Ted Rall Challenge Is Bogus
Ted Rall has laid down the following challenge:
Several Bushist blogger types have written to assert that there are as many violent and threatening remarks and insults coming from liberals online as there are from conservatives against liberals. I’ve spent many sadly-lost hours online, and I say: no way.
So here’s my challenge: Please email your worst, most vicious examples of liberal/leftie blogger vitriol (with links, natch), and I’ll post ‘em right here. If they exist, obviously.
The problem is, our devious cartoon-boy is bouncing the e-mails sent to him. Mine bounced, as did the e-mails from Right Wing News and Decision ’08. Try sending something yourself. The alleged e-mail address is rightwingchallenge@rall.com.
Meanwhile, Rall gloats that nobody is responding to his challenge. I guess it’s easy to make that claim when you’re simply bouncing everyone’s e-mails.
Glenn Reynolds said: “This challenge is no challenge at all . . . .” He had no idea how right he was.
P.S. Here are the examples that I tried to e-mail to Rall:
Here’s a TalkLeft commenter wishing for the assassination of President Bush:
Somebody needs to take the fratboy and his parasitic entourage down there and rub thier noses in the gore. Reap what you sow. I hope the next McVeigh gets the address right.
TalkLeft was aware of that comment — she edited other comments that followed it, but left that comment there.
And here is a screenshot of a lefty’s post (since deleted) that earned her a visit from the Secret Service. The offending language?
Wassup? How’s it hanging? Yeah, I know it’s been a long time since we talked. This probably stems from my belief that you do not exist. Anyway, the reason why I’m calling you is because last night, President Bush said that he could feel it every time we prayed for him, and since he apparently doesn’t listen to anyone but you, Lord, I thought you might pass this along to him.
Please kill George Bush. I hate him so much. I think he is a giant dick and I want terrible things to happen to him. I’m not really big on the specifics of how he dies, but if you could at least arrange it so that the authorities find his dead body on top of an underage black male prostitute surrounded by a mountain of cocaine and child pornography, that would really be super-awesome. And maybe you could have some media people there when the police find the body, so they can take pictures and stuff. That’d be fucking GREAT. Am I allowed to say “fuck” in a prayer? Shit, I just said it again. Ah, well.
Anyway, that’s my prayer, Lord. Please, please, please kill Dubya. And Dick Cheney. And everyone else in the Bush Administration. Maybe they can all commit mass suicide together or something. I don’t know. You’re the one with all the ideas. You come up with something. I need more coffee.
If sheer insults are enough — and Rall said they were — then we can look at the invective of Martini Republic twin Alex. He called my comments “stupid,” “idiotic,” “[d]umb, dumb, dumb,” “mentally incontinent whining,” “mindless crap,” “incomprehensible gibbering,” and called me personally a “dolt,” “numbnuts,” “Pattynumbnuts,” “idiot wingnut,” “unbridled prevaricator” and “damned liar,” and said: “You demonstrate all the self-awareness of a brick.” And that was just one comment thread.
I don’t mean to suggest that ugly invective is the exclusive property of the left. But Rall is typically clueless in asserting that it is the exclusive property of the right.
And he is typically dishonest in pretending that he will publish examples like I have given.