Grasping Reality on TypePad, by Brad DeLong

It's time for the Dog-Days Fetid-Pond Summer Fete here at Miskatonic University, where the steel-and-glass tower that houses Arcane Sciences and the World Headquarters of the Order of the Shrill looms high above the campus, where the trees have been twisted into eldritch shapes by the strange forms of radiation emanating from the brains of those who have delved too closely into the mendacity, malevolence, disconnection from reality, incompetence, and sheer stupidity of George W. Bush, his administration, and his administration's enablers, and so become Shrill.

At our Summer Fete a special prize will be given to those who have read perhaps too deeply into the O'Hanlon-Pollack chapters of the Krugmanomicron--the ones in which is put forth fantastic visions of life in some fictional or other-dimensional Iraq where secular politicians recognize Israel, where peace reigns along the two rivers, and where people named "Omar" can freely walk down streets in Shia neighborhoods. It is rumored that Scooter Libby has a timeshare in that alternative dimension near the ruins of Ninevah.

so please rememer: clear the weekend of July 37 for this annual Miskatonic University summer event, incuding a conference, barbecue (don't ask), and wine-tasting. Driving directions to picturesque Arkham, Massachusetts will follow. A side-trip to Tanglewood for the concerts is recommended.

Beware Shoggoths on the road near South Campus at moonrise.

And remember: Zuul is the Gatekeeper, Vinz is the Keymaster, and Yog-Sothoth is the Gate!

• Right-Wing Talk Show Hosts Drive Duncan Black into Shrill Unholy Madness
• Power Cuts in Baghdad: Juan Cole and Andrew Sullivan Are Shrill
• Dana Milbank Drives Mark Kleiman Shrill!
• Joe Klein's Attacks on Paul Krugman Have Driven Glenn Greenwald into Shrill Unholy Madness!
• The Craven Fecklessness of Fred Hiatt Drives Joshua Micah Marshall Is Unusually Shrill!!
• BBC Radio 4 Is Shrill: The 1933 Anti-Roosevelt Coup Plot
• The Journamalism of NPR Drives Lance Knobel Shrill!
• Dan Froomkin Is Shrill! Bush Is Osama's Publicist!!
• Bill Gross Joins the Ancient and Hermetic Order of the Shrill
• The Cossack Works for the Czar, Fred!
• Matthew Yglesias Reads the New Republic
• Keith Olbermann Is Shrill
• Davey Hume Is Shrill!
• But Duncan Black Is Shrill!
• Matthew Yglesias Is Not Shrill Today, But Is Snarky
• Bush Drives Jimmy Breslin Shrill!
• National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell Is Shrill!
• And Duncan Black Joins the Thomas Friedman Birthday Party
• Lawyers, Guns and Money: Worst American Birthdays, vol. 22: Thomas Friedman
• Marc Ambinder Has Made Jamison Foster Our New Grand Heresiarch
• Fred Hiatt of the Washington Post Drives Matthew Yglesias to an Even Higher Stage of Shrillness!
• Secretary of Defense Robert Gates Succumbs!
• The Poor Man Institute Watches Glenn Greenwald
• John Derbyshire is Shrill! The Horror … The Horror …

Phnglui Mglw'nafl Jamison Foster R'lyeh W'gahnagl Fhtagn! Sullivan Fhtagn! Foster Fhtagn!! Foster Fhtagn!!!