December 21, 2009

Matthew Yglesias' Top 10 Blue-Eyed Utopias of the Decade

1. Sweden
2. Denmark
3. Norway
4. Finland
5. Netherlands
6. Germany
7. The northern part of Belgium
8. Spitzbergen
9. Santa's Workshop
10 (Tied). Canada
10 (Tied). Portland, OR
10 (Tied). Portland, ME
10 (Tied). Manhattan south of 96th St.

Iceland is no longer eligible. In fact, Iceland may never have existed. The archives are unclear.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

22 comments:

Otis the Sweaty said...

Steve, how exactly would you describe your feelings towards Yglesias? On one hand, you mock him ruthlessly and troll his blog and on the other hand you seem to sort of like and respect him.

I personally think Yglesias is an interesting character because he manages to combine moonbat leftism with honesty, civility and reasoning ability, traits liberals almost never display.

What I also think is interesting is that Matt refuses to attack you yet he will go after somebody like Pat Buchanan for essentially saying milder versions of what you say all the time.

Do you guys have some weird surrogate father/son relationship or something?

airtommy said...

Does anyone here have an inkling about what Steve is talking about? Did he forget to include a link?

Dennis Dale said...

Don't you recall? Iceland is now a feral place, its inhabitants having reverted to their Viking berserker ways and thus squandering the national wealth in the derivatives market.

That or Michael Lewis had a firm deadline and a shaky angle.

nozick said...

Norway should be disqualified from the list. They have oil.

Whiskey said...

Iceland is bankrupt. Ireland, Spain, Greece, and likely the UK will follow them. The EU faces the unhappy prospect of bailing them out or letting them fail.

Truth said...

"Iceland is bankrupt. Ireland, Spain, Greece, and likely the UK will follow them."

Damn, those subprime mortgages to blacks were freakin GLOBALY DEVISTATING!

Anonymous said...

I personally think Yglesias is an interesting character because he manages to combine moonbat leftism with honesty, civility and reasoning ability, traits liberals almost never display.

The civility went by the wayside a looong time ago. Basically anyone, even on the left, who isn't 100% on board Team Obama gets the full New York snark. And with that goes the honesty, for even his own commenters are finding examples of his arguments from just last year that the Matt of 2009 (who has an Administration to shill for) would condemn.

Bruce Banned said...

Shouldn't the "The northern part of Belgium" read just "Flanders" (or alternatively "the Flemish-speaking parts of Belgium"?)?
BTW, the Flemish are ethnocentric like hell. Good for them! Un-nice people survive best.

E. REX said...

This may be of interest to some. One of the few things Americans appear to notice about the British is that they have terrible teeth. I'm not British by the way.

This may be of interest to some. Calling Joe Strummer.

Peter A said...

There was a time when young Yglesias seemed like he was actually open to rational discussions about HBD and perhaps even committing the liberal heresy of accepting some of the more unpleasant implications of biology and evolutionary theory. Maybe Steve is still hoping that there's hope for Yglesias. I think though that time has passed now that the Dems are in power and MY's bread is being buttered indirectly by the Administration.

Jeff said...

Ha, hilarious.

But I do like Yglesias. He tries to be empirical and argue with numbers. He's sort of a libertarian, which I appreciate. He's much more likable than Sullivan.

Otis the Sweaty said...

Matt is an arrogant wise ass and also a totally self unaware SWPL charicture, but he is almost never rude and unlike virtually ever other person on the Left, he never deliberately misrepresents his opponents positions.

Just cause he is snarky, that hardly makes him uncivil. Especially by moonbat standards.

Matt said...

Yglesias is a joke. But I had thought he wasn't too keen on Europe anymore. I guess he got over it.

Anonymous said...

Iceland is bankrupt. Ireland, Spain, Greece, and likely the UK will follow them. The EU faces the unhappy prospect of bailing them out or letting them fail. - T99

The UK has disproportionally bankrolled the EU for years. At one point the UK was contributing 25% of the annual payments into the EU. If the EU finds itself in the position of having to bail out the UK that will either be a triumph of media manipulation or a sure sign the EU is on its last legs (God I hope so!)

Also the UK does still have quite a bit of oil, less in relitive terms than Norway.

Anonymous said...

Un-nice people survive best.

Ive been to the Dutch (Flemish) half of Belgium, I wouldnt have said they were un-nice - polite & reserved maybe.

Disclosure - I'm part English, part Dutch but since I don't speak Dutch I dont think I was getting an easy ride from sympathetic Flemish Belgians.

Anonymous said...

This may be of interest to some. One of the few things Americans appear to notice about the British is that they have terrible teeth. I'm not British by the way.

They're allowed to notice that! Because British people are white. If British people turned black, they would stop noticing in double quick time.

Truth said...

"If British people turned black, they would stop noticing in double quick time."

Yes Buddy, if the entire British Isles turned black all of a sudden, people would probably stop noticing their teeth.

Brilliant point.

Anonymous said...

"This may be of interest to some. One of the few things Americans appear to notice about the British is that they have terrible teeth. I'm not British by the way.

This may be of interest to some. Calling Joe Strummer."

You should see the Irish! (Seriously the lead singer of the Pogues in the Fairytale in New York video, revolting teeth)

I think the terrible teeth stereotype stems more from historically greater use of cosmetic dentistry in the States to correct 'misalignment' than say historically higher rates of actual health problems like tooth decay and gingivitus.

Every American seems to wear a brace.

Bruce Banned said...

Ive been to the Dutch (Flemish) half of Belgium, I wouldnt have said they were un-nice - polite & reserved maybe.
Being overly reserved makes you look unfriendly. That could be the explanation for their seeming "un-niceness". The other could be that they are very talkative among themselves, which makes their reservation towards strangers more blatant.
I sort of like them too.

Bruce Banned said...

I'm part English, part Dutch
Actually my understanding is the Flemish don't really like the Dutch. Particularly the ones from the North Holland heartland.

Anonymous said...

I lived in Portland for over a decade. If there's ever been a blue-eyed utopia that hates itself for being blue-eyed more than Portland does, I'd be surprised.

headache said...

Whiskey sez:
Iceland is bankrupt. Ireland, Spain, Greece, and likely the UK will follow them. The EU faces the unhappy prospect of bailing them out or letting them fail.

Greece, Spain and Ireland were never as successful as the EUrocrats and the media lead everyone to believe. Mostly they were profiting from massive EU subsidies designed to teach Germans, the Dutch and the Austrians that all nations in Europe are equal, so that there is a valid purpose for the existence of the EU(rocrats).

Of course the subsidies come forth from German, Dutch and Austrian coffers – Brits are a zero sum game and the French also suck on the EU teat. So these bubbles are a direct result of EUrocrats wanting to prove the validity of their own existence. Nothing more.
In the pre-EU days any northern European wrinkled their nose at the suggestion of Spain, Greece or Ireland.

As for Troofs comment, it's not even worth talking about and shows how bigotted and shallow is argumentation is.