Sunday, April 19, 2009

Like The Prize In A Box Of Terrible, Consistently Wrong Crackerjacks

Normally, a giant steaming pile of wingnut blather that gets a link from Mickey is being hailed as a paragon of logical reasoning and/or a brave voice speaking truth to power (in Malkin's case, screaming it). But, every so often, something activates the "liberal" part of his "neoliberal idiocy", and Mickey gets ornery with his erstwhile allies.

This phenomenon -- the biannual-or-so appearance of Bizarro Kaus -- is the best explanation I have for Mickey's reaction to this terrible-but-not-uniquely-terrible column by Robert Samuelson (author seen here doing his Groucho Marx impression). Mickey -- surprise! -- has been almost completely tolerable:

It seems like it would be hard to achieve any desirable form of equality--equality before the law, equality of opportunity, or social equality--simply by aggregating the choices of individuals spending their own money.

Whoa there, comrade. Even after you unpack it all ("social equality" carries with it every Mickey tirade against those highfalootin' Money Liberals; "equality of opportunity" is kind of redundant when you have "social equality", and is probably being used as a rebuttal to noted straw man "equality of outcome", etc.), his rejection of the market as a one-stop solution to everything is still fairly ... Democratic.

Enjoy it while it lasts, everyone.