Arrest Report

If you've read this site for just about any length of time you know that I've gotten used to being a speed bag for the Huffington Post peanut gallery. Whenever something of mine gets published over there, it's usually possible to count the minutes before the HuffPo readers -- some of whom are incredibly bright, some of whom may as well be free-range retards -- begin wondering aloud whether I'm a paid operative for Fox News or just your average Renfield-esque flunkie. This is probably because the pieces of mine that get posted there have tended, especially lately, to be more centrist than the mixed-bag you find here. And for the professionally pissed-off liberal Star Chamber that holds court round-the-clock in the Huffington Post comment section, my attempts at being reasonably moderate mean I may as well be pissing on a welfare baby while eating a Big Mac and plowing a Hummer through the front of a Whole Foods in the Haight.

So with that in mind you can imagine the kind of ire my recent piece on Cenk Uygur and the arrest of Nicole Sandler drew. To be honest, not a lot of people commented on it, but quite a few of the ones who did -- particularly Brad Friedman from the Brad Blog, some of whose work I happen to like but who I wound up getting into a ridiculously drawn-out debate with -- basically took me to task. To say that it doesn't bother me one way or the other and that I'm actually just entertained as hell by it is a pretty gross understatement. But what it proves is that while, no, the left and right are nowhere near the same -- not when it comes to the level of intellectually dishonest hypocrisy they're willing to spew or the incomprehensible lack of shame they regularly display -- blind tribal loyalty is as powerful at one end of the political spectrum as it is at the other. And even a little bit of straying off-message -- even from someone who's obviously, for the most part, on your side -- just cannot stand.

I normally post the best responses here, but to be honest the only thing really amusing is the back-and-forth between me and Friedman -- so I'll just refer you to the post at HuffPo and let you read for yourself.

Enjoy.

The Huffington Post: The Arrest of the Story/4.29.11