Patterico's Pontifications

3/17/2017

Trump: I Love to Read

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 9:30 am



Business Insider quotes Trump holding forth about his love of reading. I can’t find video, but here’s the quote:

Well, you know, I love to read. Actually, I’m looking at a book, I’m reading a book, I’m trying to get started. Every time I do about a half a page, I get a phone call that there’s some emergency, this or that. But we’re going to see the home of Andrew Jackson today in Tennessee and I’m reading a book on Andrew Jackson. I love to read. I don’t get to read very much, Tucker, because I’m working very hard on lots of different things, including getting costs down. The costs of our country are out of control. But we have a lot of great things happening, we have a lot of tremendous things happening.

Every time he does about half a page, there’s some emergency? Wow! That’s something like an emergency an hour!

Don’t get me wrong: he’s doing pretty well as President, policy-wise. I can put up with this type of nonsense if that’s what it takes to get a budget that cuts discretionary spending, an executive order on immigration that is more narrowly tailored and protects the country (and should not be blocked), an excellent Supreme Court nominee, and an attack on regulations.

Just don’t ask me to believe he reads books. The man’s never read a book in his life. I’d put money on it.

UPDATE:

[Cross-posted at RedState and The Jury Talks Back.]

329 Responses to “Trump: I Love to Read”

  1. he’s so good

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  2. His ‘travel ban’ has been killed-twice; Ryan’s AHCA is dying on life-support and his budget is DOA. But it HAS been a helluva show so far.

    For Americans don’t want to be governed, they wish to be entertained.

    “Let me entertain you.” – Gypsy Rose Lee [Natalie Wood] ‘Gypsy’ 1958

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  3. You would expect a reader to be more reflective.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  4. To be fair, it’s unclear that Obama read much either. Maybe a basketball memoir.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  5. Reading a review is not the same as reading the book.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  6. He reads menus. And Breitbart.

    “Book’em, Dan-O.” – Steve McGarrett [Jack Lord] ‘Hawaii Five-O’ CBS TV, 1968-1980

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  7. By judges who don’t bother to read the law, Ryan’s bowl of pouting was always dodge.

    narciso (d1f714)

  8. He reads some tweets. You can at least say that.

    https://mobile.twitter.com/realdonaldtrump

    Donald J. Trump retweeted

    ——————————————-

    FOX & friends
    @foxandfriends Mar 15

    FOX NEWS ALERT: Jihadis using religious visa to enter US, experts warn (via @FoxFriendsFirst) pic.twitter.com/pwXeR9OMQC
    View photo ·

    ——————————————-

    Donald J. Trump retweeted

    FOX & friends
    @foxandfriends Mar 13

    VIDEO: Rep. Scalise — GOP agrees on over 85 percent of health care bill bit.ly/2nkSlgv </b<
    View details ·

    ——————————————-

    Donald J. Trump retweeted

    AmericaFirstPolicies
    @AmericaFirstPol Mar 12

    MAJOR IMPACT: @POTUS Trump is 50 Days in and moving swiftly to get America back on the right track. #MAGA breitbart.com/big-government…
    View summary ·

    ——————————————-

    Donald J. Trump retweeted

    Fox News
    @FoxNews Mar 12

    Jobs created in February. pic.twitter.com/sOaMDxxTA8
    View photo ·

    Sammy Finkelman (ce04e1)

  9. Books can be a lot of fun, they’re my favorite entertainment, but few are good for much else, and even with the best of them you’re giving credence to other men’s conceits. As long as you know what you need to know ….

    Reagan claimed the opposite (of Trump). He said he didn’t like to read. Carter claimed he taught himself to speed-read. Whatevs.

    nk (dbc370)

  10. “Don’t get me wrong: he’s doing pretty well as President, policy-wise. I can put up with this type of nonsense if that’s what it takes to get a budget that cuts discretionary spending, an executive order on immigration that is more narrowly tailored and protects the country (and should not be blocked), an excellent Supreme Court nominee, and an attack on regulations.”

    There you go! Don’t sweat the small stuff, just be happy that policy-wise, he’s doing pretty good. Far better than at least 14 of the original 17 Republican candidates would. Let the media and other liberals worry about Trump’s twitter and other reflexive comments.

    Mike S (89ec89)

  11. He’s brought along the right demolition team

    https://spectator.org/trumps-terrible-swift-sword/

    narciso (d1f714)

  12. Patterico, I’ll take that bet. I’ve got $5.00 says Trump has read more books than your snide insult acknowledges.

    Slowly you’ve come around to admit Trump has made a few decisions that merit respect if not praise. Why not take the next step and give the man the full measure of his due?

    If you agree I’ve got 5 bucks coming, put it in your tip jar with my compliments.

    Trump is exactly the right man America needs, and he’s come just in the nick of time. Judge him by his accomplishments, openly and fairly. Criticize him when he deserves it, but sing his praises when his policies coincide with your hopes for a better future.

    ropelight (b80f14)

  13. Obama couldn’t even read a map… witness his “been to all 57 states”… but he sure knows where Kenya and Cuba are… amirite?

    Colonel Haiku (384e8e)

  14. The man’s never read a book in his life. I’d put money on it.

    Er, you do know Trump graduated from Penn with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics. He also is the author of 69 books. http://www.paperbackswap.com/Donald-J-Trump/author/

    I’ll bet you $10,000 Trump has read a book.

    Leon (168f33)

  15. From the link @16:

    Republican lawmakers endlessly talk about shrinking the size of government. But the last time they controlled Congress and had a Republican in the White House, they vastly increased it. In fact, spending on domestic discretionary programs — the ones Trump wants to cut — shot up 22% in real terms from 2001 to 2006

    This, of course, is why Republicans were kicked out of office and the TEA Party was formed. 10 more years of broken promises is why Trump was elected. If these losers don’t get with the program this time, they will go the way of the Whigs. I hope they know this, by they seem to be exceptionally slow learners.

    Leon (168f33)

  16. Mr. Trump’s a very good prolific reader – he’s inquisitive and also he likes to read the books.

    Just not during emergencies.

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  17. Presser over! Time for a sauerkraut-borscht-strawberries buffet!

    Trump Administration apologizes to Britain for citing Fox Newsers bogus opinion about Brits spying then Spicey says ‘no regrets’ to press in crowd at Merkel-Trump presser. As predicted, Trump then blames Fox, [‘talk to them, not me’] and pivots off Merkel-Obama wiretap w/snarky quip ‘we have something in common, perhaps.’

    Funny and sad. Funny the Chancellor of Germany is infinitely more credible than the American President. Sad that just 60 days into his administration, nobody believes a damn thing the President of the United States says. Nobody.

    “They laughed at me and made jokes but I proved beyond a shadow of a doubt and with… geometric logic… that duplicate key to the wardroom icebox DID exist…”- Captain Queeg [Humphrey Bogart] ‘The Caine Mutiny’ 1954

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  18. If Trump did read books, he’d have a better vocabulary. (Trump, if you’re reading this: voh- kab-yuh-ler-ee – noun, it means you know words. Lots of words. Big words. The best, world-class words… Believe me. That I can tell you.)

    Tillman (a95660)

  19. Trump reads titles. Not books.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  20. Greetings:

    Me, I’m thinking that he may be a bit down today what with meeting Mutter Merkel and missing NYC’s St. Patrick’s Day march. Someone pass him that pooteen jug.

    11B40 (6abb5c)

  21. 17. Colonel Haiku (384e8e) — 3/17/2017 @ 11:47 am

    Obama couldn’t even read a map… witness his “been to all 57 states”…

    And he didnt know how many senators were in the United states Senate or couldn’t divide 100 by 2?

    He just got a bit rattled somehow. He used the word sates when he was thinkingof delegations to the Democratic National COnvention.

    The other 7 “states” can be found on the 2009 quarters plus “Democrats Abroad.”

    The list:

    51. District of Columbia

    52. Puerto Rico

    53. Virgin Islands

    54. Guam

    55. American Samoa

    56. Northern Mariannas.

    57. Democrats Abroad. (American citizens not living in the United States who also have no U.S. address or are not using one.)

    Sammy Finkelman (ce04e1)

  22. “Funny and sad. Funny the Chancellor of Germany is infinitely more credible than the American President. Sad that just 60 days into his administration, nobody believes a damn thing the President of the United States says. Nobody.”

    “The less a man makes declarative statements, the less apt he is to look foolish in retrospect.” -Quentin Tarantino in Four Rooms

    Leon (168f33)

  23. Here’s one Trump breezed thru in one evening…

    https://www.amazon.com/Reasons-Vote-Democrats-Comprehensive-Guide/dp/1543024971

    Colonel Haiku (384e8e)

  24. 25… looks like too little too late excuse-making, Sammy… like kicking a dead corpseman.

    Colonel Haiku (384e8e)

  25. @27. Plagiarism? “The Wit and Wisdom of Spiro T. Agnew” was a similar tomb.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  26. It should take you 30 seconds t read “half a page” of a book. If you read. There are not emergencies every 30 seconds anywhere.

    What were Trump’s grades at Penn, Leon? Oh right. He won’t tell us.

    No, I don’t think he has read a book. But how would you prove he had? Because the liar says so?

    Patterico (0aa613)

  27. OK maybe at a 911 call center. Maybe not even then.

    Patterico (0aa613)

  28. DCSCA @29. It’s tome, not tomb.

    Sammy Finkelman (ce04e1)

  29. Safe to say we have seen enough to know nothing has changed about Trunp as a person. And nothing ever will.

    What he does is more important. I will never praise him as a person. He is pond scum. But he may do OK even so, despite being pond scum, and that is more important.

    Patterico (0aa613)

  30. 28. I said this already for a few years. This is not an excuse – that’s the real explanation as to where the 57 states came from. Too bad Obama or his people don’t seem to have figured it out, then or later. Snopes didn’t either.

    Sammy Finkelman (ce04e1)

  31. Perennially, asking a politician what their favorite book or author is has always elicited the stupidest answers in politics.

    SPQR (a3a747)

  32. “What were Trump’s grades at Penn, Leon? Oh right. He won’t tell us.”

    Give this man a show on CNN or MSNBC!

    Colonel Haiku (384e8e)

  33. Probably the best book I’ve ever read was Shantaram: https://www.amazon.com/Shantaram-Novel-Gregory-David-Roberts/dp/0312330537

    You owe it to yourself to read that one.

    Tillman (a95660)

  34. Little shift in emphasis to reveal the real story (you buried it a bit)

    Well, you know, I love to read. Actually, I’m looking at a book, I’m reading a book, I’m trying to get started. Every time I do about a half a page, I get a phone call that there’s some emergency, this or that. But we’re going to see the home of Andrew Jackson today in Tennessee and I’m reading a book on Andrew Jackson. I love to read. I don’t get to read very much, Tucker, because I’m working very hard on lots of different things, including getting costs down. The costs of our country are out of control. But we have a lot …

    This is language aimed at sphincter court judges, representing nobody, from the fiefdom of Dole Hawaii.

    Plain as day for those who are able to read.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  35. Let me paraphrase , “Hey! Nice monopoly you got going there. Shame if something happened to it.”

    papertiger (c8116c)

  36. “No, I don’t think he has read a book. But how would you prove he had? Because the liar says so?”

    Well, let’s just say I would trust him on the subject more than I do you.

    Leon (168f33)

  37. How about Stephenson cryptonomicom

    http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN16O2J2

    narciso (32dca5)

  38. Tillman, in the interests of turning a hateful, nasty post into something a little more constructive, here’s my favorite I recommend to one and all:

    https://www.amazon.com/Soldier-Great-War-Mark-Helprin/dp/0156031132

    Leon (168f33)

  39. Jonah Goldberg today:

    c) While I disagree with Trump ideologically, politically I find myself in the uncomfortable place of being more sympathetic to his predicament than some of his longtime boosters who have suddenly discovered the Rorschach test they’ve been staring at isn’t a window on the real world;

    Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42)

  40. nk @10

    Very nice comment.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  41. Yes Patterico, he is a bit busier than you and has difficulty as POTUS getting time to read and contemplate.

    You may say he should make time but I understood exactly what he as saying. Busy man who likes to read but does not have time to do so.

    Blah Blah (44eaa0)

  42. I loved it when Bush Jr. said The Very Hungry Caterpillar was one of his favorite books. What a perfectly unpretentious thing to say.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  43. 44. And 10. – Speaking of another man’s (or woman’s) conceits, that’s why I never understood the self-help motivational genre. If I see that taking up the most shelf space in a date’s bookshelf, I try to weasel my way out later in the evening.

    urbanleftbehind (6db368)

  44. 42. That looks like a good book, Leon. I’d like to read it, so I added it to my list.

    Tillman (a95660)

  45. He had to have read “Go Dog Go”

    mg (31009b)

  46. There’s another one, memoir from an ant proof case, from the same authors

    narciso (d1f714)

  47. Wow did anyone kiss The Blarney Stone today?

    Pinandpuller (aeb9b4)

  48. St Patrick the patron saint of personal injury and DUI lawyers. Yet he still didn’t like snakes.

    Pinandpuller (aeb9b4)

  49. My oldest daughter is in Dingle for St. Paddy’s Day.

    mg (31009b)

  50. barack read stories about basketball at espn.com

    losing

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  51. 10. You don’t “taech” yourself to speed read. It just happens.

    Sammy Finkelman (3ea6b3)

  52. How the Scots Invented the Modern World by Arthur Herman. Suck it English and Irish scum.

    I’m only halfway through so nobody tell me how it ends.

    Pinandpuller (aeb9b4)

  53. Trump admin creates international incident when Spicer references noted idiot Judge Napolitano’s conspiracy theory that British intelligence helped “tapp” Trump.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/17/world/europe/trump-britain-obama-wiretap-gchq.html

    Davethulhu (fab944)

  54. Ropelight

    If you want to sing Trump’s praises around here you’re going to have to hire Richard Sterban.

    Pinandpuller (aeb9b4)

  55. Is a dingle like a dickiedoo?

    Pinandpuller (aeb9b4)

  56. Cruz Supporter

    How you gonna top underwater grottos filled with apes eating figs?

    Pinandpuller (aeb9b4)

  57. I’m only halfway through so nobody tell me how it ends.

    Pinandpuller (aeb9b4) — 3/17/2017 @ 3:36 pm

    If a Scotsman’s involved, rest assured you will feel shortchanged…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  58. Er, you do know Trump graduated from Penn with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics. He also is the author of 69 books. http://www.paperbackswap.com/Donald-J-Trump/author/

    Fair is fair, but Trumpkin bullsh!t is still Trumpkin bullsh!t. Trump wrote those books the same way he cowboyed the cows that were made into Trump Steaks. In other words, in no way. Others wrote them, or dictated them, and put his name on them. Now, if you had said he had written a book about “69”, I wouldn’t even have checked. Or if he had said that he was reading “Meter Maids In Bondage” instead of “A Book About Andrew Jackson”. Who wrote that, BTW? “A Book About Andrew Jackson”.

    nk (dbc370)

  59. @32.It’s a dead issue, OOP. So is he, RIP.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  60. literature professors at places such as berkeley and middlebury are by definition “well read”
    but even the most ardent nevertrumpers wouldn’t want any of them to become president
    at least that’s what we hope

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  61. But he may do OK even so, despite being pond scum, and that is more important.

    Sure it is.

    Reads like prayer.
    Smells like borscht.
    Tastes like… strawberries.

    “I will not be made a fool of! Do you hear me?” – Captain Queeg [Humphrey Bogart] ‘The Caine Mutiny’ 1954

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  62. The Italian intellectuals like camillieri the mystery novelist, the late umberto eco, Alexander stille, had a cow about berlusconi

    narciso (d1f714)

  63. You realize that this budget, if passed, will be enjoined in every particular where some subsidy or program for some victim class is cut (and we are all part of a victim class now).

    I actually think that impeaching a few judges, for using their bench to project political power, would be a good thing. Sure, you cannot convict, but the REASON you cannot convict is that the Democrats BENEFIT from these excesses. Something to bring up, over and over, in the ensuing debate.

    Follow this with a reform measure, removing the power of district courts to issue a TRO to the executive and require that enjoining the Executive can only happen after a trial and judgement (aka “due process”).

    Kevin M (a50e89)

  64. Its a brute force approach, he met with cummings and Walsh, for fwiw, but on balance I think it succeeds over the long-term.

    narciso (d1f714)

  65. “No, I don’t think he has read a book. But how would you prove he had? Because the liar says so?”

    Well, let’s just say I would trust him on the subject more than I do you.

    Anyone who trusts Trump on anything = chump sucka.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  66. You realize that this budget, if passed, will be enjoined in every particular where some subsidy or program for some victim class is cut (and we are all part of a victim class now).

    That seems exceedingly unlikely. In this world, not impossible — but exceedingly unlikely.

    If something that outrageous happened, that would be when we reach for the pitchforks.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  67. Few are better read than the stiff-collared intellectuals of the right. The “monocle and martini” set at the National Review, for example, out for their next scintillating lecture.

    Yet no sensible American would allow any of them to command more than a Bookmobile.

    Trump has done more to start reversing the last 16 years than all the self-absorbed, “well read” Never Trumpers.

    If the petulant Never Trumpers had secured their desired result on November 8, they would even now be urging us to send more donations to the NR to discuss the “Chevron Doctrine, as we watched the GOP senate’s intention to “honorably confirm” the “moderate” Tim Kaine as a justice.

    The “wingback chair warriors” of the right have their place. But like all palace courtiers, its not of much use when the palace is run by someone else.

    Harcourt Fenton Mudd (5e0a82)

  68. The last book I read was two weeks ago. “Pistoleer”, a fictional biography of John Wesley Hardin. I did learn something. It took 20 governors for Texas to get one who was born in Texas. James Stephen Hogg. The 19 before him were “carpetbaggers”, “immigrants” or “settlers”, depending on your mood. That would include Austin and Houston. The other thing he’s notable for, and I’m not kidding, is that he named his daughter Ima.

    I’d put the book on a par with Larry McMurty’s stuff (the movies were much better), and way below anything by Elmer Kelton.

    nk (dbc370)

  69. A friend recomended Ian mortimer’s millennium, a survey of the critical periods of History.

    narciso (d1f714)

  70. Follow this with a reform measure, removing the power of district courts to issue a TRO to the executive and require that enjoining the Executive can only happen after a trial and judgement (aka “due process”).

    +1 Totally doable by statute, and tons of precedent for it in other areas from the First Amendment to labor disputes to taxes, in both state and federal courts.

    nk (dbc370)

  71. “chump sucka”

    Ah, yes. The first redoubt of the conservative. Call names.

    With all the self importance of Al Sharpton yelling “racist!”.

    Leon (168f33)

  72. Of course, we should parse out every sentence and take it completely literally. Thus, he’s never actually read a book. Brilliant analysis. I’m so glad that you offer this type of intellectual and analytical brilliance to the masses. I mean obviously the guy is sub-moronic, right? I mean according to you, Mr. P, he’s more of a lying dimwit than Obama ever was. So, good to have this to guide us. I’m quite sure he knows more about business than you ever might, but he’s an idiot. Because….you say so. But all his gains, ill gotten, I’m sure.

    Thing is, he managed to become President. I mean, you’re a blogger, I’m sure that’s quite important. And I used to really respect your analysis, but let’s face it, when it comes to Trump, your base emotional passions unman you. You’re like a less manly version of Maddow.

    You don’t have to like the guy to retain your intellectual honesty. If he is pond scum, report it straight and afford your readers the respect that they deserve: they can figure it out for themselves. But the more you become unhinged, the less relevant your commentary. Jesus Christ.

    Estarcarus (7ffbf2)

  73. I love to read. I don’t get to read very much, Tucker, because I’m working very hard on lots of different things, including getting costs down.

    “I don’t get to read very much, Tucker,…”

    Which means our guy turned a nothing boilerplate question from an interview put in the can four days ago, into a full penetration parry dodge thrust at Obama’s political activists disguised as jurists, totally bypassing the media gatekeepers on the left and the right.

    The President is playing three person three dimensional chess while dull witted pundits are trying grab the rudiments of checkers.

    Tadoocha.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  74. We are living in the age of the übermensch.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  75. The left has as far back as I can recall, ridiculed center right candidates going back as far as Coolidge from useful idiot Dorothy thompson.

    narciso (c9ca8c)

  76. With Obama it seemed he was never responsible for anything be provoked crisis in the home front and ignored those abroad.

    narciso (c9ca8c)

  77. barack did a lot of reading

    everytime there was a scandal in his administration, he claimed to have just read about it in the morning paper like the rest of the folks

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  78. But events abroad were always man caused disasters provoked by line wolves.

    narciso (c9ca8c)

  79. 81.The left has as far back as I can recall, ridiculed center right candidates going back as far as Coolidge from useful idiot Dorothy thompson.
    narciso (c9ca8c) — 3/17/2017 @ 7:02 pm

    Yes they have, narciso and I say have at it. But what they are doing to Trump has never been done before and that is not ridicule it is total war. Not only has Trump not gotten a “honeymoon period” he hasn’t been allowed a pee break. They even bitch and moan about him liking his steak well done and using ketchup. Ketchup! The all-American condiment is now the “deplorable condiment”.

    This and those who agree with her compose the cacophony of anti Trump constituents.

    https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-eirpfv7cxIM/WMVf7fgBedI/AAAAAAABigs/1rNptF5uuJY/tolerant%252520liberal_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800

    Rev. Hoagie® (785e38)

  80. We are living in the age of the ubermund.

    nk (dbc370)

  81. She is charming isn’t she?

    narciso (c9ca8c)

  82. #60, p&p, Dingle is a small town on the Dingle peninsula, the westernmost point of mainland Ireland and a recognized center of traditional Irish language and culture.

    Dingle also indicates a steep forested valley, as in the poetry of Dylan Thomas: the night over the Dingle starry…

    ropelight (b80f14)

  83. Not only has Trump not gotten a “honeymoon period” he hasn’t been allowed a pee break.

    If being President was easy, we’d let a girl do it.

    When was Trump anything but combative? To whom did he give quarter? He asked for fights. He promised fights. People voted for him because they said he fights. Well, he’s getting fights.

    nk (dbc370)

  84. He could read comic books only and he’ll still be a better president than Barack T Firefly.

    Harkin (8d55f0)

  85. But I agree with you about the media. They’re total DNC tools. That story about the steak — the idiot who wrote it didn’t know the difference between a gourmet and a gourmand. Really. And you don’t want to see the crap WaPo wrote about both Trump and Ryan in relation to the St. Pat’s celebration today.

    nk (dbc370)

  86. Well being a civil Republican doesn’t work ask w or Bush sr.

    narciso (c9ca8c)

  87. I’m sorry your feelings were hurt

    Davethulhu (18ab69)

  88. It’s easy took down your nose at Trump for using ketchup on his steaks, while putting the same condiment on your hamburger along with a slice of cheese, some dill pickles, secret sauce, and lettuce and tomato, all on a seeded bun.

    So which one is the barbarian?

    ropelight (b80f14)

  89. More conservative policy making than any POTUS since Hoover but the navel gazers mock his reading habits.

    These Never Trumpers are the ” rather be right than rich crowd” yet laughingly they are neither.

    Don’t need to like the Cat to appreciate the progress. U chump suckas…

    Blah (44eaa0)

  90. Who is the Chump Sucka?

    The virgin dude waiting for the perfect girl and staying one?

    Or the dude who dates the best one he can get until he can upgrade?

    My money on the former.

    Blah (44eaa0)

  91. The Afghan ambassador fwiw, thought trump asked some good questions.

    narciso (c9ca8c)

  92. Did you know that Islam leads the world in microcephalopathy [YouTube – not for the weak in constitution]?

    papertiger (c8116c)

  93. That picture of the tolerant liberal woman reminded me.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  94. @95. Kitty-kat, there is no duplicate key to the wardroom icebox.

    The mess boys at the strawberries.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  95. *ate* typo.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  96. That’s because Islam does not practice abortion, infanticide or euthanasia of the disabled, papertiger. You can look it up or ask Steve57.

    nk (dbc370)

  97. I think it probably has more to do with a tradition of humping their sisters. YMMV.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  98. And in the netherland they’ve almost eliminated down syndrome, your point?

    narciso (c9ca8c)

  99. #96 Blah,

    You hit the nail on the head.
    Many of our nevertrumper friends seek perfection rather than the best available option.

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  100. I heard he tried listening to the audio version of Green Eggs and Ham, but gave up because the audience was too narrow

    steveg (5508fb)

  101. Groeningen protocol.

    I’ll grant you that this election has made me question my views against abortion, euthanasia and eugenics.

    nk (dbc370)

  102. I think it probably has more to do with a tradition of humping their sisters. YMMV.

    It does. It’s Trumpkins who “keep it in the family”.

    nk (dbc370)

  103. Hit too close to home for you fellas?

    lol.

    How can you look at this guy and not think inbred?

    papertiger (c8116c)

  104. 85… a case of extreme constipation, Hoagie. It’s a common malady among lefties.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  105. @109- yeah nk, what Trump said is classier than what you said. Might want to let that sink in.

    Leon (168f33)

  106. You don’t have to like the guy to retain your intellectual honesty

    Kinda sounds like I have to like the guy to please you.

    I said in the post I like his policies so far, for the most part. Him, Not so much.

    If that makes you so sad you can’t enjoy reading this blog any more, better to recognize it ow. He’s going to be President a lot longer and I. Will. Never. Like. Him. As. A. Person.

    But if you really mean this: “You don’t have to like the guy to retain your intellectual honesty”

    Then hang around and enjoy the intellectual honesty.

    But stop bitching when I point out his personal shortcomings, which are legion, because he is immoral, ignorant, and fifty other disparaging adjectives — as a person. He just is. It’s really inarguable.

    Patterico (0aa613)

  107. mr donald read the tea leaves and determined that he could win the election by appealing to the forgotten working class folks in PA, OH, MI, WI, and IA.

    he won

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  108. “But stop bitching when I point out his personal shortcomings, which are legion, because he is immoral, ignorant, and fifty other disparaging adjectives — as a person. He just is. It’s really inarguable.”

    Easy for you to say. I mean, Jesus looks to you as a moral guide.

    Well, except for the whole never granting grace and forget the concept of redemption thing. The Christ might have a slight edge on you there.

    Leon (168f33)

  109. If only he were as aware as Obama, who thought Austrians spoke Austrian and Hawaii was part of Asia.

    Navy corpseman!!

    Harkin (8d55f0)

  110. the harvard law grad thinks there are 57 states

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  111. Two Corinthians

    Davethulhu (18ab69)

  112. Walk into a bar, I guess.

    Davethulhu (18ab69)

  113. @88 ropelight

    Interesting. I guess that makes that old congressman from Michigan John “hollow” Irishman.

    Pinandpuller (cbe92f)

  114. @115 Cruz Supporter

    They tried to stop him. He persisted.

    Pinandpuller (cbe92f)

  115. Davethulhu

    Elizabeth Warren thought it was “One little, two little, three little Corinthians.”

    Pinandpuller (cbe92f)

  116. The people fighting Trump are lawyers or wannabe lawyers, who can’t handle having their buttocks handed to them, so they join forces with Pelosi, obama, juanny mac and all the left wing judges. Stay off my lawn.

    mg (31009b)

  117. I though Minnesota except for eklison, franken keillor and gov target were nice guys.

    narciso (d1f714)

  118. How about Stephenson cryptonomicom

    http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN16O2J2

    narciso (32dca5) — 3/17/2017 @ 2:34 pm

    That’s on my Kindle, but I haven’t read it yet. How is it?

    NJRob (43d957)

  119. I am of two minds on Trump:

    1) He really is as stupid/careless/unreflective as he seems.

    2) He is trolling his opponents mercilessly, getting them to spend all their thought on the trolling, and not on the governing, while at the same time tossing red meat to his supporters.

    I find that most Democrats I talk to are FAR more animated about his latest outrageous tweet than they are about his appointments, or the legislation moving through the system.

    So, savant, or idiot savant?

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  120. Cryptonomicon is effing excellent. I’ve read it twice and I will, no doubt, read it again.

    It’s about two generations (WW2 and GenX) of really smart dudes, and codes and what they hide. It’s also a treasure hunt. It’s also a lot of fun.

    I also like his REAMDE, a contemporary thriller. Zula is kidnapped and that’s the least of her problems. Also, a world-wide effort to Save Zula. Also Zula doesn’t need all that much saving. Lots along the way, from MMORPG to Russian mobsters to Christian survivalists as the good guys.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  121. Could be, but that would means he’s satisfied with the attention and adulation he’s getting from the red meat and does not mind not getting credit for the substantial stuff. Is his character that complex?

    They tell a story about a lawyer like that back when they had “professional juries” — the same jurors hearing case after case. One juror, talking about a lawyer, said that he didn’t think the lawyer was all that good. When asked, then why had the jury voted for acquittal in every one of his cases, the juror said, “It was not because he’s a good lawyer, it was because his clients were all innocent”.

    nk (dbc370)

  122. Well Pinandpuller, this kinda says it all about Elizabeth Warren.

    http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7665KMUEFdg/VPuRxiJlhJI/AAAAAAAA1BE/Rk1DXVExIjw/s1600/1%2B1%2BElizabethWarrenCartoon.jpg

    Rev. Hoagie® (785e38)

  123. Warren… meh… Big Chief Talking Bull.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  124. Cryptonomicon is effing excellent. I’ve read it twice and I will, no doubt, read it again.

    It’s about two generations (WW2 and GenX) of really smart dudes, and codes and what they hide. It’s also a treasure hunt. It’s also a lot of fun.

    I also like his REAMDE, a contemporary thriller. Zula is kidnapped and that’s the least of her problems. Also, a world-wide effort to Save Zula. Also Zula doesn’t need all that much saving. Lots along the way, from MMORPG to Russian mobsters to Christian survivalists as the good guys.

    Kevin M (25bbee) — 3/18/2017 @ 8:04 am

    Read ReaDmE. Wasn’t impressed. I’ve read Snow Crash and Anathem. Enjoyed Snow Crash and I’m probably due for a reread. Partly through Seveneves.

    I’ve heard good things about Cryptonomicon which is why I asked. Looks like I’ll read it on my vacation in a week.

    NJRob (43d957)

  125. Reamde (sic) is commercial fiction, and succeeds as that. Most of the dislike I’ve heard about it comes from expectations that it was something else.

    Yes, Snow Crash. A character like YT comes along only so often.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  126. Agreed. That was partly my issue with it as well. Just didn’t feel like a Stephenson book. But he wrote it so it obviously counts.

    Are we ever going to get a Snow Crash film? That’s the question. We have the technology now to do the book justice.

    NJRob (43d957)

  127. Rev Hoagie

    Love it lol. You know, rodents burrow in warrens. Probably nice and dry.

    Pinandpuller (aeb9b4)

  128. So speaking of she who must be persisted, was John McCain’s sick disparagement of Rand Paul cool because it was off the Senate floor?

    Pinandpuller (aeb9b4)

  129. I see Warren as an open faced waitress sandwich sort of gal.

    Pinandpuller (aeb9b4)

  130. His baroque cycle, that features the ancestors of the character in cryptonomicon, in the 17th century was also pretty good.

    narciso (d1f714)

  131. Another one I’ve recommended to a friends book club is in search of klingsor its a scientific historical novel but the German nuclear program, featuring heisenberg, the mercurial physicist.

    narciso (d1f714)

  132. Our esteemed host would lose his money:

    Just don’t ask me to believe he reads books. The man’s never read a book in his life. I’d put money on it.

    Mr Trump went to high school at New York Military Academy, a very strict boarding school, and then matriculated at Fordham, followed by a transfer to the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. You are not graduated from these schools if you’ve never read a book.

    The realistic Dana (1b79fa)

  133. The author forge volpi, is a citizen of Mexico, another the curious history of costaguana, is a picaresque tale of the fellow who apparently is the zelig of Panama.

    narciso (d1f714)

  134. Our honored host wrote:

    Don’t get me wrong: he’s doing pretty well as President, policy-wise. I can put up with this type of nonsense if that’s what it takes to get a budget that cuts discretionary spending, an executive order on immigration that is more narrowly tailored and protects the country (and should not be blocked), an excellent Supreme Court nominee, and an attack on regulations.

    Which raises the obvious question: what’s the point of attacking his personality or veracity or intelligence or whatever, if he’s doing a pretty good job as President? I don’t care for his personality or style, either, and didn’t vote for him, but we could have a perfectly respectably-behaving President in Hillary Clinton, who’d be presenting us with a budget that cuts Defense while spending more on liberal lunacy, upping refugees being accepted by 100,000, someone even worse than the “wise Latina” being nominated to the Supreme Court, and regulations being ever-increased. The media would be calm and supportive, our allies would be happy, and we’d keep circling the drain of our own downfall just ever-so-slowly.

    Donald Trump is a hot mess, but he’s a clear sight better than the alternative.

    The inquisitive Dana (1b79fa)

  135. Trump looked like he was in pain when doing the photo shoot with Merkel.

    AZ Bob (f7a491)

  136. You are not graduated from these schools if you’ve never read a book.

    You could be. All you have to do is cheat. What, Trump is too moral to cheat?

    Patterico (0aa613)

  137. That one is by a Colombian Juan Garcia vazquez.

    narciso (d1f714)

  138. Who is the Chump Sucka?

    Leon, Blah, and everyone else who falls for the line that this guy can’t read a book because he’s too busy.

    He watches hours of television a day. That’s not too busy. That’s a choice.

    Patterico (0aa613)

  139. I don’t care for his personality or style, either, and didn’t vote for him, but we could have a perfectly respectably-behaving President in Hillary Clinton

    Election’s over. We can stop talking about Hillary Clinton. The argument of the post is not an argument for her.

    Nothing about the fact that he is not Hillary Clinton requires us to believe he is something he is not. Like someone who likes to read. Let’s have some self-respect.

    Patterico (0aa613)

  140. UPDATE:

    Patterico (115b1f)

  141. He used a what’s your favorite color question to move the football.

    So what’s the big deal?

    papertiger (c8116c)

  142. Trump looked like he was in pain when doing the photo shoot with Merkel.

    Yeah, maybe he had gas or something — he often looks like he really needs to fart badly — but it looked to me like he was trying to make a huge point of snubbing her. If I were Merkel I might have been tempted to walk out after he ignored her request for a handshake.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  143. He used a what’s your favorite color question to move the football.

    So what’s the big deal?

    I have this thing where when people lie I’m tempted to point it out and comment about it. I often succumb to the temptation.

    Also I think presidents should be people who read books, but these days that probably makes me an “elitist.”

    I said in the post that he is doing OK and that that is what is important. So there’s really no need to argue with me about this unless 1) you’re a chump sucka who thinks he really doesn’t have time to read, just watch endless TV, or 2) you’re one of those people who thinks reading doesn’t matter. Either 1 or 2 is not good, people. It’s not good.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  144. I’m fine with criticism, but Patterico’s criticism about reading just seems petty.

    Dejectedhead (fe2318)

  145. I’m fine with criticism, but Patterico’s criticism about reading just seems petty.

    OK. Let’s have this discussion. Casually tossing off “it seems petty” is easy. Defending that comment is going to be harder. Are you prepared to defend that criticism of me? I have to get ready to go somewhere but if you’ll commit to exchanging a few comments let’s discuss it. Please let me know right away if you can.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  146. I don’t think that’s an easy comment to defend. Either you have to argue that he really does read (BZZZT) or that reading is not important for a President (BZZZZT). All you did was throw out an insult (“petty”) so I don’t know what your actual argument is. Do you have one? If so, please make it.

    Hint: “I don’t know, it just seems petty” is not an argument. If that’s all you got, save it.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  147. Taking issue with policies or actions is understandable. Expressing personal dislike gets tedious after a while. Comments like “he often looks like he needs to fart badly” is close to dialogue pulled out of “Idiocracy”.

    … just ‘batin’ here…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  148. Are you prepared to defend that criticism of me?

    Yes. It seems like you’re going out of your way to gripe about something that doesn’t have a lot of substance behind it.

    Dejectedhead (fe2318)

  149. I mean, you’re taking the stance that the President can’t read or is a bad reader. The only reason you’ve done that is so that you can poke fun at him. It reads to me more like a Jon Oliver skit.

    Dejectedhead (fe2318)

  150. It’s petty because your assertion he doesn’t read is silly.

    He said he’s currently reading about Jackson, but has trouble finding the time, you know, two months into his presidency. So your argument is he finds time to watch TV, so not finding time to read is a lie. This is a now a question not on reading, but on priorities for his down time. Well, maybe after spending 12 hours a day reading reports, budgets, proposals, applications, analysis’s, and a thousand other papers crossing his desk he needs a break.

    Also, people have different reading habits. For myself, I usually read in jags. I’ll read 20 books in 3 months, then get burned out and/or busy and won’t crack a book for another 3 months.

    Point is, your bias against the man, with nothing really substantial to complain about, has caused you to make a series of petty assertions like “the man has never read a book in his life” based on a flip answer to a vapid question. You don’t see it; your bitterness over being so wrong for so long about the guy coloring your perceptions, but this is a petty post and others do see it. In think one day you will see it too.

    Leon (168f33)

  151. His baroque cycle, that features the ancestors of the character in cryptonomicon, in the 17th century was also pretty good.

    If you can get past the first 100 pages, which concerns the incredibly tedious long-distant travels of the time. I know about 5 people who stopped about there. But once Waterhouse gets to England it picks right up.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  152. Yes but cryptonomicon had a bit of a slow start, setting up Waterhouse in the current ones.

    narciso (d1f714)

  153. I don’t criticize him for not reading books — this is an age where not everyone does. What I find disturbing though is his lack of reflection, curiosity, skepticism and self-awareness (not the same as self-centeredness). Some of these correlate with reading, but not all.

    But there seems to be two Trumps: Tweeting Trump and Policymaker Trump. The two should talk.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  154. Cryptonomicon’s Hindenberg sequence was a bit off-putting, but not like Waterhouse becalmed.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  155. It seems to me that Trump is causing his opposition to burn out, the tweets are part of that. He stirs the pot with them, then half of them turn out to be legitimate. He’s turning the entire news cycle on a single tweet. The wiretapping one is a perfect example. Everyone jumps on him for not providing enough evidence (in a tweet), then all the networks start talking about how he’s accused this…while they’re all trying to spin the Vault 7 wikileaks into a Russian conspiracy. The news agencies will even contradict what they’ve previously reported when they’re tripping over themselves to say he’s wrong.

    It exposes everyone’s biases.

    Then it opens up discussion to the United States surveillance state, which has clearly been going after his administration since day 1.

    Dejectedhead (fe2318)

  156. Charlemagne (MHREGA) was illiterate most of his life. He had guys read to him at dinner.

    It may be premature to make comparisons but not everbody’s gonna be Marcus Aurelius.

    Pinandpuller (aeb9b4)

  157. Well that’s to far afield, the berlusconi parallel is mire apt
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3535924/posts

    narciso (d1f714)

  158. I borried The Book of Five Rings from Mr Joe down to the Tastee Freeze. I understood a great deal of it.

    If Musashi woulda had Twitter he might not ‘a kilt all them fellers with his Katana blade. Some folks call it a Samurai sword but I call it a Katana blade mmmmhmmmmm.

    Pinandpuller (aeb9b4)

  159. Our distinguished host wrote:

    I have this thing where when people lie I’m tempted to point it out and comment about it. I often succumb to the temptation.

    Fair enough, except that you don’t know that his comment about reading books was a lie. You have assumed that he does not, to the point that you made the unequivocal, declarative statement, “The man’s never read a book in his life.” All he has to have done is have read one book — and even How the Grinch Stole Christmas would do — and your statement is false.

    You have stated a negative, something you do not know and cannot prove.

    Actually, a book about President Jackson would be a good one for him to read; Old Hickory has one unique accomplishment, being the only President to have ever paid off the national debt, something he did in 1836.

    The Dana who spotted the flaw in the argument (1b79fa)

  160. There goes Dana taking me literally and not seriously!

    Patterico (52aafa)

  161. They refuse to take Trump seriously but insist we take Trump literally.

    Rev. Hoagie® (785e38)

  162. If anyone ever says they disagree with me from now on I’ll just say you can’t take me literally.

    He doesn’t get to be the one guy in the world who just says whatever he wants and can’t be criticizedz I get that deal too. And if you’re don’t like it, I didn’t say it.

    Not literally, anyway.

    Patterico (52aafa)

  163. Some reporter made up a pretty-sounding slogan — “Take Trump seriously not literally”. I find it meaningless and, worse, useless and refuse to take it either literally or seriously.

    nk (dbc370)

  164. The slogan.

    nk (dbc370)

  165. Ok. Trump, too.

    nk (dbc370)

  166. R.I.P. Chuck Berry. 90.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  167. “If anyone ever says they disagree with me from now on I’ll just say you can’t take me literally.”

    Yeah, that horse fled the barn when you said “The man’s never read a book in his life. I’d put money on it.”

    Kinda too late to shore up your double standards now.

    Leon (168f33)

  168. i think Mr. Trump’s read the perfect number of books my gosh he’s not only a billionaire and Melania’s husband he’s also even the president

    that’s an impressive accomplishment i think

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  169. I told my son, “There are two words I don’t want you to use. One is kinky and the other one is raunchy.”

    “OK dad, what are the words?

    Pinandpuller (774615)

  170. I know I’ve focused heavily on Latin American authors, best read in translation, Garcia vazquez’s later work like reputations have not been as good.

    narciso (d1f714)

  171. speaking of low-class trash check out the bread bags bimbo from iowa

    ugh

    nasty woman

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  172. We already don’t take you literally, Pat.

    Notice how 180 comments in nobody has put up any money on your preposterous bet.

    Never read a book in his life was the bet. How much money? Name your figure.

    Taking you literally now. Could use the money. Those damn vitamins aren’t doing [edit] for me.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  173. Whatchu talking about Willis, I put up 10k?

    https://patterico.com/2017/03/17/trump-i-love-to-read/#comment-1985215

    Leon (168f33)

  174. Those damn vitamins aren’t doing [edit] for me.

    Likely absorption problems in the digestive tract. Common in old people. See your doctor for injections.

    nk (dbc370)

  175. I think maybe he’s talking about the foolic acid. I don’t know exactly what the problem is. It might be too far gone. It sometimes can a lot to do something about the pain. I’m talking abouut the 800 mcg size pills, 4 a day. Could even be more to start. You also need protein, and sleep (it on;t gets better after an interval of sleeping) and maybe fresh pineapple.

    Sammy Finkelman (3ea6b3)

  176. There’s an ode study out of Denmark regarding ibuprofen usage, it says it increased heart attacks 31%, however they said the best is naproxen, with 5900 mg day and the one in advil at 1200 mg day.

    narciso (d1f714)

  177. Leon. Pat proposed the bet. He sets the stakes. That’s the way it works.

    Besides that $10K is outrageous. And greedy. What are we, Paul Newman?

    papertiger (c8116c)

  178. THe Entertainer [YouTube].

    papertiger (c8116c)

  179. I BET ONE MILLION DOLLARS!!!!!!!!!

    Patterico (90b76a)

  180. Y’all Trumpers have to explain how you would prove this proposition.

    Also what form of proof I could provide to you that you would accept.

    Trumpers don’t believe anything no matter how clearly proven.

    Patterico (90b76a)

  181. Here’s a picture from when I pledged my support for President Trump way back when.
    Donald and the eagle.

    What’s that on his desk? Over in the corner with a blue cover. Hardback.

    You owe me a million, counselor.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  182. That seems exceedingly unlikely. In this world, not impossible — but exceedingly unlikely.

    If something that outrageous happened, that would be when we reach for the pitchforks.

    Hmmm. I think I’ll bookmark my comment.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  183. A historical tidbit about Chuck Berry as his music is destined for immortality.

    In 1977 when America launched the two Voyager space probes on their trek to sweep past the planets in our solar system then journey on to the stars, NASA attached a ‘golden record’ to the side of both probes. The idea, more or less a PR nod to embrace the common man, was championed by the late Carl Sagan, who chronicled the contents in a book titled, ‘Murmurs Of Earth.’ And among the recordings that ‘made the cut’ for the long ride with Bach, Mozart, Stravinsky and Louis Armstrong is ‘Johnny B. Goode’ by Chuck Berry.

    And the joke Around NASA/JPL at the time– later inked by cartoonists– was the first return message from aliens on another world would likely be: “SEND MORE CHUCK BERRY.”

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  184. I bet he doesn’t read a lot. Double or nothing.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  185. 179, that’s why we dont have midwestern-from-childhood-to-oath-of-office presidents. Hoover and Reagan had to go west young man. Ford acceded there unconventionally, so thats that.

    urbanleftbehind (847a06)

  186. Things I learned today courtesy of Trumpers: having a book on your desk means you read it.

    Patterico (90b76a)

  187. Trumpis said to have news articles from the Internet selected by hus staff and printed out for his perusal.

    Sammy Finkelman (3ea6b3)

  188. You never stipulated it had to be cover to cover.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  189. If you take all of Trump’s tweets, print them out, stack them up, bind them together…boom, you have a book.

    Trump read all of those tweets as he wrote them.

    Trump read a book.

    I’m 1 million dollars richer.

    Dejectedhead (fe2318)

  190. Follow this, the times says her stories about info derived by intercepts were wrong, yet they cited her Russian claims based on the same sources:

    https://mobile.twitter.com/adamjohnsonNYC/status/842963925851430912/photo/1

    narciso (d1f714)

  191. 197. There are 34,624 Tweets so far.

    140 characters would be an average of, maybe what, 20 words? An average book contains what – 100,000 words, maybe a little less? 34,624 x 20 = 692,480. You’ve got maybe 7 to 10 books there, and that’s without adding any additional commentary.

    Sammy Finkelman (3ea6b3)

  192. he’s a very prolific writer, our President

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  193. Experts, all very well read I’m sure.

    https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/260124/

    It was experts that gave us the financial crisis, it was experts that gave us the Middle East meltdown, it was experts who gave us the obesity epidemic and the opioid crisis. And yet the experts pay no price for their failures, and cling bitterly to their credentials and self-esteem, while claiming that the problem lies in the anti-intellectualism of ordinary citizens.

    Leon (168f33)

  194. Munny: Sure you ain’t armed?

    Beuachamp: I’m not. I don’t have a gun. I’ve never had a gun. I write. I’m a writer!

    Munny: A writer? Letters and such?

    Unforgiven (1992)

    nk (dbc370)

  195. Well it was stiglitz and krugman who did the first, there are many fathers to the latter. Most recently samantha power, re Libya and Egypt. The others are even murkier.

    narciso (d1f714)

  196. The honest quote from Leon’s link:

    “Americans reject the advice of experts to insulate their fragile egos from ever being told they’re wrong.”

    Read the real thing: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2017-02-13/how-america-lost-faith-expertise

    nk (dbc370)

  197. Here, I read it for you:

    In 2014, following the Russian invasion of Crimea, The Washington Post published the results of a poll that asked Americans about whether the United States should intervene militarily in Ukraine. Only one in six could identify Ukraine on a map; the median response was off by about 1,800 miles. But this lack of knowledge did not stop people from expressing pointed views. In fact, the respondents favored intervention in direct proportion to their ignorance. Put another way, the people who thought Ukraine was located in Latin America or Australia were the most enthusiastic about using military force there.

    The following year, Public Policy Polling asked a broad sample of Democratic and Republican primary voters whether they would support bombing Agrabah. Nearly a third of Republican respondents said they would, versus 13 percent who opposed the idea. Democratic preferences were roughly reversed; 36 percent were opposed, and 19 percent were in favor. Agrabah doesn’t exist. It’s the fictional country in the 1992 Disney film Aladdin. Liberals crowed that the poll showed Republicans’ aggressive tendencies. Conservatives countered that it showed Democrats’ reflexive pacifism. Experts in national security couldn’t fail to notice that 43 percent of Republicans and 55 percent of Democrats polled had an actual, defined view on bombing a place in a cartoon.

    Increasingly, incidents like this are the norm rather than the exception. It’s not just that people don’t know a lot about science or politics or geography. They don’t, but that’s an old problem. The bigger concern today is that Americans have reached a point where ignorance—at least regarding what is generally considered established knowledge in public policy—is seen as an actual virtue. To reject the advice of experts is to assert autonomy, a way for Americans to demonstrate their independence from nefarious elites—and insulate their increasingly fragile egos from ever being told they’re wrong.

    nk (dbc370)

  198. Ignorance is not merely bliss. It’s how Trump became President.

    nk (dbc370)

  199. nk, you missed the first line from my link:

    “CONSIDERING THE SOURCE, THIS SOUNDS LIKE PROJECTION TO ME”

    Or maybe you consider Glenn Reynolds to be an ignoramus?

    Leon (168f33)

  200. just having a desk all by itself means you’re pretty smart to where you have an air condition job

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  201. i have TWO desks

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  202. Mr. Trump also has multiple desks by the way I’m not trying to be fancy

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  203. I don’t think he’s an expert on everything he links. Or even everything he writes, such as the law of self-defense as it relates to people in automobiles whose way is blocked by demonstrators.

    nk (dbc370)

  204. Mr. Instapundit knows all about space and horny public school teachers and the ins and outs of law school and heart disease and longevity plus he used to be a music producer

    he’s really kind of a renny sauce man really

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  205. The author Tom Nichols is xo of the never trump train.

    narciso (60c2d3)

  206. Indoor work, no heavy lifting — yeah, that’s a nice job if you can get it.

    nk (dbc370)

  207. Consider the people who really think the cha derived from the crowdstrike is proof of anything.

    narciso (60c2d3)

  208. barack likes to read
    i bet he read alinsky’s rules for radicals a dozen times

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  209. Now Evan mcmullin is the captain Smith of this tale.

    narciso (60c2d3)

  210. If it come down to ignorance vs. arrogance, I know which side I’m on.

    Andrew McCarthy has yet another great piece over at National Review online.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  211. From William Jacobson over at Legal Insurrection:

    “In recent comments after the latest round of TROs halting the second executive order, Trump expressed regret that he had abandoned the first executive order. He said his gut told him to fight it, but he was advised that the better course was to rework it. He should have gone with his gut.”

    Why is it when the “ignorant” Trump has better judgment than his high powered lawyers, it comes as no surprise? Bet them lawyers have read plenty of books.

    ThOR (c9324e)

  212. This is why el sheikh, part of the North American Iman federation behind the flying imams was against it. Shahin being the leader.

    narciso (60c2d3)

  213. the islams don’t even know what happens when you mix bacon jam with a lil ghost pepper jelly

    this is cause they ignant

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  214. everyone knows there’s no such thing as a magic carpet ride
    well, everyone knows it except for …

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  215. it gets late so fast now i hate dst

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  216. nk Don’t care how you spin it. Gistemp reporting that Feb 2017 was the warmest month ever based on piping hot extrapolations of the Arctic ocean in mid winter {perpetual night, sun hasn’t reared it’s ugly head since Dec 23rd} is utter bull sh][, perpetrated by professional liars who have wormed their way into termination proof civil service positions.

    The second amendment was written specifically to deal with those type sobs. That’s what it’s for.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  217. It’s all part of the superstitious awe of literacy. It’s worshiped, feared and hated by the illiterate, all three at the same time. Only the literate understand it for what it is.

    nk (dbc370)

  218. i sacrificed a goat to the literacy

    look at me now with my air condition job

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  219. allah is greatest
    and if you disagree, then we’ll have to throw you in jail

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  220. allah’s the effing bomb

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  221. nk (dbc370) — 3/18/2017 @ 7:57 pm

    …the people who thought Ukraine was located in Latin America or Australia were the most enthusiastic about using military force there.

    That would make sense. If Ukraine is loccated in SOuth America or australia, its’s much more importantt to resist Russian encroachments there

    The following year, Public Policy Polling asked a broad sample of Democratic and Republican primary voters whether they would support bombing Agrabah. Nearly a third of Republican respondents said they would, versus 13 percent who opposed the idea.

    So about half realized there is no such place or were not afraid to confess ignorance.

    Democratic preferences were roughly reversed; 36 percent were opposed, and 19 percent were in favor.

    So 55% of Democrats answered yes or no, but on;y about 43% of Republicans did.

    Sammy Finkelman (3ea6b3)

  222. Gistemp reporting that Feb 2017 was the warmest month ever based on piping hot extrapolations of the Arctic ocean in mid winter {perpetual night, sun hasn’t reared it’s ugly head since Dec 23rd} is utter bull sh][, perpetrated by professional liars who have wormed their way into termination proof civil service positions

    Actually it was the second warmest February. Good thing you didn’t shoot someone based on a misunderstanding.

    https://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/news/20170315/

    Davethulhu (2c9e7e)

  223. It was an anagram except there is no r, just like when McCarry wrote better angels in 1979, he couldn’t name saudi Arabia as the sponsor of the proto al queda so he called it hagreb.

    narciso (60c2d3)

  224. 225- can the illiterate understand if they get the audio book?

    Leon (168f33)

  225. I’m serious. You guys might wish to consider the literal meanings of Bible and Scripture. And why The Koran has power.

    nk (dbc370)

  226. It’s as if one was to say you want to invade corto Maltese it’s some island in Latin America, mentioned in the first Batman film in 1990 and the arrow series invented by Frank miller.

    narciso (60c2d3)

  227. And why literal means what it means.

    nk (dbc370)

  228. Nah. I still think they need killing. But the traditional method for dealing with witches is burning at the stake.

    Don’t literally need to shoot them.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  229. One is reminded in cryptonicon set in 1999, there s a European academic who is putting forth the white privilege which warehouse won’t entertain and it’s ironicvin light of his origins back in the 40s

    narciso (60c2d3)

  230. I regret to inform you this post, this subject has become a circle jerk. Abandon circle!!!

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  231. Read this article and tell me it is not vapid:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/18/books/president-obamas-reading-list.html?_r=0

    SPQR (a3a747)

  232. i dunno about food stamp but Malia’s def not the reader in that fam

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  233. hey Malia i got your hundred years of solitude right here

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  234. I prefer talking about books. On vacation I need to read at least 2. Going on a cruise. It’s R & R.

    NJRob (43d957)

  235. Reading is for people who can’t program the remote.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  236. So it turns out the other Russian hacker sutschkin. Worked for renaissance capital, guess which candidate they gave money to, hint its not trump.

    narciso (d1f714)

  237. So, which would you rather; a President who doesn’t read books, or another surge in popularity for whatever tripe he DOES read. Didn’t somebody tell the public that Kennedy liked Ian Flemming and Micky Spillane? I like James Bond films, for the same reasons I like comic books, but Mike Hammer os a 15th generation xerox of Phillip Marlow, and the writing of both authors is awful.

    C. S. P. Schofield (99bd37)

  238. Congressman Nunez says the only crime he knows of is the unmasking and leaking of names (That would particularly be the fact that Michael Flynn had a telephone conversation with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak)

    He said Trump had a right to fire him. But leaking that was a crime. (the point here is the thought that without that being leaked, Flynn wouldn’t have been asked about it, and therefore wouldn’t have lied to Mike Pence.)

    He said, when asked, that there is no question that the leaks were done to hurt Flynn and others.

    He says he doesn’t think anyone now in the Trump White House (did he say except for one?) was overheard. He doesn’t think the leakers are now still employed by the federal government. (that may be a convenient assumption!)

    He says there was no FISA application on the Trump Tower.

    He says the NSA, CIA and FBI should have revealed any names oof Americans whose names were unmasked by Friday but they still haven’t submitted a list of names.

    He says it is good we are now all talking (both parties) about Russian meddliing (now sure of his expression) because Putin is a bad actor.

    Sammy Finkelman (3ea6b3)

  239. To the extent #NeverTrump provided assistance in this, hey… Mission Accomplished!!!

    http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/324649-poll-most-young-voters-view-trump-as-illegitimate-president

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  240. You never stipulated it had to be cover to cover.

    Oh, I’m sure he reads both covers.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  241. The bigger concern today is that Americans have reached a point where ignorance—at least regarding what is generally considered established knowledge in public policy—is seen as an actual virtue.

    I once had terrible difficulty sending a FedEx package to Alaska. The agent I was talking to (this was a while a ago) said she couldn’t find “Alaska” in her codes. When I finally asked for more details, she said her guide didn’t have anything between Afghanistan and Albania.

    I wonder what people would say these days about putting fence around New Mexico.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  242. Mike Hammer os a 15th generation xerox of Phillip Marlow, and the writing of both authors is awful.

    I think Mannix is better.

    The Three-body Problem takes place in Communist China, starting with the Cultural Revolution as we see the physics professors beaten to death by Red Guards for insisting on their running-dog capitalist “laws” of nature. I’m sure this gave Obama a thrill.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  243. This thread is gold. I’ll never forget the day people argued that Trump has read a book because he wrote a lot of tweets. Thank you.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  244. Kevin,

    Read 3 body problem when I was a voting member of the Hugo. Wasn’t overly impressed.

    Locke (7a441f)

  245. i bet jimmy carter read lots of books
    but he wasn’t a very good president
    he hasn’t been a very good former president, either

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  246. Cherish those memories, Patterico. Who needs common ground, when you can have antipathy!?!?

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  247. Cruz Supporter

    I bet he can read a tape measure and a nailing schedule.

    I’m like,” I need to cut two and a half and two sixteenths off this eight quarter board.”

    Pinandpuller (aeb9b4)

  248. You can’t have matter without antimatter or pasta without antipasta. And according to Sesame Street if there were no “U” units would be nits.

    Pinandpuller (aeb9b4)

  249. Cherish those memories, Patterico. Who needs common ground, when you can have antipathy!?!?

    If “common ground” means twisting my brain into a pretzel so that I’ll accept an argument like “Trump read a book on account of lookit how many tweets he wrote!” then I’ll pass, thanks.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  250. At this point Trump post comment sections are just a scientific experiment into how stupid an argument partisans will advance with a straight face. I think this one takes the cake so far.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  251. You never stipulated it had to be cover to cover.

    This wins second place.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  252. Kevin M (25bbee) — 3/19/2017 @ 11:28 am

    I wonder what people would say these days about putting fence around New Mexico.

    I suppose 10% to 15% would support it, mainly people living east of the Mississippi River who voted for Trump.

    You could ask even more ridiculous questions.

    Sammy Finkelman (3ea6b3)

  253. The beatings will continue until the farcical arguments desist…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  254. Trump’s hair-do is really a hair-don’t. Discuss…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  255. I just read the comments on the same post over at Red State. Quite an unusual batch, seem to be from disgruntled Clinton or McMuffin voters…

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  256. Maybe they are just gruntled@pg wodehouse, coronello,

    narciso (d1f714)

  257. I just read the comments on the same post over at Red State. Quite an unusual batch, seem to be from disgruntled Clinton or McMuffin voters…

    I like those comments a lot. Thanks for encouraging me to read them.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  258. Charles stross’s the factorybseries was good at the beginning but his last few were substandard, he has a new one empire games, which delved into the alternate reslities

    narciso (d1f714)

  259. oh goodness ex-cia wack-job slurpy egg mcmuffin’s at the “cry for help” stage of his downward spiral

    for the love of innovative and pro-active preventative care wellness programs someone please pat his head and tell him he’s relevant before he starts exploring self-harm techniques

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  260. No surprise there.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  261. I reason the synopsis of the three world problem I haven’t anything this muddled since cloud atlas (the book and the film)

    narciso (d1f714)

  262. Patterico, don’t know why you care about the comments on Red State since they’re so heavily censored. All must comport to the vision of the site or you will be deleted and banned. Not big on free thought.

    NJRob (c24a9a)

  263. Also read 3 Body Problem when I was a Sad Pup. Can’t say much about it. Typical slog. Better than the Goblin Emperor and that terrible book where they called everyone a she. Not as good as Jim Butcher’s work.

    NJRob (c24a9a)

  264. Better than the Dark Between the Stars. Meh. Hugo nominees haven’t been anything special in ages. One should’ve gone to Correia for his new series, but… politics.

    NJRob (c24a9a)

  265. what is this new correia series

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  266. @232 Leon

    I got one of those records that teaches you a language while you sleep. Last night the record skipped and all I can do is stutter in Spanish.

    Steven Wright

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  267. I read some of John ring’s kildar series, its ok. There was interesting time travelish work by Dexter palmer, version control.

    narciso (d1f714)

  268. #257 Pinandpuller

    but he didn’t go to law school
    so it doesn’t count or whatever

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  269. DAE fall asleep after one page of The Kama Sutra?

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  270. Cruz Supporter

    Carter didn’t need to measure his defeat by Reagan in [redacted] hairs.

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  271. Not new anymore Happyfeet.

    Son of the Black Sword is what I meant. He should be working on book two soon. At least it won the Dragon Award for it’s category.

    NJRob (c24a9a)

  272. Now here is some creative writing… using car models as a theme…

    “My Amigo and I went out one evening, forming an Alliance to see who could end up with the Conquest of getting their Jimmy handled by a Scamp. The year was Ninety-Eight, and we got off to a Rocky start. My Sidekick and I finally ran into a Cougar who told us she would be glad to provide a Hummer to me but had another Rendezvous in an hour. My partner was Swift to move along trying to be his own Trailblazer. In the Spirit of her rush, I was quick to Express my Luv like a Rabbit. I started to get a strange Vibe, and glancing down I saw her Silhouette making the Discovery that she was in fact a he. With a Dash I made my Escape, and thankfully never saw that Brougham again!”

    http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2017/03/ttac-challenge-car-name-game-winners-journey-triumph-acclaim/

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  273. Fun fact: The Kama Sutra was the world’s first Choose Your Own Adventure title.

    Highlight if you must but sticky notes, just no.

    Pinandpuller (aeb9b4)

  274. ok adding it to a list

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  275. The last decent SciFi/Fantasy Book I read was Fred Saberhagen’s “Ardneh’s Sword” (2006).

    The one Jim Butcher book I read was disgusting where it was not vapid or tedious. Can’t he send bedroom role play scenarios to the Nielsen Haydens by private email?

    I tried reading Correia’s first Monster Hunter book and I got to page three and no farther. Purple prose overdose. A ten-year old can write better than that.

    Don’t get me started on Glen Cook.

    Basically, the current crop of fiction being published sucks.

    nk (dbc370)

  276. Purple prose, don’t know, I would say its a little abrupt.

    narciso (d1f714)

  277. This might give you a hint why. From Tor’s submission guidelines:

    WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR:

    From October 12 at 9:00 AM EDT (UTC-4:00) until January 12 at 9:00 AM EST (UTC-5:00), Tor.com will only be considering novellas of between 20,000 and 40,000 words that fit the epic fantasy, sword and sorcery, high fantasy, or quest fantasy genres, whether set on Earth or on an original fantasy world. However, we will only be considering novellas that inhabit worlds that are not modeled on European cultures. We are seeking worlds that take their influences from Africa, Asia, the indigenous Americas, or any diasporic culture from one of those sources. To qualify, novellas should center the experiences of characters from non-European-inspired cultures.

    Both Lee Harris and Carl Engle-Laird actively request submissions from writers from underrepresented populations. This includes, but is not limited to, writers of any race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, class and physical or mental ability. We believe that good science fiction and fantasy reflects the incredible diversity and potential of the human species, and hope our catalog will reflect that.

    I don’t like Vox Day, but I agree with his ongoing criticism of the “SJWs” (to use the kindest term) who have become the gatekeepers of the publishing houses.

    nk (dbc370)

  278. Judge for yourself, narciso. The link is good but it might take you to the main page. If so, click Next and then Chapter 1. http://www.baen.com/readonline/index/read/sku/1439132852

    nk (dbc370)

  279. oh.

    i removed correia’s “non-European–set epic fantasy” from my list then

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  280. You can get a sample chapter of most every book online these days. But some fool you.

    nk (dbc370)

  281. How is that purple prose, its sort of pedestrian tranxition

    narciso (d1f714)

  282. Pool Anderson’s ensign flandry, is also along similar lines to steel rat, but probably too politically incorrect. Compare the original battlestar Galactica with its nihilistic brooding sucessir.

    narciso (d1f714)

  283. De gustibus ….

    Maybe I’ve been spoiled by the greats like Zelazny, Vance, Chandler and Hammett.

    C.S.P. Schollfield at 146, totally agree with you about Spillane and Fleming.

    nk (dbc370)

  284. I tried to read Butcher and Correia, and got easily bored.
    Ben Aaronovitch has a semi-decent series of novels you may like better:the jokes are more in line with your sense of humor. He’s a Brit, so the lead characters are London cops.

    kishnevi (57338f)

  285. Thank you, kishnevi. I liked Randall Garrett’s “Lord Darcy” and Mike Resnick’s earlier alternate New York “fables”.

    nk (dbc370)

  286. “Trump can’t read.”

    -Proof that LA has finally gotten to Patterico

    Dejectedhead (6f26f8)

  287. nk

    So I’m guessing no John Ringo?

    Pinandpuller (16b0b5)

  288. “Trump can’t read.”

    -Proof that LA has finally gotten to Patterico

    You put that in quotes as if it’s something I said. That’s dishonest of you and disappointing.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  289. Trump can obviously read a TelePrompTer.

    Not well, mind you…

    “and, by the way, into titties like right here in Detroit”

    Patterico (115b1f)

  290. Sorry, I was paraphrasing for expediency.

    I still think LA has gotten to you.

    Dejectedhead (6f26f8)

  291. That’s OK. I think Trump has gotten to people who used to be conservative.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  292. He’s also gotten to people that used to be liberal…though in a different way.

    Dejectedhead (6f26f8)

  293. nk, of the urban fantasy genre, the Ben Aaronovitch “Rivers of London” series mentioned earlier is decent quality. Benedict Jacka has a series that is well written, start with “Fated”.

    I also recommend a lot of Tad Williams whose “Memory, Sorrow, Thorn” series is a nice rendition of the Tolkien subgenre.

    I won’t hold your opinion of Larry Correia against you, even if some of my friends are writing in his series and anthologies. 😉

    SPQR (a3a747)

  294. Fraid not, Pinandpuller. Just the covers are enough to turn me away. If a girl can do it, how much of an adventure can it be? Besides, I’ve read Fred Saberhagen, Keith Laumer, Poul Anderson, Mike Resnick, and Gordon R. Dickson — just to name a few — it’d be like going from filet mignon to Big Macs.

    nk (dbc370)

  295. All of the rotten stuff that is constantly slung at Donald Trump, Melania, Ivanka, Trump’s sons, Kushner… it’s hard to understand why anyone other than D-bagger lefties would join the cacophony.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  296. Well, regardless of the President’s recreational habits, Andrew Jackson’s stock has risen since the name drop.

    Bybee argued that the original panel “neglected or overlooked critical cases by the Supreme Court and by our making clear that when we are reviewing decisions about who may be admitted into the United States, we must defer to the judgement of the political branches.”

    Citing case after case demonstrating the limits of judicial review over immigration actions, Bybee declared that the 3-judge “panel’s errors are many and obvious,” so much so that “the panel’s clear misstatement of law justifies vacating the opinion.

    The key case suggesting that the original panel should have ruled against the temporary restraining order is the 1972 Supreme Court case Kleindienst v. Mandel. In that case, the Court ruled that a U.S. attorney general (in this case Richard Kleindienst) has the right to refuse an alien’s entry into the United States, since he has been empowered to do so in the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952.

    https://pjmedia.com/trending/2017/03/19/five-9th-circuit-judges-eviscerate-the-fundamental-errors-in-ruling-against-trumps-muslim-ban/

    papertiger (c8116c)

  297. Thank you, SPQR.

    nk (dbc370)

  298. John ringo is a girl?

    narciso (d1f714)

  299. You know who was not a bad “commercial” writer, writing for the pulps in the ’30s? Pretty good, actually? L. Ron Hubbard. I’ve read a lot of his crime, war and western stories; and “Battlefield Earth” is a masterpiece, as good as anything in the genre.

    nk (dbc370)

  300. His character(s), narciso. 😉

    nk (dbc370)

  301. nk, well, John Ringo can be an acquired taste … like other tastes that requre Rehab to lose.

    But his “Troy Rising” series is a great example of Libertarian SF. A genre with some uneven contributions at best.

    SPQR (a3a747)

  302. Nk,

    Butcher and Correia have greatly improved from their earlier works.

    It’s almost like practice and hard work means something.

    NJRob (c24a9a)

  303. Correia writes for Baen, not Tor.

    NJRob (c24a9a)

  304. William diets who wrote the legion of ten damned books Also wrote a prequel with a femAle lead who joins the precursor if said legion, after a game of throne worthy move.

    narciso (d1f714)

  305. adlai stevenson was an egghead
    thank god he didn’t win the presidential election

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  306. “260. At this point Trump post comment sections are just a scientific experiment into how stupid an argument partisans will advance with a straight face. ”

    You want to know what’s a stupid argument?
    Somebody who could not possibly know how many (if any) books that Trump has read, claims that he has never read a book.

    I mean, like, the first reaction I had was, “How could Patterico know? He doesn’t hang around in Trump’s living room, does he?” Sounds just like a random insult, I guess “Trump smells of elderberries” is too trite.

    And then we have 300+ comments, about something that NONE of us could possibly know.

    fred-2 (ce04f3)

  307. But then again, people got bored with the stupid arguments and took the thread into a good direction.

    Like John Ringo’s books.

    The Kildar series was just a fun, absurd romp. Soft porn, reminded me of the Gor series. But some actual story instead of pure soft porn.

    “Troy Rising” series was great. He was right, the full story fit in 3 books, the 4th was not needed. Good, finished up some story threads, but not needed. Too bad he couldn’t have pulled it into like an “Imager” series (Modesitt) or like a “Safehold” series (Weber).

    fred-2 (ce04f3)

  308. Stevenson was sort of the 50s version of Dukakis, although they ran him twice they gave him the un ambassAdor as a consolation prize.

    narciso (26e876)

  309. Years ago I read Ben bova’ s privateer series an attempt to do space piracy of a sort, he has revisited the hero Ben Hamilton Randolph in some books in the aughts

    narciso (26e876)

  310. nk

    I grew up on pulp like Edgar Rice Burroughs and William W Johnstone so perhaps I’m more of a steak and catsup kind of guy.

    I guess the Ringo covers are a bit like the opening scenes of Bond movies lol.

    I recently found out about a new writer named Peter Grant. He wrote a real good western called “Brings the Lightning” about a Confederate soldier’s transition after the Civil War and travels west. Certainly worth thirteen bucks.

    Pinandpuller (6f773a)

  311. @309 nk

    L Ron Hubbard holds four Guinness World Records for writing output. And the longest game of Simon Says.

    Pinandpuller (6f773a)

  312. Checked it out on Kindle, Pinandpuller. Brings The Lightning. It reminds me, very much, of George G. Gilman’s “Adam Steele” and “Edge” books.

    nk (dbc370)

  313. I’ll tell you, the first two chapters are like the beginning of a spaghetti western, and I love spaghetti westerns.

    nk (dbc370)

  314. Me: “You don’t have to like the guy to retain your intellectual honesty.”
    You: “But if you really meant this: ‘You don’t have to like the guy to retain your intellectual honesty.'”

    Seriously? In a post in which you claim someone may have a reading comprehension problem, you actually wrote this.

    That aside, I realize now your intent: you’re basically trolling half of your readership; given your utter disdain for Trump, who I voted for grudgingly, how must you feel about those who did vote for him? I feel the love. I hope you argue in front of a jury better than you argue here. No wonder the crime rate is so high in the greater LA metropolitan area. If you are the prosecutor on a case, does the defendant even feel the need to have a lawyer.

    Bet: If Simple Jack committed multiple homicides, walked into a police station with the murder weapon and covered in the victims’ blood, carrying a camera on which he recorded the whole thing, and decided to represent himself – and you were the prosecutor assigned to the case, the jury would deliberate for about 3 minutes, and Simple Jack would go skipping out of the courthouse, chasing butterflies with a hammer, a free man.

    Terms: one billion dollars.

    And of course Trump has read a book: he’s so vain I bet he read his own, just to find out what was in it.

    Estarcarus (cd97e1)

  315. I forgot: Chump Sucka.

    Estarcarus (cd97e1)

  316. He seems to insist on pissing on your back and demanding you prove it’s not just rain with yellow food coloring

    Colonel Haiku (0b9b35)

  317. fred-2 (ce04f3) — 3/19/2017 @ 9:12 pm

    And then we have 300+ comments, about something that NONE of us could possibly know.

    What you can know is if he gave a strong evidence of having read a particular book, like discussing it, or even declaring he had read it. You’d get that from most successful politicians. George W. Bush for instance would mention he’s reading a certain book and he got into competiton with Karl Rove and others as to how many books he could read. We could find a lot of circumstantial evodnce for many other people. But I don’t know if anyone is familiar enough with Trump to find such a thing if it’s out there. It could theer is such proof, and we just don’t know it.

    I brought out that he definitely reads tweets. But a tweet, even 3,000 tweets, is not a book, of course.

    It is, of course, highly unlikely that Donald Trump never read a book since, say, college, because there could have been all kinds of circumstances that could have gotten him to read a book, or half a book at least.

    It is true that he gives some signs of not reading books, like what Patterico pointed out about him talking about being interrupted after he reads half a page, or his reportedly not knowing many years ago that the Hitxxx book someone gave him some time before was a book of Hxxxer’s speeches and not Mein Kamph. He never looked inside it long enough to realize what it was. Maybe it’s agood point that he really wasn’t interested in reading it.

    Sammy Finkelman (3ea6b3)

  318. I am too reading a book about Andrew Jackson, no matter what Patterico says. I’m at the part where Lincoln picks him to be his Vice President. I can’t wait to find out how he became President.

    Donald J. Trump at the real nk (dbc370)

  319. nk: That was Andrew Johnson – but that’s the joke. Some people might not realize that there’s actual possible confusion here.

    I found proof that George W. Bush read a book: (you can find the same thing stated in other places on the Internet)

    http://time.com/4688206/george-w-bush-painting-book/

    So, painting — where did this come from?

    As a child and a President, I really wasn’t all that interested in art. You might say I was art-agnostic, to Laura’s lament. After the presidency, I started to get antsy. I needed another project. I happened to get a recommendation to read Winston Churchill’s Painting as a Pastime, and that piqued my interest.

    Now you can say, well, maybe he didn’t actually READ the Churchill book.

    But there is also:

    http://www.dallasnews.com/news/university-park/2017/02/27/painting-veterans-george-w-bushs-way-give-back-just-honored-commander-chief

    Bush said he took up painting in 2012 after reading Painting as a Pastime by Winston Churchill, another politician-turned-painter. In the last few years he said he has become “much more confident” as a painter.

    It’s said that he’s actually become quite a good painter. Better than Grandma Moses maybe?

    What I’d really like to see is not – portraits of people – You can take photographs like that – but realistic looking full color, political cartoons.

    DRJ said on the Jury thread that Donald Trump said that is favorite book is All Quiet on the Western Front and it might be the last book he read. He probably read it in the 6th, 7th 8th or 9th grade, when it usuaally assigned in school.

    Anyway for someone who reads a lot of books, you should probably find tangential mentions of having read a particular book (so you could prove someone who read a book, and the absence of anything like that might also mean something, although it wouldn’t be conclusive.

    This is probably not something that anyone would have planted a false claim about having read a book because there’s no big interest in that.

    Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42)


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