Still Slinging My Web-Gun
From Antonia of the Toronto StarThe warblog drums are growing silent.The noise is defeaning I guess. If you take a real look at the conservative blogosphere (we all know "journalists" stopped doing actual research), you will find many a voice that supports this war. You just have to look. But that doesn't fit Antonia's mindset or worldview, so she doesn't bother.
They're either running out of time, or money, or steam — or the conviction that Operation Iraqi Freedom was going to be a cakewalk in the sand.Time is a factor in the alternative media...most of us don't get paid for the work we do; then again, we actually research our stuff too... As for money, Blogger is free; so money is no problem either. This last one is really what Antonia would like to believe: conviction. Nobody said Iraqi Freedom was going to be a walk in the park. War isn't pretty. We are winning though and if "journalists" like Antonia would report the rest of what is going on in Iraq, the rest of the world would know that. Again it doesn't fit her mindset or worldview, so it must not exist.
If the above makes no sense to you, then you have not been paying attention to the chest-thumping chaterati of the cybersphere, a post 9/11 class of might-is-right and right-is-might wordsmiths who rode the "War on terror" wave with their warmongering web logs.If the above doesn't make sense to you, then you've actually been reading the conservative blogosphere and not just "Googling" them.
But now, with the news getting more dire, the quag more mired and the cost of war ever higher, the warbloggers find themselves on the wrong side of history. And so some of them are putting down their mice and putting up a white flag.But now, with the news media getting more biased, the quag more mired and the cost of ratings plummetting, the "mainstream" media find themselves on the wrong side of history. Again. Still. Whatever. And so some of them are putting up a brave front and outright lying about the success of the War on Terror. People like Antonia.
"Where is everybody?" wailed Damian Penny last week.Well, Antonia, it is Canada...maybe there was a lumberjacking final on the telly, eh?
The youngish lawyer based in Newfoundland, whose blog is one of the top right-wing online pit stops for Canadians, noticed that, in recent weeks, his pro-war comrades in keyboards were holding their fire.
"If I may quote (comic Fred) Willard, `wha happen?'" he plaintively asked. "Did everyone else go to a party to which I wasn't invited? This is junior high school all over again ..."Liberals like Antonia seem to think that people who support the War on Terror are mindless, bloodthirsty thugs bent on world domination. That is not the case. We merely want to protect ourselves from those who would do us harm. Now who has a problem with that? Hamsters like Antonia. I hate to break the news to Antonia, but the world was already divided by terrorism. President Bush merely articulated what was already happening in the world when he said that you're either with us or against us. Antonia, it would seem, has made her choice. She wants the enemy to win.
No, the war party is over. There is nothing to celebrate any more. (Not that there ever was.) President George W. Bush's folly is a bloody, costly, tragic, world-dividing disaster that has led to more acts of terrorism by more groups.
Even the New York Times' pro-war Thomas Friedman admits that the U.S. government has blown it, as he wrote last week: "The world is too complex and dangerous for the pious simplicities and arrogant unilateralism of George W. Bush."I don't trust even the pro-war New York Timers...you never know just who the next Jayson Blair is in that outfit.
Sometimes smart, often sassy and always vitriolic, warbloggers beat the Bush-bashers, slag Muslims and Arabs, attack Canadians and the French for not backing the attack on Iraq and, last but not least, pile on pundits who raised questions about weapons of mass destruction or wondered about exit strategies.Rarely smart, often silly and always vitriolic, liberal bloggers beat up our troops and civilians serving their nation with pride and distinction, attack Americans for supporting the liberation of Iraq and, last but not least, pile on politicians who "lied" about weapons of mass destruction or wondered about exit strategies.
Look, John "Waffles" Kerry himself said that the weapons may still be found. If you liberals can't trust him (and I know I don't) who can you trust? I know...he changes his position with the direction of the wind. I can't help it you people put up the wrong candidate.
Their favourite targets include the New York Times' Paul Krugman, American foreign policy critic Noam Chomsky and Robert Fisk, war correspondent for Britain's the Independent.Guilty as charged. Well, in the marketplace of ideas, if you're wrong as these guys are, you should expect to catch a little grief.
In fact, both Krugman and Fisk have inspired warbloggers to coin words. "Krugmanism" means to dramatize events to make a point. (As if the right doesn't!) And to be "Fisked" is to be deconstructed by bloggers.I present to you, Exhibit A. It is nice to know that they are catching on to the lingo though...
Not that there shouldn't be critics of critics. But many warbloggers resort to dogma, disinformation and personal attacksAhh, that famous liberal projection I've been waiting for...
Which is why — indulge me here — I found myself called "blousy,'' a "perpetual outrage machine," "fat AND stupid," a "dumb leftist," "sub-par female impersonator" and "menopause girl" by Canadian bloggeuse Kathy Shaidle.Kathy sounds like quite the talent scout to me...
Two weeks ago, she packed it in, at least for a while, after nearly four years of "desperately trying to maintain an increasingly difficult-to-calibrate balance of Righteous Indignation and Smug Superiority to get me through another day of living in this Banana Republic With Snow during wartime."That's too bad...Unlike Antonia's drivel, Kathy sounded like a blogger I could read without applying duct tape around my head to keep it from exploding.
Other warbloggers, who spend a lot of time talking amongst themselves, have called me "fat Tony" and "the peroxide Wonder" (letitbleed.blogs.com) while others still have labelled me a Nazi, a "Jew hater," anti-American, anti-Semitic and other terms that involve the political tilt of the parts of me that meet my chair.Well, Antonia, I don't know you and this is the first piece of yours that I recall reading, but I have to say that it wouldn't surprise me to discover that people don't like you. You're in the public eye...people have a right to their opinions. Or are you against that too?
One guy, whom I found last week after following links from other like-minded mouse warriors, actually imagines that I regularly visit his site (http://www.lobowalk.com, and please, say ``Hi!" from me). He calls me a "dumb slut" — among other things that would probably have my boyfriend, a former Golden Gloves heavyweight, pounding him out.Again, Antonia, I don't know you...isn't it interesting how a peacelover like you would threaten violence like that... I'm just saying... Between you and me though, I think there is a level of namecalling on both sides of the aisle that is out of hand. Calling someone a "slut" would have to be one of those. So would "mercenary", but that didn't stop Kos, a mainstream Democrat (read "radical leftist").
Witty, most of these warbloggers aren't. Not like some of their heroes, a genuinely brilliant if misguided, if I do say so myself, bunch led by columnist Mark Steyn. (He used to write for the National Post until last year's change of management at the hands of the Asper family.)Smart, most of the lefty bloggers aren't. These folks don't usually have heroes, but if they did it would be the likes of the aforementioned Kos (who's dispicable views of our soldiers and contractors serving in Iraq caused quite the controversy) and Ted Rall, a talentless hack of a cartoonist (who couldn't touch Chris Muir's work if his life depended on it).
Other members of the neocon blogging pantheon include Glenn Reynolds, James Lileks and Andrew Sullivan — at least until Sullivan felt the anti-gay wrath and hatred of the Bush regime.Excellent reads all...Antonia knows who her competition is. I'd like to point out, however, that none of those guys have "fallen silent" on the war. I thought that was the point of this drivel...maybe I missed the point altogether as it is looking like this is nothing more than a smear piece.
Probably the most venomous of all is Charles Johnson. His site is the toilet in which all sorts of misinformation and malice about Arabs and, in particular, Palestinians are dumped. Anybody who writes favourably — or even in a half-balanced manner — about them is slimed.Probably the most ridiculous of all is Antonia. Her paper is the one we take with us to the toliet when it's #2 and the New York Times isn't available. Talk about misinformation and malice, sheesh... One note about LGF: it isn't so much Charles that gets out of hand but rather his commenters, but Charles gets the bad rap anyway...liberals like to pass the blame around, but I'd point out the wonderful folks at the Democratic Underground in reply.
And yet Johnson was recently likened to a "righteous Gentile," a term reserved for Christians who sheltered Jews from the Nazis during the Holocaust.Well, Antonia, when you're right, you're right...that's all I can say.
The praise came in a positive profile from B'Sheva, a widely read Israeli publication oriented towards the settler movement.
As a warblogger, Johnson is still going strong, as is the violence in Iraq, Israel and the Occupied Territories.You're theme is crumbling here Antonia...by your own admission even...this can't be good for your career. Really.
But those that have fed on it are blogging out.Well, Antonia, I wouldn't say that...Blogs for Bush has over 500 blogs on their BlogRoll of affiliated blogs. I can't speak for the pantheon of warbloggers, but our numbers have increased in the last few weeks and I can't imagine that's because people are tuning out. We're still here Antonia, you and your kind can't silence us as much as you would like to... My drum beats loudly for all to hear, but especially for people like you who don't get it.
And so, their drums grow silent.
"There seems to be warblogger fatigue setting in," says popcult blogeratus Marc Weisblott who has been tracking the phenomenon. "I think this Iraq debacle is exasperating all of 'em.Ahh, so when you can't prove your point with facts, you go back to the well: some other liberal hack. That's like trying to prove your point by quoting from counterpunch.org or Move On... Not very convincing and illustrates the total lack of integrity in your opinion.
"And when your whole schtick is rage against (the New York Times') Maureen Dowd or (the Globe and Mail's) Heather Mallick ... or, uh, you, that's only going to carry one so far."
