Plunging Towards Gomorrah
Blogosphere
The David Weigel Masquerade
Jun 25th
David Weigel is all out of apologies. Wow, he must have crossed the wrong liberal because more damaging personal information leaked out today and he’s resigning his post with the Washington Post. Today’s damning leaks came from The Daily Caller. It’s fairly obvious the Weigel is a rather disgusting journalist. I don’t really care that’s he’s liberal. That’s nothing new. I don’t care that he calls Republicans names like ratf**ker. That’s not new either. The issue I have is this:
After Scott Brown won the Massachusetts Senate seat, threatening to kill the health care legislation by his presence, Weigel stressed how important it was for reporters to highlight what a terrible candidate his opponent Martha Coakley had been.
“I think pointing out Coakley’s awfulness is vital, because it’s 1) true and 2) unreasonable panic about it is doing more damage to the Democrats,” Weigel wrote.
Weigel isn’t covering the news, he’s trying to shape it in the least damaging way imaginable to advance his agenda. This is “hiding the decline.” This is “fake but accurate.” Liberals like to mock conservatives for our mainstream press paranoia but there are countless examples of this type of sinister behavior.
Let the progressive martyrdom commence for Weigel. Alex Pareene at Salon is already trying to spin this story.
Weigel isn’t a “conservative blogger” — he’s a journalist covering the conservative movement. Weigel is a libertarian. He voted for Ron Paul in the primaries. Many conservatives, for some reason, took umbrage at mere existence of a reporter dedicated to explaining their movement to outsiders, as if it either wasn’t fair or legitimate to have a reporter who wasn’t part of the movement cover it.
What can I say about Alex Pareene? He’s so blinded by political bias he’s unable to be honest. Weigel isn’t a libertarian. It doesn’t matter if he voted for Ron Paul. A libertarian wouldn’t be shaping news to pass ObamaCare. Why can’t people just be honest? Weigel is a liberal, plain and simple. The only thing Pareene is upset about is the fact that another liberal journalist has been outed while masquerading as an objective reporter.
David Weigel: An American Liberal
Jun 24th
June hasn’t been kind to the Washington Post’s David Weigel. Last week Weigel described the Rep Etheridge fiasco as a “hug.” At the time I wondered why the Washington Post has a liberal covering conservatives. Just in case anyone is concerned about Weigel’s “liberal credentials” he’s a member of JournoList, a controversial members-only forum devoted to liberal bloggers and journalists.
It’s only there that these progressives feel comfortable enough to be honest. They can discuss “hiding the decline” and “fake but accurate” news stories secure in the belief they’re intellectually and morally superior to those right wing neanderthals. The secret handshakes all went wrong this week as someone has leaked some of his comments from JournoList:
Weigel’s Words:
•”This would be a vastly better world to live in if Matt Drudge decided to handle his emotional problems more responsibly, and set himself on fire.”
•”Follow-up to one hell of a day: Apparently, the Washington Examiner thought it would be fun to write up an item about my dancing at the wedding of Megan McArdle and Peter Suderman. Said item included the name and job of my girlfriend, who was not even there — nor in DC at all.”
•”I’d politely encourage everyone to think twice about rewarding the Examiner with any traffic or links for a while. I know the temptation is high to follow up hot hot Byron York scoops, but please resist it.”
•”It’s all very amusing to me. Two hundred screaming Ron Paul fanatics couldn’t get their man into the Fox News New Hampshire GOP debate, but Fox News is pumping around the clock to get Paultard Tea Party people on TV.”
The only thing more predictable than finding out a journalist is liberal is discovering a journalist who has to apologize. When I say apologize what I really mean is justify. That’s all an apology is these days. “I’m sorry you find my behavior offensive, but I’m you’ll understand after I justify it.” Instead of wishing Matt Drudge would set himself on fire perhaps he should just hug out his differences. Why is this guy covering Republicans?
Liberal Condescension: Twitter Style
Jun 20th
It’s been awhile since I’ve written about Twitterspace, but every once in awhile I run into some crazy liberals there. Today I was just minding my own business, watching the Braves play and following the #Braves hashtag on Twitter. That’s when I ran into this guy. KCYeti is another member of the not-so-kind-and-gentle progressive left. I should add that his Twitter feed isn’t exactly family friendly. Here’s his take on Braves fans:
I know, I know, I’m picking on one guy in Kansas and frankly he’s had worse things to say about the Twins. This is just another example of a faux enlightened individual who cloaks his disgusting personality under the guise of progressive political superiority. This is what happens to people when they spend their free time reading The Daily Kos. That type of leftest fringe thought process makes anything easy to believe. It’s easy to pick on Atlanta Braves fans when you believe they’re all inferior racist tea party nutjobs. Just imagine if I ran across this guy and the topic was the Astros or Rangers! Hitler analogies, here we come!
It’s one thing when some Manhattan snob looks down at the South, but as I mentioned earlier Kirk Harris is from Kansas (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Who knew that Kansas was the new bastion of elite philosophical political thought? Then again, maybe it’s not. How stupid do you have to be to Tweet about the Braves anyway?
Fake but Accurate Emails
Jun 10th
One of my big pet peeves is moronic chain letters. I think people are starting to catch on, but it’s still a problem. These days it’s not difficult to fact check an email via Snopes. Heck, just Google it. Ignorance really isn’t an excuse anymore. It’s just lazy.
This morning I received an email from John Smith. I knew there was a problem when I saw the email was an AOL account. My first internet experience was thanks to AOL. For $20 you could get 20 hours a month. I’m not sure that would last a week now. The fact is that was 1996. There’s a good chance if someone is still using AOL they might not be technologically inclined.
John Smith is worried that President Obama is going to take guns away. Obviously, he’s not the only one. That’s why an email like the one below is so “believable.”
Subject: WARNING….
While you were watching the oil spill, Hillary Clinton signed the small arms treaty with the UN. This is one of the things Sheriff Mack has been telling people about. OBAMA FINDS LEGAL WAY AROUND THE 2ND AMENDMENT AND USES IT.
That’s just the first three sentences of this fabricated story. Click here to read the entire email. A simple search yields this entry on Snopes. Shockingly, this rumor is false. There is no “legal” way around Constitutional amendments. Plus, the Secretary of State can’t ratify a treaty; that’s the job of Congress.
I don't think we have to worry about President Obama taking guns.
This type of political delusion ties back into my post about The Political Blame Game. There are plenty of areas to complain about the government. When people choose to believe stupid stuff like this and then forward to everyone they know via email they look like fools. It also weakens any arguments they may have against the subject being Urban Legended (I just coined a new word: “You’ve been Urban Legended, homey.”).
Uncreative Writing
Apr 30th
Some questions are better left unanswered
One of my favorite blogs is Creative Loafing’s the941. There’s no better source about what’s going on in the culture of Sarasota, if you could call it “culture.” The contributors lean left, but that’s not really surprising. Once there was a time when counter culture magazines were counter culture. Now it’s more like reading the script for Avatar. Hey, not everyone is perfect. No one reads Creative Loafing for political advice (I hope).
The most obnoxious column in the magazine is a weekly one called “Don’t Panic! Your war questions answered.” It’s written by Andisheh Nouraee who has his own blog and twitter if you like. There’s nothing really interesting about Nouraee’s column. It hits on all the bases that most progressives hit on… Bash Bush or anything that might be conservative, throw in some recycled derogatory rhetoric, and cite Media Matters as much as possible as a credible source for news. More >
Politics on the Blogosphere
Apr 6th
One piece of conventional wisdom that started a few years ago is the idea that liberals dominate blogs. A few years ago this was true when the United States was living under the cruel dictatorship of President Bush. Progressives needed a place to post their laments about faux voter fraud, global warming, and the plight of the American homeless. Liberal blogs were a dime a dozen. Back in 2006 there were all kinds of theories as to why liberals were blogging.
One suggested reason is that more liberal blogs have comments and promote individual blogs, participation and more which bring more repeat and continuous traffic. Also, it is possible that progressive/liberal and anti-war blogs are read in countries other than the United States; this may not be as likely for the conservative ones. The other theory is that the party in opposition has more to complain about, strategize about and work on than the party in power. In that case, I will revisit this article if things change in November of 2008.
It seems clear which of the theories above is correct. Now that Obama is in the White House the blogosphere looks a lot different. Conservative blogs are now gaining more traffic. The National Review’s blog, The Corner, is now the second most popular political blog right behind the Cannibal Post (AKA Huffington Post). That’s no small feat considering the amount of money the Queen of Cannibalism spends on her site. Then there are progressives who feel that liberal blogs are superior because they’ve learned “to be reverent.” No, seriously.
Now compare that concept to the writing style of your favorite liberal bloggers. Notice the sense of awe and reverence? The respect they have of language and a turn of phrase to convey the inter-connectedness of life?
None of that exists in the rightwing blogosphere. I’ve read the so-called A-List conservative bloggers and their essays are rife with fear, stereotypes, and embittered presumptions.
This was written by em dash who earlier in her reverent post called the Bush Administration the “crooks, thieves, and miscreants inhabiting the White House.” That type of rhetoric is certainly presumptuous, bitter, and shallow, but I’ll leave it up to someone else to convey the inter-connectedness of life. As far as fear is concerned the left is just as guilty of using fear tactics as the right.
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. – H. L. Mencken
Give us your overpopulation, health care sob stories, homeless rediscovery, DDT, and global warming nonsense. How did the President pass his pork filled stimulus bill? Of course, he used scare tactics. For someone like em dash who is high on intellectually superiority it’s amazing how naive she is when comes to simple politics. I guess that’s just another widely accepted stereotype on the left.
Twitter Agitators
Feb 19th
Over the last six months I’ve really enjoyed using Twitter. At first I didn’t see a real use for the platform, but now I’m not sure I can live without it. For breaking news and politics Twitter is essential. There is also a lot of riff raff to deal with. This really isn’t a indictment of “progressives” because I’m one person and I can’t really generalize a whole ideology based on a few bad apples, but lately I’ve run into some really partisan hacks.
Now on to the tweet of the day. As I mentioned a few days ago @top20reos has been a real joy to read the past few days. I pointed this fact out today and someone rallied to his defense. After a few exchanges (none, of which were logical) here’s the classic tweet from @ilovemytroops.
Actually, I don’t know who exactly I was talking to, but if her website is any indication it wasn’t anyone who was well respected. The liberal condescension here is amazing. I’m a fool and inferior? I tried four or five times to get a direct answer from this person, but all I got was random name calling and comments about Sarah Palin. What is it about Sarah Palin that is driving some of those on the left to derangement. I just don’t get it.
RE: Why So Condescending?
Feb 13th
I learned something very valuable today after my brief post on liberal condescension. It all started when Jeff Beck (no, not that Jeff Beck) came across my link on Twitter. I guess liberal RE/MAX real estate agents will not ever be fans of The Daily Plunge.
There’s something heartwarming about the use of “not” in that bitter assessment of my entry. Even though it’s not 1993 anymore some people still think using “not” is funny. Now, I’m not going to pick too much on @top20reos. Although I’m sure he won’t mind. As Bob Wiley once said: “He’s so high above us, we’re like ropes on the Goodyear blimp.” For someone who acts like they don’t care about what conservatives think he spends a lot of time trying to agitate people on the right.
Needless to say I engaged Mr. Beck via Twitter but it was a lost cause. He didn’t want to directly answer anything I had to say. It was easier to hurl insults about the quality of The Daily Plunge. I guess I would be upset but I’m not sure I really care about the opinion of a liberal tweeter who uses his real estate agent account to attack conservatives. Anyway, the only reason I bring this up is because of Jeff Beck’s last meaningful tweet to me.
@top20reos: Intelligent people rarely, if ever experience condescension. Think about it.
That really sums it all up. People like Jeff Beck feel like they’re intellectually superior to any conservative. Is it really surprising that every prominent conservative’s intelligence is attacked? The reason why true liberals will never be honestly elected nationally in the United States is because they don’t understand the average American.
Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.” – Ronald Reagan
“But Henshaw, Obama was elected and he’s liberal.” Oh, I know, but he didn’t run as a liberal. Obama ran as a post-partisan centrist. He was helped by his sparse record and the fact he ran in 2008, a year any Democrat could have won. The fact is if Obama ever wants to be reelected he’ll have to act more conservative. If intelligent people rarely ever feel condescension, then liberals like Jeff Beck must never be happy. It must be depressing to know that your political beliefs are a pariah to the average American.
alarmists gone wild
Oct 21st
Expanding on the points I made yesterday about character assassinations, I stumbled onto this blog post by Roger Pielke Jr, a professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Pielke is a liberal environmentalist who believes in the theory of anthropogenic global warming (a.k.a., human caused climate change); however, he’s made the mistake of correcting many of the alarmist talking points such as idea that there’s been a huge increase in weather-related damage due to global warming. Pielke documents how well respected liberal bloggers like RealClimate and Brad Delong are out to destroy anyone they disagree with on this issue. Read about it in his post “Giant Fish, Big Fish, and Minnows of the Liberal Blogosphere.”
Here’s how it works. The really giant fish — public intellectuals like Tom Friedman and Paul Krugman — confer authority on the big fish of the liberal blogosphere. They do so by applauding the work of the big fish and saying that they trust them. This is a useful exchange because the big fish amplify the writings of the giant fish in the blogosphere and do the dirty work of taking down their political opponents by playing some gutter politics that the giant fish would rather not be seen playing. This has the effect of establishing the big fish as people to be listened to, not because they are necessarily right about things, but because the giant fish listen to them and the giant fish set political agendas.
Anyone who disagrees with the talking points of the big fish are then targets of character attacks. There’s no debate. I have no problem with different opinions or lively debate. People are never going to see eye to eye all the time, but these character assassinations campaigns are just leading to massive groupthink. Many of the global warming alarmists have adopted theory as a religion. Believers of the theory like Pielke are treated like Galileo when he stated that the sun was at the center of the universe.
There’s no doubt mankind has made incredible progress over the past 150 years, but we’re still not infallible. Many accepted theories in science, math, and politics will be challenged in the future. We should encourage ideas to be challenged because ideas fuel progress. Alarmists should welcome debate. The idea that scientists have figured out how to predict something as complex as our climate is ridiculous. The computer models have failed to predict the current temperature trend because there are too many unknown variables. There’s a long way to go in the area of climatology before it is considered settled science.
balloon boy dad: hillary is a shapeshifter
Oct 16th
As if all the stars had aligned in the universe the Balloon Boy story from yesterday has landed on the desk of The Daily Plunge. How is that you may ask? Obviously stories like this are normally not my cup of tea, but that’s until I saw this video of the Balloon Boy’s Dad:
I had the video posted here but it’s causing my site problems on IE8. Thank you Microsoft.
Hillary Clinton is a shapeshifting reptilian? Fire up the grid, the loonies are out in full force. I wonder how many people actually believe this stuff? It must be more than I initially thought.
