| Subject: Chat with Mark Adomanis |
| From: Mark Adomanis <mark.adomanis@gmail.com> |
11:15 AM me: you don't play games, do you?
Mark: never
me: god damnit
11:16 AM Mark: well actually let me ask, in what sense do you mean games?
me: online text-based mmorpgs
11:17 AM Mark: ahh, no no
me: NERD!!!!!!!
Mark: i dable in call of duty
me: ah, I play counterstrike sometimes
but now I've got a netbook
anywho, I'd recommend you look into Victoria: Empire Under the Sun
strategy game
totally epic
11:18 AM can play as any country between 1836 and 1930
11:19 AM Mark: i will check this out
me: seriously, you would find it interesting
Mark: perhaps i can be the russians, win the great game, avoid the whole little "communist revolution" thing
me: Russia is tough to play
11:20 AM you've got the Crimean War at the outset
which can be avoided, but it's tough
Mark: so i'm googling it now, is this game online? or
me: no, you download it
11:21 AM it's cheap, too
just don't play as Texas
absolutely incredible we won against Mexico in real life
11:22 AM also, I played as Orange Free State once, spent hours conquering zulu lands, establishing reasonable classical liberal government
then get wiped out by fucking limies
around 1905 or so
11:23 AM Mark: soudns pretty much like what happened in real life!
plus or minus a bit of liberalism
me: minus, mostly
however
Mark: i realize now i wish i studied more about south africa
what a goddamn bizzare place
me: the game isn't attached to real events too directly
11:24 AM I took over large portions of Turkish assets in Arabia as Japan once
but I was in the zone that day
11:26 AM Mark: that must have taken some doing
me: I just avoided going to war with Russia
11:27 AM because I'm a better historian than Hitler
wait, that doesn't make any sense
Mark: I bet his still-lifes were better than yours though
me: Japan won that one
YOU TAKE THAT BACK
11:28 AM oh also
Project PM
not sure how updated I've kept you
but we recruited Juan Cole the other day
and a producer out in LA, Robert Green, who's loaded
and has loaded friends
11:29 AM Mark: holy balls, that's great stuff
me: is proposing to raise a great deal of money
with which to fund our project
and then
to start up a new cable news outlet
which we would be in charge of
in which case I'd want you as a Russian analyst
Mark: hey man, whatever you need
me: of course, this is very preliminary
11:30 AM in the meantime
we're going ahead with some other projects
hold on, gotta kill an orc
11:33 AM sorry, had to kill several
Mark: did you think my "movement conservatives anonymous" bit the other day was funny. it took me like 12 hours to think of it
me: was it on True/Slant?
Mark: yeah, i commented on your palin manifesto
11:34 AM me: Oh, I'll check it out now
I've been indisposed lately
hold on, gotta get out of orc territory
11:35 AM okay, anywho
insomuch as that you're clearly gaining momentum as a commentator
you can best serve Project PM simply by doing what you're doing and becoming more prominent
11:36 AM but if you have a bit of spare time, do take a look at our initial sub-projects and let us know if you have any ideas on how we can pursue them
I'll share a google document with you once it's been revised a bit
11:37 AM of course, you're welcome to take a leadership role on any of them
otherwise, simply weigh in on anything for which you have ideas
I'll send that documentation to you later
also
I'm sending you a concise description of how the media network will work
11:38 AM Mark: aewsome
11:39 AM i'll do what i can, but my availability is extremely variable. some weeks i have loads some weeks i sleep under my desk at work
me: this should give you a better idea of what we're doing, as previous materials were a little obtuse
I understand completely
again, we've got plenty of people to handle these sub-projects, non-media people
also just recruited head of theoretical physics at Case Western
for our improvement in science journalism project
11:40 AM Mark: this sounds like a pretty all-star squad
me: it's getting there
Mark: my only question, si when do you sign up mark steyn???
me: I've been in touch with Andrew Sullivan, for instance, who's reading my manuscript
actually, he's the best writer National Review has
which is sad
Mark: oh he's a very gifted WRITER
me: P.J. O'Rourke used to be great, I assure you
Mark: he turns a great prhase
me: yes
11:41 AM Mark: he's just wrong about everything
and has no shame about it
me: yeah, pretty much
Mark: but he's quite funny while doing so
me: he did a great bit when whatshisname died
crocodile guy
guy who got stabbed with a manta ray
Mark: irwin
steve irwin
hero
me: some dumb bitch ultra-leftard wrote something stupid about him
11:42 AM and he very dryly dismisses her
Mark: yeah see this is why i hate "movement" conservatism, just like with the goddamn "left" evyerhting becomes about politics
me: google Irwin and Steyn, it's really good
Mark: steyn is naturally ap retty humorous guy
he's be a great travel writer, or humorist, or something
me: yeah, they just need to keep him away from politics
Mark: but he gets sucked into the movement and he starts writing shit about how obama is stalin and nancy pelosi is history's greatest monster
me: or sic him after the ultra-left
11:43 AM like Daily Kos
and then shoot him
Mark: i guess
what really alarms me, as a still recovering conservative
is the extent to which there's no real exchange of ideas
the people who most ably dissect all of the shit in NR
greenwald, etc.
they're just ignored
11:44 AM it's like their criticism doens't even exist
they spend all of their time responding ot the "liberals" from the New Republic and the Washington Post
me: no shit, my vanity fair piece on hastings was all about National Review
and Sullivan linked to it
greenwald linked to it
fucking Russia Today brought me on for it
11:45 AM and I sent it to Kathryn Jean Lopez who is my facebook friend LOL
Mark: yeah, the extent to which NR is an echo chamber is deeply shameful
me: and not a word in response
Lopez is the dumbest bitch ever, incidentally
she's online editor
Mark: well you know
I should thank her
me: anyway, I subscribe to NR
Mark: she's the one that finally got me to leave the reservation
me: is she, lol
Mark: she wrote a column about george w. bush that was so transcendantly stupid
11:46 AM i think i literally threw my keyboard at a wall
and i think (maybe i'm exaggerating slightly for effect) i yelled something to the effect of "I'm fucking done with these people!"
me: I'm lucky to have been a communist at 13 and then a crazy Randian for three years and then an anarcho-something-or-other since
but I had a pretty liberal audience for a whilw
11:47 AM and when you run with such people, whether conservative or lib
you take on some of their beliefs without thinking about it
and then here comes John Edwards
and I'm like, fuck
also Al Gore
11:48 AM and I was like, "I totally forgot that I'm not a Democrat but John Edwards reminded me"
Mark: yeah at the moment I'm not really even sure how I would descirbe myself
I find myself in agreement with Daniel Larison a lot of the time
but then I remember he loves the confederacy and a bunch of other crazy crap
me: I use the term anarcho-technocrat now
lol, confederacy
11:49 AM Mark: and Andrew Sullivan is alright
but then I remember he was Neocon #1 for like a decade
so
me: yeah, he's intellectually honest at least
willing to change his mind
Mark: that is true
me: and even admit that he's changed it
Mark: frankly that's the thing i like best about him
me: for instance, this Robert Green fellow
the money man
Mark: he once actually said he was "ashamed" of his Iraq war stuff
me: his wife is photographer for Atlantic and whatnot
Mark: which is something you NEVER hear in media circles
11:50 AM shame just doesn't enter into it
me: pulled some prank on McCain for Jeffrey Goldberg article photoshoot
Sullivan publicly denounced her
then found out something else about her and publicly apologized
when Green was telling me this story I was like oh shit
then of course it turns out that there's no bad blood
11:51 AM then, of course, we have Charles Johnson
here's hoping that doesn't scare off our center-leftists
Mark: I think SadlyNo! summed Johnson up quite well
me: SadlyNo rules
11:52 AM Mark: "he's a very nice dude who sort of has his brain scrambled by 9-11 and hasn't been quite right since"
me: yep
but you've got to admire his breaking-off with the Pamela Geller/Malkin crowd
Mark: that is true
that took some stones
11:53 AM it's never easy to walk away from a group of people you consider yourself close to
11:54 AM me: I think it got easier for him when he wrote a piece denouncing creationism and then got attacked by half his commenters
it's like when you're dating a girl and she tells you she's a 30,000-year-old goddess
11:55 AM Mark: i can't tell you how many times i've had that problem
me: I've had it once
except I wasn't really dating her
and I was on acid when she told me
and I still thought it was nuts
11:56 AM Mark: i feel like that would be a great line for a comedy show
"I'm going to be perfectly honest with you: I'm on a lot of acid right now and even I understand you're being insane"
me: lol, that is good
11:57 AM Mark: sounds like something out of It's Always Sunny In Philadelpiha
which is, like, the best thing ever
me: I saw it a couple times, was pretty damned good
11:58 AM Mark: best show on TV
esp. for people with senses of humor as twisted and awful as my own
there's one where they enter a flip cup tournament and poison the other team
11:59 AM not fatally, just to get them really sick
and it all works
me: remember That's My Bush?
where they have the improv group come on for the execution?
and then they execute the improv group?
Mark: no, i've never seen that one
12:00 PM me: well, they really stuck it to improv groups, I can assure you
12:01 PM Mark: oh yeah so i'm just reading the media net summary you sent
sounds pretty reasonable to me
12:02 PM just thinking out loud, i'd just worry how long it would take to move from the initial 'pyramid' structure to the 'web'
12:03 PM and how exactly that would happen
(believe it or not, this actually relates to waht i do at work)
me: it would happen through people connecting to others located elsewhere in the network
which we would facilitate and encourage through various means
12:04 PM I'll clarify that in final draft
this is one of several pieces of material I'm composing for Green's people
12:05 PM Mark: yeah nothing major
but at work i deal with federal bureacracies trying to restructure themselves, and getting from initial state to "everything rules" state is often tricky
12:06 PM me: what's your job?
Mark: obviously the people you'll be dealng with are a lot smarter and more nimble
i'm a consultant. pretty super important stuff really
me: yes, our long-term intent is to create a sort of shadow government
except one made up of the erudite
also, borderless and international
LIKE TROTSKY
12:07 PM Mark: will we be hacked to death with ice-picks too?
or is taht an optional part of the equation?
me: just me
luckily I'm back in Texas and armed again
hilariously enough
my dad just bought a Blackwater-issued .45
off an auction
12:08 PM Mark: god only knows where that thing's been
me: since Blackwater - sorry, Xe - is no longer allowed to sell them
probably northern Iran
12:09 PM but if I'm found dead of a heroin overdose, it was either NSA, CIA, FSB, or Scientology
or last ex-girlfriend
Mark: I'll make a note of that
me: thanks, do that
Mark: If I'm ever found gorged to death on Chipotle
it was probably my fault
12:10 PM me: I'll just put down some exiled Russian tycoon for you
Mark: but, likely, Dmitry Medvedev will have played a roll
me: you mean Putin
speaking of which, I've forced Hastings to switch from gmail to a secure e-mail server
12:11 PM he lacks a certain awareness of who exactly he's pissed off
12:12 PM Mark: Yeah I would imagine he's not a particularly popular dude in certain plavces right now
like everywhere in the DoD
me: yes
Mark: which, by extention, is like everywhere on earth
12:13 PM me: yep
and he's about to go off to God-knows-where to fuck up God-knows-who else's shit
12:14 PM Mark: I wish him luck but I can't help but think
that like the next time he tries to interview or tail anyone who's remotely improtant
they'll just clam up
12:15 PM me: I would think so
but then
you'd think they would have clammed up when he gets there and says HI I'M FROM ROLLING STONE
AND MY FIANCE WAS KILLED IN BAGHDAD
12:16 PM Mark: that's true
i donno, part of me
the cynical part
me: thinks it was on purpose?
Mark: thinks that mycrystal was intentionally trying
yeah to get himself fired
because
he's not a dumb guy, clearly
me: right
12:17 PM Mark: and i don't think it's being inaccurate to say that things...aren't exactly going well
me: Hastings has no opinion on the matter, but that's certainly a possibility
Mark: with the whole "turn afghanistan into a democracy" thing
and to ascend to the level of the military mccrystal did, you have to be pretty goddamn savy
12:18 PM and then he just spills the beans to a guy from rolling stone who, as you noted, had his girlfriend kileld in baghdad and wrote a book about it?
me: it's not a job I would be inclined to take
and I used to write about women's shoe stores
12:22 PM Mark: i am going to guy buy some lunch, you take it easy and keep me posted on all of this Project PM stuff
12:23 PM me: word
Mark: really looking forward to using it as a platform for takign some of the hacks at AEI/Heritiage to task
me: good
12:24 PM Mark: because that's the trick, isn't it
if you're high profile enough they HAVE to respond
and since htey're so dimwitted and mendacious
me: usually, yes
Mark: they usually make asses of themselves
me: and they can be goaded into it, easily