Dammit. I hate most political books, but O’Rourke’s Parliament of Whores* was and is essential reading. My condolences to his family and loved ones.
*He would have been the first to tell me to #commissionearned that sucker.
Tag: pj o’rourke
The funniest Supreme Court amicus curiae submission you’re likely to read today.
I’m not going to go overmuch into the background: you should instead read the amicus curiae. Which, given that it was clearly written by PJ O’Rourke and the Cato Institute on the virtues of humor and satire in free speech, will be no burden:
In modern times, “truthiness”— a “truth” asserted “from the gut” or because it “feels right,” without regard to evidence or logic — is also a key part of political discourse. It is difficult to imagine life without it, and our political discourse is weakened by Orwellian laws that try to prohibit it.After all, where would we be without the knowledge that Democrats are pinko-communist flag-burners who want to tax churches and use the money to fund abortions so they can use the fetal stem cells to create pot-smoking lesbian ATF agents who will steal all the guns and invite the UN to take over America? Voters have to decide whether we’d be better off electing Republicans, those hateful, assault-weapon-wielding maniacs who believe that George Washington and Jesus Christ incorporated the nation after a Gettysburg reenactment and that the only thing wrong with the death penalty is that it isn’t administered quickly enough to secular-humanist professors of Chicano studies.
Read, as they say, the whole thing. And yes, that was submitted to the US Supreme Court.
P.J. O’Rourke and the Onion AV Club.
(Via AoSHQ Headlines) It’s a good interview, mostly because P.J. O’Rourke is happy to answer “Surely you agree…” questions with all the assurance of a man who will never, ever run for political office. Would that more people did that – and that’s with the understanding that doing so would keep them from running. We need less people in politics, and more impolitic people.
However, my favorite Q&A is this one:
AVC: Do you worry that some people might dismiss your more serious points because they’ll just assume you’re joking?
PJO: No, I don’t worry about it. It’s much better to have your arguments dismissed because you might be joking than to have your arguments dismissed because you’re not telling the truth. I’ll pick “I’m kidding” anytime over “I’m lying.”
I like that. I may steal it.
Moe Lane
PS: He’s got a new book out. Driving Like Crazy: Thirty Years of Vehicular Hell-bending, Celebrating America the Way It’s Supposed To Be — With an Oil Well in Every Backyard, a Cadillac … of the Federal Reserve Mowing Our Lawn