Brummett, Blogging, and the Governor's Con Sign
Elements of this article have been festering in my head for three days. Even then, it is normally too difficult for me to write anything in John Brummett's defense, but there is something about Sundays and the words of Jesus to "love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to them who despitefully use you.".
If I'm not good enough of a man to actually do that, at least I can be moved to the point where I am willing to stick up for them on the rare occassion where they did something right and got unfair heat for it.
Fortunately for my more earthy side, Brummett said some things in his column today that are going to make it easier to "balance out" this blogpost. Even on Sunday, I am not going to indulge Brummett's delusions of unprightness- of course when done in love, confronting someone on their delusions is a loving thing to do. In this case I am not prepared to ascribe to myself such pure motives....
Continued- click SUNDAY below and scroll down for article
posted by Mark Moore (Moderator) at Sunday, January 14, 2007
3 Comments:
First, let me do the negative part. In his column today he explained why he decided to become a "blogger" even though he has been critical of them in the past. He said his problem was not with blogging in principle, but "My disdain is for some of these bloggers personally.
They're the anonymous ones who advance blindly partisan agendas. They eschew fair and objective consideration of issues and engage in cowardly rumor-mongering and vile character assassination.
I don't do that. OK, maybe once or twice over a couple of decades I've slipped and semi-mongered a rumor or semi-assassinated a character. At least I did it by my own real name.
"
OK John, I can only assume you are being sarcastic with that last part. You do character-assassinate, or at least try. Jim Holt and Jim Bob Duggar come to mind. On the former, I hope you are happy, you wanted him politically broken and he is. Congratulations. The latter, who you dismiss as a bumpkin, has more class in his nail-trimmings than any of us have ever seen from you.
Yes, you do put your name on it, which puts you one step ahead of 1) anonymous bloggers who character-assassinate and 2) the Demo-zette's unsigned editorial page.
One step ahead: you're the establishment's executioner who doesn't wear a hood. It's not much, definitely not enough to indulge in delusions of moral superiorty over.
Brummett goes on to give excuses as to why his blog does not allow comments. In that, he displays some of the cowardice that he accuses the anonymous bloggers of. You see he doesn't "have time" to "monitor comments". Seems to me like the Ark Times blog and others have the answer- members only comments.
I suspect the real reason is that Brummett couldn't defend his positions even if he had a century of time. Without comments it is not a blog. As one of our readers said, it is just another notch on his big-media amplifier that he can turn up to drown out other voices. If you spend you life doing what Brummett does, you better be willing to defend it in a fair fight. So far, he isn't.
That is the negative part. I am glad to have that unpleasant duty done with on this Sabbath day. Now let me admit that Brummett had quite a good catch the other day, and in this case he combined it with the grit to print it even though it was against the flow of his own crowd. No cowardace there.
I am talking about when he noticed that Governor Beebe, right before his inaguration speech, made a gesture to his colleagues in the audience. He took his index finger and moved it along his nose, much like the picture at the top of this thread.
He was told it was a private gesture that the Governor does among his close friends, but he knew he had seen it somewhere before. Then it hit him. In the old movie "The Sting" that was the sign that one con man made to another that a con was going according to plan.
The liberal crowd did not like the fact that Brummett was willing to report that. To tell you the truth, it took more wits than I thought he had to catch it, and more integrity than I thought he had to print it.
Some of the same leftist people that were critical of conservatives for ignoring the warning signs that Bush was trouble seem just as willing to do the same for their Democratic office holders. They need to be careful. Integrity involves eschewing double standards. Being "non-compartmentalized" as regards to moral questions. Following the truth wherever it takes you.
I don't want to make more of Beebe's gesture than we should, nor do I want to make less of it than we should. The Governor has a reputation for intrigue and maybe even duplicity. There have been stories like he would tell group "A" that he was for a certain bill and would vote for it, but then go to the committee members where the bill sat and make sure it never saw the light of day.
In today's political climate, that is almost the norm. The question there is "are today's standards adequate to maintain good government". Probably not. The nose gesture is not Watergate, but it does raise a yellow flag- when reported.
I, too, am surprised that Brummett would report something like that since he is so cozied up to Beebe and the other socialistist at the Capitol. I wonder if he received a flogging from them for his writings?
You sure it wasn't a masonic sign?
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