A Bit Of Speculation…

I can't say I'm the most suspicious soul in the blogosphere, but Charles Johnson's announcement last Saturday morning that he'd parted company with Pajamas Media set off my bullshit detector. Big time. The fact that The Poodle claimed the parting was for no particularly good reason and that he, Glenn Harlan and Da Raj smothered each other with lots of hugs and kisses after it was all done seems to confirm that there were damn good reasons for said parting and that it was, in all probability, a bit on the bloody side. And Raj, in keeping with the sort of honesty, openness and transparency we've come to expect of him, was too busy congratulating himself on how honest, open and transparent he was in other matters to mention anything about this development on either Pajamas Media's site or his own .

I done smelled me smoke…

And where there is smoke, there's usually a under-educated, overly opinionated, thoroughly paranoid and completely batshit crazy bigot deciding that it isn't enough to arbitrarily fear and loathe a couple of billion of his fellow souls solely on the basis of religious affiliation... Now he's got to fear and loathe a whole new swath of folks, including a large chunk of his former "anti-jihadist" playmates, because, based on his under-educated, overly opinionated, thoroughly paranoid and completely batshit crazy worldview of European politics, they've all become a bunch of crypto-fascists. I can certainly understand why all his former playmates are shocked... After all, this was their Charles Johnson being unjustifiably extreme, arbitrary and unfair…

And just who could have seen something like that coming from the likes of Charles Johnson? You'd have to be a Uri Geller…

The fire of the matter appears to be this: Evidently there have been a series of large-scale commenter purges over at Little Green Footballs over the past year or so. To listen to the victims, it's all been part and parcel of Charles Johnson morphing from Fearless Leader to Dear Leader. One can no longer deviate from or disagree with His Eminence; if one does, one is banned from the site and purged from the fold. It seems that part of this process has now spilled over to other Pajamas Media blogs and bloggers, the most notable being Gates of Vienna, although Jihad Watch, Dr. Sanity, Sigmund, Carl and Alfred and neo-neocon seem to have been dragged into it as well. Evidently, Charles has reached the conclusion that simply hating all Muslims no longer qualifies as the tie that binds. Now one must hate a certain Flemish political party with the endearing name of Vlaams Belang, as well as all Muslims, or you're a deviationist and crypto-Nazi.

Now I don't know anything about Flemish politics, which is where one finds the party of Vlaams Belang, and being the sensible sort, I really couldn't give a fuck about Flemish politics. To me, Flemish politics is for the folks o' Flanders to sort out. However, for certain folks everything everywhere is now a matter of life and death because everything everywhere is threatened by the Muslim Menace™. You know, European Jihad, Cultural Jihad, Political Jihad, Demographic Jihad, Jihad In Your Bathroom, etc., etc. etc. Therefore, to folks like Charles Johnson and Pat Santy and Siggy and Baron Bodissey and Dymphna, the argument over whether the members of Vlaams Belang are righteous anti-jihadists or loathsome quasi-fascists has become a matter of life and death. So Charles purges deviationists, deviationists run to Gates of Vienna and Jihad Watch, Charles gets hissy with Gates of Vienna, Dr. Sanity backs Charles, Gates of Vienna gets hissy with Dr. Sanity, and on and on and on… It even got to the point where it spilled over into the Sanity Squad podcasts, if you can believe that.

In the meantime, there's Roger Simon and Glenn Reynolds over in the corner trying to pretend that they're going to transform Pajamas Media into a New Age Associated Press next year. And, more importantly, there's Aubrey Chernick and Jim Koshland standing around watching their thought leading, tipping point bloggers trying to scratch each other's eyes out over a Flemish political party with a name that sounds like a dirty joke. At some point in the recent past, I'm willing to bet, Aubrey and Jim looked each other and said, "We paid seven million dollars for this sort of horseshit?"

Exit Charles, stage far right…

That's about as good an explanation as you're probably going to get as to why Charles Johnson is no longer a member of Pajamas Media's "management team". I'm sure there's a bit more to it, but if you think I'm going to spend any more of my time reading Gates of Vienna, Dr. Sanity or Sigmund, Carl and Alfred in order to sort it out, you've got another thing coming. And that goes double for reading Robert Spencer.

You know, if you go back and plow through the many criticisms of Pajamas Media I voiced back in 2005, you might happen upon one I made when several Pajamas Media bloggers - John Cole and Jeff Goldstein among them, if memory serves - decided their time was best spent running around the internet fighting with Pajamas Media critics. I pointed out that in real businesses in the real world that had real managements who were real serious about making real money, employees brawling with each other or the general public wasn't tolerated. And I pointed out that Roger's allowing such brawling to go on without rebuke was just another indication of just how sorry both he and Pajamas Media really were. Lots of folks wrote that observation off as simple bitterness on my part. I wonder if they feel the same way about that now.

Moron Alert: Well, Charles is consistent if nothing else. And so, as a matter of fact, is Gates of Vienna. It's been three days since Charles had his ass handed to him by Pajamas Media and he's still ragging on Baron Bodissey about Vlaamas Beland, and, being an idiot himself, the Baron is still engaging him. Evidently, the firing didn't quite get the message across to any of the participants. Good job there, Raj... You too, Glenn Harlan!

All hail New Media!

Now the feud has progressed to Brain Surgeon levels: Chuckles and Herr Baron are arguing over whether Vlaamas Beland's use of Odin's Cross proves it is a crypto-Nazi organization. Meanwhile, showing they have a grip on the situation, Roger scolds Christopher Hitchens for ragging on Hannukah and Glenn Reynolds shares his thoughts on wet/dry vacs.

You just can't make this sort of stuff up.

Comments

[FabioC.]

I can only conclude that Charles is propelled by a rabid anti-europeism (or even being against anything that does not conform to his worldview). Virulently anti-Muslim commenters were allowed to run freely on LGF basically until they stirred up shit within the community.

And now support for a small anti-jihad Belgian party is enough to justify massive purges? Here the original sin of Vlaams Belang is double: being European, and not expressing unconditional admiration for the Jews.

Any decent manager wouldn't piss on the European market (I've seen ads of Italian phone providers on the PJM network) like that, indeed.

[SallyVee]

Dennis, I love it when you rant. Can't say I've kept up with the PJM Soap Opera but your take is tremendously entertaining and I am willing to bet dead-on accurate. In one of my briefer and briefer tours through the 'sphere last week I came across that 'Vlaams Belang' term and immediately thought WTF?? Yet another obscure, probably irrelevant blog flog. Thanks for explaining that it is a dirty joke and saving me the embarrassment and effort. All hail the babushka!

[Steve H. Graham]

Personally, I find gay bigotry kind of refreshing.

[Dennis The Peasant]

It is a celebration of diversity, Steve.

[Terrye]

Am I ever out of touch, this is the first I have heard of Vlaams Belang.

I stopped reading LGF some time ago.

[Uri Geller(No relation)]

"And just who could have seen something like that coming from the likes of Charles Johnson? You'd have to be a Uri Geller…"

Frankly,I was as surprised as anyone.

Urs Uri.

[Dennis The Peasant]

Uri-

So you're twins? Who knew?

[Uri Geller(No relation)]

Again Dennis, a complete surprise. My mind has been on other things,like bending spoons and such like.
Between you and me,I think Chazzer spends too much time on that bicycle,bound to rrestrict the flow of blood to his brain.

[evariste]

Dennis, it's still @wowway.com, right?

[Dennis The Peasant]

dennisthepeasant@wowway.com

[evariste]

Thanks, just making sure it's still valid. I sent you my own analysis of the above.

[markg8]

evariste what are you, teacher's pet? Won't share with the rest of the class? Or terrified of the wrath of Charles Johnson?

BTW I think 'Vlaams Belang' means "beer fart" in Flemish.

Thanks for reading that drivel so I don't have to Dennis.

[Dennis The Peasant]

Oh Mark, you're such a bitch some times...

[Eric Blair]

Not that I'm defending CJ or anything, but that Baron Bodissey guy doesn't really have his head screwed on straight. Anybody who was using Bismark's picture for his avatar is either completely unaware of the image he's projecting, or totally aware. Either way, it bodes no good.

And that Flemish party is pretty much a bunch of bigots. But the world is full of those.

[Marcus]

Thanks Dennis--great stuff. God I hope some of the LGF dwarfs find your site.

[Richard Silverstein]

"I think Chazzer spends too much time on that bicycle,bound to rrestrict the flow of blood to his brain."

...or to another more delicate part of his anatomy affixed to that bicycle seat...

[evariste]

Mark, what I emailed Dennis is a bit too long to post as a comment! I'm not trying to be the teacher's pet, nor am I "terrified of the wrath of Charles Johnson". I already had my falling-out with Charles several years ago.

I'd be happy to share what I sent Dennis with you if you're really dying to know. My email address is evariste@my blog's domain, feel free to get in touch. Also, Dennis is welcome to post what I sent him in whole or in part if he wants to. His reply to me about my theory definitely made me take pause, and I'm not nearly as certain about it as I was when I first emailed him. The bottom line here is that the people who really know what happened aren't likely to talk, so both me and Dennis are just making educated guesses, each informed by his own area of expertise and knowledge. We're probably like that hoary old parable about the blind guys trying to describe an elephant.

[PeterUK]

What is wrong with a man wanting to spend more time with his bicycle?

Here is a clue,1 divided by 3 is less than 1 divided by 2.

[markg8]

If anyone else would like other plausible sounding yet completely bogus translations for any European language just let me know. I can send you off on the wrong track in any number of tongues.

This guy is Belgian and he admires Bismarck? Jesus, that makes as much sense as the NCAAP putting up a pic of Nathan Bedford Forrest on their website.

[Lex (The Ghost of Pim's Ghost)]

Oh, the strange odyssey of this "blog war" has almost been enough to inspire me to create another blog just to keep posting the comical highlights of it all. I never knew that something online could leave me literally "ROTFLOL", but pretty much anything at "Gates of Vienna" can accomplish this. Even better, a huge GoV fan has started a blog (http://govcomments.blogspot.com/ reading them out of context is even funnier!) solely devoted to "recent comments at Gates of Vienna". Sorry, but no matter what CJ does at this point could possibly compare to GoV's Baron & Dymphna. I mean, come on, the loony threatened in an email to basically hold a link to my blog hostage (?!?!), a number of other emails of wackiness to other bloggers, followed by posts about how they are the victims in all of this. Victims of taking their blog FAR too seriously, that's my assessment. As long as they're still bringing in the laughs though, I find it best to encourage. And I think they're PJM too, though I never understood PJM much myself, other than hearing that it was a pain in the ass to belong to.

I just enjoy mailing links to friends who have NO idea about these blogs in the first place and then hearing their reactions to certain posts. This should become the new wave in Christmas cards, actually...dispatches from the asylum. I should work up an e-card program....heeheehee!

[dorothy]

When is James Wolcott going to treat us to the full retrospective treatment on Raj & Rerun in Vanity Fair? I think it's time.

[Dennis The Peasant]

dorothy-

Dunno. I think I've dropped off Wolcott's radar screen. Then again, perhaps Pajamas Media has dropped off Wolcott's radar screen.

[Lex (The Ghost of Pim's Ghost)]

I just added this to my coverage of the Gov Vs. The World & LGF & Dr. Sanity et al. I just couldn't resist, I had to tell them to go elf themselves. Knowing that wouldn't work, I just elfed them myself.

The comments on my coverage (and that of others taking the road of sheer mockery) have been even more on the side of favoring forced deportation of Muslims from Europe. The arguments presented, as usual, are too shoddy to even bother with.

Either way, the fighting has been at times extremely amusing. I really liked the serious discussion over a comment at LGF by "Tasty Beverage". That one made my Thanksgiving.

[Mike C.]

Oh, my. I'll have to send this whole schlemiel out to a place on the intarweb thingy. Folks will find it of interest.

Actually, the speculation there was pretty much along the same lines as yours, D the P.

"One toke over the line, sweet Jesus,
one toke over the line..."

[John]

Bravo, what a great rant!

The whole business is superbly silly.