In GP comments, we’ve seen the occasional mini-kerfuffle over someone’s references to the mentally handicapped: whether they were hurtful, or whether the critics (those claiming hurt) were just playing mind games, etc.

In that light, it’s interesting to note that beloved lefties Bill Maher, Whoopi Goldberg and Barbara Walters all agree that it’s perfectly OK for a comedian to mock Sarah Palin’s Down Syndrome child as “retarded”:

Maher mocked Palin’s special needs son by referring to him as “retarded” during a June 8 Las Vegas show…

Walters, who grew up with a special needs sister, said on June 17 on The View that she did not think Maher was “mean-spirited” when he referred to Palin’s son as “retarded.” Walters speculated that Maher did not know the word could be hurtful…even Walters’s in-studio audience was not buying this defense and was left silent…

Goldberg lamely tried to assist Walters, saying “we, society took the word ‘retarded’ and made it into something derogatory…When I was a kid, it wasn’t derogatory…” Video here.

I regret that I couldn’t find the exact original quote of Maher’s, but Walters and Goldberg clearly wanted to speak out in Maher’s favor: the camera flashed to an old family photo of Walters’ as she spoke, which means that Walters’ remarks were planned.

So, what’s the official standard? Is it still baaaaad to refer to anybody (whether mentally challenged or not) as “retarded” – with an exception for Republicans perhaps, or Sarah Palin’s children? On what grounds?

Lefties, please don’t try to say “Oh who cares, it’s only Bill Maher” – because it isn’t, now: it’s also Whoopi Goldberg and Barbara Walters.

Can you imagine an article like this appearing when Bush was president?  No, back then it was considered “patriotic” for the press to disclose classified information,  even when the information was incorrect or false, so the idea of the press reflecting on the Bush administration’s “struggles” with issues of free expression was unthinkable.  But when Obama wants to stomp on press freedoms for any reason, the press decides to be “reflective” and “philosophical” about the issue.  Craven rationalizations for restricting press freedoms under Obama are to be expected.  I particularly like this reader’s comment which I saw when I originally read the article:  “You are surprised Obama is stepping on the 1st Amendment? He tried to stomp on the 2nd Amendment for over a year now! The only Amendment this Administration seems to think is important is the 5th Amendment so they can hide behind it.”

Fox News host Chris Wallace asked Senator Dick Durbin whether Barack Obama’s promise to have Eric Holder look into cases of abuse that he personally approved represents a conflict of interest, but Durbin dodges that question and talks instead about the shield law proposed repeatedly over the last few years as the appropriate Congressional response to the scandal.  However, Durbin asks what exactly “freedom of the press” means in 2013, and wonders aloud whether it would include bloggers, Twitter users, and the rest of the Internet media [Video at the link].

Facebook on Tuesday acknowledged that its systems to identify and remove hate speech had not worked effectively, as it faced pressure from feminist groups that want the site to ban pages that glorify violence against women.

The activists, who sent more than 5,000 e-mails to Facebook’s advertisers and elicited more than 60,000 posts on Twitter, also prompted Nissan and more than a dozen smaller companies to say that they would withdraw advertising from the site.

In a blog post, Facebook said its “systems to identify and remove hate speech have failed to work as effectively as we would like, particularly around issues of gender-based hate.” The company said it would review how it dealt with such content, update training for its employees, increase accountability — including requiring that users use their real identities when creating content — and establish more direct lines of communication with women’s groups and other entities.

Council Submissions

• The Political Commentator – Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano going back…
• The Noisy Room – The Enemy Among Us – Even in Idaho
• Simply Jews – Glenn Greenwald or the douchebag’s lines of defense
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Shock And Shush
• Bookworm Room – Is the IRS scandal the worst political scandal in American history? I say “yes
• Gay Patriot – In 2008, we told you Obama wasn’’t the man you (thought you) were voting for. . .
• Joshuapundit–DHS Is Training Law Enforcement To Give Muslim Brotherhood, Radical Islamists A Pass
• The Razor – Scandal Scorecard
• The Colossus of Rhodey – New “Scotty” Spouts Off on the New Trek’sPolitics
• Rhymes With Right – My Response To @WhiteHouse #ObamaCareInThreeWords Meme
• The Glittering Eye –A Series of Unfortunate Incidents
• The Mellow Jihadi – Autumn Sandeen, a Sailor with No ESWS Pin?
• VA Right! – VA GOP Convention: Conservatives and TEA Party Send Republican Establishment a STRONG MESSAGE! Overcome DIRTY TRICKS and WIN!
• The Right Planet – #Scandalpalooza (more…)

Council Submissions

• The Noisy Room – Invaders Guarding the Watchtower
• The Colossus of Rhodey – “Morality and Conscience”
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – The Difference It Made
• The Political Commentator – Cartoon, Video: Hey recent college graduate, congratulations?
• Joshuapundit–Who Really Is Really Savagely Destroying Palestinian Children?
• The Right Planet – Exasperation: A Nation on the Brink
• Gay Patriot – Only the president can end the Benghazi “sideshow”
• Rhymes With Right – A Lawless Agency In Need Of A Special Prosecutor
• VA Right! – A Word on Supervisor Elton Wade Appointing Norm Sulser to the Hanover School Board
• The Glittering Eye –What Did They Know and When Did They Know It
• The Razor – The Ignored Will Not Be Silenced
• Bookworm Room – Obama and Henry II; Obama and Martin Niemöller; and Obama and Al Capone
• The Mellow Jihadi – Michelle Bachmann, Jihadi Foods, and the US Navy
• Simply Jews – When in Rome or the best and the worst of that trip (more…)

Council Submissions

• The Noisy Room – The Language of Killer Tomatoes
• The Political Commentator – Chicago Bulls Derrick Rose and the culture of Me!
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – VE Day
• Bookworm Room – “Extremism” when it comes to late term abortion and guns
• Joshuapundit–America’s Left: Koch Bros. Bad, Al Jazeera Good!!
• The Colossus of Rhodey – If You’re a Pro Sports Guy and Outspoken “Progressive” …
• The Mellow Jihadi – What price do you put on a life, does £710- or $1,103- seem appropriate?
• Rhymes With Right – SC Democrat Chairman Is Truly A Racist Dick
• VA Right! – Why Is Hanover County Paying Supervisor Elton Wade $30,030 Per Year as a Crossing Guard?
• The Glittering Eye –The Country
• The Razor – What To Do When The Enemy of Your Enemy Is Still Your Enemy
• The Right Planet – ‘G-d Bless You’
• Gay Patriot – The two Benghazi scandals
• Simply Jews – Richard Falk: a canary in the coal mine or a fly in a cesspool? (more…)

Council Winners

• *First place with 2 1/3 votes! Joshuapundit –Days After Boston, Obama Pressures Israel To Release Terrorists As A ‘Goodwill Gesture’
• Second place with 2  votes – Gay Patriot– Basketball player comes out; “I could care less”
• Third place  with 1 1/3 votes – The Political Commentator-Hungary’s shoes of death! (more…)

I don’t often check the comments, so have to come to rely on readers’ e-mails to learn what is going on in this or that thread.  While I do occasionally hear of a substantive (or otherwise interesting) exchange, more often than not, I learn of one commenter responding to another not with arguments but with insults.

If another’s argument is ludicrous, there is no need to engage in innuendo, just tear it apart point by point, without addressing the motivations of the commenter or making allegations about his (or her) personal life.  Just last night, a concerned reader (with a political philosophy pretty close to my own) alerted me about some particularly nasty threads.  With permission, I quote from this individual’s e-mail:

Social-issue threads are sometimes a hundred or more comments long.  This is not because substantive debate is going on, but because they’re being hijacked by one or two loons.  They tend to be laced with profanity and crude sexual innuendo.  I can only imagine what straight conservatives who check out GP think.  If we don’t want them to think gay conservatives have filthy minds, they’ll nonetheless get that notion if they read those threads. . . .

Nobody with any sense is going to keep commenting on a blog when they’re treated that way. I have better things to do with my time, and as many former commenters have simply gone away, it’s evident that they do, too. GP has become an important source of information for many people. I hate to see this happen.

Look, I know that life is not easy.  And we each face our own challenges.  Sometimes in the face of frustration as we struggle with setbacks, we need, well, we feel that we need to vent.  A lot of people seem to do that in the political sphere, projecting their personal demons onto their ideological adversaries. (more…)

Council Submissions

• The Political Commentator – Hungary’s shoes of death!
• The Noisy Room – Amnesty – Solidifying the Marxist Control of America for Decades, If Not Permanently
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Syrian Delirium
• The Razor – The Lure of the Conspiracy Theory Revisited
• Joshuapundit–Days After Boston, Obama Pressures Israel To Release Terrorists As A ‘Goodwill Gesture’
• The Colossus of Rhodey – Should be titled The Reluctant Idiot
• Rhymes With Right – Why Is A Matter Settled 70 Years Ago Still An Issue In Our Public Schools?
• Bookworm Room – Orwellian double think enters the gun grab debate
• The Glittering Eye –What If Fairies Are Real?
• The Right Planet – Chris Matthews Pushes the ‘Only Whites Can Be Racists’ Meme … Again
• The Mellow Jihadi – A Reuters Writer Writes Me
• Gay Patriot – Basketball player comes out; “I could care less”
• VA Right! – Ken Cuccinelli Airs First Campaign Ad of the 2013 Governor’s Race
• Simply Jews – Boston bomber and the Waltham, Mass triple murder (more…)

That title, as the eagle-eyed will notice, is the GayPatriot blog’s tagline.

In my years of participating in GP threads, I’ve noticed that some who are opposed to the blog or its usual viewpoint, may be excessively fond of the “consistency game”, demanding that anyone who would criticize them must first meet some standard of consistency that has been issued by themselves.

It’s a cute game. They declare the standards and they appoint themselves the judges – which means they can’t be criticized in the thread, because they will never judge their critic as having been consistent enough, and will always change the subject back to their critic’s alleged inconsistency.

I called it “cute”, because little kids do it to their parents (or try to). But the game’s effects, and likely its intent, are destructive.

What I’m really talking about here is Alinsky Rule 4, as heliotrope and NDT have pointed out to me before. Played skillfully enough, it can strangle a thread, destroying any useful process of conversation. (more…)

Council Submissions

• The Political Commentator – Boston conspiracy theory: Obama, the Saudis and a ‘dark-skinned male’?
• Simply Jews – Boston bombers: mission accomplished
• The Right Planet – Rush for Judgement: The All-Star ‘’Calumnists’’ of the MSM
• The Noisy Room – Sleeping With The Saudis
• The Colossus of Rhodey – Apocalypse now … and then
• Joshuapundit– The Two Boston Marathon Bombers And What It Says ABout Jihad And The West
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Global
• The Razor – The Alarm System
• Rhymes With Right – Joe Biden Proves He Is Utterly Ignorant Of Democrat Party History
• VA Right! – Bombings, Shootings and Obama’s Gestpo: Welcome to the Fundamental Transformation
• Bookworm Room – Islam — the ultimate umbrella organization for violent malcontents
• Gay Patriot – Millennials & the Real Republican Problem
• The Glittering Eye –The Search
• The Mellow Jihadi – Bourbon Red Turkey Eggs and Pilates (more…)

Council Submissions

• The Noisy Room – Honoring Margaret Thatcher – The Ultimate Progressive Hunter
• Simply Jews – Social justice for fantastika? Or entitlement of parasites?
• The Political Commentator – 
  Is Pamela Geller an extremist?
• Joshuapundit–Unmourned, Unloved and Politically Inconvenient
• The Colossus of Rhodey – Look in the mirror, Cenk Uygur
• The Glittering Eye –Personal Computers Aren’t Too Good
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Aegypt”s Aepic Fail
• The Right Planet – Pat Condell Is Waiting for Jesus … And He’s Pissed!
• The Mellow Jihadi – Raymond Davis, the Cause of All Our Pakistan Issues
• VA Right! – With America Under Attack, Liberals Disarm Us and Open the Gates to Barbarian Hordes
• The Razor – We Are Idiots
• Rhymes With Right – Senator Seeks Censorship
• Gay Patriot – Boston Aftermath: A nation (that should be) united in grief & outrage
• Bookworm Room – No matter what happened yesterday, today shows the deep fissures Obama has created in America (more…)

Council Submissions

• The Noisy Room – NoKo-a-NoGo
• Joshuapundit–Appomattox: The Fire Is Quenched
• The Colossus of Rhodey – The Politics Behind DC’s The Movement
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – War of Koreunification
• Simply Jews – Remembering Holocaust: the first British shots of WW II
• The Razor – A Phone Call Between Premier Li and President Obama
• Rhymes With Right – Harry Reid Threatens To Engage In “Unconstitutional Abuse Of Power”
• VA Right! – Gun Control: Exceptions for Rape, Incest and the Life (or Health) of the Gun Owner?
• The Right Planet – Subprime (Part Duh)
• The Glittering Eye –A Tale of Two Californias
• Bookworm Room – The fundamental unconstitutionalism of Obama’s presidency
• Gay Patriot – Margaret Thatcher: Feminist Icon
• The Mellow Jihadi – Operation Up Dog
• The Political Commentator – Holocaust Remembrance Day 2013 – Hate redux!

(more…)

Today is Dan’s birthday. I promised I wouldn’t disclose what age he has reached. It wouldn’t be Southern.

Have a great day, my friend!

-Bruce

Council Submissions

• Simply Jews – Michael White: The Livingstone Formulation? Nope, the Seumas Milne’s formula.
• The Noisy Room – Marxism in Education – The Infiltration of Our School Systems by the Common Core Standards
• The Political Commentator – Elites Beware: The New York Liquor Limitation Law could be coming to a restaurant near you!
• The Colossus of Rhodey – Add Kurt Busiek to those comics creators who don’t get it
• Joshuapundit – ‘Killing Jews Is Worship’ Ad Campaign Rolled Out On SF Muni Buses
• The Razor – The EU: Stealing From The Poor And Giving To The Rich
• The Right Planet – Draconian Gun Laws Creating Black Market
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Unhooking The Alliance With Pakistan
• Rhymes With Right – Many Shocked To Find Out Pope Francis Is, In Fact, Catholic
• VA Right! – Do Republicans Even Deserve to be a Majority Party Any Longer?
• The Mellow Jihadi – Iran Launches Destroyer
• The Glittering Eye – Francis
• Gay Patriot – Was the “charm offensive” expected to achieve anything*?
• Bookworm Room – At CPAC, Dr. Ben Carson comes out swinging against President Obama (more…)

It seems that on one day for each of the past six or seven weeks, I have become convinced that I will return to my old dissertation return and start blogging more. I’ll scribble some notes, as I did yesterday, for a few blog posts, save a few links and consider a few titles.

But, then, I’ll find as soon as I start writing, the words that come out are not those for the blog, but from the novel. I’ve been sensing for a couple months now that I’ll have to devote even more time to the book than I have since I started writing seriously in December — and realized that this weekend when I, having committed to sharing Chapter Twelve with a friend who was coming over at 3:30 Sunday afternoon, devoted nearly every minute of my free time to editing that chapter, wanting to get it right even as I knew I’d have to revise it yet again when I finish the first draft of the book.

And starting tonight, I expect to begin my studies of the Basque language, given its similarities to Old Dwarvish. In short, I am just not finding the time to blog as I had hoped I would. I am beginning to wonder if this is more draining than writing a dissertation because it involves more creative energy. And if it takes more out of me when I dip into my own memory to pull out images and ideas which have been simmering there since even before I began graduate school. I made my first stab at writing this six months before I submitted my application.

It’s not so much that I’ve forgotten about politics, but perhaps that I recognize that politics is not the be-all and the end-all. It is not the reason for living, but for creating an environment where we can live freely and in (relative) harmony with our fellows.

Council Submissions

• The Colossus of Rhodey – Do We Need Overseers To Make Sure We Don’t Destroy Ourselves?
• The Noisy Room – Beware the Droids of March
• The Political Commentator – CPAC 2013 Has Been Cancelled!
• Simply Jews – North Korea: The mistake of Lieutenant Novichenko
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Leading From The Shadows
• Rhymes With Right – What The Real Question Is In The Voting Rights Act Case
• Bookworm Room – Porn, comedy, and an increasingly jaded culture (but don’t give up all hope)
• The Glittering Eye –Why Hybrids and EVs Are No Solution
• VA Right! – Sequestration Pain: Necessary Service Reductions or Obama Temper Tantrum?
• Joshuapundit–New Egyptian Law Allows Unrestricted ‘Citizen’s Arrests’ Of Foreign Tourists
• Gay Patriot – Why didn’’t Candy (Crowley) follow up with Nancy (Pelosi)?
• The Mellow Jihadi – A Navy Sailor Gets His Shots!
• The Razor – What If The Experts Are Wrong About North Korea?
• The Right Planet – 1.6 Billion Rounds of Ammo? 2,700 Armored Vehicles? For Homeland Security? Can We Talk? (more…)

Council Submissions

• The Colossus of Rhodey – Mark Waid — What a “Tolerant Progressive!”
• The Noisy Room – Prepping Idaho: Zombie Apocalypse – UFO Alien Invasion Exercises Conducted by FEMA
• Joshuapundit–“Yes We Can” – Al-Qaeda’s English Mag Publishes Wanted Dead or Alive List
• Simply Jews – Peter Beinart on Chuck Hagel: deterrence and involvement
• The Political Commentator – Cast your Vote: When Barack Obama speaks I…?
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Sino Drones
• The Razor – Conservative Proposals for New Taxes
• Rhymes With Right – Why Do Liberals Measure Obama By What They Believe To Be The Lowest Available Standard?
• The Glittering Eye –The Conclave
• VA Right! – Bumper Stickers Available $3 – ‘Bill Bolling – Terry McAuliffe’s Little Bitch’
• The Right Planet – One Year Later: Remembering Breitbart
• Gay Patriot – The president who prefers campaigning to governing
• The Mellow Jihadi – English and Svensk Jihadis
• Bookworm Room – Parents are good for children, and children are good for parents (especially selfish parents) (more…)

Council Submissions

• The Noisy Room – Obama and the Leftist Infiltration of Israeli Media
• Simply Jews – Guardian – confirming the obsession
• The Political Commentator – Another Obama snow-job: Sequestration = Republican-owned recession!
• The Colossus of Rhodey – Heaven forbid! A conservative comics writer is against gay “marriage”
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Mookie Redux – Return of al Sadr
• VA Right! – Gluttony – Big Government’s Deadly Sin
• The Razor – The Elephant In The Room -– Having Kids Out-of-Wedlock Culture
• The Right Planet – So, You Bought a Gun, Huh?
• Joshuapundit–State Of The Union?
• Gay Patriot – To the true conservative, politics is of secondary importance
• Bookworm Room – Dems are troglodytes about women and self-defense, and they’re selling this as a virtue for the next election
• The Mellow Jihadi – 1 Billion Rising and the Qu’ran
• The Glittering Eye – Multi-Tasking the 2013 State of the Union
• Rhymes With Right – Sen. Dan Patrick Moves To Dumb-Down Texas Graduation Requirements, Eliminate Government And Economics Requirement (more…)

I had thought that once I found my stride writing this novel, I would start blogging once again, perhaps not at the pace I did during the election, but at least more often than once every blue moon.

And yet, finding my stride (again) as a writer of fiction has changed me in ways that I had not even anticipated when I started writing.  I find that certain things, don’t bother me as once as they used to.  I take them more in stride.

Except when I feel the bite of bad government policies, I don’t feel the same rage at the arrogance of the liberal elites as I normally do, those who would dictate to us how we run our own lives.

Perhaps this is because for those of a truly conservative disposition, politics is not the primary focus of our lives.  By and large, we don’t see it as a source of meaning.  We find meanings in other endeavors.  We understand that government should serve, as Mr. Jefferson understood, to protect certain inalienable rights.

We often regret that we have to get involved in the messy business of politics to block policies which infringe upon our liberties and our ability to pursue happiness.

More on this anon.  Perhaps.

Dan did a post a few days ago, but I wanted to re-invite our friends in the Los Angeles area to join me and him for “Meatless Monday” by enjoying a hearty steak dinner at Outback Steakhouse in Glendale, Calif. The official event invite is here on Facebook.

And since I’m also new Vice Chair of GOProud, I’ll be talking about our new efforts at chapter development and outreach.

For those not familiar with “The Great Steak Dinner Bet,” here’s the video from CPAC 2010.

-Bruce (@GayPatriot)