Blogs have arrived! Mark Warner buys cocktail weenies for Markos! Ad Nags rubs shoulders with front-pagers. Hillary shows respect for bloggers by staying away. (Not attending YKos to demonstrate "centrist" credibility means that bloggers are a force to be avoided! This is a step up from not attending because you just don't care.)
While many are commmenting on where blogs are going, I thought today would be a good day to remember where blogs have come from. Anyway, one of the best early bloggers was a guy named Ted Barlow, who went on to post at Crooked Timber.
Among Ted Barlow's great contributions was a thread on lightbulb jokes. The archive is
here. The lightbulb joke threads spread like wildfire across the nascent left-blogosphere, with Atrios and others contributing them.
I thought I would repost some of the better ones. Hopefullly -- if anyone reads this -- people can add some to the comment section.
Q: How many Andrew Sullivans does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Bush again gets it exactly right. While the leftists continue to marginalize themselves by mewling and snorting at the lack of light, the rest of America will be enjoying the darkness that Bush has shrewdly provided. Once again, his instincts and deep bond with the American people carry the day.
KRUGMAN AWARD NOMINEE: "I think I liked it better when the lightbulb worked." Jimmy Thompson, 4th grade, quoted in (where else?) the New York Times.
Q. How many Bob Somerbys does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Try to believe that he asked it! We are incomparably reminded of 1998, when Vice-
President Gore was asked...
Q: How many libertarians does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: None, the invisible hand will do it.
Q. How many liberal bloggers does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: One to do it, and one to point out that Atrios did it first.
Q: Ari, what are the Administration's plans for dealing with the broken lightbulb?
A: Define "lightbulb".
Q: How many PBS executives does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Sixteen: one to do it, and fifteen to make a sepia-toned mini-series about the old bulb.
One of my favorites:
Q: How many InstaPundits does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: One. And that's a feature, not a bug.
UPDATE: Doonesbury has a tiresome strip on lightbulbs. I don't know what happened to Garry Trudeau. He used to be so much funnier and so much more relevant back when I agreed with him. Now he's really changed.
ANOTHER UPDATE: A reader asks:
"I used to work in academia, and I feel like I have a little insight on these "pro-light" activists. In our office, the lights were often used to illuminate an applicant in order to ascertain his race.
One question is conspicuous for its absence in the major media. Why are they so eager to see the lightbulb changed? Didn't Martin Luther King fight so hard for a color-blind society? Who are the real racists?"
Good question.
YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Tim Blair on who the real racists are.
OKAY, THIS IS THE LAST UPDATE: Mickey Kaus has a "sophisticated exegesis>" of a lightbulb ad in the Arts and Living section of the New York Times.
And from contributors:
Kyle
Q: How many Christopher Hitchens does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A: The moral decay of the left has never been made more evident than by listening to their tautologically tortured arguments in opposition to lightbulb regime change. If the lightbulb burns out in our presence, does that not then double our moral responsibility to change it? It seems my former comrades would prefer a darkened room, using the United States past mistakes in lightbulb policy as an excuse to ignore what I believe is an obviously new situtation. As for myself, I recognize theocratic darkness as the menace it is, and am proud to take part in the fight against it.
Kmylanta
Q: How many John Edwards does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Just one. The same as regular people.
Nelson
Q: How many Tim Russerts does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Mr. Lightbulb, I would like to read you something. This is from your own packaging. It's about six months old. It says that the bulb -- that's you -- will produce , and this is a direct quote --"nothing but cleaner, whiter looking light." Yet just six months later, you are not producing any light at all. Again, this was from your own packaging. How do you respond to those who would say the lightbulb said one thing six months ago but has now abandoned that position for political advantage? Also, have you definitely ruled out a run for the presidency in 2012?
Q: How many Josh Marshalls does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Although inexplicably ignored by the Washington press corps, the administration's failure to foresee the need to change the light bulb represents a misjudgment of colossal proportions.
More on this later.
Atrios
Q: How many Republicans does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Trent Lott: If we'd elected Strom Thurmond in 1948, it never would've gone dark in the first place.
Please post new additions below.