It’s been almost 24 hours since news broke that a conservative man who posted at Free Republic has been arrested for sending threatening letters to prominent liberals laced with white powder and I have to admit I am ashamed to be a conservative.
That’s 24 long hours – exactly one day – that conservative bloggers have failed miserably in their duty to police their ranks by condemning without hesitation and with a virulence matching those brave, right thinking bloggers on the left a fellow conservative who, as we all know, was only doing what all of us secretly want to do but don’t have the guts – cause the left to go into paroxysms of over the top rhetorical gibberish about us hateful, spiteful, goose stepping, fascists who use “eliminationist rhetoric” with the practiced ease of your average Kluxer. (NOTE: I suggest to confirm my last statement, you lefties might want to check with Senator Byrd…just to be sure.)
I’m talking about domestic terrorism here. I’m talking about condemning this poor, deluded schmuck – who both his lawyer and prosecutor believe to be nuttier than my Auntie Midge’s fruitcake – because he not only posts at Free Republic but because he has a crush on Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin!
Shameful. “Where’s Malkin?” asks that guardian of truth and righteousness Dave Neiwert?
Malkin—who is quick to proclaim random acts of violence on a jihadist terror conspiracy within our borders, but never seems to worry about actual acts of domestic terrorism—has so far ignored Mr. Castagana at her site.
Malkin, the guys at Powerline, even Ed Morrissey should be absolutely ashamed of themselves. Not jumping on this story IMMEDIATELY - and by “immediately” I mean they should have been on this story like white on rice (oops! my bad!) at a minimum of 1/4 hour after this story hit the internet – only highlights their TOTAL and UTTER hypocrisy when it comes to terrorists. So what if they guy is LOONIER THAN A JUNE BUG? He’s a conservative, iddn’t he? He loves Malkin, doddn’t he? That’s enough for me.
Who knows…given all the “connections” the left is finding to conservatives on this guy, maybe even it will come out that he’s Ann Coulter’s secret boyfriend. Or Malkin’s pen pal. Or Hitler’s long lost son. Anything is possible.
Neiwert is a stitch. Here he uses one of his favorite “literary” devices – self righteously eschewing blanket condemnation of his subject and in the breathtaking space of a few words, going ahead and issuing the sweeping generalization anyway:
As Bruce Wilson and Evan Derkacz point out, it is unfair to smear all conservatives generally with the acts of loons like Castagana. But there is, as I’ve remarked previously, a level of culpability here as well in cases like these:What all of these incidents have in common is the mental instability of the actors; and I’ve explored previously how that affects the way society and the law must deal with the perpetrators. In the case of Buford Furrow, for instance, his mental illness became a mitigating factor in his eventual sentence, as prosecutors decided not to seek the death penalty in large part because of it.
It’s “unfair” to smear all conservatives like this so let me do it anyway. I just won’t call it responsibility. I’ll call it “culpability.” Such nuance deserves “The Annoyingly Pious Verbal Smokescreen of the Year Award.” Luv it.
More “Where’s Malkin:”
Let’s check in with our doyenne of domestic terror hysteria, Michelle Malkin, seeing as she’s ‘worshipped’ by a suspect now in custody. I think we know what we’re going to find.The demise of liberal talk radio…
By Michelle Malkin · November 13, 2006 12:32 PM
All I can say is, I’m thinking very seriously of de-linking Malkin over this outrage. And she should probably come clean about any connections she has with this terrorist. Did he ever send her an email? Perhaps we should look into the records of florists in the Washington DC area to see if he ever sent her flowers. Did she accept the flowers? Did she email him back thanking him for the flowers? Just what is her relationship with this terrorist?
Am I sounding hysterical enough? Try this reaction at Democratic Underground:
Their entire board will be investigated. Anyone who communicated with him, too.
But they have nothing to hide, do they?
It’s not like anyone over there encouraged him in any way or engaged in inciteful or hate speech, surely? And hey, who needs Habeus Corpus, right, freeps? Once everyone’s phone records, bank statements, and other transactions have been checked, all computer hard drives and other property seized will be returned, no doubt. Eventually.
For pure entertainment, there is nothing like a comment thread at DU to tickle your funny bone and make you hit your knees and thank the Lord that He gave you a full deck to play with.
But okay, I’ll go ahead and speak for my comrades since no other conservative has bothered to demonstrate the moral outrage, the simpering self righteousness, and predictable, tiresome condemnations required of us by our leftist overseers and guardians of truth here on the internet:
BAD FREEPER! BAD! BAD! BAD!
And make sure you tell your shrink about your crush on Coulter, Malkin, and all the other conservative women who strike your fancy. The lefties deem this as big a sin as being a terrorist which only goes to show how people’s priorities can get all screwed up during a time of war.
UPDATE
Neiwert (sorry Dave, it’s amatuerish and inexcusable to misspell your name – I’ll try harder next time) links here and lets loose the cannons of rhetorical idiocy:
—He doesn’t get that calling these haters to account for the acts that spring from their rhetoric—if by nothing else than openly expressing our moral outrage, and publicly shaming the entities who give them a megaphone—is hardly an attack on their audience. Unless, of course, the audience agrees with them.
—Moran also wants to believe that there’s no connection—none whatsoever—between prominent conservatives who spew hateful rhetoric urging or suggesting violent actions against, and ultimately the elimination of, their political opponents, and kooks who then go out and act out this eliminationism by mailing death threats against the very targets these people constantly demonize.
Sort of the right-wing version Happy Fuzzy Wuzzy Bunny World.
As opposed to the left wing Snarling, Spitting, Smear Factory? If you expressed your “moral outrage” at Palestinian suicide bombers or al-Qaeda truck bombers with half the vehemence that you do against your fellow countrymen, your condemnations might have the ring of authenticity.
That said, this amatuerish psychologicizing about a connection between Ann Coulter making one of her stupid, horse’s ass comments about hanging Supreme Court judges and the loon who is in love with her sending baking powder to Keith Olberman is good stand up material but hardly proof of anything except an outrageously stupid attempt to smear people with which Neiwert disagrees.
I don’t care how many cites Dave can come up with from left wing psychologists or other arm chair Jungians, there is not one shred of proof, not one iota of evidence that draws a direct correlation between what Neiwert considers hateful rhetoric and violence or threatened violence against liberals.
Oh, uh..except Bill Clinton said it was so.
To believe that Timothy McVeigh blew up 187 people because of something Rush Limbaugh said (even if McVeigh listened to him every day and was a huge fan) or something Limbaugh hinted at, or something Limbaugh imparted to him via gypsy fortune teller is so ignorant its hard to know where to begin in deconstructing such foolishness. The suggestion by Clinton that “talk radio” was responsible for Oklahoma City was the lowest, the grossest political rhetoric I have heard in nearly 35 years of watching American politics. Nothing Nixon said came close. Nothing since – even Bush’s rhetoric – has come close. It was unconscionable. And it’s silly on its face.
People like McVeigh and this idiot Freeper don’t need Ann Coulter or Rush Limbaugh to encourage them to act they way they do. These people are in desperate need of attention. They search for identity within a group – McVeigh with the Kluxers, the anthrax loon with the Freepers – and it doesn’t help. They still feel alone.
Oswald, Sara Jane Moore, Squeaky Fromme, and most other 20th century perpetrators of political violence use political greivances as self-justification to lash out at the world that has rejected them. This is the established, recognized forensic determination for why almost all violence directed against political personalities takes place. They don’t need the “trigger” of a Limbaugh or a Coulter (or a Manson or a Castro) to become violent. Neither can they be dissuaded from carrying out their plans by friends or loved ones. Not mentally ill enough to be considered unfit to stand trial, they nevertheless are incapable of functioning in society and are a danger to both themselves and others.
The attempt to change this paradigm is a political effort and not serious analysis. It fits in nicely with the left’s storytelling with regard to conservative bogeymen like Limbaugh and Coulter while giving them a priveleged frame of reference to moralize against the right. And since it makes them feel good, I have no doubt the efforts of Neiwert and others in this regard will continue.
12:15 pm
Rick – to be honest this post is the first I’ve heard of this sicko. As for Malkin, she’s been delinked from my blog for ages. She’s lost her punch with me – too self absorbed.
1:08 pm
[...] On the suspected-anthrax-mailer tip, Rick Moran of Right Wing Nut House runs after the train of irony with his suitcase flapping open, then jumps up and down on the tracks yelling at his strewn socks and underwear: “Where’s Malkin?†asks that guardian of truth and righteousness Dave Neiwert? Malkin—who is quick to [blame] random acts of violence on a jihadist terror conspiracy within our borders, but never seems to worry about actual acts of domestic terrorism—has so far ignored Mr. Castagana at her site. [...]
2:01 pm
Sorry, I missed this completely too. Was it me or did the MSM miss out on this as well?
2:04 pm
Fred:
It was a minor story at Yahoo and Google. I didn’t see it today in WaPo or the NY TImes.
It made AOL news as well but just the AP story – a day late.
2:35 pm
You misread Neiwert, hardly a surprise. The “culpability” he’s referring to isn’t for sadistic hate-mongers like Malkin and Coulter. Neiwert writes, “All these figures, of course, have the right to speak as they wish. But the media-industry figures—the producers and executives who put them on the air, thereby giving them a bullhorn to broadcast it nationally and spew it across our television sets and radios—are simply being irresponsible.”
Creatures like Malkin and Coulter have every right to shriek and rant. It’s a free country, and freedom of speech extends to all. But the people at Fox who book Malkin for their shows and editors at Time who put Coulter on the cover give them a far greater audience than their repulsive views deserve. Instead a few dozen people listening to their nonsense, there are millions, and in a sample that large you’ll find some people who are mentally disturbed. So it’s those editors and executives Neiwert is criticizing. You missed (or willfully ignored) his point.
Of course the conservative bloggers you mentioned aren’t going to talk about this case—they’re hypocrites and cowards. It would be completely out of their character to discuss news that doesn’t conform to the artificial reality they pretend we all live in.
3:03 pm
Hmmmmm…...
http://rightwingnuthouse.com/archives/2006/07/08/louder-pleasethe-crickets-are-chirping/
And yet…this incident definitely didn’t make it’s way very high into the MSM. Didn’t even hit yahoo.
3:07 pm
Where do you find this stuff? I hadn’t heard anything about this—and sorry, but I don’t have the patience to read DU or Kos. Or Yahoo news, for that matter.
3:11 pm
Nikki:
Go to technorati.com and punch up blog posts with the perps name (Castagana)
Now punch up the U of A teacher who threatened Goldstein’s 2 year old son (Debbie Frisch).
Duh.
There are roughly 17 times more blogposts about Frisch than the anthrax loon. Not only that, the idiot who runs Sadly No linked a Malkin piece that had a time stamp of 12:30 pm. He uses this as proof that Malkin didn’t mention the loon because she’s a hypocrite.
Only one problem – the earliest anyone knew about the guys freeper connections appears to be a post at Democratic underground at 10:30 AM. In other words, the dumbass at Sadly no is criticizing Malkin for not blogging about a story that most LIBERAL bloggers knew nothing about.
3:19 pm
Your point would be relevant if you assume that Liberal bloggers read the comments section of conservative blogs and, subsequently, would know who Deb Frisch is/was. Liberal bloggers only knew about her AFTER conservative bloggers made such a fuss about how the liberals weren’t denouncing her actions.
Castagana’s name popped up in the AP/MSM upon his arrest for domestic terrorism against celebrities and news people.
Huge difference, wouldn’t you say?
4:55 pm
Duh. It was on Olbermann yesterday.
4:58 pm
Well, now that the story is out on this well-trafficked site (read by many conservative bloggers), ignorance should no longer be an excuse for anyone.
6:31 pm
There are roughly 17 times more blogposts about Frisch than the anthrax loon.
That’s because the right wing went bazongo over the Frisch incident, howling for us to ‘repudiate’ her within literally 15 minutes of the time the story broke on Protein Wisdom. I mean literally 15 minutes.
And the Frisch incident didn’t hit the mainstream news at all until the howling reached FOX quite a bit later.
Not only that, the idiot who runs Sadly No linked a Malkin piece that had a time stamp of 12:30 pm. He uses this as proof that Malkin didn’t mention the loon because she’s a hypocrite.
I don’t claim not to be an idiot. But she’s really been on the ball since then, eh?
Oh, Rick—if you edit nonsense words into my comment to ‘discredit’ it like you did to Brad last week, we’ll goop snovvle I wike to pway wif dolls penisheimer
7:57 pm
No editing today. I reserve that right for the insufferable gloaters.
You might note that not all (or even most) lefty comments on that post received my special attentions. Only the smug, the self righteous, and the really juvenile commenters were made to look like idiots.
8:04 pm
I removed Michelle Malkin from my blogroll because of concern over the way she overgeneralized in regards to crime and illegal aliens. I often disagree (especially on social and religious issues) with this blog but haven’t found grounds for removing it because unlike Ms. Malkin, it doesn’t overtly attempt to use simplistic arguments to stir up mass hysteria.
However, I don’t think it is necessary to condemn Ms. Malkin yet. The news seemed to move surprisingly slowly and I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt to simply being mistaken (I personally wasn’t aware of the identity of this jerk until just now). I’ll give her 24 hours.
For the record, it isn’t necessary for every blogger on the right to make some comment (although I will to my non-existent audience), but those such as Malkin do have a special responsibility because their material is based on attacking leftist assaults of freedom of speech.
8:50 pm
It would appear that one of the more important lessons we supposedly learned from the Second World War—the correlation between violent rhetoric and violent actions—is being deliberately erased. Julius Streicher is almost forgotten, but at one time he was famous as the propagandist whose newspaper, DER STURMER, did so much to whip up hatred of the Jews.
Himmler had this to say about him:
“In times to come when the story of the reawakening of the German people is written, and when the next generation will be unable to understand how the German people could ever have been friendly with the Jews, it will be said that Julius Streicher and his weekly newspaper were responsible for a good part of the education about the enemy of mankind.”
After the war, the court at Nuremberg agreed. Streicher, who insisted to the end that he’d been merely a propagandist, had never pointed at any individual and said “kill that man” was hanged along with the other war criminals.
There are plently of other examples aside from the grand guignol of Nazi Germany. I’m old enough to remember the kind of rhetoric I heard about civil rights activists in the American south during the Civil Rights movement, ugly, violent rhetoric that was followed, not surprisingly, by the murders of people like Michael Schwerner and Viola Liuzzo. The genocide in Rwanda is inextricably linked with the hatred whipped up by Rwanda radio stations,in which calls went out to “kill the cockroaches.” Here on the West Coast, we have the Goldmarks to remember, a family killed in the 1980s by an unbalanced soul who’d been convinced by a local right-wing organization that they were Communists and ergo enemies of America.
Recognizing this link is not a matter of left or right. It is the conclusion of scholars and historians who, in the years after the war, sought to understand how a cultured, tolerant society like Germany descended into barbarism. The great diarist, Victor Klemperer, painstakingly recorded this descent and how the Nazis used rhetoric to facilitate it in his Third Reich Diary.
It may pay you to read it, and other works about that terrible object lesson of the 20th century, The Third Reich.
8:55 pm
You might note that not all (or even most) lefty comments on that post received my special attentions. Only the smug, the self righteous, and the really juvenile commenters were made to look like idiots.
Well, we take a strictly laissez-faire approach: If a commenter is smug, self-righteous, or juvenile, we figure they’ll look like an idiot all on their own.
10:24 am
Fahagie:
Your comment was deleted because you are an anti-Semetic pig.
12:29 pm
I think many of these crazies do “need the ‘trigger’ of a Limbaugh or a Coulter (or a Manson or a Castro”. Still, you absolutely cannot blame the “trigger” for a shooting. The crazy is the one pulling the “trigger” and bears all the responsibilty.
Commentators cannot tame their rhetoric because some crazy, somewhere, somehow, may misinterpret it. Their language should only be tailored to the overwhelming majority of their audience who are sane and reasonable.
6:32 pm
Just to be clear for the research labs and other sadlynosieans, i’m a different brad, not the big Brad at SN. Probably knew that, but Ricky might not have. Seems to be plenty he doesn’t know.
Malkin posts about terrorism a lot, ricky. Every time a muslim commits a felony anywhere in the US, she’s on it, calling it terrorism. But apparently white guys committing actual terrorist acts are just crazy lone wolves that tell us nothing about nothing, especially if they’re, by pure random coincidence, fans of pundits who make frequent use of eliminationist rhetoric. I mean, sheesh, it’s not as if Ann Coulter has ever advocated violence against her political opponents.
And ricky, my closeted future gay marriage partner?
Let’s whip em out and compare brain sizes. I’m working on my second MA as part of a Phd in philosophy. Then there’s postdoc. My gpa is, like, shiny, too.
Did you even go to the joke that is journalism school? And, ifso, where is your career?
WITHOUT A DOUBT, SOME OF THE DUMBEST, THE DENSEST, THE MOST INSUFFERABLY STUPID PEOPLE ON THIS PLANET HAVE POST DOCS. ONLY A FOOL BELIEVES THAT IT BESPEAKS INTELLIGENCE TO HAVE ONE. AND ONLY AN INSECURE IDIOT TRIES TO “PROVE” HE’S SMARTER THAN SOMEONE ELSE BY BRAGGING ABOUT IT.
7:44 pm
If what you are saying is true, how come it wasn’t true when Frisch was doing it? What was different?
8:22 pm
Or, ricky, I was goading you like the cute little tool you are.
Nice to see you’re as predictable as I expected.
8:45 pm
Brad, stop bothering people! I mean, you’re RICH and you only have your degree, in ummmm, what was it again, ;), because you don’t want to get a real job so you’re going to stay in school forever and ever! The fact is, your degree aids you in not getting a job, so um, what are we talking about here anyway?
8:59 pm
Nah, my parents are rich. I’m just the beneficiary of some wise investments on my behalf by my grandma when I was born.
And hell yes, I want to stay in school forever. I get a hell of a lot more from lectures than I will by standing in front of a class full of freshman trying to convince them and myself to care about Kant.
Also, post docs come with stipends, which is to say, they’re kinda like jobs.
Now stop trying to come between me and Ricky. I love him truly, madly, deeply, and it’s only a matter of time before he admits he feels the same.
8:59 pm
class full of *freshmen...
damn typos.
9:23 pm
Did you ban my ip, my love?
“The more you ignore me, the closer I get. You’re wasting your time.”
12:47 am
Hey, Ricky, you misspelled “anthrax”. It’s A-N-T-H-R-A-X.
You might want to fix that when you’re trying so hard to convince us all how clever you are.
10:52 am
#17 – My apologies, Rick. My intention was sarcasm and I obviously failed to put in enough clues and/or it was simply bad. I don’t remember what the comment was but no matter – I’ll cop to being a pig but I’m not anti-semetic, as best I can tell.
1:21 pm
“he’s Ann Coulter’s secret boyfriend”
Ann Coulter is gay?