barney motherfucking frank

oh, barney. how i love you. let me count the ways.

1) you make the case for how a government works (you see, it collects taxes from its citizens and uses them to pay for things like education and roads and public safety).

2) you point out how asinine it is to continually preach tax cuts as the panacea for everything even though the supply-side economics underlying that theory has been thoroughly and lustily debunked.

3) you state these basic economic and public policy principles with just the right mix of clear explanation, exasperation at how simple they are and how elected officials should understand them, and pure, unadulterated derision. i will cite this anytime anyone thinks i should consider living anywhere other than the northeast, as this tone of voice is native and withers in warmer climates.

4) you bring it back to the war in iraq, which is SUCH A GOOD POINT and one that not many people have the balls to point out, because republicans have loved to keep it out of official budget resolutions so as to not have to pay for it through the normal ways. PS GUESS WHERE WE GET THE MONEY TO PAY FOR BOMBS, IDIOTS. not from selling the golden eggs that milton friedman laid during his life.

5) you do all of this while sounding like george stephanopoulos just interrupted you in the middle of lunch and you still have half a turkey sandwich in your maw.

for more supporting evidence, see this new yorker profile (amazing, long)