j.mp/YAM2WB (and well worth reading)

Fareed Zakaria is Unhappy That "The American Left" Chooses Arithmetic Over Peter Peterson Sunday, 23 December 2012 01:25 Fareed Zakaria is very unhappy that "THe American Left," by whom he means the vast majority of people across the political spectrum who oppose cuts to Social Security and Medicare, insist on taking arithmetic seriously. (( &&c. &c. ))

Comrade Frank of Kansas has crafted (sic a scribble called Pity the Billionaire:The Hard-Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right which struck Paddy McTammany as a tad short on actual examples of what the title advertised. So 'tis a pleasure to find Farid, zeroth Freelord Zakaria in the peerage of Foxcuckooland, complainin piteously bout how his freelordship's ClassMates™ don't get the respectful attention they used. ¡The respect they obviously ought to get all the time!

On the other hand, the shameless campaign of denigration against our predestined financial Betters seems to come down to nothing more than dear Kruggie saying "“The Peter G. Peterson Foundation is deficit-scold central." Deplorable, of course, that so misguided a sentiment as that one should be expressed by anybooby at all, yet 'tis unlikely--expressed that way, at least,--to bring out many well-pitchforked peasants to trample the stately lawns and gardens of Château Zakaria and/or Castle Concord. (Paddy was, of course, privately hoping for something really inflammatory.)

There is a little more chapter and verse than just Prof. Krugman, but not much: (A) "Some argue that Peterson has been banging this drum for years—decades" omits to specify who these noisy scum are. Moreover, "banging the drum" is only another figure of rhetoric for being a 'scold', which we knew already from faithfully reading the NYT op-ed page.

(B) "William Galston, a former Clinton official, tries to face up to the budgetary crisis being produced by demographics" is mere _pereant qui ante nos_: Freelord Galston had the impudence to write essentially this same piece before Freelord Zakaria got around to it! Well, his freelordship (of G.) is certainly guilty as charged: Paddy definitely remembers encountering the product in _The New Republicanine_, now that I'm reminded. But in between there have been several thousand rehashes by Fox-on-Fifteenth, which, by the way, is more like the true "deficit-scold central", if you ask Paddy. To be sure, the F-15 Squadron are said to be in close cahoots with Castle Concord.

So, then: after nine discouraging words from Kruggie and the faintest echo of a distant drum, his freelordship of Zakaria felt warranted to conclude, with that genteel understatement that so beautifully becomes all the ClassMates™, "Shooting the messenger doesn’t help." (One can hardly see the stately lawn of Château Z. any more, what with all those corpses of murdered emissaries lying about.)

Do you suppose his freelordship -- or possibly Peter Firstlord Peterson Himself -- is descended from that celebrated Royal Princess who had such a terrible time with a malicious pea under the mattress?

In any case, volks with skins as thin as his freelordship's appears to be should just please stay out of the kitchen. And when they are Persons of Fiscal Responsibility, ever "stern to inflict" cuts on the small people, why, a little more "stubborn to endure" on their own part than one finds _chez Fareed_ would do their freelordships' Cause no harm.

Happy days.