On Blackness of Pots and Kettles

The strangest thing about this piece is not that it's purported humor failed to make me laugh even once, despite the obvious imagination used in passing down of "sentences" of "Loathsome People." People get their giggles from the oddest places, as some of the newer shows on Adult Swim indicate.

No the strangest thing is the accusation it levels against Michelle Malkin (who linked it at her own site, without commentary):

Her accusations of blind hatred and vitriol mimic soul sister Ann Coulter’s classic tactic of psychological projection: whatever Malkin is, she sees in her opponents.

Now absorb that, and absorb the rest of the list: does it strike you as being short of hatred, vitriol, cheap shots, prejudice, and superficiality? Count the parade of grostequeries issued as comments on the appearances of the targets. Is this truly meant to demonstrate the superior intellect that its tone assumes?

The answer, of course, is no. This is intended as nothing more than a bit of the old Two Minutes Hate, a reveling in contempt, a release of frustrations. There's plenty of that going round the blogosphere, and plenty of it is right-leaning. I am reminded of P.J. O'Rourke's mid-90's Enemies List, except that O'Rourke's seemed much more tongue-in-cheek, aware of the thorough naughtiness it was engaging in. A typical excerpt:

• Anyone who's last name is Cockburn.


• Anyone who has inherited so much money and so little sense that her last name might become Cockburn.


• Cockburn wanna-be Christopher Hitchens (Christ, who's checking the green cards around here?)

I know I'm hardly a neutral observer, and it's possible I'm not reading in the right places, but this level of vitriol really seems to be all the Left has. I'm not seeing a lot of "we should do this, instead." A few places, sure, but not the majority. The majority seem stuck in a bitter, I-despair-for-the-country malaise, so furious that the right exists and has influence that they don't know how to begin moving past them. And no, the Democrats Lobby Reform package doesn't cut it. It's so perfectly topical as to reflect strategery more than conviction, and of doubtful effectiveness anyway. But if they want to continue to be the Little Dutch Boys of the legal dyke betwixt politics and money, that's their headache. It's just not the kind of innovation that's going to put them in power again.