Again.

The notion that Bush passed his prescription drug bill “under pressure from Congressional Democrats” is bizarre. Republicans controlled both houses of Congress at the time, and exerted massive pressure to pass the bill. The coalition that squeezed the bill through after the vote was held open for hours consisted of 207 Republicans and 9 Democrats. Some pressure!

McMegan goalpost moving to commence in 3…2….1

And since we’re talking about inexplicably employed writers, this review of Bobo Brooks The Social Animal is a delicious ‘bless his Bobo heart’  filleting of the book:

The Social Animal also features much talk of the molecules that course through various characters. A sample:

“As Julia and Rob semi-embraced, they silently took in each other’s pheromones. Their cortisol levels dropped.”

“Later in their relationship, Rob and Julia would taste each other’s saliva and then collect genetic information.”

“When parents do achieve this attunement with their kids, then a rush of oxytocin floods through their brains.”

“But the caudate nucleus and the VTA [ventral tegmental area] are also parts of something else, the reward system of the mind. They produce powerful chemicals like dopamine, which can lead to focused attention, exploratory longings, and strong, frantic desire. Norepinephrine, a chemical derived from dopamine, can stimulate feelings of exhilaration, energy, sleeplessness, and loss of appetite. Phenylethylamine is a natural amphetamine that produces feelings of sexual excitement and emotional uplift.”

All this molecule talk presents some problems (besides cringe-inducing prose). First it grows tiresome. Reading The Social Animal is too often like reading a story in English and then in translation. Something happens in Brooks’s narrative and then it happens again, at the level of molecules. By the end, it’s easy to hate all those molecules, most of which seem intent on slowing Brooks’s story (and it’s slow enough already).

Someday Brooks will have his own category at Bulwer-Lytton.