Do I Have Time For One Last Sullivan Bitchslap? [Ace]

Well, actually, I don't, but the Weekly Standard does:

'A Rigorous Scholar Who Cannot Defend Himself'

That's how blogger Andrew Sullivan has now described the late Clarence Arthur Tripp in the course of a long, serial complaint against The Weekly Standard's recent "hostaet-job" review of Tripp's posthumous book, The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln ("Honest, Abe?" by Philip Nobile, January 17). Our reviewer thought the book--an attempt to establish that America's 16th president was gay--a "hoax and a fraud." But Sullivan rejects that charge as a piece of "character assassination" against a highly regarded "Kinseyite social scientist" with a "Ph.D. in clinical psychology" and a "superb and invaluable" collection of documentary evidence. For this (and for what he contends was our reviewer's failure to disclose a professional conflict of interest) "they need to apologize," Mr. Sullivan insists. "Will The Standard correct?"

And who was C.A. Tripp? Well, among other things, he was a defender of a man called Rex King. Propriety (and the fair use doctrine) prevents me of informing you of the sort of shit King was into, and how vigorously Tripp defended his right to... well, engage in pedophilia.

At this point in his interview, Tripp momentarily digressed to make a "very important observation" about what happens "if you go out and masturbate dogs--I was very good at this when I was a boy." But then he returned to the subject of King, pronouncing him "totally" ethical, "clean as a whistle." The man "had sex with all the relatives and brothers and sisters and aunts," Tripp explained, "but nobody is objecting. He makes it pleasant. . . . And very few pedophiles make any damage anyway, it almost never happens."

No point beating around the bush, here: Clarence Arthur Tripp was not a "social scientist." He was a lunatic.

Will Andrew Sullivan correct?

Ahem.

Sullivan's ludicrous claim -- that his agenda is the normalization of and bourgeiousization of homosexual relationships, rather than the mainstreaming of transgressive sexual practices generally -- would be a bit less laughable if he didn't get himself into such a lather defending perverts like Tripp.

Thanks to RW.

Transgressive Sexual Google Searches: Like, how, exactly, did I show up as a hit for this search?

As Meatloaf says, "I would do anything for love... but I won't do that."

No, I won't do that.

Mystery Solved: Well, that phrase was written verbatim in a comment, it turns out.

By whom?

Who else...?

Cedarford.

Thanks to Cedarford, I'm now a google hit for equine sexual aids.

posted by Ace at 08:43 PM

| Access Comments