Alan Simpson-haters, you are upsetting the "Serious people"

[Enrique]

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/08/who-cares-if-alan-simpson-compared-payroll-taxes-to-a-cow/62079/

If liberals are against a higher retirement age, they're well within their rights to say why (see here for a good example). But flinging our wrists to our foreheads every time we hear a political opponent use a stupid metaphor is exactly the kind of break-out-the-fainting-couches attitude in politics that should drive Serious people nuts.

Derek Thompson - Derek Thompson is a staff editor at TheAtlantic.com, where he writes about economics, business, and technology. Derek has also written for BusinessWeek, Slate and The Daily Beast.

[mike r]

1. Yeah. Hoi polloi/proletariat: Sit down and shut up

Do you not know your place?

[CBGLuthier]

2. One more time. It wasn't the metaphor. It was the thoughts behind such a metaphor

This fucker Simpson thinks we are all a bunch of god damned leaches. I want him OUT.

[MH1]

3. there's many more reasons to dislike Simpson than just the retirement age proposal

life expectancy is higher now and birth rates are lower. To keep SS in balance - if one assumes it is to remain self-funded - would necessarily require a change in some parameters.

The "cow tits" reference, however, showed where Simpson's head is really at and even if some of his utterances make sense to me, I don't see how he can be trusted at all, with the attitude he has shown.

[enlightenment]

4. Well, Derek wouldn't know about the 310 million tits -

he's obviously attached to another sort of teat and busily shilling the "OMG - Social Security will be in trouble in 20 years! We MUST do something NOW. Make the old people work until they're 90, so I won't have to . . ."

wanker.


edited to add an 'of'

[Brickbat]

5. The metaphor wasn't stupid. Its very vividness exposed just how stupid Alan Simpson is. Maybe

we're all shocked and angry at how stupid Simpson is, and how stupid it is he's on the commission, and how stupid a decision it was for Obama to put him on the commission.

But then, people who use the word "Serious" to describe themselves, without being ironic about the capital S, probably aren't going to see that.

[EFerrari]

6. "Break out the fainting couch"? Fire Derek Thompson!

lol

/ack, typing

[katandmoon]

7. Fuck him and the smugness he rode in on

[Chulanowa]

8. Doesn't bother me

And i'm not only serious, I'm also sensible. :rofl:

[phantom power]

9. Derek Thompson is boldly fighting a straw man argument.

Nobody gives a fuck about metaphors with the word "tits" in them.

People are upset because our fearless leaders put a bunch of people in charge of making recommendations about SS, who very very clearly have total contempt for SS, and all other govt social programs and anybody who supports them.

[Zenlitened]

11. Ladies and gentlemen, we have our winning answer. - n/t

[City Lights]

10. One wonders if the serious Mr. Thompson realizes that Simpson is one of the

people sucking off the government teat. It's not just about stupid metaphors. It's also about the hypocrisy. Or maybe the serious Mr. Thompson believe Simpson deserves to suckle the government teat, while others...not so much.

[Vinnie From Indy]

12. Gee, I wonder if Derek ever noticed that the ENTIRE right wing hate machine is based

SOLELY on that model. In fact, dumbass Derek should take a moment to watch FOX NEws or listen to that fat, drug addict Rush Limbaugh if he really wants to see some "break-out-the fainting-couches" nonsense. One wonders if a "serious" guy like Derek has ever commented on the tsunami of manufactured BS coming from the right-wing? Guys like Derek appear to be eager to drop to their knees to satisfy the prevailing lie being pushed by the Obama Admin that it is liberals in America that are so unserious that drug screening is in order. Piss off Derek!

[valerief]

13. Serous people look at the MILITARY BUDGET!!!!! Not Social Security. nt