I don’t doubt that for a second that you would ever condone behaviour like this. I just question what it is you think you’re doing by drawing focus away from the issue at hand (unethical behaviour) by framing it as an issue of tenor in public discourse. What exactly is the value in that…here…for anyone besides yourself? The last few years of discussing very hard, very terrible things have been paved over with this veneer of phony civility, hypocrisy and wishful thinking and it’s gotten all of us absolutely nowhere.

Maybe it’s something you’ve forgotten over the years, but very often (in fact in the majority of instances, I happen to believe), there’s great value in saying nothing at all.

I cannot, I know I cannot. I wouldn’t want to justify any of this. Violating somebody’s privacy in that way is a terrible thing. In some cases, it can put somebody’s life in danger. It is something I would never condone. Show me where I have even implied in any way that I condone or excuse this sort of abhorent behavior.

I tried to make the privacy argument in one of the comments at Theri’s site, directly asking JG to respect the man’s privacy. I knew this guy was about to out them. He displayed every damned sign of it. And then he did it. Did it make his point in the original argument right or better?

It was a disgusting piece of work, and, I don’t care what the provocation, it was wrong. As far as I’m concerned, JG’s server should remove his site, permanently.

Whimps.

I accept, and apologize for the ad hominems I chucked at you. Moving on.

Mal-

so “wingnut� doesn’t always mean the same thing for me as it does for you.

Sweet Zombie Jesus, an honest to god relativist roaming the earth. So your argument is basically that we were using different terms and neither of us are wrong because you’re using a rickety old Canuck insult variation instead of the American version?

Dude- don’t be a hoser. You post here entirely too much to not know what “wingnut” means in civilized countries..

Alright, that’s all the anti-Canadian chauvinism I can fake.

To be honest, mal, disappointment is the correct word. I thought folks around here might know if the “Thers called JG a pedophile” was thoroughly debunked, so I could go on, maybe link to it or at least disprove JG’s allegation that he would ban the asshole who made the remark. (Incidentally, while the PW commenters are by and large disgusting, there was a lot of enthusiasm for banning whoever made that comment. They’re not *completely* amoral, just mostly.). I asked some questions, repeatedly stated I was against outing, requested not to be piled on-

And here we are, still discussing each others failings. I know you’re not apologizing, but having read your humor comments on other topics, this whole conversation been pretty fucking disappointing. I’m not expecting an apology though- that would require class, and Dr. BLT (!) is the only one on here who’s displayed any of that.

Good day to you.

I have a new diagnostic criterion for wingnuttery: high noise to signal ratio, despite high letter count in the signal.
Pasty is the worst. He’s one of the most verbose, empty-headed wankers I’ve ever seen.

Funniest thing said in a completely unfunny episode (From one of threads over at protein wisdom)

I will point out that Jeff understands his subject matter well enough to be concise. That concision is found at various points along his essays.

An important distinction between Jeff and Thersites is that Thersites (and Hamsher for that matter) does not understand the material well enough to be concise. He might ‘know the material’ but hasn’t figured out a way to convey that knowledge with any sort of brevity or, for that matter, in his own words.

Yeah, that would be the one. Remember, I’m not from a place that’s having a “tribal/culture war” (except for the tribal wars Canada has had for, like…forever) so “wingnut” doesn’t always mean the same thing for me as it does for you.

And I’m not apologising for anything; for my laziness, my wrongness, my pitiableness, my assinine accusation and my pathetic defense thereof…not apologising for obviously disappointing you so thoroughly and completely.

And yes, I am intending to damn both of you with faint praise.

And I apologize for mistakenly calling you a wingnut.