The Corner's a bizarre little land. But one of the stranger tics among its writers is the post-hoc pleading to not be taken seriously. Here, for instance, is Mark Steyn, sniggering and tittering over the idea that "sniggering and tittering is not the appropriate response to Bill Richardson's mass transit initiatives." My favorite entry to the genre is, of course, this classic Jonah Goldberg post, in which he angrily demands that his article on federalism in the print edition of The National Review was "an obviously light, un-"long" (1,500 words) impressionistic, travelogue-esque piece and tries to make it into a definitive argument about federalism, rather than a mere meditation on it." Federalism, mass transit initiatives. If this comedy club is going to get off the ground, it's going to need some better topics. You guys might want to try talking about airplane food. And, no matter how tempting it seems, don't let John Derbyshire take the "differences between black people and white people" schtick. Just trust me on that one.
