And They Said We Was Mad!

Look! A non-denial from Layton's national campaign director!

Adam Radwanski: In the blogosphere, at least, there's been some speculation on the prospect of the NDP pushing for the Conservatives to look seriously at electoral reform. Is that grounded in anything?

Brian Topp: Democratic reform is a real issue, no doubt about that. An electoral system that awards an MP for every 22,000 Bloc voters and not a single MP to 900,000-plus Green voters is not serving the country well.

See? See? What McClelland and I were saying! Most bloggers report on the world. McClelland and I craft its metaphysical parameters! Booyah! Booyah!

Free McClelland!

Why?

1) Because he did apologize, and even though his apology is all of 50 words long and reads like it was spit from between busted teeth, that's good enough for me.

2) Because it sends a big Fuck You! to the evil bald one, a man who still embraces "punk" even as he closes in on 50, which is basically admitting that he's played guitar for thirty years and still can't do the third chord.

3) Because McClelland has taught us a useful lesson about political discourse: if you want to slag off a race/religious or ethnic group, for God sake don't fuck with them Jews! They've got gnarly powers! McClelland learned the hard way, and he got off easy. He's lucky his credit rating didn't go up in flames on him! My advice is: pick one of those small ex-communist Eastern European countries where they're all half-starved, or someplace in Asia where they're tiny and but don't know kung fu. Nobody gives a shit what you say about those people. And nobody gives a shit if you diss the Muslims either, come to think of it, but that's a bit like picking on a little girl. And leave the Irish alone, because we're sweet and not very tall anyway, and don't bug the rastamen, because they've got cool hair and Bob Marley. Of course, RACISM IS WRONG, BIGOTRY IS WRONG and we musn't condone them. But if you come from a multi-ethnic city like Toronto for example where there's a hundred different varieties of annoying people, perfection is not possible, and its best to stick to the rules I'm laying down should you suffer a moment of weakness.

4) Because McClelland has inspired me to my own apology. April, I was wrong to call Belinda a slut. Or rather, I was wrong to omit the fact that Peter McKay is five times the slut she is, flying from town to town on tax-payer money and banging anything that moves until he's so dehydrated and fuzzed out that he can't piss straight or figure out what city he's in. In fact, I was personally shocked, and I think it is a discredit to our Western Phallocracy, that a guy should be able to get away with such lechery just because he's sexxxy. Had I known this, I could have got laid way more often when I was young! Instead, I thought you were supposed to behave honorably, but fuck that shit, right? Alas, it's too late for me! In any case, Belinda can sleep with as many hockey players as she wants, and I won't say a word! I wash my hands of the whole situation! (But could she at least try one of the smaller, skill players? You know: smaller, but skilled. Not big and dumb. At least someone who's had a 30 goal season)

5) Because the blogosphere is not for wimps, and the Progressive Blogosphere needs more assholes like McClelland. If all we've got are panty-waists, girly-men, goody-two shoes, hair farmers, leaf eaters, bed wetters, navel gazers, nose pickers, washed up bag men, sniffy ponces, and metrosexual suit wearing sissies, the Conservative movement will eat us for breakfast.

Note: I've got no dog in any dispute between McClelland and Cherniak. In fact, if anything it would work out best for me if McClelland just disappeared from the scene. Then I'd be a shew in for the bald one's annual worst blogger award. With Robert around, I've got competition.

Kinsella Descends

At 9:54 am I asked how long it would take before Warren Kinsella showed up and began denouncing Robert McClelland. For the record, it took about eight hours (his posts don't seem to be precisely time-stamped). You're getting old, Warren. That old beak of yours isn't as sensitive to the stench of death as it used to be.

How Long Before Kinsella Shows Up and Denounces Someone?

Having read both Cherniak's post and McClelland's original post, I would say that McClelland eventually did the right thing when he put the boots to arthurdecco. It is also ironic (a point Cherniak seems to miss) that the intent of McClelland's piece was to expose some anti-Semitic remarks made by Rev. Ted Pike of the National Prayer Network.

Mitigating factors aside, it is clear that anti-Semitic remarks were made in the comments section of McClellands blog, some (arguably) by McClelland himself. Since my understanding is that McLelland is to the Blogging Dippers what Cherniak is to Liblogs (roughly speaking, McLelland "owns" the site), demanding that he step down is like demanding that the stars fall from the sky. There's no point to it. I would, however, suggest to McClelland that he offer something in the line of an apology. Everyone says dumb things occasionally (or allows them to be said in one's presence), and the best thing to do is own up and move on.

And if you do feel like slagging off some ethnic or national group, pick a relatively powerless one, like the Ystonians. There aren't many around, and most of those that are look like they grew up next to Chernobyl. They're reedier than the English! So if you see any you can usually out-run them and, failing that, they can't throw much of a punch.

The thing I'd like to know is: where's that conflict buzzard Kinsella? Shouldn't he be flapping around making free with the denunciations?