Blogwar Update; Blogroll Additions

People asked, so I'll answer. I should never have started any of this, nor posted a personal spat on my blog, nor got angry with people who disagree with me, even if they are proposing all sorts of preposterous scenarios defending Glenn Greenwald.

But I did, so here's the update.

Also, I'm going to add some new sites to my blogroll; let me know your site if you want to be included in the thread below. And for once-- I'll actively solicit liberal sites, as long as you're not bananas. Like Gun Toting Liberal. He asked for a link a while ago; time to add him.

Clarification: Please note your blog in the thread below. It makes it easier for me to find them if they're all in one place.

Blogwar I: The War on Glenn Greenwald. Still ongoing. Patterico's putting together all the evidence -- an an accurate timeline -- and I'll be adding my own post about it, where I judge the likelihood of the Sock Puppeteer being the Magic Boyfriend.

Oh, here's a small teaser from Patterico. I screwed up my previous math, which I always do when I'm trying to figure out times in different time zones.

"Ellison" -- the first confirmed sockpuppet, who posted here to extol the mighty accomplishments of Glenn Greenwald -- posted here at 10:14 AM Brazil time. Glenn Greenwald himself posted on Patterico's site, which contained a link to my site (trashing Greenwald) at 10:31 AM Brazil time.

Seventeen minutes apart, kiddies. Seventeen minutes. Kind of a coincidence, huh?

As 10:14 is usually a time when people are at work, the question still remains unanswered by Greenwald: What is it, precisely, your Magic Boyfriend does for a living which allows him to post on the internet from home all day defedning your honor? I know Glenn is a stay-at-home blogger and posts from home; is that the boyfriend's gig, too?

Or is the Magic Boyfriend a paid employee of Greenwald, Inc., drawing a salary to troll on rightwing sites?

Heck, even if work is a short commute away, and he doesn't have to be there until later in the day, like 11 AM-- what is his morning routine? Wake up, shower, shave, check Technorati for new references to Glenn Greenwald, brush his teeth, read a long post about Greenwald on Ace of Spades, chow down a muffin and some coffee, post Glenn Greenwald's CV on a rightwing website under the name "Ellison"?

Do any of you start your mornings that way?

Blogwar II: Wizbang! Settled several days ago. I started this one, like an asshole, by referring to Kevin from Wizbang! as an "idiot" for suggesting the Sock Puppet Culprit was "most likely" the Magic Boyfriend. I think that's just jackass, for reasons I've explained at great length and with unending repetitiveness, but that was hardly a reason to call him an idiot. I've met him, he's a good guy, thanks partly to him rigging the Best of Blog polling, I've won my category two years in a row.

Anyway, I have apologized to Kevin and we're on good terms again. We may head up to Vermont to a nice bed & breakfast I know of.

As for Paul... well, look, Paul is Paul, and likely to remain so for the foreseeable future.

Blogwar III: Q&O: John, who runs the site, never really was involved in this one, and I apologized to him for denigrating his website, which is of course a good one. As for the other two cats -- well, as I said over there, McQ did good work on his own story, the Jesse McBeth thing, and I'm sure Dale has done... well, I'm sure he's done something too.

In a really juvenile move, I delinked Q&O, but the link is back up. Honestly, I really, really wanted to delink Belgravia Dispatch a week ago, when I'd found out it was just an Andrew Sullivan ass-kissing idiotblog, but was very disappointed to find I'd never linked it on my site in the first place. So, anyway, I was in a delinking kind of mood, and Dale's preening pony act got me to do something stupid.

At any rate, Q&O and AoS are officially no longer at war, and I will not withhold links, which is a dumb thing tp even suggst anyway, because a good story should be shared with readers, no matter who it comes from.

To re-cap, as my favorite Russ Feingold read blogger says:

1) I've been an asshole.

2) I've been overly obsessed with Greenwald.

3) I've been an asshole.

4) I've allowed the blog's mission to be compromised because of my desire to finish off a story and over petty personal infighting with other blogs. The core mission being-- keep it fast, inform people, toss out a joke here and there, occasionally write something I'm halfway proud of calling my own.

5) I've been an asshole.

6) I haven't been sleeping well. That first night of the Greenwald thing I was up all night -- all night; didn't go to bed till 7:30, and laid awake for an hour staring at the ceiling -- and my system has not recovered. I still have even stranger hours than I did before, and I'm still not sleeping well. I sleep and wake up drop-dead exhausted. I'm going to try to be asleep by the early hour of three tonight and see if I can reverse this.

7) I've been an asshole.

8) But you guys suggesting that Glenn Greenwald's explanation is remotely plausible are just being morons. His story is plausible only in the sense that the laws of the physical universe do not expressly forbid it.

Unless, of course, his Magic Boyfriend was at work on a weekday morning like most of the human race, in which case the laws of the universe do, in fact, preclude him from being in two discreet locations simultaneously. The Pauli Magic Boyfriend Exclusion theory, I think it's called.

So, there you go. Sorry for the drama.

You know, the thing is, when I started this site, I picked a lot of fights with bloggers. Like Oliver Willis, who then became too pathetic to even have sport with. And Andrew Sullivan.

Although I never wanted to be a shock-jock sort of blogger, I did sort of believe PT Barnum's observation, "If you want to draw a crowd, pick a fight." (An observation Glenn Greenwald is putting into practice in spades, since he has, at last count, insulted virtually every rightwing blogger in the Truth Laid Bear Top 100, in their approximate order of rankings, and furthermore, he's done so every three days. But I digress.)

Anyway, I stopped the fight-picking thing -- mostly; I still criticize Andrew Sullivan, because he's such a halfwitted prick. Got bored with it.

But lately I plunged into it again. But, alas, this time it was different; I wasn't taking comedic jabs at people. I was actually angry. And the anger showed, and was ugly, and not terribly much fun to read.

I'll keep that in mind, too. You can never win an argument when you're mad.

One thing Instapundit does well is cutting down people with this very above-it-all, you-are-far-too-absurd-a-silly-person-to-even-trouble-me air. I have more trouble putting on that air of bemused contempt, but man, I really let that pose drop these past several days. I expected to get it from liberals and Glenn Greenwald cultists; I just didn't expect it from Wizbang! and Q&O. But, expected or not, you don't lose your cool.

Or you end up having to write posts like this.

That "Memo" post I wrote may have read angry, but that was feigned, comedic anger. I was annoyed that this idiot was getting attention that could be better directed towards, say, me, but the whole thing was a pose. I was trying to channel Will Ferrell at the end of Zoolander when he exclaims, "He only has ONE look! Magnum?! Le Tigre?! Hasn't anybody noticed? THEY'RE THE SAME LOOK! I feel like I'm taking CRAZY PILLS!!"

Even worked in a similar joke, "I feel like I'm being skull-fucked with a crazy-stick." I was wondering if anyone would catch that swipe homage.

Anyway, I thought that was pretty funny, and if it was, it was because it was not genuinely angry. It was pretend angry, fake crazy.

I have not been pretend angry lately, nor fake crazy.

I've made a lot of promises lately about laying off on Greenwald and the like, but really, I will try to lay off Greenwald (until I've got something big and juicy) and I will go back to the rule that kept me out of trouble for so long, Rule Zero, Thou shalt not get into stupid fights in other people's comments.

posted by Ace at 01:29 AM

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