Meta metaphor watch.

I wish that in my wildest dreams I could imagine that Matthew Yglesias was inspired by me to go on the metaphor watch suggesting that Mark Kleiman keep the following on a leash
"In the actual world, a fake conservative isn't the same as a liberal, any more than a transvestite male is a female. Nor is a bad conservative the same as a liberal, any more than a bad electrician is a plumber."

I might add that it is un pc to have transvestite and bad in parallel spots in the sentence. I'm sure that many transvestites are eccelent electricians.

Squewering the deconstruction of the construction industry, Yglesias notes that "plumber"is a social construction. I'd add that so is plumbing, although I note that his social life is much more interesting than a plumbing party.



I have been following Josh Marshall's metaphors. Once when I was young and stupid a week ago, I suggested he stopr writing them. Since then I have noted a steady stream of billiant metaphors analogies similes and synechdotes (in spite of the fact that I don't know what a synechdote is).

The latest is "watching the mix of desperation, panicked zeal and projection evidenced in Podhoretz's column. It's like the pornography of watching someone beg for his life or shift the blame onto someone else when they've been caught in the act -- with the added twist of spasms of aggression mixed in."

It's a double layer metaphor, since someone beggin for his life is not literally pornography. Brilliant, but please Mr Marshall don't describe mr Podhoretz so vividly, I just ate.