Althouse: "I went over to Althouse’s and wrote a number of insanely offensive comments, but everyone started agreeing with me before I could declare 'April Fools’!'"

April 1, 2010

"I went over to Althouse’s and wrote a number of insanely offensive comments, but everyone started agreeing with me before I could declare 'April Fools’!'"

Oh, bullshit! No one agreed with you. They just didn't let you wind them up like you tried. It was pretty obvious what was going on, but you did fool TBogg, a lefty blogger, who was so eager to believe the commenters over here are bad people that he was thoroughly humor deaf... even on April Fool's Day.

UPDATE: There are some strange levels of complexity to this, explored here.

129 comments:

traditionalguy said...: Being a favorite target for lefty trolls is a compliment to their frustration at the civility the Professor has maintained here. Using vulgar words in place of comments that make a point is clearly a mental illness. But it may be a treatable illness, so most regulars here do not jump on every vulgar new comer out until they have first been challenged a few times about the uselessness of making vulgar or racist comments.; 4/1/10, 8:33 PM
Anonymous said...: Let me tell you ... there's nothing better than a smoothly shaved woman, no hair, no stubble.

April Fool!

Peter; 4/1/10, 8:34 PM
Moon Rattled said...: What's telling is your commenters didn't have a problem. Hmmm?

I'm sure it pains the lot of your conservatard followers, and you, that the Republican base is comprised of a bunch of racist and ignorant hillbillies who do as they are told by Fox, but that's the skanky bed you lie in.

I'm looking forward to a follow up video of you performing, drunk, "Leave Britney Alone!" (substitute teabaggers).

Kinda like the Sanjaya one, only with more passion.; 4/1/10, 8:44 PM
Revenant said...: It sounds like the same stunt the Democrats pulled just before the ObamaCare vote. They paraded a bunch of black congressmen in front of the Tea Party crowds because they just *knew* the crowds would reveal their secret inner racism. When nobody said or did anything racists, they shrugged and told the news it had happened anyway.; 4/1/10, 8:46 PM
Shanna said...: My favorite part is when he claimed that someone argued that "tea bags were at the boston tea party". Lord.

Don't these people have anything better to do?; 4/1/10, 9:14 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Its like a tea party sign that said "It doesn't matter what this sign says, you are going to call it racist anyway"; 4/1/10, 9:17 PM
YoungHegelian said...: What's with the genteel and extreme left looking for racism and craziness on the right? I have no doubt one can find it, but if they're so worried about bigotry they might want to clean up their own side of the aisle.

Some examples: The history of La Raza starts out with some really loopy racist ideas ("la raza cosmica"). Ever seen those ideas disavowed by a Latino democrat?

Whatever Rev Farrakhan may be, he is a racist in the classical sense. All us white folk were created by a mad scientist called Yacub. This is standard teaching for the Nation of Islam. Did you hear any Chicago dems (including the one in the WH) call him out when he hosted 20,000 followers in Chicago in March?

How about all the anti-war rallies organized by ANSWER, proud supporters of North Korea and every other lefty third world nutjob. You see any of the Dem Congressmen who spoke at those rallies bring up that fact?

One doesn't have to look very far on even the moderate left to find a crazy lurking in the corner. Didn't Valerie Jarrett know Van Jones was a commie, or did it just not matter?

Lefties -- heal thyselves, then berate the rest of us.; 4/1/10, 9:18 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/1/10, 9:33 PM
Anonymous said...: I believe at one point this week I posted, wow, this post is certainly attracting a lot of lefty comments.

When you see a whole bunch of new people with funny names and all using four letter words, you know something is up.

I dread the coming onslaught provoked by Ann's photo of a glass of wine.; 4/1/10, 9:34 PM
Anonymous said...: Once you've congratulated yourself for reinventing Mobying, what do you do for an encore? Be on the lookout for Rick Astley Youtube links from the irrepressible zany funster!; 4/1/10, 9:34 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Accusing the tea partiers of a hidden racist agenda, essentially means that the election of Obama has set the country back.

Their hatred (from the likes of Krugman, King, Blow, and Rich for the right is so blinding they don't realise the import of their accusations.

If its about race (and any idiot could see that its not) then it means Obama has a miserable fail winning people over.; 4/1/10, 9:46 PM
kth said...: Are we sure SEK actually posted anything here? The impression I got from the post you linked to is that he was riffing off that take from Lew Rockwell that any racial slurs uttered at TEA events ought to be presumed as the work of provocateurs. I didn't get the idea that he was claiming to have authored any of the posts he linked to, or any of the others.

Thoughts?; 4/1/10, 9:49 PM
Irene said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/1/10, 9:59 PM
Irene said...: Once you've congratulated yourself for reinventing Mobying, what do you do for an encore?

Return to the birther meme.

Bwah!!; 4/1/10, 10:00 PM
Unknown said...: The sad part is that these people actually think they're making some kind of devastating point by calling people a lot of names. Granted, in the Alinsky playbook, we're all supposed to be so horrified that some "liberal" has called us racists, we vow to change our ways and vote straight Demo for the rest of our lives.

What's even weirder is that they expect us to believe their little fairy tale (no pun) that sending a Congressman an emblematic tea bag, instead of an East India Company chest of oolong, somehow translates to the idea that the Tea Partiers started the whole 'teabagging' thing instead of good ol' our-ratings-are-dropping-but-we-still-tow-the-Lefty-line CNN.; 4/1/10, 10:03 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/1/10, 10:04 PM
nrn312 said...: Granted, in the Alinsky playbook, we're all supposed to be so horrified that some "liberal" has called us racists, we vow to change our ways and vote straight Demo for the rest of our lives.

Indeed.; 4/1/10, 10:08 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Candidate Barack H Obama.

..but I think it’s fair to say that the places where we are going to have to do the most work are the places where people feel most cynical about government.

By his own words Obama has failed.

Check it, even back then the NY Times was already working on the Obama template.

That’s… there were intimations of that in an article in the Sunday New York Times today – kind of implies that it’s sort of a race thing. (BTW - Obama never dismissed the use of the race card by the NYT)

Obama same talk later..

So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations..

Candidate Hillary Clinton responded thus..

Americans are fair-minded and good-hearted people. We have ups and downs. We face challenges and problems. But our views are rooted in real values, and they should be respected.; 4/1/10, 10:15 PM
garage mahal said...: So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations..

Guns and ammo sales are through the roof. Plenty of bitterness and anti-immigrant sentiment at the tea parties. I would say Obama, like it or not, was correct in this assumption.; 4/1/10, 10:28 PM
SEK said...: Dear Ann,

I didn't write any of those comments. You just got fooled twice over by your own racist and misogynist commenters. Please, feel free to check the IP addresses of the comments I claimed, all April-Foolsy, to have written.

P.S. Of course I took screen shots.; 4/1/10, 10:32 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Obama.. was correct in this assumption.

So Obama's way of working "the places where we are going to have to do the most work" is passing a humongous tax.

I could go right, but I prefer to go left President Obama.; 4/1/10, 10:41 PM
Synova said...: So did anyone see any good April Fools things?

Instapundit linked to a story in Locus (I think it was actually in Locus) that Charlie Stross and Cory Doctoro (I'm sure I didn't spell his name right) got the go ahead for an Atlas Shrugged sequel.

I thought Stross a sort of odd one to write something like that but I didn't get that it was April Fools until well into the article.

Bravo, in any case.

That one was actually clever.; 4/1/10, 10:41 PM
Beta Rube said...: There were mor racist, hateful, anti-semetic utterances in 10 minutes of a Jeremiah Wright sermon than in all the speeches and all the protesters at all the Tea Parties combined.

President Jesus took his kids to one week in and week out, and has contempt for the other. Just so we know who we're dealing with and what the rules of engagement are.; 4/1/10, 10:42 PM
bagoh20 said...: This is an incredibly boring use of the Internets. It's bad graffiti.; 4/1/10, 10:42 PM
Synova said...: My husband thought that the cast and trailer for "The Expendables" was an April Fools, but it's not.

Stallone, Statham, Li, Lungren and Rourke, with a number of others including Arnold and Bruce Willis.

All in the same movie.

Sweet!; 4/1/10, 10:43 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Guns and ammo sales are through the roof. Plenty of bitterness and anti-immigrant sentiment at the tea parties. I would say Obama, like it or not, was correct in this assumption.

Self fulfilling prophecy, I would say.; 4/1/10, 10:43 PM
Bill Kilgore said...: So is Lawyers, Guns and Money designed to be just like Hotchickswithdouchebags but without the hot chicks?; 4/1/10, 10:50 PM
MadisonMan said...: P.S. Of course I took screen shots.

How nice. You can turn them into wallpaper for your van down by the river.; 4/1/10, 10:51 PM
MadisonMan said...: So did anyone see any good April Fools things?

I liked the grist.org story that McDonald's was going to stop composting leftover food in its restaurants because the food doesn't decompose.; 4/1/10, 10:54 PM
LonewackoDotCom said...: 4/1/10 8:44 PM
Revenant: yeah, that was some stunt! Of course, the BarneyFrank bit not happening would require several people to have been lying. And, the teapartiers just aren't smart enough to avoid situations like that. Oh, and also one other minor thing: the Dems won, and the teaparty loons lost.

YoungHegelian: I certainly remember the valiant and relentless opposition that the teaparty, r/w blogger, and GOP leadership types waged against those like SoniaSotomayor and others associated with the National Council of La Raza. In fact, I had to go out and get two more servers due to all those sources linking to that page, which has more oppo on that group than you'll find anywhere.

Just kidding: the teaparty, r/w blogger, and GOP leadership types completely caved, like the incompetent tools they are.

Regarding the BirthCert issue, see this.

Regarding the partiers constantly being called racist, it could stop within a week if they and their leaders were completely incompetent. They have no clue about how to handle such charges but actually make things worse. Not only are they idiots, but they think they know everything. And, that's a very losing combination.; 4/1/10, 10:54 PM
bagoh20 said...: Don't you get the distinct impression that lefties love racism. When they think they see it, they aren't disgusted, they're excited. At least when it's where they want to see it. The racism they posses is invisible to them. Check out the email Michelle Malkin gets from them. It's the vilest racist slurs I've ever heard, even worse than any caricatures of racists.

So we can see what the rest of this election year is gonna be like, ugly personal, dishonest, off subject, and ultimately disastrous for them. People are fed up with these tactics and just not intimidated by this guilt crap. They know who they are, they know their friends and they know racism is just not the subject at hand. The left will fail in this attempt, but it's all they have at this point. Only the inevitable economic turn around happening at the right time will help them, but betting on luck alone is a weak hand.; 4/1/10, 10:56 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: BTW.. whats wrong with people purchasing a legal gun and believing that as part of the war on terror and a terrible economy we should cut back on immigration.

These are defensible, honorable political positions.; 4/1/10, 10:58 PM
bagoh20 said...: To understand them, you need to feel their positions, it can't be discussed rationally. That's why stunts like this are attempted; they need to feel they are right viscerally, not reason their way to a superior position. That's why our arguments with them usually go the way they do. Argue with a lefty long enough and eventually you get insulted, hit, bit, your car keyed or if they are a friend, they abandon the relationship. There is no middle ground or compromise on visceral feelings.; 4/1/10, 11:10 PM
Synova said...: "What's telling is your commenters didn't have a problem. Hmmm?"

Other than the fact that disagreement flows freely and commenters certainly did "have a problem" just like at least one person will comment when C4 starts talking about Jews while everyone else is rolling their eyes:

This is what tolerance looks like.

I understand that it makes many liberals excessively uncomfortable to actually experience an environment that is tolerant of divergent ideas, even those considered "bad".

More pleasant all around would be the enforced civility of liberal environments. It's a civility that may or may not apply to you, depending on your beliefs, race or social status, but the rules are known and understood and no one need be "tolerant" of any view which they find distasteful.; 4/1/10, 11:18 PM
YoungHegelian said...: LoneWacko,

I never claimed that the Republicans were models of moral probity, so don't impute that to me. Republican moral failings we can smack around another day.

The question here is the deep hypocrisy of the left, who build their case for social change on the intrinsic bigotry of American society, yet construct their political alliances out of some of the most bigoted groups in America.; 4/1/10, 11:22 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "I didn't write any of those comments. You just got fooled twice over by your own racist and misogynist commenters."

Someone was fooling, either you, per your confession, or someone else, if you're not fooling now. It makes no difference to me who did it. It wasn't one of our regulars and it wasn't a believable story.

The attempt to paint my commenters (or me!) as racist or whatever is inflammatory and ugly, and I've lost track of who wants that to stop.; 4/1/10, 11:23 PM
Alex said...: It intrigues me that there is nothing that overjoys the left more then seeing a white man spewing racist rhetoric. In the 1950s this was considered a horrible thing, but now it's a "political opportunity".; 4/1/10, 11:27 PM
Alex said...: Guns and ammo sales are through the roof.

It's true. I bought my first gun thanks to Obama being elected. Not because I'm a racist mind you, but I fear he wants to abolish the 2nd amendment. I swear garage, I am NOT a racist.

I SWEAR!!!
I SWEAR!!!
I SWEAR!!!
I SWEAR!!!
I SWEAR!!!

Why won't you believe me! I'm begging you to believe me! I'm groveling at your feet! I'm prostrating myself before you! I'm not a racist!!!!; 4/1/10, 11:30 PM
JAL said...: MM --

Nice "wallpaper on the van down by the river" comment.

Seriously.; 4/1/10, 11:55 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Lets say you are in a theater watching a movie and there is a disruptive costumer.

If we apply the rules of (lets call him the april fool) all the movie goers that fail to get on the disruptive costumer's face are themselves co-conspirators.

The idea seems to be to get us on some sort of police duty, thereby preventing us from engaging in the real reason why we are here. Among them calling them on their insatiable appetite for more government.; 4/1/10, 11:55 PM
Revenant said...: Guns and ammo sales are through the roof.

Maybe Americans have gotten a lot more bitter in the last year. Man, I sure wouldn't want to be the majority party if THAT happened! :); 4/2/10, 12:00 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Guns and ammo sales are through the roof.

It may also mean that their aim is way off ;); 4/2/10, 12:04 AM
Scott Silton said...: Ann,
you are blind as a bat if you can't see that some of your commenters are bigoted idiots.

SEK wrote a post too clever by half, but it was obvious to me on first read that, as TBogg commenter Kheintz wrote: "Also, pretty sure SEK didn’t post anything over there, but was merely riffing on Lew Rockwell’s idiotic post (referenced in the Balloon Juice link in SEK’s post) that any bigot eruption at a tea protest ought to be presumed to be the work of a provocateur."

SEK's postmodern condescension wasn't technically trolling, but it wasn't elucidating either. You don't have to look very far to see some ugly rhetoric here in the great recession.

"Chase" could have been a troll other than SEK, I suppose, but I have a hard time believing all the tools that lept to his defense were as well. Maybe you should try a little harder to reign in the crazy, instead of making excuses for them.; 4/2/10, 12:10 AM
Revenant said...: Ann, you are blind as a bat if you can't see that some of your commenters are bigoted idiots.

Yeah, but Ann won't ban AlphaLiberal and Jeremy no matter how nicely we ask. :); 4/2/10, 12:12 AM
Ann Althouse said...: @Scott Silton It's called free speech. There are hundreds of comments here, I don't read them all, and I don't delete for offensive opinions or outrageousness. Most of my regular readers know how to navigate around them.

"Maybe you should try a little harder to reign in the crazy, instead of making excuses for them."

The phrase is "rein in," and why don't you try a little harder to comprehend what free speech is?

The notion that I approve of things that I don't delete is really, really stupid, possibly intentionally so.; 4/2/10, 12:17 AM
Ann Althouse said...: And I actually don't even have a mechanism to ban people.; 4/2/10, 12:18 AM
Peter Hoh said...: There are too many ingenuous commenters of late. I started to engage one of them a while ago and realized that it was fruitless.

Ignoring these bozos is not the same as agreeing with them.; 4/2/10, 12:26 AM
Peter Hoh said...: At some point, do these threads get to be like those tourist-destination restaurants -- so crowded that nobody goes there anymore?; 4/2/10, 12:29 AM
kth said...: Someone or another calling himself 'Chase' has posted to this site 155 times. Not sure if that counts as a regular or not. Maybe not all the same guy, who knows?; 4/2/10, 12:36 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Maybe you should try a little harder to reign in the crazy, instead of making excuses for them.

The idea that more speech, not less, promotes civility seems counter intuitive.. one only need to compare the freedoms in other countries to see the rightfulness of free speech American style.

I will go so far as to say that the election of Obama owes more to the first amendment, our freedom of expression than anything else we could point to.

IMHO Political correctness is not a remedy, its slow poison.; 4/2/10, 12:39 AM
bagoh20 said...: I guess it goes something like this:

But Ann, we demand censorship. Your ideas of free speech are not approved by us people who hate you, your commenters and their political opinions. Why can't you just "reign them in". We don't come here much, cause we hate you, but we don't want those ideas expressed even if we don't see them, or even if we bring them with us ourselves. You should stop us from being racists.; 4/2/10, 12:42 AM
Anga2010 said...: Democratic underground, KOS and JournoList operative. YAY!

Here's grist for the mill.

I'm a proud racist! I root for Ripley, Cpt. Kirk and any other humans (or even half-human like Mr. Spock) who are fighting against the aliens. I'm not a fan of the Klingons or Romulans, either!; 4/2/10, 12:52 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: "reign them in.. the crazies".

For every Octomom you "reign in" there are plenty more just waiting in the wings.

wv flousi; 4/2/10, 1:04 AM
Fen said...: Accusing the tea partiers of a hidden racist agenda, essentially means that the election of Obama has set the country back.

I called it before the election when Team Obama showed signs of this. I knew that any criticism of a black president would be labeled racist by the Bigoted Left.; 4/2/10, 1:10 AM
Gina said...: Sometimes you get the feeling that the internet is entirely populated by those in junior high.

But I defame junior high school students.; 4/2/10, 1:32 AM
bagoh20 said...: For those who would use these tactics, I ask you:

What if you are wrong? What if the people here are not the racists you imagine? What if they love their country as much as you and share many of your values, but differ primarily on the methods of getting there? What if these people do not hate you or anyone else just because they disagree?

If that's true, do you really want to use your hard earned skill and knowledge, your mind and spirit to create such willfully dishonest, damaging and cynical methods that only poison the tenuous but essential relationship between fellow citizens.

I ask that you reconsider, since it damages you and your cause as much as the other, if not in small contests, certainly in the larger scheme. If the people you use this on, return in kind, then both lose and if they don't, then you have lost substantial ground with yourself not to mention the argument. The enemy you imagine that justifies competing this way may not exist. They may only disagree. It does not have to be this way. Not in this country.; 4/2/10, 1:34 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Bush said back in 06..

"Its unacceptable to think that there is any kind of comparison between the behavior of the United States of America and the actions of Islamic extremists who kill innocent women and children to achieve an objective."

Keith Olbermann went apoplectic upon that phraseology.

Obama said today..

"I do think that everybody has a responsibility — Democrats or Republicans — to tone down some of this rhetoric, some of these comments"

Don't hold your breath expecting Olbermann to say a pip against Obama's attack on the first amendment.; 4/2/10, 1:34 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I recall Bush saying he wanted to "change the tone"..

But could you imagine if President Bush had said that everybody should "tone down"?

The cries of anger would have been sufficient for John Conyers to hold another mock impeachment trial.

The session took an awkward turn when witness Ray McGovern, a former intelligence analyst, declared that the United States went to war in Iraq for oil, Israel and military bases craved by administration “neocons” so “the United States and Israel could dominate that part of the world.” He said that Israel should not be considered an ally and that Bush was doing the bidding of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

A little further..

At Democratic headquarters, where an overflow crowd watched the hearing on television, activists handed out documents repeating two accusations — that an Israeli company had warning of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and that there was an “insider trading scam” on 9/11 — that previously has been used to suggest Israel was behind the attacks.

You want to hear the crazies?
Look for them to your left.; 4/2/10, 1:57 AM
Dustin said...: I guess some people think race baiting is funny. It's really getting old to see liberals pretend to be conservatives so they can delight in acting out their inner klansmen with glee. It's happening quite a bit, and never from conservatives. It's almost as though these souls really enjoy making extremely offensive comments.

Calling the TEA party racist isn't working. It's galvanizing them. Polarizing them. Making them more likely to support the GOP instead of a third party, and more likely to take real actions (volunteering and donating and protesting) instead of get burned out.

How is this an effective strategy to stop them? Everyone yawns when there's a report of some lone whacko on either side of the fence. Of course there are whackos. No one finds that persuasive. But what they do find persuasive is that much of the time, the reports are lies and vicious smears.

This is backfiring. If getting a little old. And didn't this blog endorse Obama, anyway? How racist could its commenters be?; 4/2/10, 3:47 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: Guns and ammo sales are through the roof.

Actually, no. There was a real boom right after the 2008 election and continuing for awhile, until everyone was stocked up, JIC. Then, the demand dropped significantly. Right now, sales are not that different from where they were during early 2008 and earlier. Earlier this year, there was a shakeout. The marginal players in the gun market who were making a quick buck are now down and out, but the bigger players are doing just fine.

Keep in mind that guns cost money, and there isn't a lot of extra money lying around, except in the government and with close friends of the Democrats running it. Elsewhere, everyone is struggling right now. So, acquiring yet another gun right now just doesn't make sense for a lot of gun owners. And ditto for ammo - there comes a point when they have more than they will need for awhile, and they can afford only so much stockpiling.

I am guessing that the boom in late 2008 and through part of 2009 in gun and ammo sales was due to a fear that gun restrictions would be enacted into law by the most liberal Congress of the last couple of decades. Heller may have dampened that enthusiasm by the Democrats in Congress, or maybe it was the concentration on health care. In any case, it didn't happen.; 4/2/10, 3:54 AM
William said...: SEK claims gotcha because he made an outrageous statement that was, in fact, denounced by some and supported by others. Then he claims double gotcha because he didn't really make the outrageous statement, and Althouse believed him. In Sek's judgement this is a damning indictment of Althouse and all those who oppose Obamacare. His diabolically clever, undercover work has exposed the sordid, squalid nature of Althouse and this community.....I don't get it, but I suppose I'm not meant to. Perhaps there is a latent content to this argument, a triple gotcha. By demonstrating this level of douchery he means to show that there really are extant people who deserve to be called cunts in front of their children. In a later post he will explain this and tell us how stupid we were for not calling him a cunt, and we will all feel stupd indeed.; 4/2/10, 3:56 AM
Anonymous said...: What a fascinating thread. Here we have leftists who believe they are smart and sophisticated taken in by an obvious and funny joke.

Here we also have leftists who claim to stand for tolerance and free speech wanting the host of a blog they don't even fucking visit to purge comments and ban commenters.

Hilarious.; 4/2/10, 4:47 AM
Scott said...: I comment here because it is an amusing diversion from my work. When it stops amusing me, I'll stop commenting.

I learned to detest leftist rhetoric when I was doing my undergrad at the University of Minnesota in the 70s-80s. But over the years, I have also learned to tune it out. It's like distortion and static on a radio station. When it gets too bad, I change the channel. I guess that's why leftists like to flood comment threads of blogs that express "incorrect thinking" with junk talking points and invective. That's free speech. Uh-huh.; 4/2/10, 6:12 AM
Dissertation Help said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; 4/2/10, 6:19 AM
Anonymous said...: If you think they're shocked now, wait until they read the 2:10 comment and realize that Althouse's commenters are Chinese spammers-- and no one seems to have a problem with that!; 4/2/10, 6:41 AM
Shanna said...: P.S. Of course I took screen shots.

How nice. You can turn them into wallpaper for your van down by the river.

Ha! Nice, MM.

BTW.. whats wrong with people ...believing that as part of the war on terror and a terrible economy we should cut back on immigration.

On immigration, we especially have to be careful considering what a murderous mess the border towns are right now. If millions of people coming over the border didn’t get anyone’s attention, maybe that will.

Sometimes you get the feeling that the internet is entirely populated by those in junior high.

Indeed.; 4/2/10, 6:48 AM
TWM said...: I've never been to SEK's blog before but its little random catchphrase in the top left read, "Strive for Adequacy."

No excellence to be sought there that is for certain.; 4/2/10, 7:29 AM
Scott said...: @Paul Z.: Or the 6:19 comment by Lori directly above yours! "Dissertation plan" indeed.; 4/2/10, 7:44 AM
JW said...: On this racism thing, I wonder if the teabaggers are familiar with the problem they create for themselves by protesting too much. Or, the predicament they create when they erect a straw man argument that goes something like: "leftists" claim all teabaggers are racists!!!!! Make that ridiculous statement often enough and people may just start believing it.; 4/2/10, 7:52 AM
A.W. said...: Shouting Thomas has an inflated sense of his own ego if he thinks we were paying that much attention to his stupidity.

Typically i shoot off my mouth, and check to see if alpha liberal or former law student have said anything stupid (in other words, have they said anything); and at most see if anything catches my eye, or if anyone else has responded to me. like out of this post i think i have scanned maybe five comments, max.

Beleive you me, if i had noticed Shouting's stupidity, i would have said something. I particularly take anti-filipino racism very personally.; 4/2/10, 7:53 AM
Dark Eden said...: "Plenty of bitterness and anti-immigrant sentiment at the tea parties."

You left out a rather important word as usual. Anti ILLEGAL immigrant sentiment.

You know who has the most anti illegal immigrant sentiment? A legal immigrant who went through the dog and pony show of getting into this country the right way.; 4/2/10, 7:54 AM
Shanna said...: I wonder if the teabaggers

I pretty much stop listening once i hear that word, since it tells me what kind of person you are right away.

Beleive you me, if i had noticed Shouting's stupidity, i would have said something. I particularly take anti-filipino racism very personally.

Of course, contrary to the comments, Lyssa and I had a whole conversation about what a jerk ST is. Also, it's white women he hates, not filipino's.; 4/2/10, 8:02 AM
Scott said...: @A.W.:

"I particularly take anti-filipino racism very personally."

I hear you. From now on, I will refrain from comments about chicken-eating, gun-toting Asians whose language sounds like chickens clucking, who dress funny, and who drive tricked out Jeeps.

(Honest to God, that was the best I could do -- I can't think of anything derogatory about Pinoys!); 4/2/10, 8:03 AM
MC said...: This is one of the main reasons I left the left. It was just uncomfortable to see this stupid, reprehensible tactic of making broad accusations of racism as a talisman to ward off debate.

Leftists. So many of them live in this egotistical fantasy land where everything they think is the only right and proper thing and everyone who opposes them is racist or villanous in some other way. It's exasperating.

If you think people oppose Obamacare because of racism, you are a fucking dense egotistical leftist fantasist, and that's a plain and simple fact.; 4/2/10, 8:18 AM
master cylinder said...: still talkin about you at BJ.....
this is fun.; 4/2/10, 8:23 AM
Caroline said...: There are actually people who feel they must censure every comment they find offensive and disagreeable? In a blog comment section? Really? They must have a lot of free time.

I don't feel such a compulsion to censor my fellow man. (And I have better things to do with my time.)

In addition, arguing with a bigot (whether it be a left-winger or a righty) is like repeatedly banging your head against the wall, and not expecting to get a headache. In other words, a pretty stupid thing to do.; 4/2/10, 8:29 AM
salvage said...: I bet someone photoshopped those comments!

Ann you are the smartest person on the Internet.; 4/2/10, 8:40 AM
Palladian said...: "still talkin about you at BJ....."

LOL.

Still givin' each other BJs over at BJ, eh?

With plenty of teeth I'm sure.; 4/2/10, 8:41 AM
T4TN said...: Revenant said...
It sounds like the same stunt the Democrats pulled just before the ObamaCare vote. They paraded a bunch of black congressmen in front of the Tea Party crowds because they just *knew* the crowds would reveal their secret inner racism. When nobody said or did anything racists, they shrugged and told the news it had happened anyway.

4/1/10 8:46 PM

April Fool's Day is the happiest day of the year.

That's got to me someone trying to make RWers look stupid--right?; 4/2/10, 8:41 AM
Anonymous said...: Apparently some people don't understand the concept of "Don't Feed the Trolls."

Ignoring them is a much more reasonable strategy than responding to every little spout of stupidity. You starve them of attention, you don't feed them a double helping. And it's less repressive, too. But then, for those leaning left, that takes all the fun out of it. It's gospel on the left that the only way to promote "tolerance" is to ban (or shout down) the speech of everyone you disagree with.; 4/2/10, 8:41 AM
Palladian said...: "April Fool's Day is the happiest day of the year.

That's got to me someone trying to make RWers look stupid--right?"

You know, it's best to make sure that you don't make stupid errors when writing comments calling other people stupid.; 4/2/10, 8:44 AM
AllenS said...: That's got to me someone

It's the Fool aspect of April Fools' Day, right?; 4/2/10, 8:50 AM
Scott said...: @Palladian: If you like them, you could save a bundle here.; 4/2/10, 8:57 AM
rhhardin said...: The obstacle for lefties is the perverse consequences of their policies.

They displace that onto the right, which serves as a messenger.

The right therefore must be offensive and idiotic in order that the left be pure.

You're just seeing a lefties working that through.; 4/2/10, 9:00 AM
master cylinder said...: I can't figure out on whom the joke was put.; 4/2/10, 9:03 AM
john said...: When Lem wakes up he will find he's famous. He needs to be more careful of his spelling now.; 4/2/10, 9:07 AM
Anonymous said...: Here's what pisses me off. Yesterday, I wrote, with regards to shoutingthomas:

"Libs who comment here are always anxious to shout "racist!" at the "Althouse hillbillies," but the other day (yesterday? They all run together), how many commenters immediantely and harshly rejected shoutingthomas's comments when they appeared to embrace "white superiority"?"

Then (as she already pointed out) Shanna and I had a big conversation about how much of a jerk he was.

But, somehow, SEK missed that (and many others) completely.

I honestly just don't know how to fight back against this kind of willful misrepresentation. Truth seems to have no power here.
- Lyssa; 4/2/10, 9:33 AM
save_the_rustbelt said...: Reminds me of a middle school kid who is proud of vandalism and brags to his buddies.

The left has a fair share of dumbasses.; 4/2/10, 9:47 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: I honestly just don't know how to fight back against this kind of willful misrepresentation.

Don't bother. The political discourse in this country has broken down to the point where liberals just take it as an article of faith that conservatives are all racists, homophobic, nazi neanderthals who eat babies for breakfast. Trying to reason with them at this point is trying to convince an atheist that God exists. It's pointless.

Instapundit had a link which showed one of the honchos at LFG who was convinced that a flag flying at a tea party rally was some 'neo-nazi' flag. Turned out it was the state flag of Tennessee. Oh sure he admits it later but fails to acknowledge that he just assumed it was a neo nazi flag. I mean it had to be right? All teabaggers are nazis.

I'm sure there are a few rational liberals out there that can engage in logical and polite debate but I think they're on the endangered species list.; 4/2/10, 10:00 AM
Defenseman Emeritus said...: Isn't this the same Scott Eric Kaufman that used to get regularly trounced into a puddle intellectually by Jeff Goldstein over at Protein Wisdom? Why am I not surprised that he's been reduced to sockpuppet Mobying in a cringe-inducing bid at ginning up traffic for himself. SEK is a little man with a little penis.; 4/2/10, 10:02 AM
somefeller said...: As far as blogwars go, this is one of the more ridiculous ones I've seen. SEK wrote a poorly-written and confusing post, the point of which was that some of the regular commenters here are bigots and ignoramuses. That part was true (he linked to people who do in fact post such commentary here regularly), but that point was lost because he tried to be all clever and meta and utterly fumbled the point he was trying to make. (Tip to SEK from a fellow liberal - if you are going to try to write something that you think is clever and subtle, you should elevate your writing skills or at least proofread it a few times for clarity.) Then people followed his fumble and started to believe that the comments he linked to were written by him, which they obviously were not. And while a lot of such idiotic comments are supported or tacitly tolerated around here, as has been pointed out above by Lyssa, a lot are also roundly criticized, including a couple of the ones SEK posted about.

In other words, it's the sort of self-referential, navel-gazing clusterfuck for which the blogosphere is legendary. And people wonder why I don't have a blog. Good riddance and happy Easter.; 4/2/10, 10:03 AM
garage mahal said...: We just went through months of unhinged health care rhetoric. Remember? Armageddon. Blood in the streets. Fascism. When liberals point to the absurdity of all that, they're the ones to blame for the discourse?; 4/2/10, 10:06 AM
Andrea said...: You know, somefeller, you could have a blog and just not allow comments on it, and not give out your email. It doesn't make you some sort of superior "above the fray" person to not have a blog just because on some blogs (ones you comment on a lot, by the way) people get into arguments you deem silly.; 4/2/10, 10:11 AM
rcocean said...: The left is now reduced to the lame tactic of posting Moby comments.

Imagine someone so pathetic and perverted they'd waste their life posting phony racist comments - just because they dislike a blogger.

Reminds me of Charles Johnson.; 4/2/10, 10:16 AM
somefeller said...: It doesn't make you some sort of superior "above the fray" person to not have a blog just because on some blogs (ones you comment on a lot, by the way) people get into arguments you deem silly.

Where did say I was somehow above the fray because I don't have a blog? It was a throwaway comment, said in the context of a discussion of blogosphere silliness.; 4/2/10, 10:18 AM
bagoh20 said...: "We just went through months of unhinged health care rhetoric. Remember? Armageddon. Blood in the streets. Fascism. "

You really don't see the hypocrisy in that statement do you? Amazing!; 4/2/10, 10:22 AM
somefeller said...: The left is now reduced to the lame tactic of posting Moby comments.

And here we go with the meme I figured would spread on this blog. The comments SEK mentioned weren't mobys written by him, they were bona fide comments, in many cases from regular commenters here. Now, thanks to SEK's confusing little attempt to start a blogfight, every time someone posts a dumbass comment with right-of-center inclinations (not a infrequent event), someone else here will link to SEK's posting and claim the commenter is a moby.; 4/2/10, 10:23 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: "He [Lem] needs to be more careful of his spelling now".

Are you telling me Google spell check is no good?; 4/2/10, 10:23 AM
bagoh20 said...: "I went over to Althouse and wrote a number of in sanely offensive comments..."

It was easy, I enjoyed it, and I'm extremely proud of myself, go look look at what I did. It's wonderfully offensive. I'm so cool and liberal.; 4/2/10, 10:29 AM
john said...: I didn't even know Google had a spell cehck.

Somehow that seems racist.; 4/2/10, 10:44 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: We just went through months of unhinged health care rhetoric. Remember? Armageddon. Blood in the streets. Fascism.

Garage we heard the same thing from your side for eight frigging years! Bushitler, turning America into a police state, Gitmo=Auschwitz. Do you remember that or has it slipped your mind?

When we pointed out the absurdity of your side what did you do? Scream louder. Hate to tell you this pal but the marriage of the government with companies (GM, Chrysler and now health care) is part and parcel of what economic fascism is. Sorry but that is the reality no matter how far you stick your head in the sand. Or elsewhere.; 4/2/10, 10:50 AM
garage mahal said...: You did it TOO!!!; 4/2/10, 10:53 AM
LouisAntoine said...: It's also very ironic that commenters here are making reflections about the insane intolerance of liberals who decry racist and idiotic comments on a post in which Althouse is shaming Wonkette commenters for being hateful and racist.

Althouse's hypocrisy is not a surprise.; 4/2/10, 10:53 AM
bagoh20 said...: "This parrot is dead".
"Nah, he's only sleeping."; 4/2/10, 10:54 AM
Matt said...: Right Wing doctor chooses politics over health:

Florida urologist Jack Cassell posted a sign on his office door reading, "If you voted for Obama ... seek urologic care elsewhere. Changes to your health care begin right now, not in four years."

What an a**hole.; 4/2/10, 10:58 AM
Joe said...: You did it TOO!!!

And now to hear you guyz WHINE bout is in equal parts amusing AND annoying....; 4/2/10, 11:00 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: You did it TOO!!!

Yep you did. Glad to see you admit that your childish cries about the 4th Reich in Amerikkka were idiotic.

Then again since Obamacare doesn't take place for another couple years I suppose us teabaggers can just wait and see how the whole reform thing is going to work out. That of course is assuming that the dollar doesn't completely collapse when our triple A rating is gone because even China will figure out there isn't enough tax dollars to ever pay them back.

I blame your side for thinking that anything opposed to Obamacare is racist as if somehow we would have all just sucked up to the idea if it was white guy proposing it. Just likwe did with Bill Clinton remember? Oh wait...

Thats why debating with you is pointless. You can't see past your own strawmen to see how ridiculous you sound.; 4/2/10, 11:00 AM
jeff said...: "Now, thanks to SEK's confusing little attempt to start a blogfight, every time someone posts a dumbass comment with right-of-center inclinations (not a infrequent event), someone else here will link to SEK's posting and claim the commenter is a moby."

To be fair, there are 3 or 4 regular posters that ARE mobys. Then when someone posts who no one has seen before puts up a stereotype of what liberals believe conservatives are, its not difficult to think its another moby. SEK or not.; 4/2/10, 11:01 AM
garage mahal said...: So conservatives blame past liberals for the jugheads behaving badly on their side, and do not, repeat do NOT blame Bush or Republicans for what happened under their watch. For instance pointing out the amount of the deficit they are responsible for, the stock market collapse, or the hundreds of thousands of jobs that were hemorrhaging when Obama took over.; 4/2/10, 11:01 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Right Wing doctor chooses politics over health:

Obvious lie since we were told the medical community were 100% behind this.; 4/2/10, 11:02 AM
jeff said...: "Althouse's hypocrisy is not a surprise"

Really? She is deleting those comments? Or you feel she shouldnt express her opinion on them?

"Hypocrisy" I do not think that word means what you think it does.; 4/2/10, 11:02 AM
Chennaul said...: somefeller wades in noting the circle jerkiness of it all-while playing with his own penumbra.

First, I went back looked at the thread and with the "search" function-it was pretty easy to find that prairie wind, Lyssa and Shanna had all pushed back.

Secondly, somfeller I have never noticed you push back against the resident racist C-4. Does being a Liberal give you a special pass?

Third, who the hell reads all of the threads and all of the comments particularly on a thread that Jeremy has decided to plague?

Fourth, as a Liberal it was your group of elitists-Moby-himself that invented "mobying" and he obviously has lots of little followers. Now you are worried about losing credibility...

You have got to be kidding.

This is so typical of Leftist think it's unreal-you want to do be able to have the freedom to do whatever, say whatever but never pay the costs-like being responsible or being held accountable.

Finally-you don't believe in free speech you all censor the hell out of every liberal blog-and now Liberals are worried about how things are conducted over here.

It's amazing that you think Ann is superwoman-not only is she suppose to drive cross country, find who is linking here, determine who is lying about lying about posting here-but also she is suppose to judge and possibly censor every comment-on a thread that a Liberal spammed-and ramped up to almost three hundred comments.

Get real.; 4/2/10, 11:03 AM
jeff said...: keep shifting those goal posts garage. Maybe someday you will score.; 4/2/10, 11:04 AM
jeff said...: I know Matt, pretty insane huh. No idea why someone who spent all those years in medical school and spent who knows how much money for his MD might get cheesed off by people who what him to work for free. Wait until others start refusing new patients. Or those on Medicare/Medicaid. Better pass a new law forcing them to work for free now. And not let any of the retire.; 4/2/10, 11:08 AM
Chennaul said...: To the Liberals all "concerned" with this crap-go treat yourselves to something extra special.

Go wipe with twice the Jennifer Anniston allotment of TP-and take twice the time to shower.

You'll feel better and you can mutter to yourselves how Althouse made you do it.; 4/2/10, 11:09 AM
somefeller said...: Madawaskan said: somefeller wades in noting the circle jerkiness of it all-while playing with his own penumbra. First, I went back looked at the thread and with the "search" function-it was pretty easy to find that prairie wind, Lyssa and Shanna had all pushed back.

I mentioned that in my original post, though I didn't mention specific names. I did, however, mention Lyssa's comment about that topic in this string. And to be accurate, those pushbacks weren't for all the examples SEK mentioned.

Secondly, somfeller I have never noticed you push back against the resident racist C-4. Does being a Liberal give you a special pass?

I generally don't spend time pointing out the obvious, but if you did a simple Google search you would find me saying Cedarford is anti-Semitic in this thread.

As to the rest of your comments, I'll simply leave you to play with your own penumbra, as that seems to be something on your mind.; 4/2/10, 11:23 AM
kentuckyliz said...: The patients should just keep their mouths shut who they voted for and get treated anyway.

My oncologist wears a button on his lab coat--Animal Research Saves Lives.

So is that an unethical, illegal, criminal slap in the face to his patients who are antivivisectionists?; 4/2/10, 11:24 AM
kentuckyliz said...: Jacob Ward, indicted militia member, is a registered Democrat and has voted Democrat!; 4/2/10, 11:26 AM
Chennaul said...: Well that just illustrates my point-no one reads all the threads-and sorry I'm not going to spend any more time looking at C-4 comments than I absolutely have to.

By omissions in your response-I'll take it that you get the larger more important points relative to your penumbra.; 4/2/10, 11:28 AM
Andrea said...: PS: the fact that you "outed" Cedarford as an anti-Semite doesn't actually make you anything special. Most of us have known about Cedarford's little problem with Jews for years. He's on my list of commenters to scroll past without reading, along with other trolls like Jeremy and AlphaLiberal.; 4/2/10, 11:40 AM
Jeremy said...: edutcher said..."The sad part is that these people actually think they're making some kind of devastating point by calling people a lot of names."

You must be referring to calling someone a Marxist or a Communist or a Socialist or The Messiah or the One or a Libtard or anti-Semite or traitors...right?

What a crock.; 4/2/10, 11:54 AM
somefeller said...: Gee Andrea, overinterpret with a chip on your shoulder much? Well, maybe the chip is well-deserved. And I didn't claim (once again with the overinterpretation) that saying C-4 is an anti-Semite makes me anything special. It was a simply a citation made in response to a question on a point of fact from another commenter.; 4/2/10, 11:56 AM
Jeremy said...: Corn Cob says - "Obvious lie since we were told the medical community were 100% behind this."

I've never read that 100% of the doctors in America were in favor of the health reform bill. I've never read anybody say that here either.

I have read that the AMA approves, but I doubt if that is supposed to mean 100% of the doctors associated with the AMA are on board.

You're just lying.; 4/2/10, 11:57 AM
Jeremy said...: Andrea only reads comments by people who she agrees with.

Now there's a shocker.

And the suckfest continues.; 4/2/10, 11:59 AM
Jeremy said...: Corn Cob says - "Then again since Obamacare doesn't take place for another couple years I suppose us teabaggers can just wait and see how the whole reform thing is going to work out."

So when this fool calls himself a "teabagger" that's okay?

Why are Michael, Datatroll and others here whining about the sexual or homophobic innuendo they feel I'm attaching to the term...if the teabaggers themselves call themselves..."
teabaggers?"

Duh.; 4/2/10, 12:04 PM
Methadras said...: So these leftards are reduced to acting like little children that tease and taunt for the sake of illiciting some canned response and then they run back to their little lair and titter about how wing-nutty we all are. Morons. Oh, April fools, duh.

wv = sparmat = THIS IS SPARMAT!!!; 4/2/10, 12:06 PM
damikesc said...: I find it funny that the douche seems to STILL be posting under that name.

At what point does "the joke" change to being a simple statement of an idiot's beliefs?; 4/2/10, 12:30 PM
hombre said...: Someone or another calling himself 'Chase' has posted to this site 155 times. Not sure if that counts as a regular or not.... (12:36)

Regular liberal trolls like Jeremy, Alpha or Pompous Montanus might post 155 times in a week. Chase is not a regular by their standards.; 4/2/10, 12:36 PM
LordSomber said...: You did it TOO!!!

Tu Quoque... ad nauseum.; 4/2/10, 2:32 PM