What, Jesse, you haven’t received simply dozens of proposals from Pandagon commenters? No?

Oh, wow. How embarrassing for you.

They look like they’ll make a very nice lesbian couple. Does Wisconsin have gay marriage?

Let’s hope the guy never tries to eat an onion ring in her presence.

If these two crazy kids can make each other happy, Althouse’s blog has served a far more useful function than I ever could have imagined.

Think this is why she flew off the handle because E. Klein said there were antisemites in her commenters?

Ok, but that first commenter, one of the ones who Ezra Klein was talking about, is absolutely batshit crazy. If I were Althouse, I would be nervous that she knew what city Althouse lives in.

This post provides a bit of suggestive background to this whole shebang. I guess she couldn’t wait till summer.

Auguste at 12:12 am on 03/23 says this is a prank of some sort.

Just so later no one can say I wasn’t the first to figure it out.

12:11 am, sorry.

Is it normal to not understand a single fucking thing this woman writes?  She changes tense and POV every fucking sentence.  Hell, she doesn’t even wait until the next sentence sometimes.

I ain’t giving her a hit. Why would I want to break my brain by reading her stuff, unfiltered through proper snark?

Shhhhh, Jesse.  Just say “yes,” and make me the happiest man in the world.

Two years.

Tops.

And we’ll get some really amusing screeds about the male species in general out of it, towards the end…

It’s more mocking her for the sublime little touches: referring to herself in the third person, posting an oblique picture of only her hands trying on a ring on her pinkie finger and wanting others to figure out through some elaborate pattern of symbols that such a thing meant she was engaged, her belief that the most important part of her engagement is not that she’s engaged, but instead how shocked everyone would be that she seemed to contradict her own views on singlehood.

It’s like writing about the birth of your child, but through an intensive study of your views on hairstyles during hospitalization, only with pictures of your ponytail.

I remember one day on TotalFark.com, a “regular” commenter posted a thread inviting everyone to her wedding.  With a guy she’d only ever talked to online.  Whose picture looked exactly like the third result for a Google Image Search for JC from the Backstreet Boys. 

And then things got really weird. 

I initially posted something like “Congratulations, I think it’s a little odd but still…” only to realize 500 comments later that we were dealing with a special kind of crazy.

I’m not suggesting the same thing will happen here.

Oh, I don’t know. If it’s true and sincere, seems kind of mean spirited to make fun. Mock people’s politics all you want, but I can’t mock someone for their relationship.

Hey, You can mock and wish people well at the same time! That describes pretty much my attitude towards most characters in “The Office”. Archie Bunker is great to test the limits of empathy, but still I think I mostly rooted for the guy.

I confess I don’t know this Althouse very well. Once, I started to see a dialogue between her and Megan McArdle in bloggingheads.tv, but couldn’t endure it more than 15 minutes or so. Ironically, the topic was about how commenters in their blogs could be so mean and cruel and insulting, and why, come to think of it, those nasty comments really meant all sorts of positive things about the two of them. The lack of self-consciousness soon became unbearable.

Wishing I’m wrong, I’ll bet the romance won’t last.

Not be because she is a mellifluously bigoted nut, which is demonstrably proven to be no obstacle, but indeed the foundation of very successful relationships. Just because, you know, 4 years of comments and e-mail? And then they meet once and decide to marry?

The only surprising thing here is that she went to meet the guy in person before getting engaged—with her lack of good sense, I’d have expected her to conduct the entire courtship (and probably the wedding ceremony) in the comments and e-mail.

Oh, and that whinging you hear on 42nd St in NYC? Maureen Dowd demanding that the NYT give her column a comments section NOW.

What, Jesse, you haven’t received simply dozens of proposals from Pandagon commenters? No?

I believe I offered a few months ago, didn’t I?

Oh, I don’t know. If it’s true and sincere, seems kind of mean spirited to make fun. Mock people’s politics all you want, but I can’t mock someone for their relationship.

As far as I can tell, Althouse has the self-knowledge and wisdom of your average kumquat.  Her entire schtick is over-the-top outrage at the smallest of things, blown up to apocalyptic proportions by her grandiose sense of her own self-importance.

Now, while I am far from being an expert on human relations, this does not bode well for the give-and-take that is a vital part of actually living with someone.  I fully expect that his unfortunate habit of picking at his toenails or dropping his socks on the floor is going to feature prominently in the stories of why the marriage went wrong, with Althouse playing the role of the suffering martyr beset by intolerable circumstance.

Wingnuts lack a sense of proportion, or the ability to laugh at themselves.

Whatever you wish La Outhouse there is little doubt this should offer many more weeks of hilarity.  annie truly the gift that keeps on giving.

Next up, K-lo and modo fight to the death over the “leftovers’ in annie’s comment section.

Did you read the later post about how she was trying to find a picture of Jesse because it “seems relevant”? How is that relevant?

Also, I have been very close to proposing to Jesse a number of times, but ultimately decided against it because it walks that fine line between charming and idiotic, and I would probably end up on the side of the latter. No such worries at the Althouse blog, apparently.

Usually getting laid more often makes people less wacky, not more.

I suppose this makes Outhouse a real woman now that she’s found a man to tell her what to do.  As for whether it is right or not, well, her romantic life and what ever twist/turn it takes is totally MYOBspace.

Oh, and I’d marry Jesse, except that I’m already married.  He could have my babies, though, ‘cause I’m done with all that myself.

Also, I have been very close to proposing to Jesse a number of times, but ultimately decided against it because it walks that fine line between charming and idiotic…

Speaking only for myself of course, he had me at that picture of him and Barack Obama that’s floating around the intertubes.  That and the Blackazoid posts from the election season - can we bring those back?

Further proof that there is someone for everyone, no matter how tedious, inane, and totally batshit crazy they are.

Jesse—normally I would say that I would totally marry you in a heartbeat, except that I’m already married.

Except, as liberals, we’re supposed to be all for the wholesale destruction of the marriage institution, so Jesse… would you marry me?

+1 Marriage Destruction points for being the chick that proposes
+5 Marriage Destruction points for polyandry.

I was going to propose to Jesse, but my wife said that it’s still bigamy, even if you’re marrying a man.

And I will repeat myself: I find the timing of Althouse’s ultra-defensiveness about E.Klein’s attacks of antisemitism from her commenters to be hilarious because of this new development. I’m wondering if the lady doth protest too much because her paramour might be one of the people that felt targetted…

“Next up, K-lo and modo fight to the death over the “leftovers’ in annie’s comment section.”

...now that Althouse won’t need that wine to keep her happy anymore, maybe she can give K-Lo a leftover 1-gallon box in the spirit of sisterhood and bipartisanship…

Did you read the later post about how she was trying to find a picture of Jesse because it “seems relevant”? How is that relevant?

This is a person who has an entire blog category called “Anti-Althousiana.” She’s not known for her ability to take a joke, nor for her ability to get the point.

Holy shit.  You know, I tend not to click on those links because, well, because my mom raised me better than that but I had to see these photographs that everyone was talking about.

Hilarious.  Otuhouse is such an artist with the camera.  Only someone of great intellect could put together such a subtle and engaging photo essay.  Or a thirteen year old.

And the real prize is the ring shot.  No mistake she included the numerous Tiffany’s cues.  Seriously, one of the most tacky, self-involved and juvenile things I’ve seen.  And I suppose, given all that, it’s perfectly in context in Outhouse-world.

And with all that said, my sincere best wishes for a happy engagement and long and happy marriage.

And with that sincere line now past, I hope this union brings her whatever has been missing from her pathetic life.  It will kill the comedy level she’s generously provided but I suppose those are the sacrifices we have to make.

Wouldn’t be great if she was engaged to that confederate yankee yokel or the ace of spades moron?  Just too perfect.  Couldn’t happen.  But I can dream.

What, Jesse, you haven’t received simply dozens of proposals from Pandagon commenters? No?

No, he tends to receive offers to have his abortions.  I’ve seen those several times.

It’s the age old dichotomy - there are men you marry, and there are men whose abortions you have.

I will take all marriage proposals when accompanied by financial statements and completion of the Which President Are You? quiz on Facebook.  I want me some Warren Hardings!

Jessie, you’re not asking your online paramours for photos? I think that they are somehow relevant!

Also, I propose too, to you, Amanda and/or Pam. Or the pandagon concept. Or that cute Panda that August Pollack drew for you back in the day. There, I got bestiality into the mix. But I refuse to take that quiz on facebook (or any other quiz, actually).

I agree with the narcissism, but not with the Jew baiting. She seems on the “Israel can do no wrong even when it bombs orphanages” side of things. But certainly this current bout of “Reader, I married him,” coy gushing is a tad creepy. Especially for an AARP member.

I do like the “Jesse Taylor—Punjabi American” pic in the comments at Jesse’s link.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/majikthise/2701434539/

Hector - it actually comes from the Ezra post from yesterday, where she accused him of making up the anti-Semitic comments posted on her blog in order to seem like a victim.

I don’t know, accusing Jews of manufacturing outrage in order to seem like victims seems utterly unproblematic or historically resonant to me.

I think you’re overreacting.

Thanks, JJesse. I’ll check it out.

Whoops! Didn’t mean to stutter.

Did you read the later post about how she was trying to find a picture of Jesse because it “seems relevant”? How is that relevant?

You mean, she was trying to find a picture of Jesse where he wasn’t smiling for the camera while standing next to somebody really important and powerful?

Actually that post is the biggest exemplar of why my sympathy for her is nil. You note that, even as she was inviting her commenters to point and laugh, she kept her own plausible deniability.

“I’m shocked, shocked to find that looksism/misogyny*/anti-semitism** is going on in here!”

* Jessica Valenti.
** Ezra Klein.

Well, Auguste and Ms Kate, that’s one of the reasons that I can’t get into the love shown in this thread for Jesse Taylor.  His slutty thrusting forward of his chest and his hanging around with intellectually suspect jews just grates something awful.

At least Althouse is too old to have children Isn’t she?

And yes, I would totally marry Jesse, except that I’m already married.  And I’d probably have to leave Oregon.  And he’s awfully taaaalll.  At least he looks amazingly tall in the few pictures I’ve seen.  And Jesse, I’m not prejudiced against tall people (I’m kind of tall myself), I just hate to crane my neck to get a kiss.

Total Jesse admiration!

I’ve had people I only knew through the Intarwebz seriously propose marriage to me. I thought it was amazingly creepy and off-putting, and it always marked the point where I stopped thinking of these people as friends anymore.

Doesn’t mean people can’t get to know each other through the ‘Net and then start a real-world relationship and get married. But when the entire courtship is online, I don’t see that as a sane or long-lasting relationship.

And yes, I would totally marry Jesse, except that I’m already married.  And I’d probably have to leave Oregon.

Although, *ahem.*

Ok, I’m naive, I don’t get why the “right” response from Outhouse was posting a link to a picture of you?  I mean, it wasn’t as if you said, “Here’s a picture of a broken-down, sad person, go make fun of her”.  It had nothing to do with her appearance (however humorous that might be).

Whatever.  Trying put logic to Outhouse is pretty silly.  Sorry.

Oh, and @Older, “EEEEWWWWW!”  I didn’t consider that a possibility until you mentioned it.

I have a friend (from the US) who met a guy online who was from Turkey.  They never met until she went to Turkey to live with him.  They’ve been married for two or three years now and seem very happy.  I thought it was weird at first (and was very worried about my friend being taken advantage of), but who am I to judge?

Aw, many happy returns to Althouse, the crazy thing. Marriage fucking sucks your soul right out through your ears if you do it long enough, so really when anyone gets married I can only wish them the very best.

And Jesse you’re totally adorable and I would marry you in a heartbeat if I wasn’t sure it would, you know, suck my soul out through my ears.

“Marriage fucking sucks your soul right out through your ears if you do it long enough..”

Please put this at the bottom of every page of every bridal magazine.

Wait, what?  Althouse is mocking Jesse’s appearance?

Nobody has to be pretty, of course.  But Jesse is a very handsome man.  What’s to mock, even if there was some point to mocking other people’s appearances?

I AM SO CONFUSED. 

And yes, if polyandry ever becomes the order of the day, I would be delighted to propose to Jesse a place in my retinue of consorts.  Brilliant, funny, and, yes, handsome—what’s not to love?

Althouse, on the other hand, I wouldn’t want for a hatstand.

Jesse and Ann recreate one of the famous witticisms in history:

Jesse Astor:  You’re getting married!

Ann Churchill:  And you’re ugly.  And in the morning, I’ll be divorced, but you will still be ugly . . .

Okay . . . now, I’ve read through the links and the comments, and I am absolutely baffled. Why is it that Ann Althouse’s announcing her engagment to one of her correspondents so damned hilarious? 

Also, what’s the point of all this snark and meaness? I don’t care if she’s Hitler’s grandaughter, why are you all pissing on the woman over her wedding announcement?

Hmm. So, the biggest ditz this side of Caprica can’t think of a better come back to “You’re not the brightest” than to say “Well I’M getting married and YOU’RE ugly!”? Charming! I can see why her commenters are so taken with her.

Also: Jesse, in addition to being consistently hilarious and insightful, you are also adorable. But you don’t need me to tell you that, because you aren’t a shallow dingbat looking to the comments section for affirmation.

The problem, Midland, is that when you ask questions which have already been answered at length, we start to think that you’re less concerned than you are “concerned.”

The answers may not have satisfied you, you may not have thought them justified, but they were offered nonetheless long before you arrived, “concerned.” Reject the answers, but don’t pretend they weren’t provided.

I want me some Warren Hardings!

Jesse Taylor

You need some fat, white, man lovin’ with a giant walrus mustache?

Sigh… looks like another 40 years in the wilderness* for me.

*or 40 posts looking at FAILBlog.org, which ever comes first.

Shorter Midland: “I’m new here, and can’t be bothered to check links or even go back through any number of posts on two blogs.  I’ll just render a drive-by judgement on a conversations that I admit I know nothing about.”

You need some fat, white, man lovin’ with a giant walrus mustache?

Maybe he means women who have gotten rich through corruption at the highest level.

Get the popcorn, ‘cause now we get to see Outhouse turn into Bridzilla’s Revenge because, you know, she’s gonna be a bride.

(thinking Chloris Leachman in Young Frankenstein ...)

I happened to be reading the comments on Ezra Klein’s blog, under his story about her demanding an apology, and I posted that I wouldn’t apologize to Althouse if I ran her over, but only because I’d be afraid she’d find out my last name, and then my life wouldn’t be worth a damn, because she is a bugshagging madhatter.  And then I brought up her meltdown over Jessica Valenti having breasts, and being outrageous enough to bring them with her when she goes places.

Boy, did that start some shit.

The only surprising thing here is that she went to meet the guy in person before getting engaged—with her lack of good sense, I’d have expected her to conduct the entire courtship (and probably the wedding ceremony) in the comments and e-mail.

This made me laugh, even as I felt mildly guilty for mocking the desperate.

Among everything else Ann does that’s wrong, the overarching problem with her is that she refuses to ever admit to the possibility that she’s wrong on anything. Particularly with the aforementioned insulting of Jessica Valenti; to this day, she thinks she’s completely in the right, and how dare anyone think otherwise!

I am absolutely baffled

Oh, poor dear Midland.  The Reading Comprehension Fairy didn’t visit your bedside, did she?

What’s to mock, even if there was some point to mocking other people’s appearances?

She’s just assuming that her commenters will say he’s jealous because no wingnut weirdo gave him an expensive diamond from Tiffany’s.  Using her logic, we can also assume Jesse is jealous of people with constipation, cancer, and people whose cats stare at them while they sleep.

It’s the age old dichotomy - there are men you marry, and there are men whose abortions you have.

I’m getting real sick of women’s Messiah/Gigolo issues, too…

Am I the only one who’s a little suspicious that Ann “ME TOO!” Althouse just happened to announce her engagement within a couple of months of Jessica Valenti announcing hers?

Reminds me a bit too much of my sister-in-law who decided the best possible time to get pregnant was while her brother and I were planning our wedding.  Though I am grateful that she likes me enough that she didn’t actually call and interrupt the ceremony with a pregnancy-related emergency like we expected.

(And, yes, she basically admitted she got pregnant because her brother was getting too much attention, so don’t bother defending her.)

Maybe he means women who have gotten rich through corruption at the highest level.

Auguste

Talk about a tempest in a teapot.

(My bad though, It was Taft who had the mustache)

Midland on 03/23 at 12:15 PM:

I don’t know you so I’m going to assume that you’re acting in good faith and not concern trolling.

To answer your question: Althouse makes personal attacks; she thinks this is okay.  She is often likewise attacked or responded to; she thinks that this is the worst thing since bad manners were ever invented.  She puts her personal life into her blog, and expects that people won’t comment on it.  Such a person is going to get zinged.

I’d also like to jump on the marrying Jesse bandwagon, as he’s cute and smart and funny and I’m pretty tall myself.  But my husband might have something to say about that (and as he’s significantly shorter than me, he might take it personally too), so I guess I’ll have to settle for also having Jesse’s abortion.

And Mnem, your sister in law sounds like my sister in law.  She got engaged a few months after her brother and I did, and then insisted on having her wedding first, as she’s older than he is.  She also had a fit that her younger sister got married a full year before she met her husband and then had the gall to have a baby first, even though she’d already been married for a couple of years at that point.  Everything *always* has to be all about her, at all times.  All the drama really does get exhausting and you’d think a woman past 40 would have grown up enough to get past that stuff, but after 11 years that I’ve known her, she still hasn’t.

Incidentally, La Althouse has come down from her perch and explained this. 

You see, I put up a post mocking Althouse for the most ridiculous wedding announcement of all time.  Because it was in the least bit oblique, Althouse projected her own preferences of mockery onto the post, which tend towards the superficial and Althousian rather than anything more perceptive.  (She thought I was mocking the woman in the video next to Althouse rather than Althouse herself.)

So, she picked out a picture of me, decided to mock it, and must try to fix her raging insecurity by making fun of me. 

And again, the University of Wisconsin Law School wastes a year’s salary.

This made me laugh, even as I felt mildly guilty for mocking the desperate.

I don’t find it so desperate when people meet or marry online.  Not now that i just bought plane tickets so I can participate in my brother’s wedding. 

He’s got Aspergers and doesn’t do well face to face - but that doesn’t mean that he isn’t loving, loyal, and supportive and active in causes he cares about, such as gay rights and clinic patrols.  She’s very warm and loving too, but she had four kids at home when they started corresponding by e-mail and then by phone and then in person, and she is pretty timid and nervous about activity and noise.  She was also recently escaped from a violent and oppressive marriage. 

If it were a matter of meeting in person, they likely wouldn’t have met - even if they went to the same church or got on the same bus everyday.  On the internet, they took their chat offline and went very slowly from there, which matched their needs. 

Some people aren’t desperate - they just don’t meet people well in the “usual way” because they are older and have families, or have some special needs issues that put people off if they don’t get a correspondence going first, etc.

“And again, the University of Wisconsin Law School wastes a year’s salary”

More than that gets wasted, think about her students.  Talk about horror.

“And again, the University of Wisconsin Law School wastes a year’s salary”

Well, hey, now that she is getting married, maybe she’ll be a good wife and give that money back because her having a large independent income will emasculate him.

BTW, the year that Henhouse clucked over Valenti’s decolatage, a friend of mine headed for the Clinton Foundation annual party was absolutely fuming.  Seems she had to exchange her dress for a new one because there was an absolute ban on any cleavage for females.

This is the kind of stupid that Outhouse breeds.

First I said:
You note that, even as she was inviting her commenters to point and laugh, she kept her own plausible deniability.

Then Althouse, at her place, said:
I didn’t say “ugly.” You did. I will own up to creating the conditions that caused you to blurt out your opinion of him. I hope he’s appropriately pissed off at you.

Jesus FUCK, she’s predictable.

Meanwhile, at her place, the misunderstanding over Jesse’s point about the announcement is described by a commenter thus:

Note, the second comment to Jesse’s post was…

They look like they’ll make a very nice lesbian couple. Does Wisconsin have gay marriage?
pablo on 03/22 at 11:20 PM

And this is, what, not 24 hours after the entire Althousosphere disavowing that any anti-semitic comments on Althouse’s blog have shit-all to do with her?

I expect intellectual honesty from Althouse and her minions as much as I expect moral calculus from fieldmice.

Valenti’s decolatage

As I recall from the famous photo, Ms. Valenti’s boobs were securely sheathed, and otherwise unremarkable save for belonging to a young woman. An objective observer might conclude that the former President was checking them out, but that’s no fault of Ms.Valenti’s.

And this is, what, not 24 hours after the entire Althousosphere disavowing that any anti-semitic comments on Althouse’s blog have shit-all to do with her?

Depending, I’m betting, on the region of the country you live in, that phrase may have a whiff of double negative to it, so if you prefer:

And this is, what, not 24 hours after the entire Althousosphere declaring that any anti-semitic comments on Althouse’s blog have shit-all to do with her?

Important rhetorical matters like this cannot be ignored.

Belated high-fives to Hector B on the Jane Eyre reference.

she’s engaged to a commenter? uh…well…okay.

oh what a sad gem from the comments there: “The purpose of marriage is unity; happiness is merely a byproduct.” yeah, who gets married because they WANT to? ew.

ms. kate, meeting online and then taking it to the streets, ie meeting in person, is perfectly typical and makes sense. it sounds more like ann althouse JUST MET this guy in person, which makes it creepy.

From over there…

Scott said…

  Amanda, you don’t pick your friends very carefully. If my friend wrote “...the fact that Ann Althouse is a narcissistic, Jew-baiting failure of a human being…” I would try to distance myself from him.

I, on the other hand, would give him a high-five and a beer.  Different strokes…

Holy shit, right out through your ears?!

(Puts in ear plugs)

Yeah, I’m with Jrod on this.  It just makes me love you more, Jesse, because—to quote Alexander Pope:

True wit is nature to advantage dress’d
What oft was thought, but ne’er so well express’d.