Just to be Clear…
By When I say that Jamie Kirchik is too stupid to breathe, it shouldn’t be read as a suggestion that he be smothered; rather, it should be understood as an expression of sheer wonderment that someone so stupid could remember to breathe on a minute-to-minute basis.
…I should also note that, while I’ve never been a member of JournoList, I’m genuinely befuddled as to the point of the handwringing. Even Mark Hemingway seems to consider the issue altogether boring. Mickey Kaus, on the other hand, believes that he’s found a *SCOOP* by uncovering a fairly pedestrian e-mail exchange from the list. The exchange results in the unsurprising conclusions that Marty Peretz is a bit racist, Michael Savage is a lot crazy, and writers for TNR are a bit defensive about criticism. Such exchanges are precisely why, when I was invited some time ago, I decided not to participate; it’s hardly a scoop that Marty doesn’t care for the brown people or that Michael Savage is batshit insane, and I don’t need the clutter in my inbox. Similarly, there’s no need for a conspiracy to determine that Mickey Kaus is bereft of the ability to say anything even mildy interesting; it’s rather self-evident. This lack of talent, I suspect, is the proximate cause of Mickey’s exclusion from list…