Killing Them with Laughter

Firedoglake's Jane Hamsher, who is incurably afflicted with a protuberant funny bone, recently reminded her readers of the number of liberals who sit in front of the cameras and their keyboards and unveil their most effective weapon: an "eviscerating humor that cuts to the bone."

She then takes a peak out of her curbside window and decides:

I fear no one on the right. Ever. All they are capable of is wavering between ham-fisted brutality and self-righteous pecksniffery.

Jane goes on to celebrate the razor-honing skills of many well-known liberal humorists in the media (e.g., Stewart, Colbert, Wolcott) and on the blogs (Jesus's General, TBogg, Wolcott).

But there's a relatively new girl on the block and she's sporting a mean habit: Sister Nancy Beth Eczema, a bona fide cosmetologist hailing from a West Hollywood beauty shop. Here are two choice bits from her blog, Edicts of Nancy:

How tragic for Our Nation that 5/01 must be added to the national lexicon under the same horrific circumstances as 9/11. I don't know about you, but I will always remember where I was while the Reconquista was happening: cowering behind my desk, reading Little Green Footballs, and praying to God that El Queda wouldn't storm the Beauty Palace and drag me out by my golden locks. [read more]

The rugged good looks of Catholic League president Bill Donohue are enough to make me wish I were an altar boy. And the stamina he displays in continuously railing against the evil forces of secularism has me convinced he must be taking some sort of spiritual Viagra that allows him to maintain his Outrage all night long. [read more]

Sister Nancy dispenses bath beads and pearls of wisdom in pro-life packets specially formulated to project carbonated beverages through nostrils. And at affordable prices, too.

And I'd also give a shout-out to my favorite mammal-loving wit: Amanda at Pandagon. Of special note is her butt-kicking "Understanding Hypocrisy: A Primer for Wingnuts," which generated more discussion among my friends, both online and offline, than even Shelby Steele's mournful eulogy for white supremacy.

If you missed it: The latter screed--a granite monument to what's wrong with The Wall Street Journal--has Steele blaming our inability to win wars on the vacuum caused by the downfall of white supremacy and the resulting fear that we (= white America) might be called racist: "white guilt defines what is possible in America." Gavin at Sadly, No! may have had the best take-down of this twaddle:

Shelby, think about this. Are you honestly saying that the only reason white conservatives don't nuke the Middle East or summarily execute illegal immigrants is because they're afraid of being called mean names?

More proof, if you needed it, that the right wing has nothing to fear but sneer itself.