Terry McMahon's Awesome Blog

My uncle and cousin yesterday were talking about my uncle's college thesis. Let me state, for the record, that my kids will never, ever read my college thesis, inasmuch as I, let's say, didn't apply sufficient intellectual rigor to the task at hand. One exception is my acknowledgements page, which I think stands as one of the funniest things I've ever written. Rereading it now, it still holds up, but for now you'll have to live with just this one line: "I also want to thank my suitemates in Lloyd 60s for the frequent distractions. I hope I made no inadvertent video-game references in the preceding work."

I have to acknowledge, however, that my acknowledgements page has one major flaw: I thanked Peggy Noonan. Noonan, Reagan's former speechwriter, really does have excellent writing skills, which proved useful to have around when I was hammering out my thesis. It's a touching story, right? Except that she's a bitch. I admit, I fell for it: she sounds all sweet, happy and good-intentioned, but she's even worse a hypocrite as the rest of the chumps in Washington. Take a look at some choice quotes from her latest Wall Street Journal column:

What's wrong with them? That's what I'm thinking more and more as I watch the news from Washington.
...
What is in the air there in Washington, what is in the water?

What is wrong with them? This is not a rhetorical question. I think it is unspoken question No. 1 as Americans look at so many of the individuals in our government. What is wrong with them?

Hoho, interesting questions, Peggy. Why didn't you ask them last year when you stopped writing your column to go write speeches for the Bush-Cheney campaign? What about when you were Ronald Reagan's White House speechwriter in the 1980s? Did you get any insight into what's wrong with Washington then?

Seriously here everyone, correct me if I'm wrong: isn't this like me acting honestly aghast that anyone would have written my thesis? Peggy Noonan has been part of the Washington establishment for 20 years. For her to criticize Washington now is the height of hypocrisy. That's right, I said it: the height of hypocrisy. Thanks for proving me wrong about you, Peggy.

Oh, and P.S.: No posts for at least through Tuesday. Happy Fourth of July!