Just Because You're Paranoid

Posted By TFMo on October 29, 2009

As I have repeatedly stated, I have no actual stake in the flame war between Chuckie Johnson and the Right-o-sphere. To my knowledge, not a single byte of data has transfered between the two of us (unless he was playing sock puppet on one of the blogs I occasionally comment on), nor have we met in the Real World. I have clicked a link a couple of times that led me to his little vacuum chamber of a website, but I never attempted a post there; why bother? Given his propensity to ban anyone who disagrees with him, and even if he managed to marshal up enough ‘nads to actually allow someone to call him out, he’s got the Sock Lizard Army to turn any meaningful discussion into a mosh pit of lies, insult, and distraction.

So when I was asked by Christmas Ghost to do a spoof on Chuckie, I was less than enthusiastic. I didn’t buy his brand of politics, nor his refusal to allow honest debate, nor his utter condemnation of any and all religion, nor how such actions were driving readers and one-time colleagues away in numbers that makes the Exodus look like trip to the corner market, but again, it had little-if-anything to do with me. Plus, I couldn’t really think of anything worth drawing on the subject.

But after a couple of weeks of discussion, I became inspired, thus was born Football-head in my Captain Atheist Just Had To Go Hunt His Whale. And, much to my surprise, it was a huge hit. I was actually rather disappointed that it had gotten so much notice, given that just a few day’s prior, I’d posted my Blood From A Stone cartoon; a piece that I actually spent some time and effort on, as opposed to the half-an-hour-plus-breaks spent on Captain Atheist.

But I can’t complain too much; it got me a little recognition, and opened the door to developing friendships with some really good folks. It was my official debut into the Right-o-sphere, and I was well-received. Much more famous, talented, and interesting people than myself were seeing my work, liking it, linking it, commenting on it, and encouraging others to do likewise. Not a bad pay-off for so little real effort.

Then Bill Teach of Pirate’s Cove requested another one, from an article he’d written about more of Chuckie’s escapades. Not a problem; Bill’s a good guy, and it’s another opportunity to get more people looking at my work. So I did Baby Blogs, featuring some of the folks involved in this kerfuffle. This one took off like a lightning bolt, again surprising me how much attention it received in comparison to the amount of effort.

Before progressing further into the story, allow me to interpret it. It was a commentary of the fight between these people. As the story goes, Chuckie is acting like a big baby with a stinky diaper because so few people are listening to his rants. Sharmuta and Trout are his Yes-Men. Pam Geller is a brassy in-your-face kinda gal has not problem with speaking her mind (I know this from personal experience), RS McCain is being accused of being a white supremecist, Dan Riehl thinks Chuckie’s just a blowhard, Rusty from Jawa Report agrees, Teach wonders if he’s ever going to shut up, and Ace…okay, I admit, I couldn’t come up with a decent line for Ace so I wussed on him and just made a goof on the colorful language he’s prone to employ.

That’s pretty much it.

I depicted the Righties in a better light because, from what I have observed on both sides of the fight, I tend to agree with them. And the actions taken on the Left of this fracas hasn’t improved my opinion of them.

About a week after I posted this cartoon, I got an e-mail from Barrett Brown, which enclosed a vandalized version of my cartoon and a statement that he had “improved” it for me. Now, he’s perfectly entitled to his own opinion, and entitled to voice it. But he decided to steal my art as a means to do so. That’s where I have a problem. I informed him, as you can read from the e-mails I posted, that one simply does not steal someone else’s work and scribble all over it.

Had Barrett left it at that, then this would have ended. But he decided to snark about it in an article, wherein he rattled off a series of lies that would make Obama blush. I called him on his BS on his own True/Slant site, and as a retort, he posted the stolen and vandalized work. I repeated my stance, that he did not have permission to alter my work, let alone post it as his own. He responded by posting the same picture three more times on the same site.

Now Barrett is a regular poster on LGF, it seems, and they’ve all had a gay old time, calling me a kook and crazy, and stereotyping me as the typical right-wing Christian/Nazi, who doesn’t believe in dinosaurs and like to murder abortion doctors, and other such niceties.

Just to set the record straight, the only accurate accusation is that I’m a Conservative. I’m agnostic, my son aspires to be a paleontologist, and I have no love for people who commit murder, be it an abortion doctor or some nutjob who has decided that the best way to get his point across is to end another person’s life. And just to give you an idea of the type of people who post on Barrett’s site and LGF, one poster actually tried to argue that Nazism, which was born of the National Socialist Party in Germany was a CONSERVATIVE movement.

To that inbreeder, I offer this snippet, taken from that notoriously right-wing Wikipedia:

Nazism, known officially in German as National Socialism[1][2][3][4] (German: Nationalsozialismus), is the totalitarian ideology and practices of the Nazi Party or National Socialist German Workers’ Party under Adolf Hitler, and the policies adopted by the dictatorial government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.[5][6][7][8]

I’ll make the comparisons between Left, Right, and Nazi in another article. (SPOILER ALERT! The Left don’t come out looking so good.)

Barrett’s and Chuckie’s behavior is textbook left-wing policy. They don’t do their own work; they have to take from those more talented, mark it with their stench, claim it as their own, then vilify the original creator. Barrett admitted to me that he responded to my cartoon because so many people were seeing it. So that tells me that had I not tried to be all “uppity” he would have left me alone. Remember, kids; Lefties only encourage your success if it adds to theirs. Start taking from their much-deserved attention and, well, you just have to go.

According to a few of Barrett’s chorus, I should be grateful that Barrett took the time out of his busy-busy day to school me in my perfidy. This is another hallmark of liberalism; I call this the Thank You Sir May I Have Another rule. Why, there’s NO WAY I would have gotten all this attention by myself! It is thanks to Barrett for deigning to notice my insignificance that anyone anywhere ever saw my work! Except that argument doesn’t work; if so few had seen my cartoon, then what of his claim that he was motivated to action as a result of so many people seeing it? And do please note, CGhost’s site got tens of THOUSANDS of non-bot unique hits from that cartoon. Plus Bill Teach posted it on his site. Jawa Report posted it. Dan linked it at least once. RS McCain posted it several times. And all of this was BEFORE I got that snide little e-mail from Barrett. Which just goes to show, liberals can not fathom ANYONE being successful without their assistance, and anyone can be a success without their assistance.

Then there is the deflection, another typical lefty trick. Barrett wants this argument to be about McCain’s alleged racism. That’s not my argument; McCain’s a big boy, he can defend himself and has done so. My part in the argument is that Barrett stole my artwork, vandalized it, then posted it repeatedly against my wishes.

Me: Dude, you stole my artwork.

Barrett: McCain’s a racist!

Me: I don’t care if you feel he’s a racist. You stole my artwork.

Barrett: McCain’s a racist!

Liberals have the damnedest time sticking to the subject, don’t they? It’s not by accident; they know they haven’t a leg to stand on, so they have to deflect and distract. Barrett knows damn well he had NO RIGHT to steal and deface my artwork, and even less to post it without my permission.

I could almost admire Barrett for sticking up for a friend. Almost. But this was less about sticking up for a friend or righting a wrong than it was just being an utter dick. Granted, I acted as little more than a mercenary, but at least I didn’t lie about it. I posted no lies in my cartoon; it was not about the fact or fiction of McCain’s alleged racism. It was about the argument itself. Personally, I don’t think McCain is a racist. But that’s not what the cartoon was about. It was about an argument I had no stake in, and the actions of the various parties who were actually involved.

Apparently Barrett felt the need to “teach me a lesson.” How dare I, this unknown peasant, comment on such lofty topics? How dare I garner such notice that is so rightfully his? How dare I object to his theft of my property, the defacing of said property, and the posting of said? Ego and jealousy, the same things I lampooned Chuckie for. Which is my great sin; I should never never never NEVAR make fun of or disagree with anyone on the Left, for any reason, ever, at all.

Heh.

I didn’t have a stake in this argument. Didn’t particularly want one, either, but I was asked to do my thing; draw and poke fun. I don’t mind someone having a go at me. You don’t get involved in any aspect of politics and expect not to be made fun of. And you certainly don’t poke fun at people and not expect to be poked in return. You don’t draw a picture and show it to people and expect no criticism.

And had it stopped there, I wouldn’t have even bothered shrugging.

But Barrett crossed a line. An artist has an expectation that his art remains HIS art. Criticize the art, disagree with the message, but RESPECT THE OWNERSHIP OF THE ART. I didn’t take Barrett’s article and rewrite it, then claim it as my own. If he wanted to redraw it, that would have been fine. If he wanted to write a scathing attack on it, that would have been fine. If he wanted to call me a fag and a Nazi and a racist and any other insult the left likes to hurl at those who will not comply, bring it on.

I didn’t have a stake in this argument. I do now. I had no particular plans to do any more Baby Blogs or anything regarding the big to-do, unless a piece was requested of me. But now I do have a stake. Chuckie is a coward; if he objected to my piece, he was quite free to post his opinion on my site, e-mail me, whatever. I’m not hard to find. But no, he decided to cry like a little girl to his sycophants and let them do it.

Coward. Chicken-shit crybaby, needing a diaper change, killed his own credibility and pissed on what good he managed to accomplish, now has to go after everyone else who sees a sliver of success.

And Barrett? You’re clown shoes. Your arguments aren’t even arguments. They’re dodges, like most liberal arguments. You’re a hack. You’re a pseudo-intellectual, who seems to think that high-flown speech and ten dollar words can replace actual integrity and honesty. And like the rest of your sock-puppet cronies, you can’t cut the mustard. I admit, I was reasonably impressed to find that a writer for Vanity Fair and HuffPo and a few other outlets had noticed my work. But then, consider the source. Vanity Fair is aptly named, it’s nothing more than liberal toilet paper, yet another left-wing echo chamber more interested in manufacturing its own relevance than actually REPORTING anything. Perfect for you me-monkeys. And HuffPo? Has this virtual bird-cage liner EVER had any credibility outside its own imagination? Just another in a long line of liberal suck-ups, spewing the well-rehearsed party line with no concern or even recognition of logic or fact.

I’ve always ascribed to the philosophy of Bugs Bunny. Not as glamorous as, say, Saul Alinsky or Mao Tse Tung, but it serves me well. Basically, you have Bugs, a smart-ass, sure, but one who generally delivers a good natured ribbing to people who are taking themselves a little too seriously. But cross a line, try to pave over his rabbit hole or poach his carrots, and suddenly you’ve got yourself an enemy that WILL NOT QUIT until you are a smoking crater.

I’ve got a dog in this fight now, Tweedledum and Tweedledouche. Those two previous cartoons? That’s just slap-together off the cuff tom-foolery. Now I have an incentive.

Categories: Politics
Tags: Christmas Ghost, Honesty, Hypocrisy, Insanity, LGF, Liberalism, Mad King Chuckie