Has anyone ever noticed that, for someone who blames welfare for everything from terrorism to chad to why black women won't date him, Mickey Kaus does not really have the world's most demanding job? Take, for example, last Friday, December 16 - a day when some of us working stiffs were scurrying around defending corporate America's right not to produce documents, while valiantly spending our few spare hours working on a law review article and, um, attending to other responsibilities. Now consider, by contrast, the Kaus-man's activities last Friday. I picture him getting up sometime around noon, going outside in his pajamas to get the mail, noting the presence of a holiday card from a mildly embarrassing Democrat, and thinking, "That's it! That's my 32-word blog entry for the day!" - leaving him the whole weekend to get back to whatever it is middle-aged would-be roués do in the copious hours when they're not blogging.
Of course, plenty of bloggers who have day jobs (and, no, test-driving cars doesn't count) regularly write as much in a day as Kaus does in a week. But let's not judge Kaus's work ethic solely by the crude measure of output! There's also the fact that, when it comes to story ideas, the Kausinator never has to look very far afield. If the day's mail or the contents of his own brain don't suffice to fill some column inches, then there's always astute political analysis to be found on the Golfchannel.com message boards. And why even bother to gather facts when it's always safe - and easy! - to assume that everyone in America shares your prejudices? Of course, when all else fails, you can always turn to the staple activity of those who've been infected by a culture of dependency - rail against the people who've cut off your free handouts!
It's clear that some toughness is called for, before Mickey starts slacking on exercise, going overboard on the booze, and suffering the other pernicious effects of a something-for-nothing existence. Perhaps Slate could announce that, if Mickey fails to produce a new book within, oh, eighteen months, he'll have to find a real job? Or maybe a market-based approach might work - Slate could, say, pay people to write blogs only if people will pay to read them. Come to think of it, didn't Times Select already try something like that?
