Jon Chait is right: this rant from David Gelernter in the Weekly Standard has to be read to be believed. I think it should be preserved in amber as a type example of Homo Derangus circa 2011.
Of course, Gelernter is the author of possibly my favorite sentence ever from a piece of opinion writing. Behold:
Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina seems like a decent and likable man, the political equivalent of a handsome, slightly under-ripe bunch of bananas, just the thing if you are looking for bananas and can’t find any ripe ones, or don’t know the difference.
Actually, given what we now know about Edwards, this sentence is even funnier than it was back in 2004. Meanwhile, Media Matters presents us with this example of the “all-but-eradication of race prejudice” that Gelernter thinks we liberals are unwilling to acknowledge because we hate America so much. It’s from Glenn Beck wannabe Eric Bolling over at Fox News. “Can Gelernter or any other conservative explain this video as the expression of anything other than race prejudice?” asks Chait. “And does the fact that it can be featured on a mainstream news network, passing muster among a host, a producer, and any other number of staffers responsible for approving it, without objection, tell us anything important about the acceptability of such prejudice?” Answer: yes it does. At Fox News, anyway.
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