Looks like a lot of interesting things happened while I was away from blogging (and yes, the wedding was wonderful). It seems there was once again another huge dust-up involving Jeff Goldstein and some lunatic, Iraq descended further into chaos, and Republican and right-wing bloggers finally found a leak they like.
In other words, nothing much changed at all.
Additionally, it has come to my attention that the website Hot Air (Hmm- ‘ Hot Air.’ Why does that sound so familiar?) has decided that imitation is the greatest form of flattery.
FYI- Thanks for all the gift suggestions, but I decided on cash. It is always the right size, it is always the right color, and I don’t want them running up credit card bills while on their honeymoon.
Mr Furious
Good plan. Welcome back John, fire at will.
Krista
Yes, a lot did happen this week. It was quite eventful.
And good call, John. Cash is always a good wedding gift.
Sirkowski
Meanwhile, Jeff Goldstein is still a giant douche bag and a talentless fuck.
Steve
These folks had quite a takedown over the Goldstein situation.
From what I’ve read, Goldstein’s crazy commenter seemed to be way over the line, no question about that. But the righty blogosphere being the stupid place it is, somehow this means we’ve reached Level 2 of the Ward Churchill game, amazingly featuring someone even more obscure!
Yes, friends, some obscure whacked-out adjunct professor from Oregon has now become the living embodiment of the entire Left. I can’t wait to hear Darrell’s take.
Jim Allen
Well, obviously some bloggers still haven’t signed onto the Online Integrity Pledge!
Speaking of which, John, did you check out that spreadsheet I sent you? When are you taking down the 200+ names that are on your blog roll but didn’t sign on to the pledge? Or was that all bullshit from the get-go?
The Other Steve
What i found funny. I wouldn’t have even heard about this dustup if not for some comment in the comments here.
But last night I went over to redstate, and they were declaring the entire left was guilty because we hadn’t said anything about it.
Apparently, if I understand correctly. the whacky Oregon professor was supposed to have sent out a memo to the Vast Leftwing conspiracy stating her intentions and allowing us to vote whether or not we agreed.
This memo wasn’t sent.
We’re still trying to figure out who to blame for this. At this point we’re thinking Bill Clinton.
The Other Steve
Interesting. I have to admit when I first saw the comments, they looked completely like the types of comments you see on proteinwisdom. That site is a cess pool, no intelligence whatsoever, just sexual innuendo.
Nutcutter
I don’t read righty blogs. Don’t need to. Just wait an hour or two and the crazy talking points will show up in here, via Darrell.
Andrew
Look guys, that dog has it coming.
carpeicthus
I believe you meant Goldstein and some *other* lunatic. Carry on.
Steve
I guess I wasn’t linking to the comments, but to the post itself, which I felt was fairly effective.
I don’t bother reading the comments at Eschaton, Firedoglake, or a lot of other lefty sites.
carpeicthus
OK, morning snark aside, maybe there’s something here so we can learn to be better bloggers, if not people. It’s easy to spot when the other side does something totally stupid, so at least we can learn from that. So, here’s my integrity pledge: If someone on the right that no one has ever heard of does something stupid, I will not assume that a total swath of the country agrees with them unless there’s subtantive proof that they do. Tim McVeigh showed the extent of how dangerous the extreme, militant right can be, but it didn’t mean that all conservatives wanted to blow up the government. Now when a conservative *agrees* with his worldview (such as Ann Coulter), show no mercy in criticism.
I don’t even assume that a given Republican agrees with Ann Coulter’s evil mindset — but when they approvingly link to her (or, as is more common, fawn over Michelle Malkin), *then* write them off. Same effect in the end, but intellectually honest.
Blue Neponset
Re: Goldstien-gate
Wow, that woman is sick. What would posses a person to threaten a child like that?
Re: Jeff Goldstein
While I do take a guilty pleasure in seeing others make fun of him, I really do think he has some serious mental issues. As a result, it is best just to ignore him, and if I remember correctly, Markos ordered us all to do just that in a townhouse group e-mail a few months ago.
P.S. To date, Markos still allows us to read Balloon Juice. I hope he doesn’t change his mind. All glory and honor to Markos!
Rusty Shackleford
Oh great, there goes “the Deb Frisch’s of the Left” to screw things up for the Democrats.
DougJ
I’m pretty sure Jeff Goldstein is mentally ill. I think it’s probably better if we just don’t discuss him at all.
The Other Steve
Oh, I was referring to the comments that started the falafel. I saw them from some link punchy or someone posted yesterday in another thread.
The Other Steve
Is this where you get the memo from the lunatic commentator informing us in advance she was going to make nasty comments so that we could be prepared to deny involvement?
cause I’m not on that list, and I didn’t get the memo. So I feel left out.
capelza
Well, I live in Oregon and even I didn’t get the memo. What school is she at?
Nice to see you John, congrats to your sister and yes, cash is the best!
Justin Slotman
Remember: if you don’t condemn somebody you’ve never heard of, you clearly (and I reach this conclusion with extreme sadness, having given my opponents every opportunity to comport themselves with dignity and without vitriol; sadly they are just not Serious People) hate America.
This is ending up as another version of the Online Integrity thing. You know? Another excuse for Right Blogland to accuse THE LEFT of unseriousness or unhingedness or whatever the current un-word is.
Richard 23
I thought Norbizness was the left. It’s obviously his fault.
Nutcutter
He’s downright illalicious.
Nutcutter
I no longer think it is intelletually honest to be reasonable with people who would cut your throat at the first opportunity, and who have no such honesty themselves.
Fuck the right. Respond in kind, I say. Fuck them in every possible way. They’ve declared war on half of their own country.
Fine, war they shall have, and they shall lose that war. They got the jump, but it’s the tortoise and the hare. The country is turning against them. Last time I checked, Bush had negative approval numbers in 46 states.
capelza
Deb Frisch..University of Arizona, resigned..moving to Eugene (oh great…). I had to look her up.
Once she gets settled in Eugene, I’m sure I’ll be getting my memos. She’s been busy moving and all. Yeah, Churchill and Freisch vs….Kirstenn Taylor and that crazy lady up in Washington who said in her column that blacks should be grateful for slavery because it gave them the opportunity to come to America and eventually enjoy our great freedom.
rachel
And now the lunatic in question no longer has a job to tie her down anywhere because of this dust-up with Jeff Goldstein? Hmmmm…
The Other Steve
No, she apparently preemptively quit.
Granted, that didn’t stop the right-wing attack squad from publishing her name, address and phone # anyway. Maybe they’ll call the Regent or President or something and demand they withhold her last paycheck.
The Other Steve
I checked my mail. Still no Memo.
Steve
Even though this woman was certifiable, I still thought Goldstein was a touch too gleeful at the prospect that she would surely be losing her job soon thanks to him. Then again, I guess he has that right considering I doubt he’ll ever get a job in academia after the crazy stuff he’s written, unless he’s going to be Professor of Cockslapping.
capelza
TOS…Ted Stevens explained this already…the internets.
Jane Finch
The commenter at Goldstein’s is nuts. But I’m not sure a) why he didn’t ban her IP (attention-seeking? not our Jeff!); b) why it involved her employer rather than the police. At heart, people like Malkin, Goldstein et al are really ex-Yahoo chatroom sociopaths….because that’s chatroom revenge writ large.