Redstate

...presumably practicing for his Keith Olbermann session.

By Moe Lane Posted in Blogosphere — Comments (17) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Prologue: Before I get started, I'll be fair. There were a nontrivial number of dKos regulars who went ballistic over what the aforementioned expert did to their site's reputation, such as it is. Watching them try to lance the poison out was much like what I'd presume an actual, honest-to-God exorcism would resemble, down to the kicking, screaming of obscenities, feverish babbling of nonsense and wholesale vomiting. It still got wholesale recommendations.

Also: Via Cadillac Tight, via Glenn Reynolds.

The exhibitionist in question? Larry Johnson. Ahh, Larry, Larry, Larry. Starts off his little diary - 266 recommends, by the bye. It'll be important later - with this title:

London Bomb--What a Crock of Cr[*]p!! [UPDATED] -

What? Oh, no, I redacted the swearword. Come on. dKos. Swearing's half the fun for those guys (the other half apparently being blaming the Bush administration for everything from crabgrass to sunspot activity).

Anyhoo, having mistaken 'gas' to mean 'gasoline' - I hate to point this out, Larry, but Americans are not the only people for whom English is their native tongue; cultural imperialism, much? Tsk, tsk, tsk - Larry goes on to inform the universe that this was all a), a Molotov cocktail; b), just one big hype (guess he doesn't own any London real estate. Or know any Londoners. Well, maybe he knows some, but just doesn't like them enough) and c), an exercise in fear-mongering.

So far? So typical. But wait! There's more.

Needless to say, what actually happened today in England was that a group of cowardly terrorist scumbags attempted to kill a good number of people using two improvised car bombs. For the benefit of those who were depending on Larry for their news, the bombs consisted of propane gas and gasoline tanks, apparently rigged to blow up via either a cell phone or personal detonation. And, oh yes, there were also large quantities of nails involved. I mention this because Larry didn't update about that.

Oh, yes, he updated - to let people know that he'd be on Keith Olbermann's show.

Then he updated again - to note the second car, but not to bring up the propane/petrol thing, and not to mention the little detail about the nails. He did bring up the Mercedes angle, mind you (I have no idea whether it was due to class outrage, or merely a demented attempt at product placement). Aside from that? Well, as of 11:47 PM, we've got a comment from him attacking an English dKos reader who had the bad taste to object to an American 'terrorism expert' cavalierly minimizing the former's exceptionally bad day.

How did comments go? About as you'd expect: 266 267 (I refreshed) recommendations by his loyal readers, a veritable torrent of praise, not to mention conspiracy theories*... but then the first timid bright flashes of sanity started appearing in the vast murkiness of abject stupidity. It's the rare dKos thread that's worth your lifespan to read; I'd be more impressed with the pushback if what was needed to trigger one hadn't been so drastic. And, alas, they still haven't quite given up on the crazy.

Now, at this point, I hear you ask "So what, Moe?" Well I freely admit that there isn't all that much to this, except the (justified) vicious mockery. And the observation that Larry Johnson clearly did the aforementioned genitalia waving because he couldn't otherwise find it in a dark room with a flashlight and a hooker to help**. Oh, and that there's a reason why this blog entry of his fits every cliche out there about the Online Left. And, oh yes, that speaking as a site moderator blog entries like his are a powerful argument against us ever getting that level of traffic: even if I was still a Democrat I still count at least fifty natural-born damned fools whose removal from that site would raise its collective IQ by a measurable amount.

Well, maybe there wasn't not all that much to it, after all.

Moe

*I was under the impression that Markos banned for those. Silly me: he just tosses 9/11 Truthers - although given the percentage of Democrats who are Truthers, you have to wonder if that'll change - so if you, perhaps, are the sort who is willing to actually say out loud that these bombs were planted to distract the populace from the new Michael Moore film you can still have a home at dKos.

**Please feel free to remind of him of this little escapade in all of his future endeavors, by the way.