http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2010/11/true-grift-matt-taibbi-tells-some.html There has probably never been a more appropriately titled book than Matt Taibbi's Griftopia. That's what the book is, total grift. Taibbi has been running for some time a sort of long-con, a grift, if you will, on America's intelligentsia. The intelligentsia, naturally, don't have the time to study, excess reserves, the regression theorem or praxelology, or anything else that might enlighten them as to what is currently going on in the economy. But they sure can picture Goldman Sachs as a vampire squid sucking money out of their pockets. Taibbi did paint this picture for them and, thus, Taibbi, the financial expert was born. It's doubtful he understands excess reserves, the regression theorem or praxelology, either, but by borrowing from a web site here, and a web site there, he does put together a string of paragraphs in a form the intelligentsia can appreciate, by also borrowing from the writing style of Hunter S. Thompson. Consider: If I am in a bookstore browsing through books, the first thing I do is look through the index of a book to get a sense for the topics that are covered. I picked up Griftopia in a bookstore to browse. I looked for the index, but much like Bernie Madoff back up statements, Griftopia has no index. After the index, I usually turn to the acknowledgements to see who the author thanks, as kind of an indication as to who the author has been hanging with. In Taibbi's book, I eagerly turned to the acknowledgments, since it has been rumored that what Taibbi really does is, as I said before, simply borrow themes from other web sites, without attribution. Finally, I thought, he would disclose his sources that remarkably track the information on some web sites. But, alas, this would not be the case. Griftopia has the most unusual acknowledgements I have ever seen in a book. It is really more of an explanation as to why Taibbi doesn't need to acknowledge anyone. And now, I recount from memory, because I didn't buy the book. Taibbi does acknowledge some guy whose name I think is Dave, and that's it. After that, Taibbi tells us his sources are secret. You know, the way Bernie Madoff told investors that his investment methods were secret. Then Taibbi tells us that well maybe they aren't all secret, but the names are in the chapters, so there is no reason to mention them in the acknowledgements. And that's it. No thanking of any muse, of any friends. No thanking of a wife, a brother, a sister, a colleague, a girl friend, a mistress, a dominatrix. No one else. Yikes, if it wasn't for the fact that it might be seen as a cheap attempt to get more hits, I might wonder if Taibbi is a damn deep-sea cephalopod of some sort, thousands of feet deep in the ocean having no contact with humans. From there, I did move on and read the first chapter of the book, it's about Sarah Plain. It's written in the tone of a man who desperately wants to sound like Hunter S. Thompson, but who clearly doesn't want to be cremated and have his ashes blown out of a canon, after he dies. Let me tell you something. You can't write like Hunter S. Thompson unless you are perfectly willing to be cremated and have your ashes blown out of a cannon, or better yet have your remains eaten by a cephalopod of some sort. And thus, when all is said and written, we are left with nothing in Griftopia but the facts in each chapter. The facts presented in this first chapter, presumably a strong chapter designed to entice the reader to read on, are as follows : John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate when he ran as the Republican candidate for president in 2008. I did not read on. I did not buy the book. In thinking about the book, the only people I think could find the book useful would be the miners in Chile who were trapped for 69 days, but only if they would have been trapped for 6.9 years, instead. It would have brought them up-to-date in an almost picture book like way. So thus, we have another book we can throw on that pile, i.e., buy it only if you are in a position where you must buy a gift for a person you hate. Trust me, the person won't get past the first chapter and will find the book of no value at all. Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook Share to Google Buzz
I see you learned nothing while you were gone gwayneco. Im seeing a increasing amount of hostility which at its present rate will shortly lead you to crossing the line. (Yes, contrary to what some say, there *is* a line. ) Chill out. (and yes, it *is* my responsibility to warn you of this, ignore it to your detriment.)
One could take the same quote and use it for Obama. Clearly this article is specifically written to discredit Bachmann. It is well written though, but nothing more than someone with a specific agenda taking aim. However, I do believe that she is fake, and not worthy of being President... but many people relate to her... just not enough to be President I hope.
Totally on topic as the original article was by Taibbi who has been shown to have dubious ethical standards.
I don't really get the accusation of "anti-christian" some folks are directing at the piece. I got the feeling any such sentiment was directed at the particular flavor of Christianity that preaches bigotry as doctrine, and as such, the article was more anti-bigotry than anti-Christianity. Am I wrong?
oh em gee. i can retire. my work here is done. someone not from a faith background finally has seen past the label and considered the words/life of Christ as the basis for Christianity and not bigotry or some political movement that's too often associated with the word. rhad, i'd rep you again, if i could, but i have to spread it around first.
Darth Donny fall in a faint. Quite the faith background, actually. Thanks Max for re-illuminating this. To be fair, I'd like to think I've tried to maintain such an outlook - I guess I have not done so well. Also to be fair, Taibbi writes a lot of barbs and insults into the piece that the casual christian would no doubt be very offended by. I tend to gloss over such, I guess the BBS has trained me to (haha). What's ironic is that Taibbi seems to recognize that insults are not effective, yet insults anyway himself: This entire paragraph above reeks of cognitive dissonance.
aside from taibbi, should we rely only on experts in particular fields to report on those fields. i didn't read taibbi books, but his reporting on the wall street melt down is very informative. i'm not defending him in this instance. i don't think its a hit piece, bauchmann has show herself to be very extreme. now if you agree with her that's your right, but recognize it is extreme. getting on meet the press and calling obama's white house a "ganster government". that's ridiculous.
I remember gwayneco but I don't remember anything about him. Did he flame out and get banned? All I see now is that he is back and might as well be posting in all caps. I hope you are not taking this as seriously as you seem to be, sir, because I otherwise would have to fear for your blood pressure. As an aside, are you really trying to argue that Rolling Stone should be held to some kind of journalistic standard? Didn't they write good music articles in the 70's and then evolve into a caricature of what they once were such to the point that they have long been mostly irrelevant when it comes to music...much less anything serious? Sure, I know about Taibi because of his sensationalistic articles, but if he was a great journalist he wouldn't be writing for RS. I bet you Taibi doesn't like Khadafi, either. Must make him super extra rad as a political leader. See? I know the truth about you, gwayneco. A sleeping beast such as the knowledge I contain cannot be left slumbering for long winter nights. It will awake in splendid eviscerating glory and scorch your heartburned, high blood pressure riddled heart with fury of righteous truth and indignation. Step gently, my friend from Detroit.
has it been brought up that the rs editor removed the citations for space concerns and that they fully appear in the online version?
RS did break some news that other news outlets covered and resulted in a General losing his job in Afghanistan and basically ending his careeer because of the journalism of a Rolling Stone reporter. I'm not saying they are the New York Times, but they can't be totally dismissed either.
She should have used a song co-written by another Bachman- Randy Bachman: American woman, stay away from me American woman, mama let me be Don't come hangin' around my door I don't wanna see your face no more I got more important things to do Than spend my time growin' old with you Now woman, I said stay away American woman, listen what I say American woman, get away from me American woman, mama let me be Don't come knockin' around my door Don't wanna see your shadow no more Colored lights can hypnotize [. From: http://www.elyrics.net/read/g/guess-who-lyrics/american-woman-lyrics.html .] Sparkle someone else's eyes Now woman, I said get away American woman, listen what I say American woman, said get away American woman, listen what I say Don't come hangin' around my door Don't wanna see your face no more I don't need your war machines I don't need your ghetto scenes Colored lights can hypnotize Sparkle someone else's eyes Now woman, get away from me American woman, mama let me be Go, gotta get away, gotta get away Now go, go, go, I'm gonna leave you, woman Gonna leave you, woman Bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye
