Ann Althouse explains why she didn’t read a Jeffrey Rosen, er, Jeffrey Toobin piece in the New Yorker:

I have an interestingness standard, not an it-was-in-The-New-Yorker standard.

Diva.

The Watchers Council has announced its winners for the penultimate May 2012 competition and they are as follows. Among the council nominees, the rankings:

• *First place with 3 2/3 votes! Joshuapundit – What Does Peace Mean Anyway?
• Second place with 2 2/3 votes – The Razor- Geert Wilders: A 21st Century Canary in a Coal Mine (more…)

Today, I join my fellow conservative bloggers in standing with bloggers Stacy McCain, Aaron Walker and Patterico, uniting as Michelle Malkin puts it, “for Everybody Blog About Brett Kimberlin” Day.  She asks us

to check Patterico’s blog for more revelations about his plight. Also bookmark Aaron Walker’s blog, Stacy McCain’s, and Liberty Chick Mandy Nagy’s Twitter feed. Read the comprehensive investigative piece Mandy wrote at Breitbart.com that set all the insanity in motion.

I first blogged about this on Wednesday.  Michelle summarizes the story:

Over the past year, Aaron Walker (who blogged as “Aaron Worthing”),Patterico, Liberty Chick, and now Stacy McCain have been targeted by convicted Speedway bomber Brett Kimberlin because they dared to mention his criminal past or assisted others who did. The late Andrew Breitbart warned about Kimberlin and company.

Read the whole thing.  Greg at Rhymes with Right, recalls having heard, during his high school days, about the case of Kimberlin, the “the Speedway Bomber back in the 1970s in Indiana“, offers more links and a video about the man’s crimes.  He encourages us “to read the full sordid story about how Kimberlin has used the courts to harass Aaron and gotten both he and his wife fired by making their employment a security risk for their employer.”

Michelle says that “Patterico’s plight will send chills up your spine when he is ready to tell it.”  [UPDATE:  He tells it here.  Read the whole thing; but, be prepared, your blood is going to start boiling.]

Terresa Monroe Hamilton has more.  SnoopytheGoon offering his two cents here, quipping that “This is the reason the American left puts up with this character: he is useful to them – for now.”

More as the day progresses.

RELATED:   (more…)

“In the 11 years” that she’s been blogging, Terresa Monroe-Hamilton has had “numerous death threats. But they are nothing compared to what Stacey McCain at The Other McCain is going through.”  Stacy reports that

Convicted terrorist Brett Kimberlin on Monday continued his effort to silence those who write about his criminal past by contacting my wife’s employer, claiming that I was “harassing” him. The resulting security concern required immediate relocation if I was to be able to continue writing about the case of Kimberlin, a violent felon, perjurer and admitted tax cheat who is employed as the director of a 501(c)3 non-profit that has collected $1.8 million in contributions since 2005.

Kimberlin was convicted of multiple federal felonies in 1981 and sentenced to 50 years in prison after he terrorized a small Indiana town in a brutal crime weeklong bombing spree.

Like Ed Morrissey, I too have disagreed with Stacy from time to time, but count the blogger “as a friend” and agree that “no one should have to leave their home in fear simply for engaging in political debate.”  And Stacy is not the only right-of-center blogger targeted by Kimberline for, as Michelle Malkin put it, daring “to mention his criminal past or assist[ing] others who did.”   This is, she adds

. . . a convoluted, ongoing nightmare that combines abuse of the court system, workplace intimidation, serial invasions of privacy, perjury, and harassment of family members. McCain was forced to move with his family out of his house this week, and has just gotten a small taste of what Aaron [Walker (who blogged as “Aaron Worthing”) @ Patterico] and [blogger] Patterico [himself] have been enduring over the past year. Aaron and his wife were fired from their jobs after their employer feared the office would be targeted next. Convicted bomber Kimberlin has filed bogus “peace orders” against Aaron, when it is the Walkerswho are the victims, not the perpetrators.

“A highly notable issue,” reports Bruce Kesler at Maggie’s Farm

. . . aside from that the legacy media has failed to take up the matter, is that the funding for this campaign comes from some of the most-darling of liberal-left foundations (more…)

Council Submissions

• The Noisy Room – The Fiction of Barack Obama
• The Right Planet – Marx Is For Hippies
• Joshuapundit-What Does Peace Mean Anyway?
• The Colossus of Rhodey – Still More Narrative Fail
• The Independent Sentinel – Sebellius Channels JFK to Promote Government As the New Religion
• Simply Jews – Tombstone and Mexican spotted owl
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Yemen Blitz
• The Political Commentator – It’s 8:00 AM, do you know where your tax money is going?
• Bookworm Room – Is Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, a 1978 case rejecting academic racial quotas, the smoking gun behind Obama’s Kenyan identity? *UPDATED*
• Gay Patriot – Is there anything Barack Obama doesn’’t politicize?
• VA Right! - Defending Obama Has Become Like Defending Cigarettes
• The Razor – Geert Wilders: A 21st Century Canary in a Coal Mine
• Rhymes With Right – Professional Malpractice By North Carolina Social Studies Teacher
• The Glittering Eye -The Enforcement Deficit
• The Mellow Jihadi – The Biggest Loser, Navy-style

Honorable Mentions (more…)

It seems that my quest for some distance from blogging has finally caught up to me. I thought I would take the weekend off, then resume blogging at full steam yesterday, but I had other things on my mind; and it was nice not to have to think about politics as much as I normally do.

Does seem so people are so obsessed by it — that if they can’t talk about politics, they have nothing to say.  (Saw someone just like that last night–even at a panel related to the entertainment industry, he kept turning it back to politics, blaming Bush for Obama’s spending binge.)

There are a number of issues I do wish to address, have yet to weigh in as I would like on the Romney campaign’s awkward handling of the Grenell matter, given that I’ve had time to reflect on it since the story broke. And there’s still much to consider related to the president’s recent fundraising plea directed to the gay community.

(I had actually thought this would be a longer post and I do hope to start blogging regularly again tomorrow, but just needed to take a break. I feel a bit like I used to feel after I ran road races, particularly half-marathons, felt a kind of exhilaration for my effort, had enjoyed the experience, but needed a few days before I could get back up my pre-race pace.)

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 1/3 votes! The Noisy Room– The Fascist Boogie Fever
• Second place *t* with 2 1/3 votes – Joshuapundit The New Egypt’s Politics: Who Can Demonize Jews And Israel The Most?? (more…)

On two successive days last week, I posted about wanting to blog at a slower pace and focus on other things.  I have not yet had time to find that focus.

As per the second post, however, I really did the wrong week for slow blogging.  Since heading up to the Bay Area at the end of last month and determining to focus on other things, it has very much been the gay fortnight, first with a man (unfortunately) highly regarded in the gay community delivering a mean-spirited diatribe against Christians.  This was not that man’s first foray into nasty rhetoric — or juvenile antics (and he’s no longer in secondary school).

Then came the Grenell matter where the Romney campaign awkwardly handled a situation which appeared to have become delicate.  I will have a bit more to say on this, hopefully later this afternoon, but that post (on the awkward way the Romney campaign handled the matter) got delayed by the president’s (successful) ploy to raise campaign cash from the gay community.

If the president’s shift on gay marriage were sincere, wouldn’t he have made a stronger case for expanding the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples, telling his fellow citizens why he believes this expansion to be a good thing for the individual couples — and for society at large?

Will try to keep up a steady blogging pace, but do hope you understand if I slow it down a bit for a few days.

Council Submissions

• The Colossus of Rhodey – “Distress”
• The Noisy Room – The Fascist Boogie Fever
• Simply Jews – Fahd al Quso’s demise, blame the previous manager, Obama’s campaign claims, etc
• Joshuapundit-The New Egypt’s Politics: Who Can Demonize Jews And Israel The Most??
• The Razor – The Myth of an Unbiased Media
• New Zeal – Communists in Congress? (1) Hansen Clarke (D) Michigan
• The Political Commentator – Syosset, New York: Political smear campaign or just a big old coincidence?
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Syrian Unsafe Zone
• Rhymes With Right – Shocking — Mitt Romney And Barack Obama BOTH Were Bullies In School
• Bookworm Room – Presidential Election 2012: Eddie Haskell versus Ward Cleaver
• VA Right! - A Million Souls Up In Heaven
• The Right Planet – Syria
• The Glittering Eye -It’s a Floor Wax and a Dessert Topping
• The Mellow Jihadi – Breastfeeding, By Any Weans Necessary
• Gay Patriot – Marriage to Ann seems to have ended Mitt’s adolescent unruliness
• The Independent Sentinel – Obama’s Bad “Investments” Keep Piling On the Taxpayers – the Auto Bailout Boondoggle

Honorable Mentions (more…)

I decided to take today off from blogging, have one piece upcoming on the political implications of Obama’s shift on gay marriage, but after that may not post again until tomorrow afternoon.  But, don’t be disappointed, even if my blogging is slow, there’s lots of good stuff from the Watcher of Weasels.

I thought a good number of the submissions last time with particularly strong, so encourage you to peruse this list and follow the links if you’re looking for some good blog reading.  It’s not to say I share the perspectives presented in each of the posts, but that I found many to be thought-provoking and otherwise insightful, so enjoy!

And bear in mind–just because they didn’t win doesn’t mean they’re very good.  :-)

Council Winners

• *First place with 5 votes! Joshuapundit – Inside Vladimir Putin (more…)

My Twitter avatar evolved today.  Thanks to the handiwork of a fellow Tweeter, TresHall.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Council Submissions

• The Noisy Room – All the Little Communist Occupiers in a Row
• The Political Commentator – Must see video: Obama’s “Julia”, Julia’s alter-ego Julia/Julian and campaign incompetence!
• The Independent Sentinel – The Life of Svetlana, Julia’s’ Friend
• The Mellow Jihadi – Gimme a Break: Occupy Marines, Really?
• Joshuapundit-Inside Vladimir Putin
• Simply Jews – Johan Galtung – Another Cause For Celebration At The Elders’ Place
• The Colossus of Rhodey – Ah, “diversity”
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Happy VE Day!!
• Bookworm Room – Marin County: What it’s like to live in one of the most affluent and liberal outposts in America
• VA Right! - Republicans Adopt ‘Rules for Radicals’ Tactics – Right Back at ‘Cha
  Dems!
• Rhymes With Right White House Condemns Romney For Not Rebuking Treason Accusation
• The Glittering Eye -Looting
• The Right Planet – An Immigration Nightmare: The Story of Sunny and Mark
• Gay Patriot – Time after time since he took office, Obama has failed to show the fortitude to stand up to hateful and over-the-line rhetoric
• The Razor – Of Goats And Politics (more…)

Looks like I picked the wrong week for slow blogging:

UPDATE/EXPLANATION: As per the second post linked above, I had intended to blog at a slower pace this week than usual, but when I caught Jennifer Rubin’s post, I began to realize that the administration’s stance on gay marriage would come to dominate this week’s news cycle — much as the Grenell matter had dominated last week’s.

Indeed, this morning on Facebook, no fewer than five people had linked posts on the administration’s “cowardice“, as one conservative blogger put it, in the gay marriage debate — not to mention the posts I would chance upon the various conservative blogs I tend to scan every day.

As other blogs address this topic, it seems a gay conservative website should be on top of the issue.

I had intended to take time off from blogging last week, having, when I returned from the Bay Area, outlined a series of articles I would introduce and excerpt and devote the week to my mythological studies and laying the groundwork to start writing my fantasy epic (as well as other unrelated obligations), but then the Grenell story broke.  It was one of those stories that I knew I needed to address for a great variety of reasons, some evident, others not.*

I spent a good deal of time researching the story (and even trying to contact the man in question).

As a result, I didn’t have the time last week to focus on the matters to which I had intended to devote my time.  Hoping to take on those matters this week, I expect to slow down my blogging pace for the next few days.  (Ironically, one of the pieces I had planned was on Don Surber’s decision to stop blogging due to blogger burnout.)  I have a post planned on North Carolina’s Amendment One which I expect to post shortly, then may get a few short ones up later today, but do hope you understand if I am not posting at the pace to which y’all are accustomed.  And hope you understand why I only did two cursory post over the weekend–was nice not to feel obligated to write about politics.

Because sometimes when it comes to politics, I feel like Michael Corleone is The Godfather, Part III:

*Perhaps to address those not so evident ones in subsequent posts. Perhaps.

This past week, The Noisy Room‘d Pathological Politics – Predatory Partners and Persecuting Patriots won the gold in the council category.  And taking home the laurel in the non-Council category was the City Journal/Joel Kotkin‘s piece The New Class Warfare.

The remaining winners, in their respective categories, are:

Council Winners (more…)

As I wrote yesterday, I can often tell just from checking the spam filter when we’ve been linked by a left-wing site; the number of hate comments increases. And on occasion, when a conservative blog links us, we’ll see a slight uptick in the number of nasty comments from social conservatives.  (The last I counted the hate e-mails I receive, the former outnumbered the latter by a margin of about 19 to 1.)

There seems to be a link between gay conservatives gaining attention in the blogosphere and our volume of mean-spirited commentary.

This all caused me to wonder if maybe Richard Grenell experienced the same sort of thing, an increase in the volume of hate mail from angry left-wing gays and extreme social conservatives, hence his observation that “my ability to speak clearly and forcefully on the issues has been greatly diminished by the hyper-partisan discussion of personal issues that sometimes comes from a presidential campaign.”

Just a hunch, but one rooted in our experiences as gay conservative bloggers.

So claims Bill Whittle in this insightful video:

First watched it yesterday when reviewing the Watchers’ Council submissions.  Bookworm, a blogress I had read on occasion before being invited to join the Council, submitted the link as her non-Council submission.  If she have a moment, check out her blog.   Since joining the Council, I have read her stuff more frequently and come to appreciate her unique insight into politics.

During the day yesterday, I guessed (before checking our incoming traffic) that we had been linked on at least one liberal blog given the number of hate commentscaught in the spam filter.  The filter caught smart comments as well,including fair critiques of my post; perhaps we can attribute those to Glenn Reynolds’s link.  (And at least one clever quip.)

Since I took the day off from blogging, I read more comments than I normally do and chose to rescue nearly every comment, no matter how mean, no matter how jaundiced a view of gay conservatives they offered.

Mike Jackson wondered, for example, if our blog had announced ”an internal poll showing approx 22 of 24 writers were voting for John Kerry against Bush over the same sex marriage issue“.  I would not be blogging here if I had not e-mailed Bruce thanking him for his post telling Log Cabin to shove it for failing to endorse W. Although we criticized W for supporting the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA), we still supported his reelection.

On the other side of the spectrum, Frank compared Republicans to Nazis:

The Republican party in Louisiana has forcibly filled a building with children, nailed the doors and windows shut, and set it on fire. The analogy to the Shoah is deliberate.

Another dressed up the standard cliche:  ”To be gay and conservative, to be black and conservative, to be poor and conservative, is a contradiction in terms.”  Frog in a pot offered said cliche, “To be a gay conservative is the equivalant of a black belonging to the KKK.”  A very unoriginal amphibian he.

These comments showed the worst — and the best — of the blogosphere, the worst those who respond with attacks rather than arguments, the best, those addressing the actual substance of the argument and even teasing out its flaws.

Do hope those who offered the thoughtful comments keep coming back and keep commenting.  And do hope the others learn from their manner of discourse.

FROM THE COMMENTS:  alanstorm questions a left-wing cliche about gay conservatives: (more…)

Council Submissions

• The Colossus of Rhodey – “Progressivism” = Insanity
• The Noisy Room – Pathological Politics – Predatory Partners and Persecuting Patriots
• The Political Commentator – Talking Heads say invest, invest, invest but closer inspection may say no, no, no!
• Simply Jews – On Zionist Cruelty To Minors
• Joshuapundit-Obama Campaign’s Latest Claim – ‘Romney Wouldn’t Have Ordered Bin-Laden Hit’
• The Right Planet – Re:Islam
• VA Right! - Thanks Obama:The Car Is STILL in the Ditch and Now We Are FLAT BROKE and Out of Gas!
• Bookworm Room – President Obama’s church is the Chapel of (Progressive) Democracy
• Rhymes With Right – Why Are We Dealing With This Again?
• Gay Patriot – Spiking the Osama ball, Obama forgets what team he’s on
• The Independent Sentinel – Bishops Issue Call To Action To Defend Religious Liberty
• The Glittering Eye -Common Theme/Common Solution
• The Mellow Jihadi – The Black And White Mohawk
• The Razor – Marriage and the State: It’s Time For a Divorce
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Liquidation Day: A Year After OBL’s Death

Honorable Mentions (more…)

One of the great gifts of blogging is the civil feedback and criticism I receive in e-mails from our readers.  On numerous occasions, they have alerted me to flaws in my arguments or pointed out a wrinkle in an issue I cover in a post.  Such was the case yesterday when a gay reader somewhat sympathetic to social conservatives sent me a message, linking an article about l’affiare Grenell and indicating, among his concerns about the erstwhile almost Romney foreign policy spokesman, objections to his tweets attacking conservative women:

Please remember that Grenell had to delete 800 (yes 800) tweets that trashed female conservative women. Many of those tweets are publicized online in a simple google search. He claimed they were tongue and cheek, but the sheer number in a short period of time alarmed me, and many of these tweets were directed at conservatives such as Newt & Callista Gingrich.

Indeed, I had heard these criticisms before. But, Grenell did, as McKay Coppins BuzzFeed reports, apologize for those tweets. Coppins mused that “If the campaign was slow to come to Grenell’s public defense over his sexuality, his embarrassing Tweets may have had something to do with it.”

Do wonder if the criticism of Grenell would have gained any traction had he chosen to mince his words about his fellow Republicans.

His outspoken advocacy of gay marriage may also have hurt him.  Byron York reports that he criticized. . .

Jonathan Capehart, an opinion writer for the Washington Post who is gay, for attending a state dinner at the Obama White House but not using the opportunity to confront President Obama over Obama’s opposition to gay marriage. (more…)