The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    jollyroger's picture

    Paul Ryan-Icon of American social mobility, giving the lie to Democrat culture of dependency. (Says Limbaugh) Oh, the mendacity!

    By jollyroger on Thu, 08/30/2012 - 7:58pm |

    Listening today to my obligatory dose of drivel from Rush Limbaugh (weep for Rogie--he listens so you don't have to) I was surprised to hear that we remain a beacon of social mobility.

    The proof that your destiny is not written on stone, per Limbaugh, *Paul Ryan's journey from mowing lawns, orphaned as he was at 16, to the nomination for Vice President. (A heartbeat away, blah, blah, blah, etc.).

    Always unencumbered by reality (where our social mobility had so diminished as to put us behind France, which, as Ariana Huffington once wryly remarked, is as counter intuitive as if we were statistically to surpass France in afternoon sexual encounters) Limbaugh in this was more mendacious than is the norm, even for that pulsating, globule of lying fat encrusted shit.

    Not, of course, that Ryan did not lose his father at 16.

    That said, his father's father, and Ryan's great-grandfather before him were serially executives of P.W. Ryan and Sons

    The Ryan family, in short, were the elite in town, and young Paul's stint of lawn mowing was no more proof of humble beginnings than my boyhood experiment at self employment in the Brooklyn subway with a shoe shine box that my mob lawyer dad gave me when I was eight. (Parenthetically, the apex of my work ethic; all downhill since then)

    *He told a story about mowing yards in his early twenties, making some extra money. He didn't think that was his destiny. He didn't think that was the rest of his life. While he was doing that, in his mind, he's planning his life, he's planning his future, determining for himself what he wants to be. And this is the life that's been sucked out of so many Americans. This is the Americanism that's being denied so many people. They're told daily by their leaders, by their president, their political party, that that America doesn't exist. And furthermore, it never did, they're told. This game has always been stacked against you. The rich, they make sure that they got everything and that you've got nothing. It's a cynicism that destroys the very things about humanity which set us apart. And they do it for their own power, all the while claiming they're the ones who have all the love and compassion for people, when it's we who do.

    Comments

    All true and well said.

    However...

    If progressives remain phlegmatic about this election, they will allow this moral midget to ascend to the vice presidency.

    He will be the tie breaker in the Senate...

    He will be teed up to be Romney's successor in 2016 or 2020...

    And he will be president, instantly, if Romney dies.

    Unless you're willing to fight to prevent this guy from getting inside the gate, I don't see much reason in writing this stuff.


    by Peter Schwartz on Fri, 08/31/2012 - 10:09am

    I am eligible to vote in NY, or Cali as a permanent absentee. Hence my actual vote is nugatory. I suppose I could canvass in NJ (is it in play?). The thrust of the post, BTW, was Limbaugh's mendacity, not Ryan's, albeit there is no shortage of the latter.

    by jollyroger on Fri, 08/31/2012 - 10:16am

    Try PA.


    by Peter Schwartz on Fri, 08/31/2012 - 11:08am

    What's a nice Brooklyn boy like you doing listening to Rush Limbaugh?

    Don't make me come over there and fix that.


    by moat on Fri, 08/31/2012 - 7:15pm

    I love it when he says that Prez is a secret socialist. It gives me (false) hope And, after all, false hope is better than no hope at all Plus its a good index to what left wing memes are actually working well enough to elicit crazy pushback It started as pure schadenfreude right after the election. I can't take more than 20.minutes or so in these parlous times.

    by jollyroger on Fri, 08/31/2012 - 9:22pm

    I understand that Ryan was claiming to have run a sub-3 hour marathon twenty years ago, but, like everything else he has ever said, that has been shown to be a complete lie.

    Mr. Paul "Permanently Pants-on-Fire" Ryan.

     


    by MrSmith1 on Sat, 09/01/2012 - 4:22pm

    As I recall, it is a point of pride among Repugnants that they "create" facts, they don't adjust to them. Ryan was probably surprised to learn that the force of his assertion had not reached back in time to change the very records kept by the race organizers. A little more faith needed, brother, a little more faith. Who was that runner who took a cab during the Boston Marathon? Rosie Ruiz? We need to get her onto Ryan's staff. Edit to add: I had it wrong, it was the subway at the New York Marathon, and she actually claimed to.have WON the Boston. Apparently a recurrent character defect:" In 1982, Ruiz was arrested for embezzling $ 60,000 from a real estate company where she worked." . A cautionary tale.

    by jollyroger on Sat, 09/01/2012 - 5:13pm

    Rosie Ruiz also came to Paul Krugman's mind on hearing this story. Or else he reads Dagblog? Nah, prolly not.

    by jollyroger on Mon, 09/03/2012 - 12:31am

    You have to wonder Mr. Smith1 why it is Ryan believes he must portray himself as something he is not...oh right, he thinks he is John Galt, genius, bestest at everything. When I read that about him I immediately wondered why we didn't know before that Mr. Ryan was a world class runner? Why didn't he know his time exactly? I know my fastest times for 25(1 hr 17 mins 26 secs, 1700 elevation gain), 60 (2 hrs 45 minutes, 15 secs high altitude) and 120 mile (6 hrs 47 mins 14 secs) which included 15 mile climb from 4500 feet to 6700 feet, I know every fucking detail, seriously.

    Under 3, that is cooking, that is around 9 mph, that is elite runner status. Maybe the real Kenyan is the white dude who claims to be from Minnesota, hmm I'd like to see his birth certificate and his Boston Marathon Invite. Why does he lie about everything, what is up with that? And American's hate people who cheat at sports, reporting a false finishing time is fucking cheating.


    by tmccarthy0 on Sat, 09/01/2012 - 6:22pm

    You ran 25 miles in 1 hr 17 min? (I could barely drive 25 miles in that amount of time.)


    by erica (not verified) on Sat, 09/01/2012 - 6:38pm

    I am a cyclist not a runner.  Sorry most people know that about me.


    by tmccarthy0 on Sat, 09/01/2012 - 6:49pm

    Well thank goodness! That explains it.


    by erica (not verified) on Sat, 09/01/2012 - 7:07pm

    I propose that we go around to every Romney Ryan billboard and poster in the country and paint flames on their pants.

     

     

     


    by MrSmith1 on Sat, 09/01/2012 - 8:22pm

    Something needs to be done about these double posts!

    by jollyroger on Sat, 09/01/2012 - 9:50pm

    Something needs to be done to get these serial liars to respect the truth. Poor Al Gore! The shit he got for essentially innocent remarks...those must have been more unforgiving times!

    by jollyroger on Sat, 09/01/2012 - 9:40pm

    Fuck the under three hour finish anyway. I'd rather vote for this lady, who always finishes, even if it takes till next day...

    by jollyroger on Sat, 09/01/2012 - 9:33pm

    I believe we have identified the elite athlete in this story, and it ain't Ryan! Those are some numbers.

    by jollyroger on Sat, 09/01/2012 - 9:43pm