This is a tough call. The meter has been so top-heavy of late, I'm chagrined, appalled, shocked, disgusted, nauseated, and filled with heart-ache at the thought of raising it again.

But if this doesn't qualify for code red, what does?

Maybe we should have a separate meter to gauge how closely Sullivan's rhetoric resembles Kos's. Code red could be "Screw them," etc.

This blows my mind.

Andrew Sullivan has now cravenly (ooh, it's "in his darker moments" so - HINT HINT - he's not being entirely serious! Entirely.) suggested that the entire War on Terror and War in Iraq were mere smokescreens so that Bushco. could achieve its REAL NEFARIOUS GOAL: that of installing a homosexual-oppressing theocracy here at home.

A plan so diabolically brilliant it's mind-bogglingly stupid.

Everything Sullivan's said up until now has been shrill hysteria. But this is permanently disgraceful. The guy's clearly flipped.

So...how is Sullivan different from every other gay left pundit now?

I mean, is there a thimbleful of difference between him and David Ehrenstein?

Aggrieved. Yep... HWWNBN nailed it. I thought I may have had a 6 month headache accompanied with nausea and projectile vomiting... some sort of rare Shwahilian flu maybe, but nope....

.... I've just been aggrieved since November.

"Gay couples who have had their rights taken away since November"?

Huh? What rights? Oh, wait, you mean those conferred by the Massachusetts court and that idiot Gavin Newsom?

If the right is only conferred by a court or a mayor determined to hide from the real problems his city faces, it can be taken away the same way. Pass a referendum, or convince a legislature, idiot.

At some point, HWWNBN will get a grip. No one, not even Maureen Dowd or Paul Krugman, can sustain this level of hysterical idiocy too much longer.

Early in 2002...

Bush: I'm kinda worried about how we're going to deliver the government over to the Theocons, Karl. You know, my popularity's been in the stratosphere since 911, but my judges are blocked by Dashing Tommy Daschle and my faith-based by initiatives haven't exactly taken off.

Rove: Don't worry. My secret plan is to take out Iraq.

Bush: Eh? How's that gonna help my popularity?

Rove: Popularity? Screw that. It'll probably go down. But who cares? I'm talking about persuading Glenn Fucking Reynolds, moron! Ever heard of the power of an Instalink?

This also raises the question of what constitutes a "freak-out."

He doesn't seem particularly exercised. He's calm, collected -- just floatin' a little conspiracy theory. No sweat on the brow at all, if I had to guess.

In short, if hysteria is now his default position, whither the meter?

I just don't get it. I really honestly have not noticed my rights being yanked out from under me. I do however like that I got a tax cut. I also like the fact that my government is at least now debating changing the evil oppresive monster called social security. I am much more concerned with my property rights and the money that the government seizes from me at every turn than I am about getting the govmnt to hand me a piece of paper that says I am "married". Dammit I wanna smack the shit out of every dumbass homo that is willing to give up his/her financial independence in return for the democratic government giving them a rubber stamp on their relationship. Gay marriage will mean nothing when we are all slaves of the state. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR The whole situation is gob-smackingly vile. I am nasueated , chagrined, maligned, perturbed and constipated. Also my pyloric valve has clamped shut on hearing the news of this social injustice.

Allah,

He cops to "darker moments." He may not be using the overemotional language of the past (can I take credit for that? ... I wonder), but this is as fucking freaky a thing as he's said in a long, long time.

I don't know if I want to go up to red, but this is pretty bad.

Vile, in fact.

Dianna,

i would be remiss, and Bill would be disappointed in me, if I didn't remind you that the Multnomah COunty Oregon county commissioners just got their hands slapped hard (thanks, in part to moi) by the Oregon Supreme Court for the same thing Newsome did.

I feel good that HWSNBN blames my success on the Iraq War. it's even better than when they were saying Rove gave meinstructions for our ballot measure banning gay marriage.

I feel like the poor, old jew who liked to read about how the Jews run the world. He knew they didn't (or he wouldn't be poor), but it was nice that someone thought they did.

It's now official.

Andrew Sullivan:
Crazier than a shithouse rat, but with more back hair.

I really honestly have not noticed my rights being yanked out from under me.

Hah! Exactly; you didn't notice, because the WOT provided such excellent cover.
The tsunami was a nice touch too, don't you think?

Because, to every Lefty, it's all about ME!! It's the ultimate solipsistic onanistic goal of every event in the universe: to contribute to a Lefty's well-being and mental state. It's their human right to be happy and fulfilled, all the time. If they are denied this basic right -- by the evil Chimpy McBushitler and his neocon nazi monkey horde of doom!! -- then all efforts must be expended by decent and right-thinking people to make them feel better again.

Because, you know, it's all about feelings and self-actualization. Hurting their feelings is just like giving them a high-stepping kick right in the nads, and it should just not be allowed.

What a bunch of worthless, whiny, patchouli-stinking, clove-cigarette-smoking, humorless, aimless, feckless, know-nothing turds.

I'm curious to see how the 'sphere reacts. I doubt even John Cole would go this far, but some of the rhetoric on our side of the aisle lately makes me wonder.

Expect a "Sullivan's nuts, but Randall Terry drove him to it" compromise.

"Gay couples who have had basic rights taken away from them since November..."

Can someone please tell me what the hell he's talking about?

Is he seriously trying to tell us that gays haven't been allowed to get married only since November? Has he gone that far around the bend?

Holy crap.

blast it up to red, Wizbang!

Put that fucker on highest warning.

I always thought the war was a means to put the smack down on Hanbali jihad and on Baathist repression. Good thing Sith Lord Sully is here to tell us of Bush's Palpatinian play to sucker us into becoming a new Iran.

So if Sully does wholly give into his "darker moments", what would his name be, I wonder - Darth Gobsmack? Maybe Darth Gusted.

insane

no really, just insane

Social Security reform - distraction from the ultimate goal of banning gay marriage!

No Child Left Behind - distraction from the ultimate goal of banning gay marriage!

Tax cuts - distraction from the ultimate goal of banning gay marriage!

Senate's "nuclear option" - distraction from the ultimate goal of banning gay marriage!

It all makes sense to me now. Thanks, Sully!

Just out of curiosity..what rights were taken away in November? The right to gay marriage? If that is what he is talking about, don't you actually have to have some before it can be taken away?

Also my pyloric valve has clamped shut

Marty, is that from "A Confederacy of Dunces"?

If so, thanks for the laugh and the flashback!

The fact that he's not spitting profanities, but is rather speaking more-in-sadness-than-anger, actually weighs in favor of "Filled with Heart-Ache."

Which is I guess when he's so outraged that his outrage-meter gets pinned in the red and he becomes merely despondent.

Thank god for AS pointing out all these basic rights I've had taken away. I hadn't even noticed!! In fact, nothing's changed in my life, except I'm a bit broker than usual. Goddamn Frist!!

It's a self-referential post. "My darker moments" refers to an elevated state of alert. He's not currently in that elevated state, but when he's in that state, be believes the fall of the Soviet Union was orchestrated by Karl Rove to install der Fuehrer Pope, unleash the horrors of Abu Ghraib, and--oh yes--pass beagle leash laws.

'"Gay couples who have had their rights taken away since November"?

Huh? What rights? Oh, wait, you mean those conferred by the Massachusetts court and that idiot Gavin Newsom?'

Of course, even those 'rights' haven't been taken away, either before or after November...

The problem is that you need one more level at the top of the freak out advisory.
Hot Pink- Shrieking Queen

Because realistically, as long as Bush is in office that thing will be pegged in the Red most of the time. And when he tops himself, what will you do?

Grace,
Yes I am a huge fan of that book. What an excellent book, and I love to refer to it from time to time. Better than quoting scripture.

It's been an hour since Sullivan posted his latest, not only filled with conspiracy theories, but once again using the word "bear", and yet to my chagrin, I see that the Freak-o-Meter has not moved from the blue zone. You know I wish in many ways I could simply leave this church - uh, blog - and say to hell with it. But I cannot. For one, I keep believing. This is not experienced as a choice. It is just my reality. When I read the Gos--, uh, no, the blog comments, they speak the truth to me. When in the past, I have followed the links, I have felt as a reality the presence of Ace. As I sometimes tell people, I can say the creed of the VRWC with very few reservations. But believing in the basic creed is not enough any more. We are required to assent in every way to Allah's evert pronouncement, even if it belies what one can see with one's own eyes and see in one's own experience.

Gay couples who have had basic rights taken away from them since November, might feel more aggrieved.

what rights were taken away in november? and last i checked, kerry's position was no on gay marriage but yes on civil unions. hhwnbn's hysterics are starting to sound an awful lot like cam diaz on oprah-"if you believe in rape then don't vote." wha?

(first draft)

But in my stupider moments, I wonder whether the war wasn't a cover to persuade good, open-minded folk like Glenn to enable the theocratic impulses of the Republican base

I'm going to go counter-intuitive, and vote that the meter be lowered to "Appalled." Just bear with me a moment.

The great thing about the Freak-Out Meter, and about Andrew Sullivan's snits generally, is that they're all the same. He's a scenery-chewing hysteric with only one wildly over-amped emotional level, like Richard Harris in Triumphs of a Man Called Horse or Richard Harris singing "MacArthur Park." Someone leaves a cake out in the rain, and Sully busts a shit hemorrhage.

If the meter just drifts around at random, with no correspondence to the events of the day or their actual significance, it will be a perfect reflection of whatever solipsistic gizmo Sully uses for an emotional barometer.

We are at code red.

As Martin Sheen said in The Dead Zone: "The missiles are flying. Hallelujah."

He doesn't seem particularly exercised. He's calm, collected -- just floatin' a little conspiracy theory. No sweat on the brow at all, if I had to guess. In short, if hysteria is now his default position, whither the meter?

Is he grabbing his ass? Are his glutes twitching?

Honestly, I think it's pure manipulation for traffic. Jeff B pointed out a swipe he took at Powerline a week or so ago - they didn't bite.

I think he's just taken to this sort of attention getting to buck up traffic and ad rates, hoping a Reynolds or someone will play into it. He got busted on the blegging crap, so he's scheming for another way to fill his pocket. I don't believe it has anything to do with what he really thinks or believes.

I just noticed this post on HWWNBN's site:

LOVED IT: The Nationals-Phillies game was great fun at RFK last night. Vile but irresistible hot dogs; a new foodstuff known as dippin' dots...

"Vile but irresistible?" That basically describes Ace in one economical, highly-strung phrase. And everybody get in now on the new foodstuff trend, Dippin' Dots!

ace, at least HWSNBN is farther out of the cultural mainstream than you are out of the geekstream of teh internets

Sullivan has posted a clarification to his earlier post: "But the religious right's agenda is far more ambitious than merely stripping gays of civil rights or even minimal privacy. It's about controlling the bodies and behaviors of all Americans to more faithfully conform to Biblical absolutes." What now? The Advisory was already at Red; with this, it's going to have to explode.

Keep it at red. He just updated:

Do you mean to say that the war is being used as political cover to push a theocratic agenda (sounds about right), or that the reason we undertook the war was as cover for a theocratic agenda (sounds cynical and hysterical)?

I mean the latter. I'm sorry if I confused anyone. Or more simply: many people voted for Bush on national security grounds, a position with which I have much sympathy, and decided that fretting about the religious right was overblown. My position was that the national security differences between Bush and Kerry were not so great as to risk the domestic Kulturkampf that the religious right would unleash if Bush were to win. Others believed I was "hysterical" and concentrating too much on the gay issue. I think events since the election have buttressed my case. Gays could see this more clearly because we were so often the convenient target for the far right in the first term (although they have even more ambitious plans to curtail gay freedom in the second). But the religious right's agenda is far more ambitious than merely stripping gays of civil rights or even minimal privacy. It's about controlling the bodies and behaviors of all Americans to more faithfully conform to Biblical absolutes. Hence Schiavo; hence the need to purge the judiciary of any opposition; hence the abolition of a threatened judicial filibuster; hence the political alliance with the new papacy; hence "Justice Sunday." These people are no longer merely one Republican faction. They control the GOP. We are now seeing that more clearly, while the war - understandably - obscured that a little. With Iraq less in the headlines, the domestic agenda of the new big government sectarian GOP is far clearer. My "hysteria" may eventually be seen as clarity - even to anti-anti-religious right contortionists like Mickey Kaus. I like how he compliments himself at the end. Classic Andy.

Oops. Bad formatting. Here's the post:

Do you mean to say that the war is being used as political cover to push a theocratic agenda (sounds about right), or that the reason we undertook the war was as cover for a theocratic agenda (sounds cynical and hysterical)?

I mean the latter. I'm sorry if I confused anyone. Or more simply: many people voted for Bush on national security grounds, a position with which I have much sympathy, and decided that fretting about the religious right was overblown. My position was that the national security differences between Bush and Kerry were not so great as to risk the domestic Kulturkampf that the religious right would unleash if Bush were to win. Others believed I was "hysterical" and concentrating too much on the gay issue. I think events since the election have buttressed my case. Gays could see this more clearly because we were so often the convenient target for the far right in the first term (although they have even more ambitious plans to curtail gay freedom in the second). But the religious right's agenda is far more ambitious than merely stripping gays of civil rights or even minimal privacy. It's about controlling the bodies and behaviors of all Americans to more faithfully conform to Biblical absolutes. Hence Schiavo; hence the need to purge the judiciary of any opposition; hence the abolition of a threatened judicial filibuster; hence the political alliance with the new papacy; hence "Justice Sunday." These people are no longer merely one Republican faction. They control the GOP. We are now seeing that more clearly, while the war - understandably - obscured that a little. With Iraq less in the headlines, the domestic agenda of the new big government sectarian GOP is far clearer. My "hysteria" may eventually be seen as clarity - even to anti-anti-religious right contortionists like Mickey Kaus.

Every hysterical leftie is just convinced that a real-life version of The Handmaid's Tale is just around the corner. Forget for the moment that it was a stupid book and an even stupider movie. Forget Sully's tendency towards the hysterical and hyperbolic. Just think about his: in America at this moment, when we're supposedly on the cusp of a religious dictatorship, the American porn industry is raking in billions every year. It's one of the largest industries, money-wise, in California (and probably Florida too). I find it hard to believe that a religious fascist theocracy would allow such an industry not just to survive, but to thrive and grow in such a way.

To rip off a "Family Guy" episode: We like films like Bang the Drum Slowly, only replace the word "Drum" with "Blonde", and "slowly" with "repeatedly". Even if we like God, too.

Sorry about that...the formatting is't working. All of the stuff above is him...

Slu,

Not your fault, ace's comment stop all formatting at a hard break.

use the [p] (with arrows instead of square brackets) at line breaks. Maybe.

"Gays could see this more clearly because we were so often the convenient target for the far right in the first term"

Could someone please explain WHAT THE HELL this means? Radical militant gays pushed gay marriage first in Vt (it failed to a degree) and Mass (success!), and then HWSNBN is saying the Religious Right targeted GAYS?

Give me a fucking break.

This guy is moving rapidly into Kos/Atrios territory in terms of integrity.

And I just realized Wanda beat me to the punch...sorry W.

Sullivan really needs to calm down. Good Lord, "stripping gays of civil rights or even minimal privacy"?

How old is he, and where has he been living the past 20 years or so? I'm not that old, but I remember a time when most homosexuals were in hiding rather than main characters on hit sit-coms and staring in shows with the premise of having the main characters attempt to queer up a straight man.

If the agenda of the "religious right" is to stop this, then they've been doing a woefully poor job.

Hob...thanks for the HTML tip. I'll have to remember that one.

I'm not sure which part of this statement is more infuriating. The one you printed or this one:

"My position was that the national security differences between Bush and Kerry were not so great as to risk the domestic Kulturkampf that the religious right would unleash if Bush were to win"

Yeah, because you know we religious right types are all about POWER. (insert Mr. Burns laughter here).

slublog,

sure there's some element of power that comes into a presidential race (who'da think), but I hardly see a clamoring for a national constitutional amendment against buggery, for Cripes' sake.

And Jason,

how much privacy can a gay man have when he's on a television sitcom? Huh? tell me that, you theocon apologist!

NO one expects the Spanish Inquisition!

No problem, Slub - my entry was more in the nature of a teaser anyway. You did the heavy lifting, posting the whole thing! I love the intro to Sullivan's explanation; he posts the email inquiry of a reader who actually offers him a graceful way to climb down, even though to me it still sounds pretty extreme. He suggests that Sullivan might have meant that the war was a given, but the theocrats opportunistically seized on it and saw it as a tool to advance their agenda. But Sullivan opts for the alternative "cynical and hysterical" proposal, that the religious agenda drives EVERYTHING, and was the reason for starting the war in the first place.

Wow. The Professor just slapped Andrew Sullivan.

In a polite, Instapundit way that is.

I do think, though, that Andrew's constant complaints about theocracy aren't helping and indeed make even his valid points less persuasive. Andrew did a wonderful job of convincing undecideds -- and even some decided-againsts -- to think positively of gay rights and gay marriage, but lately his tone has been such that I doubt it's winning many converts. I support gay marriage, though no doubt with less intensity than Andrew, but it's clearly a minority position in the country, and last year's courtroom "victories" seem to have done more harm than good. You go from being a minority position, to a majority position, by convincing people that you're right. It's not clear to me that playing the theocracy card will do that.

And the inevitable Reynolds bitchslap has been wrought on the shrieking one.

I'd call him box turtle but no one would get the joke =[

This has the potential to get very, very ugly.

I admit that I jumped on the mockery bandwagon, waving my shirt in these comments and yelling woo-hoo, because Sullivan pissed me off over his overreaction to B16, and what with all the other comments he's made over the last year I decided 'f-ck it, I'll join that pile-on, he deserves it'. But now I'm beginning to wonder if Sully is having problems.

Is there someone close to him who can gently point out while some of his opponents are indeed partisan or homophobic or Catholic, or are occasionally jerky enough to act it, that's not the -sole- reason for the growing crowd of rubberneckers at the train wreck...?

As a former supporter of Sully's site (there's a few bucks I want back), I used to think the same thing. But anyone who keeps saying the things Sully does is really not going to keep my sympathy for long.

He tries to pretend at conservatism now, pointing out liberal excess and such. But he seems to support the idea of filibustering judges, mocked the pro-life view while Terri Schaivo died, doubted the war when it was popular to do so, and endorsed John Kerry.

Yup, I want my money back now.

I think Reynolds is 100% correct. I'm pretty much indifferent toward gay marriage, leaning toward being supportive, but every time I hear a gay activist or HWWNBN open his mouth, my level of support drops a few points. If HWWNBN keeps talking, I'm soon going to be one of those theocrats that he so thoroughly despises.

The best thing he can do to promote gay marriage is to go back on vacation.

Thank you, I just wanted to give a greeting and tell you I like your website.