The Hysteries of Tacitus
Josh Trevino (a.k.a. Tacitus, a.k.a. The Marble Douchebag), in the conclusion to one of his patented ‘I’ll Concentrate On The Mote In Your Eye If You’ll Please Ignore The Huge Pole Up My Ass’ diatribes (perfectly summarized here), states:
One closing note: when the major left-bloggers — including but not even nearly limited to Hamsher — began their campaign against the nonpartisan, nonideological Online Integrity, one major excuse given (besides the Ackbar thesis) was that the blogospheric left is more than capable of policing its own — and does so with alacrity. So, Georgia10, Chris Bowers, Matt Stoller, Stirling Newberry, Oliver Willis, dKos editors, et al.: let’s see it. Let’s see the left enforce some basic decency in its own ranks. I, for one, have the greatest confidence in your integrity and your word.
Now let’s set aside the fact that Tacitus’s demand for decency from the Left was written in ostensible defense of a true shithead, Jeff Goldstein, a man who deserves most everything he gets — on the grounds that, well, he earned it after he seriously threatened another blogger with sexual assault (scroll down). Let’s also set aside the fact that most of the bile in Tacky’s post comes from his obsession with Jane Hamsher, who had the temerity to call a spade a spade in characterizing Goldstein as psycho. Hamsher had already earned Tacky’s eternal enmity when her muckraking skillz helped usher-out the gloriously brief Ben Domenech era at the Washington Post‘s website — Domenech being Tacitus’s great and true pal and all. Tacky’s also still probably pissed about this, one of those great hoisted-by-your-own-petard moments that gives delight to those of us who like to see the intolerably pompous cut down to size. Let’s set all that aside (I promise to deal with such things comprehensively in a future post). What I want to address now is Tacky’s Online Integrity scheme that he’s using to bash the Left with.
It’s a tool. Period. Which makes sense, for a tool, Tacitus, authored — or helped in authoring — it. Chris Bowers writes on its uselessness with regard to its purported intent:
I have no plans to out the identity of anonymous bloggers. I have no intention of posting the private, personal information of anyone online. I am definitely not going to report people who post on my site to their employers. If I post information about someone and they feel it is inaccurate, I will post a correction, and respect the wishes of the person in question. To my knowledge, I have never acted in contrast to these principles. If I have, point me to the instance, and I will gladly correct it. I have even banned several people form MyDD because they did not follow these principles. The reason I act this way is because I believe it is the right way to act. However, I am also not going to sign a pledge declaring that I will continue acting in a manner that is obviously the ethically right way to act, just because a bunch of bloggers are shoving that pledge in my face.
[…]
Why should anyone have to sign a pledge saying that will they act in a manner that is obviously the right way to act? Why have so many people signed this pledge even though they still link to people who have obviously broken that pledge, and even though part of the pledge indicates that “violations of these principles should be met with a lack of positive publicity and traffic.” What purpose does this pledge really serve? Little Green Footballs already used the pledge as a means to indicate that those who did not sign the pledge are somehow lacking in moral integrity. And then they promptly removed themselves from the list of co-signers anyway.
Chris also writes on its utility with regard to its tactical (real? original?) intent:
I have a very strong sense that pledges of this nature are used to tear people down who refuse to sign them, rather than to uphold the principles of whatever the pledge may claim to be upholding. I do not need the online ethics police to tell me how to act ethically online, and I certainly do not need the online ethics police to imply that I am unethical for not signing their “pledge.” Isn’t that the real implication here–that I, or whoever else refuses to sign their pledge, isn’t into “online integrity?” For that reason, isn’t this pledge a means to try and de-legitimize anyone who does not sign the pledge? I think it is, and that is why my name will never appear on the list of co-signers. Ever.
Bowers called it right. But then his suspicion, almost immediately confirmed, was just common sense: the people who push this thing are congenitally despicable. More specifically terming their pathology: they are hypocrites, and I’m not just talking about Michelle Malkin; I’m also talking about the guy who would:
[Hope] that mentioning where I teach several times embedded in his trademark vacuous pomposity might cause people not to notice that he didn’t have a substantive argument.
[Attempt a] reprehensible Horowitzian intimidation.
And who’d write such things as:
Don Quijote, let it be noted that you were banned from my site for publicly mocking a dead American soldier in Iraq. You are utterly without honor, and I find your whining implying that you were booted merely for dealing out “rebuttals or disagreements” — to say nothing of your braying insults — particularly egregious in light of my agreement to protect you from possible retaliation from your employer on this matter. Shame.
Which was rightly seen as blackmail — and no less so because it was fig-leafed with the flag and peculiarly (but characteristically, given the source) written in a stilted tone stinking of Klingon phrases best left to the Comic Book Guys of the world.
And (also in his own words),
Hmm. Looks like Billmon has deleted my post replying to him above. Probably because I used his real last name.
The final two quotes come from comments to this post at Billmon’s. The author is Tacitus, a Tool who can’t live up to the standards of his own pet tool that he presumes to chastise Jane Hamsher and Lindsey Beyerstein with.
PS — It’s nice to see Tacky is still in Star Trek mode. From his post at Pork Swords Crossed:
So there: as Hikaru Sulu said, “Now we’ve given them something else to shoot at.”
Right. Which reminds me of this:
The fly in your ointment, Tacitus, as is readily apparent, is that you are, in fact, a bloviating reactionary, intent upon extracting, as much, partisan lynching, as possible. Your motives, are not, as well hidden, as you would think. In fact, they are, as obvious and nauseating, as your William, Shattner, style of amateur prose.
**Update from comments: Another instance of Tacky‘s hypocrisy.
Also: As a Tacitus-troll prophylactic, I’ve corrected a few typos.
*** Another update: Tacky apologizes to his past victims Billmon and spartikus, because he wants us to take his pet tool seriously. Not feeling particularly charitable to such a tooth-extracted apology, I think he’s more concerned about preserving the future partisan-hackish utility of his OI toy than he is contrite over his past atrocities.
Tacitus dishonors the name of one of my favorite Roman historians and the awesome professor who taught that class.
Sweet. And here’s another, where our laudenum sniffer and incorruptible Defender of Christendom outed my real name and real job.
Maybe Tacitus was just doing an homage to the Glorious Loyalty Oath Campaign from Catch-22:
Needless to say, I won’t be signing any pledges…
You really shouldn’t be wasting so many valuable electrons on that pompous bag of shit. You’re just giving the twit what he craves most: attention.
Your real name appears when you mouseover in every comment on that thread, uh, “spartikus.” Not exactly detective work, that. Don’t be bitter at the low-hanging fruits of your own foolishness.
That being said, have I violated the Online Integrity terms often in the past? Yep. There’s a reference to that fact in the very statement of principles itself — lots of us are guilty. So this “news”….ain’t.
As for the rest — heh. Have fun. This IS better than the FDL smear-job; but then, that’s a low standard to meet. I need to find me a stranger to hatehateHATE. I can only imagine the sense of purpose it brings to an otherwise empty life….
We set up a parody of the Online Integrity site… and in about a week we got over 100,000 visitors, topping Online Integrity by, oh, about 90,000 or so.
Why? Because most people would rather make fun of anything remotely associated with Tacitus than be, uh, remotely associated with Tacitus. Because he is very, very annoying.
As if to illustrate the point: Billmon. Good times poking at him for his dumb e-mailing of his real name to Donald Luskin. Such were the days.
Your real name appears when you mouseover in every comment on that thread, uh, “spartikus.”
Yes…that would explain revealing my job. And my previous handle to the current one, something which you could only do by examining, painstakingly, the registration records of your site.
When you think of Tacky, think of a pole capped with a lemon stuck up his rear end. Explains a lot.
It’s true, not-terribly-anonymous “spartikus,” you were done an injustice. And your dunderheaded facilitation of it is no excuse. Therefore: I apologize.
I even apologize to the totally-not-anonymous Billmon for the same past injustice.
Because I mean what I say at OI.
Did Lee Carvallo just use dunderheaded? Oh no, now I’m a target!
The fact is, liberals just can’t take the facts as they are factually stated in a manner that has depth and texture in the factual sense.
I must now go up, up, and away in my beautiful balloon………
Did Lee Carvallo just use dunderheaded? Oh no, now I’m a target!
I need to find me a stranger to hatehateHATE.
You have. Years ago. And your persuit of him makes any other blogospheric “watcher” schtick or personal axe grinding pale in comparison. His name is Kos.
I knew ticky-tacky’s name long before he went public with it. I don’t remember who told me. Needless to say I didn’t out him, his job, or whatever else I may have been able to find online because I didn’t even bother trying to find out any of that information.
I’ll admit to screwing up the personal/private line in a major way once, my biggest mistake as a blogger, and for the person I did it to (though I wasn’t the first) I sincerely apologize and I made a modest effort at amends.
As a relative newcomer to this blood feud, I have to say: Josh/Tacitus/whatever, you’re a habañero-scorched asshole with nothing to say.
I think he should go back and sit in rooms, wait for the police and chomp on his VA-provided paxil
Is Online Integrity the Euston manifesto for the internet?
I am prepared to conclude, based upon the evidence presented, and construing the facts in the light most favorable to the defendant, that Tacitus is a dickhead.
I think he should go back and sit in rooms, wait for the police and chomp on his VA-provided paxil
Now, that is not nice. You, Anonymous Poster, have disgraced the Liberal Blogosphere.
For shame!
To be fair, insulting someone because they’re on meds for a medical condition is not a good thing.
With Goldstein, though, the post where he said he was taking that stuff was genuinely bizarre, even by his standards… and he is basically an asshole. But I wouldn’t go after him over the meds.
There’s too much other hilarious stuff to choose from.
I have to say thanks for this historiographical journey through blogistan past. I had no idea.
Where’s your Stars & Stripes lapel pin? No Lapel Pin? Must be a lib!
Ethiks iz haaard.
I’ve been only vaguely aware of this ticky-tacky person. All I know is that practically all of the appalling rightwing bloggers seemed to have facilitated the online hate-fest that’s been going for quite some time, and all bear responsibility for it.
Too bad. So sad. *frowny face*
See you at the “Truth and Reconciliation” hearings, if we’re all still alive, that is.
Incidentally, where’s the evidence that the “major left-wing bloggers” are “campaigning” against Online Integrity?
It’s always fun to play “Spot the Big Weenie” when the wingers start yammering about integrity.
Jane got the hits because she did actual reportage on Plame that nobody else was doing.
So it’s no wonder the wingers would want to drag her down to their level — they’re about being a megaphone for the latest blastfax, not about creating a fresh infrastructure for delivering news.
In fact, a fresh infrastructure for news is the last thing they want, since they have full spectrum dominance of the current infrastructure.
As for anonymity, one word:
Publius.
Assholes.
“I need to find me a[nother] stranger to hatehateHATE.”
Ms. Hamsher will be so hurt…
Oh, and: “Because I mean what I say at OI.”
No you don’t.
Did Lee Carvallo just use dunderheaded?
Yeah, but anyone who can putt like Carvallo can use whatever words he wants.
how is that fake re-enlistment working out Josh? get back in yet? or are the standards still too high for the likes of you?
Geez, Ticky-tacky reminds me of a certain overly-verbose troll named “Rugellos Maase” that used to infest the bowels of Salon’s Table Talk. The sort of right-wing troll that was considered a god among other right-wingers because he used big words. Ooooooh! Of course, the Big Words weren’t used properly much of the time, and lies are still lies whether they are said with words of one syllable or five, so it was always enjoyable cutting him down to size. Most internet trolls nowadays aren’t as fun to dissect; they’re more like blithering script kiddies of trolldom, reciting blindly whatever gibberish Rush or Hugh or whichever hate-radio prophet spoke to them through the console of their tinfoil-lined XBoxes.
Old lady 1: Well *I* heard that Jeff wanted to slap his you-know-what against the face of you-know-who.
Old lady 2: *gasp*
Old lady 1: It’s so uncivilised!
Old lady 2: I kno-ow [Cybil Fawlty voice]
Old lady 1: I think Tacky has a crush on Jane Hamsher
Old lady 2: Poor dear. He’ll never win her heart with the way he’s behaving…
Old lady 1: I kno-ow [Cybil Fawlty voice]
[Meanwhile… somewhere in Bagram airforce base]
*thud* “Allah! Allah!”
*thud* “Allah!”
*thud thud* “A, All–”
*thud* “mph..”
*thud* “…”
*thud* [silence]
And your dunderheaded facilitation of it BY TELLING THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN THE WALLS TO COMPEL ME TO VIOLATE MY OWN TERMS OF SERVICE AND COMB MY REGISTRATION DATABASE FOR HOURS TO MATCHUP RECORDS is no excuse.
Therefore: I apologize.
Weally?
Weally weally?
So, we’re like friends again? I’m so glad, cochise. That’s really cool.
By the by, and QED and whatnot here are some more of your friends. I’m supposing they think what you have to say is important.
Failing at actually acting in an ethical manner on the net, tacky now wants to be an agency of online ethics?
Seriously, I can’t make up shit this silly.
I wish I could.
How about a site for bloggers who won’t plagiarize, or misuse ellipses (I think the record is an ellipsis of some 80 pages)?
How about a site for bloggers that are not self-involved pricks with a history of censoring anyone who mildly disagrees with him?
Nah..
Anyway, great post, mr. Sadlyno (Is that a Ukrainian name, btw?)
In turn!
Thers: Incidentally, where’s the evidence that the “major left-wing bloggers” are “campaigning” against Online Integrity?
It’s at a Google Groups, er, group called “Townhouse.”
The aptly-named RetardEAU: You have [found a person to hate.] Years ago. And your persuit of him makes any other blogospheric “watcher” schtick or personal axe grinding pale in comparison. His name is Kos.
Hahaha. Ah yes, my Kos-obsession: those times when I wrote about the single most successful blogger on the planet. That’s certainly comparable to your longstanding and unyieldingly bilious fixation on the orders-of-magnitude-more-obscure Tacitus. Right?
Duncan Black: I knew ticky-tacky’s name long before he went public with it. I don’t remember who told me.
I doubt this, as I doubt you’re the type who would have held back had you known my name — which would have easily led to my professional position. Were proof possible, I’d ask for it. As it’s not, I’ll simply ask: why the baby talk from a grown man?
Again, Duncan Black: I’ll admit to screwing up the personal/private line in a major way once….
And that would be with whom, Duncan?
American patriot, Hubris Sonic: how is that fake re-enlistment working out Josh?
Re-commissioning. I love it when they make it easy. In all seriousness: why not make the effort to join with me? What’s that? No?
And “spartikus”: So, we’re like friends again?
Nope. You’re still a tedious fool. (National Vanguard? For your own sake, stop.) But even tedious fools should have their privacy respected.
Well, we’re done here for now. The attention’s a small pleasure, but in the end, I must make the same demand I made at The Poor Man: competent enemies. “Retardeau” may have truth-in-naming to his credit, but he ain’t it.
Carry on.
What amazes me is that Armando over at Crossed Swords gave Trevino room to bash Atrios.
I always wondered about Armando, but Trevino is a jerk.
Competent enemies?
Scary stuff.. better ask Jeff G. for some Klonipin, after he imparts some protein wisdom.
If you want a good enemy, try Tbogg. If he gets on your bad side, you’ll get LOTS of gawkers at your site.
Well, there’s no question now that Armando isn’t pretending to be a jerk.
I actually submit that, on its own terms, OI is actually more useless than the Euston Manifesto. However, the fact that it generated Theres’ parody nudges it ahead…
I did my time son. you need to fufill your obligations. But then they wont let you will they. They wont let you near the weapons will they. why is that josh?
Re-commissioning. I love it when they make it easy. In all seriousness: why not make the effort to join with me?
That’s Ossifer Citrus-Butt to you, civilian!
“Euston Manifesto”.. that awakens some dusty memory. Was that a fin de siecle statement of libertarian “principles”?
I think he’s reaching the point where someone could fry an egg on his face. So. Very. Angered.
Hahaha. Ah yes, my Kos-obsession: those times when I wrote about the single most successful blogger on the planet. That’s certainly comparable to your longstanding and unyieldingly bilious fixation on the orders-of-magnitude-more-obscure Tacitus. Right?
Yes, those several hundred times you were Donald Luskin to Markos’s Paul Krugman. As opposed to my roughly 8 posts and as many more references to you on my old site, in nearly three years of blogging, that you on another thread provided as “proof” of my “obsession”.
But it *is* nice to see you admit that Kos is the bigger blogger; not that that’s doing much more than stating the obvious, but that little more means a lot: your obvious ambition was to be the rightwing Kos. Sorry about your consummate failure in all that.
Well, we’re done here for now. The attention’s a small pleasure,
Surely you mean not attention but humiliation, and a deserving one at that. But you are welcome.
“Retardeau” may have truth-in-naming to his credit,
I know this is the sort of thing that passes for high wit in wingnut circles, but you’ll have to do better here.
And as for my name, it was chosen because it’s goofy, silly, and self-deprecating. Useful traits in a net-de-plume, letting others know that one has a sense of humor and does not take himself all that seriously, in letting others know that one is not a stick-in-the-mud, interminably pompous, asshat — like, say, Tacitus.
Wow, now this one was great. I’m laughing at every single tool who signed that stupid pledge and threatened everyone who didn’t, and that means you, John Cole.
What amazes me is that Armando over at Crossed Swords gave Trevino room to bash Atrios.
But why wouldn’t he? He’s championed his friend Tacitus all along when, all along, Tacitus tore down, slandered and obsessed-over Kos, to whom Armando owes everything. If he’ll let Tacitus do it to Kos — and all the while insist that Tacitus is a decent, intellectually-honest conservative — he’ll let him do it to anybody.
Which is why their site is worse than useless.
Retardo,
I guess Armando is a Republican with training wheels. Lose a few more ethical scruples and he can become an a-list GOP blogger. Lord knows he has more than enough riting talent to take over the wingnutosphere—i.e. a positive epsilon amount.
where’s the evidence that the “major left-wing bloggers” are “campaigning” against Online Integrity?
It’s at a Google Groups, er, group called “Townhouse.”
Gosh, that is some powerful “campaign,” one apparently confined to a private email group.
They don’t even have, like, flyers?
Well, we’re done here for now. The attention’s a small pleasure, but in the end, I must make the same demand I made at The Poor Man: competent enemies. “Retardeau” may have truth-in-naming to his credit, but he ain’t it.
Competent enemies?
My advice would be to start with competent friends.
Just to becaome familiar with the adjective you use.
Tacitus is a decent, intellectually-honest conservative
Sadly, this may be true. I have low expectations these days.
And that would be with whom, Duncan?
Definitely clonazepam chased down with Zima. Or maybe it’s the Sherlock Holmes floppy hat and comically-huge magnifying glass that are making tacky’s investigative technique here look…well…unsubtle.
Marble Douchebag…with a titanium nozzle.
Or maybe it’s the Sherlock Holmes floppy hat and comically-huge magnifying glass that are making tacky’s investigative technique here look…well…unsubtle.
Nah, it’s the pidgeon droppings in his marble hair.
You can hear it in the back streets:
OI! OI! OI!
That being said, have I violated the Online Integrity terms often in the past? Yep. There’s a reference to that fact in the very statement of principles itself — lots of us are guilty. So this “news”….ain’t.
Right. In other words, “I have been hitting you with a broken bottle. Now that I have lost my grip on it and it’s in your hand, I want you to sign this piece of paper that says you won’t use the bottle against me.”
Right. Let me think about it, uh, NO.
I doubt this, as I doubt you’re the type who would have held back had you known my name
I’m confused. I thought Tacitus was going to heal our wounded nation with his commitment to “basic dignity” and “online integrity.”
But this comment just seems kind of childish and illogical.
Go figure!
I doubt this, as I doubt you’re the type who would have held back had you known my name — which would have easily led to my professional position.
A lot more will soon be revealed, little man.
Hee hee.
Sign on, sign on, to the Amazing Christ-o-gram, aka the Online Intregrity Pledge!
It cleanses you of all sins, leaving you sparkling clean! The uncouth may point to your past behavior, but fear not! You are forgiven!
It cleans all those pesky motes from your eyes, leaving you free to poke at the eyes of others at length!
It empowers you — nay, it encourages you — to throw the first stone! It verily gives you a big bag of rocks and a gentle shove towards the fray, armed with a gleaming shield of self-righteousness that even Pat Robertson could not lift!
If frees you from the surly bonds of earth, of logic, of clarity, of the unpleasant social conventions against false piety, hypocrisy, or general wankerdom!
Side effects may include dry mouth, universal contempt, ridicule, bouts of weeping coinciding with any temporary flashes of self-awareness, and flatulence. If delusions of moral superiority persist for more than four hours, please consult a physician.
Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!
You have ño Iñtegrity, ñoñe of you at all!!
Mr Ñ nyukked you all good, didn’t he there? “Retardeau”… how appropriate… retard!!!
Nyuk-nyuk-nyuk! [insert Latin tag that only super-clever-person-blog could come up with]
Non ragioniam di lor, ma guarda e passa. Well okay… that’s what passes for Latin now in New Europe now that Berlusconi is gone. Sadinnit?
How about adding a virginity clause to their pledge, too?
As long as they’re promising not to break any vows they already broke 100 times before, ya know..
I’m almost always a cloaked gawker in these pile-ups but I gotta chime in here on a little side note.
You know that moment in Glen Gary Glenross when Jack Lemmon (God rest his amazing soul)’s character tears into Spacey’s? He pops a mint in his mouth and wipes his hands and says, “That’s it, I’m done with ya.”
I see that a lot in posts. But nearly every time (like this time (yes I can’t type without these parentheses)), the mint-popper isn’t walking away from verbally whooping the ass, he’s limping away at a pace that would be a stuttering run to fleedom if he didn’t still have his gelatinous ass slung over his shoulder, (it having just been handed to him, finely filleted) slowing his lumbering progress.
“That’s it, I’m done with ya,” he types, puts the ‘puter in sleep mode, pours a tall and tasty glass of 7 and 7, and floats away on a cloud of Styx and Air Supply.
Well, that last part is just what I would do.
Hey,
I’m sure I’m not the first to think of this, but I suspect that one of the aims of OI is to ferret out the real identity of Digby, and any other still-anonymous top lefty blogger.
Get Digby to sign up, get her info, then release it anonymously.
Doesn’t that sound about right?
They probably have Paul Deignan as a legal adviser.
Ok guys, int he inevitable claymation extravaganza, who’s voicing Tacitus? I mean what would it sound like. I simply cannot think of an actor that has an appropriately clenched sphincter.
Let me try some dialogue. “You fool. You wearisome, noisome, bloviating imbecile. I cannot abide the chattering emptiness of vacant, insipid intellectual miniatures as are constantly on display before my very orbs. To you I say, shame, good riddance and adieu. I await an equal and worthy enemy with whom I might clash in an exuberant test, nay celebration, of will, valour, and most certainly fortitude. I have been birthed into this fiery time from a womb of righteousness, and since I have been weaned from my Mother’s teat, I have striven to do battle with tiny, insignificant buffoons. Cast them off shall I! I shall not dangle prepositions, and in a torrent of sic, thusly shall I cow mine enemies. Now roll the 20 sided die again, bitches, I have more hit points than you possibly can count!”
I hear Richard Simmons when I imagine Tacky’s voice.
How do I get listed as an endorser at Integrity Online? I want people to know that I have as much integrity as Dean Esmay.
Don’t be snide, JG.
Remember—baby steps, baby steps.
OI is like a 1000 step program to good character for lying, cheating, plagiarizing, druggy radcons. Give it time.
Dude, I agree…and just to show how unseriously I take the whole thing, gonna drop a bombshell. Tacitus is some guy whose real name is Josh Trevino, and he’s a dumbass. Pass it on.
I was thinking David Hyde Pierce, but someone more clenched. Like the bad guy that constantly exclaims “you fool! look what you’ve done! you imbecile!” Like a male Cruella deVille, but with most likely floppy Hitler hair and being prone to spittle. Actually, Peter Lorre as Joel Cairo as Tacitus. Zoinks!
“Right. In other words, “I have been hitting you with a broken bottle. Now that I have lost my grip on it and it’s in your hand, I want you to sign this piece of paper that says you won’t use the bottle against me.”
Right. Let me think about it, uh, NO.”
scatter his cheetos, drive his cats before you and hear the lamentation of, well, no one in particular.
I signed on to the OI pledge. I had no idea it was controversial. I signed it because I thought that what it said sounded reasonable, and one more link brings my blog’s technorati rank up to a whopping 46,321. Well, every bit helps remind us that, back in the real world, the Administration tortures people.
But as a peon, a foreigner, and definitely not a major blogger, can I just say this: I think it’s a tribute to the blogosphere that something like this could be turned into a bitch-fest, a red versus blue, go-team-go, cliche, a fucking waste of electrons. Congratulations, the new media strikes again!
You’re all a bunch of dickheads.
point taken, but then it’s not like i havent blogged on torture before.
also, part of combatting torture — a very very small part but one nonetheless — is in crushing the infamous louts who’ve enabled torture either by directly and explictly defending it or by voting (often twice) the pro-torturing goons in office.
“I signed on to the OI pledge. I had no idea it was controversial. I signed it because I thought that what it said sounded reasonable, and one more link brings my blog’s technorati rank up to a whopping 46,321.”
excellent reasons, reasonableness is, well, reasonable. just a question though. if tookie williams brought out a pledge against shooting people in the face with shotguns and you signed it, being reasonable, wouldn’t you feel a little queasy signing on with a man who had no problem with shooting people up to that point?
if people pointed out that, indeed, mr williams had been quite happy to shoot people in the face until he got got sent to pound-me-in-the-ass prison wherein he discovered that shooting people in the face was a very bad thing, would they be dickheads?
is it not slightly hypocritical for people who were doing the bad things they pledged not to do, right until they pledged not to do them, to claim suzerainty over everyone else?
just because you signed the pledge doesn’t mean its originators aren’t hypocrites of the worst order. nor does it make anyone taking them to task ‘dickheads’ for spurning the chance to cover themselves in technorati glory.
if you want to seize the hand of friendship offered by ideologues that that so recently grasped at your throat, go ahead. just don’t complain when people point out how foolish an idea it is.
Of course you assume that, Tacky, because you imagine everyone’s as ethically challenged as you and your pals which is why you need little codes of conduct to tell you how to act like decent human beings.
I was anonymous for a couple of years, and I wasn’t running around publicizing other peoples’ identities.
Making the silly move of trying to lure Atrios into slipping up again tells me all I need to know about the current disposition of Tacky’s contrition over past atrocities and commitment to ethical debate.
I sometimes wonder whether time works differently for winguts than for normals. Their past actions and current actions all seem to exist in either the same or different moments in time, depending on what’s convenient.
To me, Tacitus’ voice sounds like the Doctor from Lost in Space (RIP).
For what reason does Mr. Trevino write in the fasion of a scholarly author, one who uses far more words than are necessary in order to complete a thought – indeed, his sentences might very well be seen as crimes against humanity and, at the very least, a poor imitation of certain Star Trek captains, however, and this is what the key point may be, this mockery of Trevino no doubt goes against his new moral precepts interred in the “Online Integrity” pledge, which, I’m assuming, forbids the use of periods and encourages all online authors of blogs of reknown to write the longest damn sentences they possibly can manage.
“I hear Richard Simmons when I imagine Tacky’s voice.”
Word has it His Marble Bustiness collects Malibu Stacy dolls. Pass it on.
Tathituth? He hath a wife you know. Her name ith Incontinentia… Incontinentia Buttockth!
We gwow bowed with thith ‘Tathitus’. Reweathe Bwian!
How about adding a virginity clause to their pledge, too?
As long as they’re promising not to break any vows they already broke 100 times before, ya know
Ya really think they’ve managed break a virginity pledge 100 times?
If refusing to be associated in any way with assholes like Josh and Jeff makes me a dickhead, I’ll wear the label proudly.
Okay, okay, I take back the Weyland Smithers allusion — no need for a tarot deck to see where that’s going…
Charlotte nails it. He’s the Doctor from Lost in Space. Perfect!
who’s voicing Tacitus?
Why, Comic Book Guy. Isn’t that obvious?
He’s gone? Rats.
“Then the dry-ice machine was revved up and he floated, one bony finger raised in reproach, back into his Temple.”
http://alicublog.blogspot.com/2005_10_02_alicublog_archive.html#112845119479692861
I think it’s telling that, all the while Josh is pushing his OI “triumph,” he is steadily trying to out this Townhouse Google Group which, as I understand, is a private group that he doesn’t belong to. I’ve seen him post about it in several blog comments now.
His definition of integrity is very flexible.
I’ve never read a single thing written by Josh Trevino that wasn’t a snarky, mean-spirited attack on all of his perceived enemies. He is a thoroughly dispicable creature. His writings prompt one to wonder, upon what meat does Josh Trevino feed?
it’s not like i havent blogged on torture before
Retardeau, I know you have blogged on many worthwhile things, and many worthless things made worthwhile because your humour offers respite from the daily barrage of stupid. But doesn’t it strike you as just a little disheartening that even a OI pledge could be turned into a bitch fight? Are we all that fucking irreconcilably polarised? No wonder the Administration is making merry hell — we’re all so busy playing red versus blue that we don’t notice we’re all being screwed (and that includes several flavours of conservative that are currently receiving a good buggering).
ridur: I have no idea who this “Tacky” fellow is. I visited his blog just then, and noticed he links to Body and Soul. If he’s a jerk, he’s not a very consistent one. The name calling was not for signing, or not signing, the stupid pledge. It was for bickering about it like silly old ducks.
That said, the Tookie analogy is a good one. Now I need to figure out if I could be stuffed figuring this out or not.
Oh, good. Duncan Black deigns to interact for once:
Of course you assume that, Tacky, because you imagine everyone’s as ethically challenged as you and your pals ….
And all he’s got is, “I’m not, but YOU ARE.” Cripes. Shocking though it may be, Dr Black, it’s not a terrific leap to assume that you lack any real moral restraint. But if you do, well — the public deception to the contrary is effective.
….which is why you need little codes of conduct to tell you how to act like decent human beings.
Of course, all of them willingly signed on, thought it was much-needed given the behavior of both left and right, etc.
….I wasn’t running around publicizing other peoples’ identities.
No, you were merely passing out their personal contact info, and enabling your readers, a la Malkin, to do your dirty work for you. In light of this, why would one assume that you lack ethical restraint? It escapes me….
On to “Retardo!”
….As opposed to my roughly 8 posts and as many more references to you on my old site….
A total you add to even now, with extensive and copious research on things that even I’d forgotten. Dude….you’re an obsessive. I’m minor. I left tacitus.org. I left RS. I run a two-week-old blog with Armando, the massive majority of the traffic to which is due to his fame. It’s just a bit strange that on this whole earth, I’m this important to my dog, my family….and you.
But it *is* nice to see you admit that Kos is the bigger blogger….
This is news?
….your obvious ambition was to be the rightwing Kos. Sorry about your consummate failure in all that.
Heh. Uh, okay. I defer to your familiarity with the experience of envying others’ more fulfilling lives.
Surely you mean not attention but humiliation….
Nah. It’s sort of nature’s way: Some people are ankle-biters, and some people’s ankles get bitten. In this case, I’m happy to be a confirmed member of the latter caste.
And as for my name, it was chosen because it’s goofy, silly, and self-deprecating….
As the kids say, funny ’cause it’s true.
Please: competent enemies. Hamsher and RetardEAU are disappointments.
Oh, good. Duncan Black deigns to interact for once
Attention. Heroin for trolls.
I thought you were gone, Trevino? Anyway, you may be biting body parts, but I’m pretty sure it ain’t ankles.
Tacitus. In all sincerity, whether you were a lefty, righty or indeterminate, you would still be a prat.
You are one of a breed I have seen far too many of; the academic (or wannabe academic) who uses his learning as a bludgeon.
You remind me very much of a younger John Simon.
My stars..how tacky to come back so late in the thread.
You are one of a breed I have seen far too many of; the academic (or wannabe academic) who uses his learning as a bludgeon.
You remind me very much of a younger John Simon.
No no no. What an insult to John Simon. Simon was and is a cultural and political reactionary. Only in this are he and Tacky alike.
Otherwise, Simon was and is an intelligent, well-read figure, fluent iirc in 5 languages. He also took seriously the idea of the public intellectual. It’s true he was a pedant, but then that was his gig — language columnist at NR. And at least his pedantry came from actual learning. Simon was the real deal. Tacitus is a fucking fraud.
Hamsher and RetardEAU are disappointments.
“Tacitus: Stick. Grapefruit. Rectum. No assembly required.”
Please: competent enemies. Hamsher and RetardEAU are disappointments.
Which, of course, is why I keep coming back to joust with them.
Cue dry ice…
I have a better comparison for Tacky. Jonah Goldberg. Really. A more industrious Jonah to be sure, but then that’s not saying much.
What energy for learning the indolent fuckwit Jonah has is spent on pop culture and histories of the left and right movements in America. Whereas Tacitus spends his time with a few pop histories — and calls himself an expert. What tacitus has apparently spent the most time in doing, however, is in devoting himself to rigorous study of the middle-brow prose stylings of George Will and the slighty-better-than-middle-brow stylings of William F. Buckley. Since he knows Will’s style in particular has fooled legions into believing that the bowtied gasbag knows what he’s talking about (hundreds of liberal op-ed “gotchas” to the contrary), Tacitus shrewdly adopted it for online use. And sure enough, even some liberals mistook the windy prose for evidence of erudition — after all, a real intellectual would never write “fuck”. But in reality, Tacitus knows about as much about ..well, anything, as Jonah Goldberg.
It would be nice if Tactitus’ understanding was more like a tacit understanding.
That is, unspoken.
“And all he’s got is, ‘I’m not, but YOU ARE.'”
Uh, no, he and others had more. But I guess it’s hard to read when you’re always typing…
Hey everyone? I’ve just finished pissing in the town well, and I was wondering if you’d be interested in signing my Clean Drinking Water Act. Thanks. Why did I write this Clean Drinking Water Act, you ask? Because I mean what I say!
Remember, everyone who doesn’t sign is a filthy cur. Thanks again!
^Best comment of the thread, Water Inspector.
Retardeau, Simon could also be a nasty, snobbish bastard. Iirc, he was just that almost every time he appeared on TV. Many of his columns were pretty vile on a personal level as well.
Rob — Fair enough on the TV appearances. I’ve never seen him on it, though Roy Edroso gave a pretty good recollection of a Carson appearance not too far back.
But I do have a copy of Paradigms Lost and …I enjoyed it. And as far as generosity goes, a super-reactionary homophobe like Simon still found a lot to like about Gore Vidal in it, which is way more fair than any modern wingnut could be (or, indeed, more than Simon himself can manage these days).
Regardless, no matter how nasty Simon was and is, he’s still a smart nasty person whose prose is not leaden pomposity — which is more than can be said for that intellectual fraud Tacitus and his George Will crossed with William Shattner prose mannerisms.
Craaaaaaaaaaaazy
Oh dear God: The Left and Our Enemies (But I Repeat Myself) The most striking thing about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s letter to President Bush – his “come to Mohammedâ€? letter if you will – is how common the whole…
Jeff Goldstein is a basket full of wankish verbiage,wrapped up in a piss-stained blanket of fear and aggression (minus a phd).
please see:
Shorter Jeff Goldstein
http://antiwisdom.blogspot.com
because the world could REALLY use less Jeff Goldstein.
Because someone keeps pissing in the well?
competent enemies
aw, Josh wants to have enemies! Like it is a really war and everything.
sorry to disappoint sir, but no one here is your enemy. we just mostly feel sorry for you, and think your bloviating and hypocrisy is funny.
ah well. I am sure you can find meaning in life some other way than having “enemies.”
All right-wing bloggers need to move to Knoxville or other southern places, where they can meet and breed and inbreed among their own. The civilized part of the United States is sick of your redneck antics, crackers. That includes you, Trevino.
Trevino, isn’t it about time for you to start, and then walk away from, yet another lame-ass blog, instead of coming here to try to stir up some shit?
` Bump ~
Tacky is a douchebag – that is all.
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wow! i linked back in time from http://www.sadlyno.com/archives/31319.html
this thread had some of the best blog writers of the era, at a time when we were all still deep in the doo-doo of bush, jr.
way back when digby was still anonymous, yet after atrios was outed.. & much love to dr nobody for being an entirely different person! You have effectively sheltered the rest of us internet nobodies for a long time..
especially liking the plethora of porn spam at the end.. nothing makes a historical thread like Rvcgrzns selling chicago bears game tickets.. but, can porn spam endure the test of time without 404 errors?
sadly, no.
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