, but I do it all the time. Besides, the wonkette spellchecker sucks because it puts red dots under perfectly good words like, well, wonkette, not to mention butseks, morans, asshats and trucknutz. So you don’t know when to believe the spellchecker and when it’s just screwing up again.
Custerwolf: I join in the standing ovation but no doubt too late, as I doubt you’re here. Perhaps you’ll see tomorrow how impressed I was, through my tears.
My head hurts.
I actually clicked the links to Levin Conor and Erikkson(whatever).
And I read the links.
From that I see that the Republicans/Conservatives problem is that they take themselves seriously.
yellowdogdem: Who’s to say he wasn’t making a point about the continuous indistinguishable blather issuing forth from
Muslinmoderate Repugs on issues like whether or not to scream at a caller because she thinks Obama might have a brain in his head?Does Erick know what the Peter Principle REALLY refers to? Or has he been promoted so far up the wingnut commentariat ladder that he’s no longer able to analyze his own babblings?
ManchuCandidate: Groucho, Chico and Harpo
zenferret: Yes I am a Marxist, why?
Ahem. Big Jew here. Before you off with my head and eat me, can you goyim just clarify one little thing? Isn’t there some little commandment somewhere about not worshipping false gods? Or is that me and my activist Jew judge tendencies reading more into the commandment than the Founding Father meant? Or is it just that sometimes you have to suspend the law of God to fight Islamic Facists?