I Read Pandagon So You Don’t Have To
Pandagon is a totally worthless and dishonest site. It’s amazing to me that anybody reads it.
Case study #1: this post, which (before an update) read as follows:
The good news is that after Kristallnacht, we’ll at least have something for our window-builders to do. And those will be good windows.
Jeff Goldstein responded with a post titled Not that we’re politicizing it, mind you…:
Hurricane Katrina as Bush’s Kristallnacht, according to Pandagon’s Jesse Taylor.
…Which, is it fair for me to invoke Godwin’s law if Jesse’s been careful enough to subcontract out the Goebbel’s function to a natural phenomenon?
Taylor responded with this witty update:
UPDATE: A note to those coming over from Protein Wisdom. Jeff Goldstein is a fucking idiot. The good news – and it’s hard for some to see it now – is that out of this bullshit is going to come a lot of good mockery of Goldstein and his fellow travelers. Out of your average Protein Wisdom entry – and he’s a fucking idiot – there might actually be an entertaining response. And I’m looking forward to writing it. (Laughter.)
“Laughter” is right! Who wouldn’t be clutching his sides just thinking about it, with that post for a teaser?
I don’t know if the readers here read Jeff Goldstein every day, but if you don’t, you should. Stop reading me if you have to, just read Jeff. Not only is he probably the wittiest blogger out there, but he’s also one of the most well-read and best-informed. His is one of the few sites I visit every single day. Anyone who calls him a “fucking idiot” is saying far more about themselves than they are about Jeff.
I tried to leave the following comment on the Pandagon site:
I can’t wait for your next takedown of Goldstein. After the scintillating repartee of this entry, I’m hooked. Your best line was when you called him a “fucking idiot.” A close second was when you called him a “fucking idiot” (again).
Come for the leftist rhetoric — stay for the clever and witty turn of a phrase. Goldstein’s got nothing on you . . .
When you leave a comment at Pandagon, you receive the following message: “Your comment has been received. To protect against malicious comments, I have enabled a feature that allows your comments to be held for approval the first time you post a comment. I’ll approve your comment when convenient; there is no need to re-post your comment.” Guess what? Since I left my comment, Jesse has been back to the computer to leave 11 comments on that thread — generally calling right-wingers jackasses and, yes, “fucking idiots” — but he hasn’t found the stones to print my comment.
Another leftist site that censors viewpoints from the right — especially those that make them look stupid. What a surprise.
Case study #2: another Pendagon post by a blogger named Amanda, titled Dear racist fucks who complained about looting:
This is what your stupidity leads to.
[Quotes from a story about Jabbor Gibson, who heroically commandeered a bus in New Orleans and drove approximately 100 people to safety.]
That’s not stealing and that’s not looting. This is beyond ridiculous. That’s heroism. If this kid gets arrested for being a fucking hero and single-handedly saving 100 people, then I am laying the blame on the feet of every stupid asshole who complained about looting.
My reaction to this is summed up well by Ace.
Let’s take a look at exactly what people on the right think of Jabbor Gibson. First, courtesy of Ace, is this Free Republic thread. So far, there are 27 comments to the story, and guess what those racist Freepers are saying about this black kid who stole a bus? They want to buy him a beer. They want to elect him mayor. They want to contribute to his defense fund (none will be necessary, as Ace points out). They are calling him a “saint.”
What about Michelle Malkin, commonly called a racist by idiots like those who post at Pandagon? What is her attitude about Jabbor Gibson? Let me quote her post in all its ugly race-baiting bile:
In case you missed it: Meant to link this incredible story yesterday. Here’s another account. Some are characterizing the young, first-time bus driver’s act as “looting.” But the bus that Jabbar Gibson “commandeered” had been abandoned on a New Orleans street. He took it upon himself to rescue dozens of families–grandmothers, young parents, toddlers, and an 8-day-old infant. That is not “looting.” (This is.)
What the young man did was heroic. But according to reports, he may face criminal charges. Bryan Preston points out the real New Orleans bus crime.
After you read the story, go over to Slight Clutter’s place at Flickr. The photographer was there when the renegade bus arrived. Pulitzer Prize-level photos, if you ask me. Here’s a sample:
[photos posted]
I hope the Houston Chronicle or local bloggers can keep track of Jabbar Gibson and the other children on the renegade bus. Perhaps the boneheaded Reliant Astrodome officials who initially refused to let the passengers in after their 13-hour journey can make up for their poor judgment by establishing a Renegade Bus Riders Relief Fund.
(Links available at Malkin’s site.)
Yup, ol’ racist Michelle also says this kid is a hero.
In fact, Amanda at Pandagon doesn’t post a single link to a right-wing blogger, much less a reputable one, who has a bad word to say about this evident hero. But it sure does make her feel good to call conservatives racists. And it sure does make Jesse feel good to link Bush to one of the darkest days in Nazi history.
These people are typical of the worst of the left: they get high on their own self-righteousness, with no evidence, but plenty of thoughtless profanity and hatred.
UPDATE: Jeff G. has much more.
“In fact, Amanda at Pandagon doesn’t post a single link to a right-wing blogger, much less a reputable one, who has a bad word to say about this evident hero”
They just have bad words to say about lawlessness and looters. And they use nice manly tough keyboard kommando terms like “shot on sight.”
And then we catch sight of someone stealing a bus. And shoot them?
actus (518762) — 9/3/2005 @ 12:46 pmLinks, Actus.
There’s a difference between using the crisis to steal a big-screen, and stealing to save your life.
Give me a link to a reputable right-winger who doesn’t understand the difference. Or who disapproves of what Gibson did.
Patterico (756436) — 9/3/2005 @ 12:48 pm“Give me a link to a reputable right-winger who doesn’t understand the difference. Or who disapproves of what Gibson did.”
That’s precisely the point. There is no-one who disaproves of this. But there are people who are swinging around their toughness against lawlessness and looters. Go to Lashawn Barber and read her say looters should be shot on sight. Listen to Dubya and his ‘zero tolerance’ (though I don’t know about his reputability). Instapundit and Goldberg all differentiate diapers and bottled. Some say our shooter should decide whether the looter needs what he is taking to survive.
None of these things say that wingnuts want this boy shot. They just say that simplistic tough guy wingnut memes have a problem: Do we shoot this kid when we see him stealing a bus? When we see him stealing a TV to trade for gas for his bus?
actus (518762) — 9/3/2005 @ 1:22 pmI’ve been linked over to that Pandragon site a few times recently and as far as I can tell that’s about as high level as the discourse gets over there. I think they must be high school kids or something.
Dwilkers (a1687a) — 9/3/2005 @ 1:23 pmMaybe she knows the difference, but your beloved Malkin evidently can’t understand the definition of “reasonable doubt,” when her idea (and linked-to example) of “looting” is a single photo of a uniformed cop carrying dvds.
(Two side observations:Obviously, there is no possible reason that a cop would ever be holding dvds, other than that he has just looted them. It’s the only plausible conclusion.I’m SURE that same photo would appear just as supicious to Malkin and “Bigwig” if the two cops were white, equally clean-cut, and also in their forties. There couldn’t possibly be any under-the-surface biases at play here. Especially since Malkin herself is of color–she’s clear.)I’m sorry, but although we sadly share the same alma mater, I cannot abide by Malkin’s continuous crazy-talk. I mean, sure, she got it right about Gibson, but even Ann Coulter gets it right once in a while, maybe.
Tom (eb6b88) — 9/3/2005 @ 1:24 pmLet the games begin (now with more "ethnic cleansing" and "slave ship hull" references!)
From Pandagon's Amanda Marcotte:Dear racist fucks who complained about looting: This is what your stupidity leads to. HOUSTON -- Thousands of refugees of Hurricane Katrina were transported to the Astrodome in Houston this week. In an extre…
protein wisdom (5ba4b4) — 9/3/2005 @ 1:54 pm[…] More here from Patterico. […]
Balloon Juice (c62e7c) — 9/3/2005 @ 3:13 pm“I’m SURE that same photo would appear just as supicious to Malkin and “Bigwig” if the two cops were white, equally clean-cut, and also in their forties.”
You accuse others of making assumptions out of some bias and then make them yourself.
Maybe you should worry about yourself first.
Sav (f539ce) — 9/3/2005 @ 3:32 pmThe subtext never mentioned out loud in the current leftist critique of Bush hurricane response is simple: The Government doesn’t care about black people, ergo the government wants to kill black people.
Is the government so stupid that it doesn’t realize that by “not caring” people are going to die? Of course not.
So why don’t the racialists come right out and say the government wants to kill black people? Because they know that people would laugh in their faces. It sounds better to just say “the government doesn’t care” and let the subtleties be filled in by the listener.
It’s a dishonest critique if only for that reason. But using code words and a special vocabulary is how the Jesse Jackson’s of the world operate these days.
Rick Moran (0f4734) — 9/3/2005 @ 4:13 pm“slave ship hulls”, ummmmmmm
SAVET (9aa169) — 9/3/2005 @ 4:40 pmAnyone who thinks this is a fair assessment:
“Hurricane Katrina as Bushs Kristallnacht, according to Pandagons Jesse Taylor.”
after reading the post to which Jesse was responding:
http://ezraklein.typepad.com/blog/2005/09/is_this_impeach.html#comments
(which, I might add, generated this follow-up)
http://ezraklein.typepad.com/blog/2005/09/youre_funnier_t.html
is either
a) a very poor reader
b) not very honest
Jesse went for a). Me, I’m undecided.
[I say c) right on target. Not only does the comparison make the ever-familiar Bush-Hitler comparison, it also implicitly blames Bush for the storm (after all, who was responsible for the broken windows?). — Patterico]
m.croche (4af46c) — 9/3/2005 @ 4:44 pmm. croche – Boy, comparing Bush to Hitler, that joke never gets old!
actus – If the boy had actually been shot while commandeering the bus the zero tolerance rhetoric would be deserving of criticism. As it is, he wasn’t even arrested. So where’s the problem?
Matt Moore (d775fe) — 9/3/2005 @ 5:28 pmYeah, sav, I noted what is to me a very specific example of racial bias and explained why (albeit sarcastically). what about it?
Tom (eb6b88) — 9/3/2005 @ 6:04 pmPatterico:
When you leave a comment at Pandagon, you receive the following message….
Pat, that’s boilerplate Movable Type; it comes with that message already set up. If you choose to review new commenters before allowing their comments, and you don’t get into the template and edit it, then that’s the message you’ll see.
Of course, this isn’t to excuse their refusal to allow your comment; many lefty sites simply refuse to allow comments from people on the right (or sometimes, they edit them into incoherence, presumably so they can laugh at how stupid and illiterate those right-wingers are). But I’m just noting that, snotty as that little spiel sounds, the guys at Pandagon didn’t write it.
Dafydd (f8a7be) — 9/4/2005 @ 12:54 amI didn’t claim they did. I’m just saying that they pick and choose what comments to allow.
Currently, Amanda (who wrote this dumbass post which assumes Rehnquist opposed Roe v. Wade) allowed this comment of mine:
To which she responded with this:
I responded by saying (I lost the comment so I’m closely paraphrasing):
Guess what? She apparently has no witty comeback to that (since it shows her to be a woman unwiling to back her opinions, choosing instead to hide behind her genitalia) and therefore has decided not to approve the comment. This despite the fact that my earlier comment was approved.
Is that standard Movable Type?
I didn’t think so.
Patterico (756436) — 9/4/2005 @ 1:06 am“actus – If the boy had actually been shot while commandeering the bus the zero tolerance rhetoric would be deserving of criticism. As it is, he wasn’t even arrested. So where’s the problem?”
The problem is that here is the problem with the zero tolerance rhetoric. It doesn’t tell us what to do when we see a boy steal a bus or a TV to pay for gas.
actus (5b2f21) — 9/4/2005 @ 7:01 amfor all you legal eagles, here is the the real crime the kid was charged with:
New Orleans To Prosecute Underage Rescuer For Driving An Ungreased Bus
David (03f14c) — 9/4/2005 @ 7:35 amYet another example of the idiotic lefty belief that all evil originates with the GOP. No one in their right mind is going to do anything to this kid except give him food, praise and alcohol. This one kid has probably done more to help people than the mayor of NO has.
eric (4a6e9e) — 9/4/2005 @ 7:45 amI can’t fight my way through all the layers of scintillating wit and irony to tell who’s slamming whom, here….
Kate Yule (1ccb4f) — 9/4/2005 @ 7:31 pmbut I do know there’s no apostrophe in Goebbels.
[…] i-read-pandagon-so-you-dont-have-to […]
soulhuntre >> core/dump » Some Katrina links - catching up… (1d0ae5) — 9/9/2005 @ 10:25 am“To which she responded with this:
I’m not an idiot. I’m a twat. Get it straight.
I’m a hot, moist, inviting twat. Warm, wet, inviting. But not to you or your friends. Even if I were single, these nubile thighs do not wrap around the hips of Republicans. You can fuck yourselves or the dry twats of the self-hating misogynists who will allow you tiny penis to penetrate them. Have fun! Um, the wounds you get from rubbing you un-lubricated dick repeatedly into your heartless, soulless woman–iodine is your best friend, my be-scarred friend.”
Ah yes serious political debate through the medium of the Vagina Monologues – sadly wasted on Patterico whose antique paleocon viewpoint prevents him from seeing the deep contemporary nuances embedded in her reply. /s
Scott (57c0cc) — 9/9/2005 @ 1:23 pmPetition to honor Jabbar Gibson
http://www.petitiononline.com/JG0007Q/petition.html
“We have been extraordinarily moved by the story of Jabbar Gibson, and the initiative he displayed in commandeering a bus to drive Hurricane Katrina victims out of New Orleans. We were very alarmed to hear that he was at one time in danger of prosecution. Mr. Gibson declared to the news media, “I don’t care if I get blamed for it, as long as I saved my people.” But WE care if he gets blamed for it.”
[snip]
” We request that this young man be awarded appropriately with a Presidential Medal of Freedom and a full four-year scholarship to the college of his choice. For we truly believe that Jabbar Gibson as an individual, exemplified the courage and the spirit that is the best part of America and in so doing became emblematic of the actions many others who responded bravely and selflessly in the face of this disaster. He is someone we should support, encourage, and see prosper in this great nation. Jabbar Gibson and those like him are the future of America!”
GH (817585) — 9/10/2005 @ 12:59 amJeff Goldstein IS a f–king idiot, though, and his blog isn’t one-tenth as funny as he thinks it is.
[Edited for language by Patterico.]
solamente calido (70123f) — 9/19/2005 @ 9:48 pm