Panhandlers in the Marketplace of Ideas
- At April 23, 2004
- By Bob Howe
- In Blog Posts
5
In his book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, Al Franken brilliantly decouples inherent worth from commercial success. In Chapter 2, “You Know Who I Don’t Like? Ann Coulter,” he writes:
…like any movement conservative, Coulter is a firm believer in the free market. By definition, anything that succeeds in the “marketplace of ideas,” like her books, must inherently be of value. And, therefore, unlike members of working families, she really does work for a living.
Here’s something to think about, though. A friend of mine works in the hotel industry. About 65 percent of the movies that are ordered in hotels are “adult movies.” Clearly, two blondes going down on each other is a real winner in the marketplace of ideas. My all-time favorite stat: The average length of time those movies are on is…twelve minutes. That is my favorite statistic in life.
My question is, what are all those people doing with the second six minutes?
holyoutlaw
The second six minutes
Well, when you get older, most things take longer.
I took the liberty of linking to this in my journal — um, if that turns out not to be okay, I’ll take it down.
And may I recommend womzilla and supergee, who do journals similar to yours.
admin
Re: The second six minutes
Well, when you get older, most things take longer.
Isn’t that the bitter truth. You’re entirely welcome to link to my blog: it’s all public, anyway. I’m pleased you got a laugh from it.
supergee
Your true conservative believes that the market of ideas should not include blonde on blonde. That’s one of the areas where Coulter is relatively sane.
admin
Does this mean that true conservatives believe surfers should not reproduce?
supergee
One amusing bit from the OJ case was the idea that Kato Kaelin was conclusive evidence that Gilligan & Ginger really did have sex.