Lileks peaked out with his Gallery of Regrettable Food, which is genuinely hilarious.

And its publication date is listed as ...(cue ominous music here) Sept. 11 2001.

He's been trying to atone ever since for causing anyone to laugh when they should have been sobbing at The Greatest Disaster Ever To Strike America and becoming more involved in Republican party work in response. Cuz that's sure what he did.

He's a 9-11 WATB. I know a few other people like that--once sensible, something about 9-11 just freaked them out and turned them into terrorism drama queens of the worst order. It's as though they never had a pet or a grandparent die, or otherwise experienced any sort of tragedy, and felt this as some sort of lack in their life.

So when one came along--under the encouragement of media and other evil influences--they adopted this one as their very own Greatest Awfulness Ever even though they were hundreds or thousands of miles away, knew nobody involved, and saw the whole thing on teebee.

(Okay my buddy known as Basecat lives in N. NJ and his sister lives in lower Manhattan and he had a really awful time through the whole thing, finding her and getting her to his house. But Lilek has no such excuse that I know of.)

I thought conservatives were all for the "invisible hand" of the market, right? If there no market for his "humor," shouldn't Lileks just be out of a job then? It seems a tad socialistic to give this guy a "pity job" to do something he isn't particularly good at, doesn't it?

This isn't the work of an invisible hand. No, this is the work of the all-too-visible Black Hand of the Liberal Media. And you've gotta fight communism with communism, y'know.

But I still believe
And I will rise up with fists!!

".. Lileks then goes on to cite LGF as a credible source. And to think I got suckered in, and thought that Lileks wasn’t a hater… "

LGF is indeed a credible source because, if you bothered to read it, it is essentially a compilation of links to other credible sources.

Oh, you don't think the sources LGF links to are credible?

Well, you might be right about that, since many of them are from AP and Reuters.

Oops, shot yourself in the foot there, didn't you?

So, the only one proving and demonstrating their own irrational hatred is you.

I know, I know, but instead of wasting time and effort writing about the most cloyingly insipid and self absorbed Lieleks, look at this example of the AP making shit up about the Democrats chances in 2008:

Next year's Election Day is eons away in political time, and many things could happen to alter today's dynamics. For now, the surveys leave it unclear whether the apparent Democratic edge would really hold up should GOP candidates with moderate credentials like Rudy Giuliani or John McCain face Democrats such as [HRC] or Barack Obama

So let's pretend something has happened already and assume that the Democratic Candidates will just suck against those well known Gopper Thug moderates Rudy and Johnny MC.

Jeebus, I hate the press that do not do their jobs but just suck at the rights tit, I really do.

Oh, you don’t think the sources LGF links to are credible?

Well, you might be right about that, since many of them are from AP and Reuters.

Oops, shot yourself in the foot there, didn’t you?

My god, he's tunneled beneath our defenses! (Don't tell him he'll end up in the Duck Pit!)

Anyway, would this be the AP of Nedra Pickler and John Solomon fame? Gee whiz. Nailed us! Disregarding that they typically refer to Reuters as "Al-Reuters", I said, hey, maybe he's right and LGF loves AP and therefore we should be all ashamed or something.

So I strolled over to LGF (yes, I'll admit it) and checked for the first AP reference. It was an attack on the AP for allegedly having 'Bush Derangement Syndrome.'

I think I'll just let that one sink in for a while.

But I still believe
And I will rise up with fists!!

xan, Lileks' post-9/11 views were shaped by a panic attack he had in the camping equipment aisle at Target as he shopped for a possible retreat from, um, Minnesota in case the islamofascists were hunting on midwestern suburbs.

I am, by the way, not making this up.

The LGF dispute? Can't be appreciated in its full glory until you've seen even the most fervent of wingnut blogs go into indignant hysterics and wave Ward Churchill like a silver cross wrapped in wolfsbane when someone suggests that such as the LGF commenters are on the same team that they are.

Just sayin' ....

But, Julia, what this means is that we should take Inerrant Boy's injunction to "go shopping" very seriously. I mean, if we risk panic attacks in the aisles of Target--using the all-too-French pronunciation, here--surely we are doing our part, more than our part, in thewaragainsterra?

No authoritarians were tortured in the writing of this post.

".. the most cloyingly insipid and self absorbed Lieleks .."

Typical of the left. The opposition can't just be 'wrong' ; they have to be somehow morally compromised and personally objectionable.

Ever notice that about yourselves .. or are you too "self-absorbed" to even notice.

Peevish and mean-spirited lefties.

But at least you can eschew all debate that way - just slap on a sticky label demonizing your opponent and carry on our merry moonbat way.

The fact is, if Lileks was a Leftie, not only would his name be more alliterative [Lileks the Lefty], but you would recognise and celebrate his humour and wit, and embrace him as one of your own.

But you are blind to, and envious of, any talent not of your own political persuasion.

Churlish and narrow-minded Lefties!

".. So I strolled over to LGF and checked for the first AP reference. It was an attack on the AP for allegedly having 'Bush Derangement Syndrome'. .."

Huh? Oh, I get it. You think this PROVES that Lileks ... and by extension LGF ... is a 'hater'.

It doesn't seem to even dawn on you that the deranged, compulsive 'All Bad Comes From Bush' psychosis is much more an exemplar of irrational, fever-swamp hatred.

Oilsands Bob, if you are going to take a particular phrase and use it as evidence that your self-perceived political opponents are assholes, then please pick a phrase that is in the original post.

Commentators are a transient lot, often choosing turns of phrase for the sounds they make, rather than for their grander meanings.

Anybody here ever actually tried reading Lileks? His Daily Bleat was humor in the same way that Listerine is a beverage.

If you waded through one of his paeans to the joys of sitting on a lawn chair while contemplating the Lighting of the Grill so as to facilitate the Grilling of the Hot Dogs, you pretty much grasped the entire Lileks corpus right there.

Then his little bon mots the Strib published, his little insta-witties, about the frosting on his cupcakes, the difficulty of parallel parking, I mean, really - this stuff was just plain mediocre. Think James Thurber, without the panache.

This ain't a right-wing/left-wing issue, it's a quality/dreck kinda deal. The paper had every right to cull that deadwood.

We shouldn't call Lileks "cloyingly insipid."

Because we need to use our indoor voices, and practice Civility.

Besides, that boy's so boring he doesn't even register on the Cloy-o-meter, let alone pin it.

Herb Caen this guy is not.

And E.B. White this guy is not. Alas, I just don't have the time to write the post on how the Iraq Clusterfuck really is like Charlotte's Web. Which is too bad, 'cause I was going to cast Karl Rove as Wilbur, and Bush as Fern. But which Republican would play Templeton? There are just so many options!

No authoritarians were tortured in the writing of this post.