Entry tags:

books/authors, omg mock people mock, person: neil gaiman, political wank, twitter, wanking inside the house

Tax deductables! Pencil necks! Thieves! HIGH SPEED CAR CHASES!
Well, all right, maybe not high speed car chases. So, the background: last year, Neil Gaiman, author of such lovely things as Neverwhere and the Sandman series etc., was contacted to speak at a library in Minnesota for a hefty speaking fee, which was paid for by a fund which (a) stated any leftover money would be lost if not used, and (b) was also not available for books, salaries, or other useful things. Neil Gaiman did so, and subsequently donated the speaking fee to charities.

All's well that ends well, right? Well, except that Matt Dean, the House Majority Leader, decided it was time to let his long-simmering grudge be aired to the world: 'Dean said that Gaiman, "who I hate," was a "pencil-necked little weasel who stole $45,000 from the state of Minnesota."'

Neil is... well, he's not well pleased. Nor is his Twitter.

"Sad & funny. Minnesota Republicans have a "hate" list. Like Nixon did. I'm on it. They also don't like capitalism. http://t.co/FObmLGo"

"It's strange watching a grownup high school bully in power. But the bully vocabulary remains the same. http://t.co/FObmLGo"

"And for those curious how and why I made it onto the hate list, what I wrote at the time on my blog. http://bit.ly/lMxsWQ"

"Any nice, sane Minnesota Republicans reading this, please vote for someone who isn't a bully with a hate list next time."

"You can listen to the Stillwater speech that all the Pencil-neck fuss is about at http://bit.ly/k3lA1B (You need to go down to point 2.)"

He also happened to link to Dean's blog, which proceeded to crash. Whoops.

So you'd think that Dean would realize his mistake and apologize, right? Well... sort of. Why?

His mommy made him do it.

The universe collectively facepalms.

(Bonus funny from the comments, courtesy from someone called Lucas: "Do weasel thieves steal just weasels? Or do they also steal ferrets, otters, and wolverines? In the case of the latter, how do they arrange for transportation?")

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	sandglass 2011-05-06 01:14 am UTC (link)
	"My mom is staying with us right now because my wife's out of town," Dean said. "She was very angry this morning and always taught me not to be a name caller. And I shouldn't have done it, and I apologize." I have no idea what to do with any of this. His wife is out of town, so he needs his mom? She was angry, so he apologized but not really? (Reply to this)(Thread)

	platedlizard 2011-05-06 01:36 am UTC (link)
	Does he have young children? That would actually make sense to have his mom over to take care of the kids while he was working. Otherwise it looks very weird. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sandglass 2011-05-06 01:42 am UTC (link)
	Yeah, there are certainly reasons why it'd make sense, but it so sounds, "My wife is gone so I needed someone to wash my socks and cook dinner damnit." Maybe I'm just incredibly biased against Republicans, too. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	rodo 2011-05-06 01:47 am UTC (link)
	I figure it has less to do with Republicans and more with the fact that his mother still has the power to make him apologize. Either she is Super Mom, or he is a big manchild. His choice of insults points to the latter. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

ekaterinv
2011-05-06 03:06 am UTC (link)

I'm pretty sure moms retain the ability to make their kids apologize forever. However, the fact that he admits it is hilarious. Though I think he's saying "Mommy made me do it" so he doesn't look bad to his base. Don't worry, he hasn't changed his mind or anything (only liberals are weak enough to do that), he's just bowing to his mommy's anger to maintain peace in the home.

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	keri 2011-05-06 06:07 am UTC (link)
	I have been pretending that his mom is also a Gaiman fan, which is why she noticed the statement in the first place. It makes it more amusing for me. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	honorh 2011-05-06 10:19 pm UTC (link)
	. . . and she's reading The Graveyard Book to his kids while he's off at work. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	ajatshatru 2011-05-06 04:45 am UTC (link)
	'an' sing me to sleep' too ? :D :D :D (Reply to this)(Parent)

	feenix 2011-05-06 01:43 am UTC (link)
	You say that as if Representative Dean essentially admitting that he's apologizing because his mother made him doesn't look very weird to begin with. ...I hope Mrs. Dean (the mother, not the wife) gets an extravagant brunch in Minneapolis this year. (Reply to this)(Parent)

tangentialone
2011-05-06 01:47 am UTC (link)

Yeah, that is kind of a strange sentence. The only way it seems to make sense is if he has some need for a caretaker for some reason...? Wikipedia doesn't know anything about that, but, amusingly, it does have this incident on his page now, taking up about half his biography.

Despite his apology, Matt Dern has also said "[Gaiman] could probably donate a few hours of his time for some kids who follow him and like his books," apparently unaware that Gaiman does so on a regular basis.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sandglass 2011-05-06 04:12 am UTC (link)
	I wonder how much Dern volunteers. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	arachnejericho 2011-05-06 05:12 am UTC (link)
	When his mother tells him to. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	tangentialone 2011-05-06 10:22 pm UTC (link)
	gigglesnort (Reply to this)(Parent)

	ajatshatru 2011-05-07 02:16 am UTC (link)
	SNORT This ! (Reply to this)(Parent)

abharding
2011-05-06 11:07 pm UTC (link)

I'm hoping it's because there are young kids there. In part because he say "staying with us" and not me.

And because the idea that a full grown man needs his mommy there to do things like cook and clean for him is just to much. Even if he can't cook there is always take out and these things called frozen dinners.

Also, I am getting a picture of the kids watching all this and thinking something along the lines of "Wow, Grandma really took it to Dad."

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	themadmermaid 2011-05-07 01:58 am UTC (link)
	Eh, I know several full grown men who also watch their offspring, even when their partner is out of town, so I am unimpressed. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	lostsailors 2011-05-08 11:11 am UTC (link)
	Yeah that whole bit just weirded me out completely. His wife was gone, so he needed his mom with him and she made him apologize? I mean, I don't know what he meant, but that's all I'm getting from this phrasing. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	vzg 2011-05-09 08:43 am UTC (link)
	I am choosing to take this as, "My wife was not here to keep me from saying crazy things like she usually does, so she had my mother come in. She needs a little practice yet." Otherwise I'll hope it's children, and not being easily able to find/pay for daycare services/after school programs. /late (Reply to this)(Parent)

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