In Which I Try My Hand at Cartooning and Subsequently Run Afoul of Two Crazy People
The most ridiculous person I’ve encountered in the course of my work was an intelligent design proponent associated with Uncommon Descent, the blog of professor, author, and all-around ID kingpin William Dembski. In 2005 I was asked to write a book on intelligent design, creationism, and the whole “America is a Christian nation even though most of the key Founding Fathers specifically wrote otherwise on numerous occasions” meme that has been plaguing our republic for some time. Quite understandably, Dembski retaliated with a couple of attacks, even accusing me at one point of being obsessed with sex (I’m still trying to figure out who narced me out on that one). I didn’t respond or even keep up very closely with the whole ID thing for a while afterwards due to the recent release of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, an extraordinary computer game in which I opted to play as a cat-like humanoid specializing in stealth though not without grounding in Illusion magic. Later, I was turned into a vampire.
But the game is in many ways inferior to its legendary prequel Morrowind, and I eventually lost interest. God, I wish I wrote about video games instead of all this crap. So a few months ago, I did an article on Dembski for The Huffington Post in which I highlighted some of the fellow’s more bizarre undertakings, including the strange and hilarious instance in which he actually reported University of Texas professor Eric Pianka to the Department of Homeland Security; based on a speech that the fellow had given regarding man’s impact on the world, Dembski had apparently gotten it into his head that the elderly academic could very well be planning to try his hand at killing off humanity with, one may suppose, some sort of dastardly virus. Incidentally, the DHS foolishly declined to arrest the mad professor; today he is still at large, presumably fortified in his high-tech Latverian castle and using robotic dopplegangers to trick the Fantastic Four into attacking Moon Knight. Or he might be teaching a class at UT. A class about KILLING EVERYONE WITH A VIRUS.
Anyway, a colleague of Dembski’s by the name of Clive Hayden wrote a reply to my article in which he accused me of wholesale something-or-other and designated me as “Barrett Clown.” Other figures in the evolution-ID conflict got involved, as often happens with these things, and meanwhile I agreed to address all of Hayden’s points other than those that rhymed with my name, thereby prompting a back-and-forth that went on for a couple of days. In the midst of this little skirmish, one particularly enthusiastic ID supporter proclaimed that my work was contributing to the onset of what would result in a bloody civil war, which is probably a slight exaggeration.
Sadly, that’s not the crazy part. An evolution enthusiast jokingly suggested that this agitated ID supporter was himself a menace to the country by way of his general wackiness and that he would thus have to call Homeland Security on him – a rather obvious poke at Dembski’s notorious misuse of the national security apparatus, one would think. The ID supporter wasn’t one who would think it, though, and announced that he’d just contacted the DHS himself in order to clear his name as well as to inform on the evolution proponent for making the false report that obviously wasn’t made (and charged him with helping to bring about the civil war for good measure). The evolution proponent tried to explain that he’d clearly been making a humorous reference to an incident that had just been under discussion, but our excitable Cassandra brushed this off as further evidence of the terrible conflict that would soon tear the nation asunder or maybe just rip it a little. Tellingly, this war-warner is not just a random nut, but rather an active if minor figure in the intelligent movement with apparent connections to various other, more prominent ID advocates.
One is only privileged to meet a certain number of wacky characters in the course of one’s life, although I myself have intentionally upped the crazy factor in my own life by associating with as many bizarre and insensible people as possible. It has been a beloved hobby of mine from the age of 13 or so to debate politics on random internet forums even if some of those fellow citizens with whom I’m debating are wacky freaks who hate me. Usually I do all of this under my own name and equipped with my own irritating opinions, although I once posed as a Muslim in order that I might debate other atheists for a change; this ended when I allowed myself to be converted to Christianity by an evangelical who had taken notice of my theological adventures. Whether performed in earnest or as a prank, the written debate is a grand diversion, good for the mind and fingers alike, and at any rate I have no one with whom to argue in real life other than various girlfriends who are more interested in discussing my own deficiencies than those of Thomas Friedman. Apparently I need new pants and Thomas Friedman is just fucking perfect with his turtleneck. Well, sweetheart, maybe you should have Tom Friedman take you out to Peter Lugar’s for a steak next Friday. He can tell you stories about cab drivers who’ve misinformed him over the years.
Sometimes one encounters craziness by complete accident. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been haranguing anyone willing to listen regarding conservative pundit Robert Stacy McCain and the mounting evidence of his racism and various previously-concealed ties to the neo-Nazi movement. The whole affair has led me into a friendly coordination with Charles Johnson, the blogger who helped break the Rathergate story, co-founded the conservative blog consortium Pajamas Media, and otherwise served for many years as one of the right’s most celebrated citizen journalists. It turns out, though, that Johnson is not so much a conservative as he is simply an adamant critic of Islamic fundamentalism – and, to the horror of many, an opponent of Christian fundamentalism as well, this being an unforgivable offense among many of those who once thought the noted blogger to be swell but today routinely dismiss him as “Mad King Charles.”
The latest symptom of Johnson’s astonishing descent into psychosis, as several conservative pundits have explained to me over the past couple of weeks, is his inexplicable insistence on pointing out that McCain has lately been exposed as the very thing that he’s always appeared to be – a southern racist who associated for years with the now-jailed neo-Nazi leader William White and even helped to get his articles sold to The Washington Times during his stint as an editor; who wrote about the dangers of white “race suicide” by way of teen pregnancy prevention measures that target whites instead of just blacks – and did so under an assumed name inspired by various Confederate “heroes” – for the white supremacist outlet American Renaissance; who in an e-mail once characterized “revulsion” as a “natural” reaction to mixed-race marriages; who before his rise to national prominence wrote dozens of internet forum messages in defense of slavery and in support of white political control over non-white populations while using the same pen name (a name to which he has admitted ownership); and who has otherwise expended some very significant amount of time and energy in opposing the aspirations of black American citizens. Of all the clear evidence against him, he has taken issue only with a former Times co-worker’s characterization of him as a loud, angry racist – apparently the accuser is simply out to get him and, worse, divorced. Even after addressing that particular charge against him in a recent blog post, he nonetheless announced a few days later that he shall not address any of my charges against him because I will simply keep coming up with more charges. He’s right.
As others have been alerted to McCain’s unusual status as a mainstream pundit who is no longer able to conceal his racist sentiments and longtime connections to the neo-Nazi movement, more evidence is being discovered. Holocaust researcher Sergey Romanov last week dug up an astonishing number of comments in defense of slavery, segregation, and other such things – and all of this comes only from the comments that are still available. The many others that he’d left on the conservative forum Free Republic over the course of several years were, as the owner himself notes, all deleted at McCain’s own request.
It’s almost as if the guy who is known to have written a bunch of racist comments under a false name and then sought to have many of them deleted is trying to hide something.
Which brings me to a fun and illustrative little anecdote. Last week, McCain published a rather well-inked and crisply-colored cartoon composed by an admiring conservative artist, with the thrust of the message being that Charles Johnson is a whining baby who wears baby diapers and soils his diapers and is otherwise a baby; meanwhile, several prominent conservative bloggers and newly-minted Johnson foes such as Hot Air headliner Ed Morrissey and actual cartoon character Pam Geller are standing around talking about how much of a big, diaper-wetting baby Johnson has turned out to be (the character depicting blogger Dan Riehl even explains, lest any subtlety make its way into the panel, that Johnson “just needs his diaper changed”).
Still, I figured the art could be salvaged, so I downloaded the cartoon, changed all the text, and sent my new version to McCain, Johnson, and the artist himself. McCain responded with a big blog post in which he likens me to the commissar of ”a Maoist re-education camp” and otherwise got so caught up in his inimitably flamboyant nonsense that he seems to have forgotten to thank me for the cartoon. The artist and some other person associated with the artist’s blog, on the other hand, sent me a bunch of wacky e-mails to which I tried my best to respond. This afternoon, I received yet another e-mail from one of the two informing me of “the huge backlash coming [my] way” and warning that my career is now in danger. I gave them permission to print the e-mails only to realize that they’d already put them up anyway; I shall send the reader to go take a gander at them in a moment, as the whole exchange is wonderfully illustrative of the mentality of those who have defended McCain and accuse his attackers of libel without even bothering to look at the evidence being presented.
But the most telling bit of all is happening as I type this – one of these two cartoonist-bloggers sent me another e-mail in which I am asked, “why is it that no one that makes these claims ever links the evidence of it to their ‘claims’?” Jumbled as it is, the assertion is clear – neither I nor Johnson nor anyone else has ever linked to any evidence of McCain’s racism. I sent the following reply:
If someone makes a claim about another person without linking to supporting evidence, then that someone has done a terrible and irresponsible thing indeed. So, since you yourself are claiming that I don’t link to evidence of my claims regarding McCain when I write about him, you should have no problem linking to an article I’ve written on McCain that does not include a link to evidence of his racism.
I look forward to your prompt and successful citation.
Amazingly, I received the following reply a few moments later:
Barrett,
Of course I would have no problem with it…where is it?
Link please….
I figured it wouldn’t hurt to give the conservative artist another go at deciphering my easy-to-understand challenge:
You might want to try reading my last e-mail again. I’m asking you to prove your assertion that no one links to the evidence of McCain’s racism when they claim that McCain is a racist. To do this, you’ll need to go through the articles I’ve written on McCain, find one that doesn’t link to evidence of his racism, and then send me that link. Good luck!
That was 30 minutes ago as of this writing; soon we shall perhaps discover if a movement conservative blogger is capable of learning new information and applying it in a manner that indicates a reasonably high order of conceptual capacity, like those intelligent sharks from Deep Blue Sea. Meanwhile, you might go check out their blog and read the original e-mail exchange that I had with the other shark. Person, rather. The other person.
Update
I received the following reply:
Good grief! A snipe hunt? Please, I am a little too busy to find random articles that you have written… I am a corporate strategist in my “spare” time. If you have the link and do want to have a productive discussion then please just provide the link.
And I replied thusly:
Let me try to explain this in a different way:
1. You claimed that no one ever links to the evidence of McCain’s racism when they accuse him of being a racist.
2. I asked you to point out an example of an article in which I have accused McCain of being a racist without also linking to evidence of his racism.
3. You said that this would be fine, but then you asked me for a link.
4. It would seem that you haven’t read my articles on McCain and say that you are to busy to “find” them, which is fine.
5. If you haven’t read my articles on McCain, then you obviously have no way of knowing that no one ever links to evidence of his racism, since I may very well have linked to evidence of his racism in the articles you didn’t read. So, you’re making a claim about something that you can’t verify.
6. Read number five again.
7. One more time.
8. Imagine I have several houses. You say to me, “Why is it that no one paints the inside of their houses blue?” I reply, “Well, you can go in one of my houses and see for yourself that, in fact, the insides of all of my houses are painted blue.” You reply, “I’m too busy to go look inside these houses because I’m a corporate strategist.” Do you see how that might be silly? Here you are, claiming that none of my houses are blue on the inside, and yet you haven’t really been inside any of my houses to verify this. All you’d have to do is go into one house to see that the walls inside are blue, and the very blueness of these walls in this one house should tell you that, contrary to your claim that none of the houses are painted blue inside, at least one is. And then later I could show all the houses and you would find that they are all blue on the inside – which is to say, again, that you were not only wrong about none of them being blue on the inside, but also extra wrong insomuch as that they are all blue.
9. I’m trying to think of an even simpler way to explain this but I can’t. Anyway, the houses are my articles on Stacy McCain and blue interiors constitute links to evidence of his racism.
10. Still, let’s do it your way. Below you will find links to a couple of my articles on McCain. You will notice that each of these articles includes links to evidence that McCain is a racist. Now, if you see even one link to evidence of McCain’s racism in one of these articles in which I assert that McCain is a racist, that means you are wrong about no one ever linking to evidence of McCain’s racism in articles in which it is asserted that McCain is a racist, wouldn’t it? And if you were to see a whole bunch of links to evidence of his racism in a whole bunch of these articles, it would mean that you were very, very wrong.
http://trueslant.com/barrettbrown/2009/10/18/mccain-composes-non-defense-of-his-blatant-racism/
http://trueslant.com/barrettbrown/2009/10/17/a-wild-mccain-appears/
http://trueslant.com/barrettbrown/2009/10/13/robert-stacy-mccain-white-supremacist-weirdo/
So, there you go. Just click one of those links, take a look at one of these articles that you’ve already implicitly characterized as not containing links to evidence of McCain’s racism, and then take a look at the links to evidence of McCain’s racism. Meanwhile, I’m going to go kill myself.
And I did.
The End (?)
YET ANOTHER UPDATE!
Below is the parody version of the original cartoon that started all the trouble. Over 9000 hours in MS Paint, etc. I don’t know how to make it bigger because LOL HTML so here’s a link to the full-sized version.
"DON'T DEFACE MY CARTOONS THEY ARE MINE"
UPDATE’S BANGIN’ UPDATE’S BANGIN’ - TIME TO GET LOW, DO THE TOOTSIE ROLL
The conservative artist fellow has been dropping by and leaving various wacky comments, including implicit threats of legal action lest I take down my parody of his original cartoon.
Anyway, no.
ZOMG LOL UPDATE!
… and now he thinks I’m threatening to sue him, presumably because I told him my lawyer would contact him regarding his own wacky demands. I was just going to have her explain Fair Use and satire to him. What the hell would I sue him for?
Anyway, this is getting all played out so I’m gone. My next article will be on Morrowind, hopefully.
Post Your Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment
T/S Members
Log in with your True/Slant account.
No comments? How can there be no comments?
Nice try, Barrett. But you continue to miss the point.
I don’t particularly care if you disagree with me. You’re entitled to your opinion, as I am entitled to mine. You don’t agree with my opinion? Okay. You think I’m a bad artist? Okay. You think I’m “crazy”? Okay.
But you chose to deface a copy of my art, throw it back at me, then insist you improved it. Ask ANY artist…I’m sure as a liberal you know a few…about such things. You see, by doing that, you didn’t go after my opinion, you went after my ability as an artist, which has nothing to do my political opinions. That’s like going after someone who disagrees with you by attacking their kids (something liberals are MORE than familiar with.)
You don’t like my opinion? There is e-mail, comment boxes, and your snide little article, all excellent ways to state YOUR opinion. You see, I am not disagreeing with you by taking your article and altering it, then handing it back and saying I improved it. I did not post our e-mail exchange with “improvements” to anything you or I said. I am disagreeing with you by posting my opinion on your site.
What do I hope to gain from all this nonsense? Nothing much. As I said, had you not defaced my artwork, I would have likely ignored you. If you had made an actual argument, as someone who is actually interested in debating a point, then we could have had a discussion. But instead, you chose this path. We’ll see where it goes.
Sorry, forgot to mention this tidbit…~I~ drew the picture. ~I~ posted it. Not the other person. Me. TFMo. She owns and runs the site, I contribute with cartoons and commentary.
And if you had bothered actually READING a few articles, or actually LOOKING at the cartoon in question, you would have seen the TFMO at the bottom with the copyright, as well as the name of the post clearly stating that it was BY TFMO.
Also, had you bothered actually READING something, you would have seen that Ed Morrisey is NOT one of the characters.
And lastly, the title of your little hit piece here, where you “try your hand at cartooning”…
It actually requires you DRAWING something to make that claim, which if you had done that, I would not be bothering with these responses.
Oh, and YOU – get a life, loser. The problem with you Reich-Wing nut jobs is that you hardly ever, under any circumstances, have any idea how stupid you sound. I”m not even sure what your point is; you’re pissed because he appropriated your – ahem – “art” in an effort to make you look even douche-ier than you already do? You should be thankful that he’s drawn (or didn’t, in this case) any attention to you and your silly little cartoon at all. What are you crying about? Don’t you have ANYTHING better to do with your time? Go out and get some fresh air and enjoy the sunshine while you… shoot an abortion provider, or deny the existence of dinosaurs, or whatever it is you crazy kids do these days.
In response to another comment. See in context »“Now, I will state upfront that among McCain’s Usenet messages you can find several in which he a) mocks white supremacists and Bell Curve fans, b) condemns slavery (although I hesitate to add “in no uncertain terms”; you will see why), c) claims that he is not a racist.”
“… I think McCain’s apologists should not use these postings to prove that McCain is not a racist. First of all, we have all the contrary information above. Second, condemning the “low-hanging fruit”, maybe in order to score some points, does not prove much, especially when we deal with the public posting system like Usenet. Private mailing lists are a slightly better indicator. Third, it is not at all certain what McCain means by racism, thus his denial of him being a racist is rather meaningless. He certainly still had that definition problem ten years later, if you listen to his conversation with Alan Colmes.”
It’s funny; I wish I’d read that BEFORE I attempted to do just that on the comments section @ LGF a few moments ago – and was promptly and unceremoniously banned for it. Let me just state upfront that I think there may be NO ONE lamer or more pathetic than McCain, as evidenced by his sad, lonely blog (0 comments on his posts, on average; constant, shameless begging for money from his 2.3 loyal readers; relentless obsessing on which Reich-Wing website is linking to him and which ones aren’t and why; the list goes on and on.) But I found those contradictory comments of his from that Google forum cache to be real head-scratchers. The guy went out of his way on several occasions to shut down the more overt racists, and made multiple attempts to distance himself from the Southern Apologist crowd that tries to propagate the lie that the war “Wasn’t about slavery.” And so but what do you do? What is one to believe? The guy says he’s not a racist. But, then again, he really has made no attempt whatsoever to address specific examples of his writings that could be construed as containing – if not outright racist views – then, at the very least, racist sympathies.
I think it might be best, at the end of the day, to, at the very least, acknowledge that the guy is COMPLETELY INCONSEQUENTIAL – he’s a nobody. No one reads him; no one gives a shit about him; he carries no weight whatsoever in the scheme of things. It’s like going after the local weatherman for KNAT-TV in Shithouse Falls, N.D. And so but my point is (have faith, there is one) is that WHO GIVES A SHIT? You’re probably helping to throw him more traffic than he ever would’ve gotten without all this hububbaloo(sp?)
Do me – and the rest of America – a favor and use your obviously mega-talented talents to go after someone who might provide a bigger target. Like Dick Armey or Palin, or somebody who’s actually germane to the conversation.
Or don’t listen to me at all – you’re doing a great job and you crack me right the fuck up.
It’s funny; I wish I’d read that BEFORE I attempted to do just that on the comments section @ LGF a few moments ago – and was promptly and unceremoniously banned for it.
You did nothing of the kind. And you were banned for registering 3 accounts under three different names on the same day. Loser.
Wow, I wish I could be THAT sure of myself. Must be nice to know you’re right about something without having to bother with the silly things we call facts or even giving the a guy a chance to explain himself. Sigh… maybe one day.
Sorry to have to be the one to break it to you, asshole, but that’s EXACTLY what happened – I was thrown off the board for “defending” McCain, as laughable as that may seem. Laughable, because, as I made perfectly clear in the post (that was quickly deleted, I might add) I was NOT defending that sad, sad loser. I was just pointing out the contradictions in the guy’s posts. Period. Thought it might be a little provocative; maybe inspire some spirited debate. But I forgot – this is LGF we’re talking about, and there shall be no debate, for a certain someone over there clearly tolerates NO dissent. It’s really dispiriting when one of your heros – a guy who, in the past, you HAVE genuinely defended on other boards – turns out to be guilty of exactly that which his detractors accuse him off. I feel so used.
But it all seems worth it, upon further consideration – for a Jewish guy like me to stand accused by Charles Johnson himself of being an “apologist for a white supremacist” is just too fucking funny to be bitter over. Classic.
And as for “registering 4 times” it’s not nearly as nefarious as you – or he – make it out to sound. What happened was, after waiting for what seemed like YEARS to register on LGF, I finally came up an opportunity, and so I registered. After a 1/2 an hour or so of waiting for a confirmation email, and assuming something went wrong with the registration process, I tried to register again, under the same name, fearing the window would be shut and I’d have to wait another year for the chance. About the same time, my WIFE wanted to register, and so she did. Well, apparently, King Paranoia over there must’ve thought that he was under attack once again from the army of malcontents who obviously have nothing better to do with their lives than to try and register as many – what is it you call them? – “sock puppets” as possible on LGF, and he deleted mine AND my wife’s account, before either of us had a chance to post a single comment.
And so I went next door to my neighbor’s and registered on his computer. Just one account. ‘Cause that’s all I was trying to do in the 1st place. Nothing sinister about it. No ulterior motives. Just trying to register an account at LGF, same as you or anyone else. The only thing I could be accused of, really, is maybe being a little too fucking eager in my efforts. But that in itself is not a crime, last time I checked. And so but anyway, that’s the story of how I was accused of trying to register four (4) – gasp – did he say FOUR?!! – accounts. Now, sadly, neither me nor my wife can ever post a comment there – WHY, LORD, WHYYYYYY??!?!!!!
I think he’s gone a little over the top, to tell you the truth, in his ever-vigilant pursuit of weeding out anyone who might offer a conflicting view, or any view that differs from him or his minions of yes-men. It reminds me of the scene in high school where you had the one guy who always had weed or beer or the basement clubhouse with the cool parents who didn’t care, and the guy might’ve been a dick, but everybody kissed his ass into perpetuity because they didn’t want to run afoul of him, and thus be denied use of his comforts.
It really IS sad to have one of your heros turn out to be an asshole. And, I really DO hate to say it, but it’s true; he really DOES ban anyone who’s opinion differs from his; and he really DOES have an army of sycophants who go around to other boards castigating anyone who dare badmouth him (although I had yet to badmouth him before you called me a jerk or an idiot or whatever it is you called me, without 1st knowing what the facts were.)
And so I’m done. Done with asshole extremists on BOTH sides of the issue. It’d be one thing if CJ had at least given me a chance to mount a defense, this being America and all, but he didn’t.
In response to another comment. See in context »he deleted mine AND my wife’s account, before either of us had a chance to post a single comment.
You can’t even keep your lies straight. You were banned for mulitple accounts. You posted at least twice in the thread before you were banned and you have also talked about posting on lgf in your comments here. Plus, you and your doppleganger’s comments are mostly gibberish. Seriously, get a grip.
In response to another comment. See in context »Funny stuff. Maybe you should try your hand at cartooning.
Reich-wing…I take it you are calling me a Nazi? That’s funny, since the Nazi party was a SOCIALIST party. Strike one for credibility.
I;m pissed because he appropriated my art. Yes, I am. And that’s all that’s actually pissed me off about this. Should you choose to go into cartooning and someone decides to deface YOUR art, then by all means come back and call me a douche.
I should be thankful. And that’s the core of liberal thinking, isn’t it? We should all be thankful when one of the Divine deigns to notice we peasants. Sorry to burst your ego-bubble, but I got tens of thousands NON BOT hits from my “silly little cartoon” on CGhost’s site ALONE, and this was well before Barrett decided to “try his hand” at this.
Do I have anything better to do? Sure. I’ve got plenty of things I could be doing. I do these cartoons and commentaries because I ~LIKE~ to. So let me ask you this: Doesn’t Barrett, an author and writer for at least two internationally-known publications, have anything better to do than go after some unknown internet schmuck that no had ever heard of a year ago, on a relatively unknown blog like Christmas Ghost? Is the newsday really that slow? He can’t find anything more productive to do with his time, nothing more worthy of comment, like how the current administration is attacking a news organization? Or how Obama wants to hold off on much needed and PROMISED support for our troops in Afghanistan so it doesn’t negatively impact a couple of upcoming elections? Or maybe how Moody’s, the people that determine our country’s credit rating, just announced that the US is going to lose its AAA rating in the next few years if we don’t cut our deficit?
Yeah, some “silly little cartoon” is WAY more relevant than any of that stuff!
Shoot an abortion provider, et al. Conservatives don’t condone that kind of behavior. You see, we actually believe in the rule of law and the Constitution…however, we all see multiple examples of you leftwingers breaking the law, don’t we? Breaking into foreclosed houses, rioting in streets, destroying property, shredding the document that is the basis of the most successful and powerful country in the world.
As to denying the existence of dinosaurs, please. There’s a fossil record. There are bones. I’ve been on a dig. My son wants to be a paleontologist. Nice stereotype. So, I guess you’re a long-haired pothead with bell bottoms and a headband, peace-signs painted on your cheek, going on and on about that groovy Saul Alinsky guy and hoping you don’t get busted by the “pigs”?
Grow up, flowerchild. This is the real world. And rather than reiterate the reason I am ticked off at Barrett, I would suggest you put down the bong, take off the John Lennon shades, grab some Visine, and READ. If you still have enough braincells to do so.
“That’s funny, since the Nazi party was a SOCIALIST party. Strike one for credibility.”
You know, people make this stupid, moronic, idiotic claim ALL THE TIME, and it drives me nuts, because it’s not true. The Nazi party was (and presumably, amongst communities of people who sleep with their sisters, is) in _every single way_ a right-wing party. Claiming that because they have the word “socialist” in their name makes them “left wing” is like claiming that because “soy milk” has the word “milk” in it, it must have come out of a mammal’s teats.
In response to another comment. See in context »And now you are posting MY artwork without my permission. At no time did I give or imply that I was giving you permission to use my artwork, nor will I give you that permission at any point in the future. You need to take it down now.
You mean, the cartoon with Snoopy and the Jawas?
In response to another comment. See in context »Perhaps you should familiarize yourself with Fair Use. I drew those images, rather than cut and paste them. I also gave full credit to those who created those images on the side of the image itself. If the owners of THOSE properties take exception to my use of them, then they are free to contact me for redress. I did not use another artist’s work and claim that it was my own; I drew each of those images, by hand, rather than copy another’s drawing and claim that it was mine.
I repeat, you had NO permission to post MY artwork, nor to edit it because you didn’t approve of the content. You need to remove it now.
You’ll receive an e-mail from my lawyer either tomorrow or Sunday.
In response to another comment. See in context »Put down the crack pipe! Tomorrow is Sunday.
In response to another comment. See in context »Ah, good point.
In response to another comment. See in context »tfmo: charles johnson has also misappropriated your artwork. Maybe, lordblankfiend can sign up for a 4th account and tell johnson to remove it.
Looking forward to it, Barrett.
BTW, tomorrow IS Sunday. Perhaps you should consider swiping a calendar next?
Actually, scratch that; you’re the one with the potential lolsuit. E-mail me if you want her contact info.
In response to another comment. See in context »My God, what a bunch of pain in the asses. All of you – from Johnson on down to Charles (Sgt.) Shutlz over here. Hey, tfmo – as much as I would LOVE to engage in a point by point debate with you over this premise of yours – and your fellow comrades-in-delusion – that more than HALF the voting public in this country are hell-bent on somehow destroying the very fabric upon which America was built, and try to make you understand just how profoundly wrong and terrifyingly stupid this premise really is, I’ve got things to do – like go and force my (underage) girlfriend into having an abortion (and she’s not even pregnant; I just like abortions.) Instead, I’d rather just use this time to shit on your “art.”
“I drew each of those images, by hand… ”
1st of all, when you could stand to take drawing lessons from the guy who does The Family Circle, you know you suck. And suck you do, my friend. If I were you, I wouldn’t go around publicizing the fact that the work could be attributed to me. (In fact, I’d deny it if anyone asked.) I think Mr. Brown did more than a fair job of savaging your sad attempt at humor, so I’ll just let his words stand for the record. But, in all fairness, I WILL say that, as far as conservative humor goes, you certainly possess an extremely precise authenticity in your work,… insomuch as conservatives have a proud tradition, historically, of generally being Not Funny. So, good on you, as far as that goes. I think you may’ve found your niche.
I suppose what Mr. Brown is taking time out from covering the more pressing issues of the day to say is, basically, that you’re not funny, and that your cartoon sucks ass, and that if THAT’S the best the right can come up with to rally around and guffaw over in a lame attempt to illustrate (and I use the word loosely) just how WRONG over half the voting public is, because their views differ from those of their little paranoid, god-fearing minority, then maybe there’s not so much to worry about, in terms of winning this war of ideas; proving that anyone who would laugh at something that bereft of cleverness does not possess the intellectual ammunition needed to win this fight.
I don’t blame you for wanting to sue him, he really made you look stupid.
Barrett, I am going to try ONE LAST TIME to explain to you the problem with all this.
I don’t care if you disagree with me. Feel free. Lots of people do. I’m really okay with that.
I don’t care if you think my art work is crappy. That’s fine. I will be the first to say that this is hardly my best work or my best effort.
But it IS my work and MY effort. I drew this. It came from MY hand. I did not come up with the idea of the Jawa, or Snoopy. I did, however, draw these depictions myself and gave credit to those who did create them.
I drew this as a request, and made fun of the actions of certain people’s observed behavior.
What you have done does not compare. I did not take another person’s work and vandalize it. I did not try to pass off another person’s work and claim it as my own.
If you want to draw your own picture making fun of mine, then feel free to do so. If you want to write snotty little articles about me, go for it. If you want to send me snotty e-mails or leave insulting comments on my blog thread, have at it.
But do not use my artwork without my permission, and do not alter my artwork without my permission. And whether or not you realize it, the script IS part of the artwork. If you had chosen to show the original depiction, then write your diatribe about it in an article, we would not be having this conversation at all. At most, I would have quipped back at you and left it at that.
But this is MY art, Barrett. Not yours. It is not for you to alter it. It is not for you to edit it. If you want a cartoon, draw it yourself. Ask me to draw one for you. Have someone else draw one for you. But do not steal an artist’s work and scribble all over it.
The resolution for all this is quite simple. Take down my artwork and draw your own cartoon. It’s really not that hard. As I have said repeatedly, had you simply drawn your own comic instead of vandalizing mine, I wouldn’t have given any of this a second glance. You are the one perpetuating this situation. You can feel free to end it.
“… an artist’s work…”
LOL.
In response to another comment. See in context »Blankfield, if you don’t like my art, that’s fine. If you don’t like my opinion, groovy.
And if Barrett feels that my cartoon is of more importance than the other issues of the day, then I’d say he needs to check his priorities.
You don’t like my work? I don’t recall you being forced to look at it. I didn’t send you a copy of it. I didn’t come to your house, hold a gun to your head, and demand you look at it. You don’t like it? Don’t read it. If you feel the world can not go on without your stating your opinion on the matter, then feel free to drop a note in the comment box. I might even respond to it, as I have here. Or I might ignore it. Or I might do like Barrett’s pal Chuckie and just ban anyone on my thread that disagrees with me.
And again, “Mr. Brown is taking time out” for little old me. I should be everso grateful. I should fall to my knees and thank Barrett and apologize to him from the depths of my soul that I ever dared draw something he doesn’t like.
Sorry, but no. I disagree with CJ, and I disagree with Barrett. I will not apologize for having a different opinion than one he approves of. I will not apologize for answering a request for a drawing.
As I also said before, this is hardly my best drawing; I wasn’t trying to put out a Mona Lisa. It was a doodle that, from start to finish, took about an hour, including a meal break, two smoke breaks, and changing my daughter’s diaper. If you think you are going to get a rise out of me by calling the piece “shitty” then you are seriously overestimating the effort on this piece, and seriously overestimating how much your opinion means to me.
Sorry man, but you can’t throw things out in the public then tell people they don’t have to look at it. That argument is oft moaned but never listened to on the internet. Your whining is going to backfire on you. Have you ever heard of the Streisand Effect? If not, look it up. You can’t parody people and expect it to be immune from mockery, that’s really childish reasoning. For someone who drew a comic saying someone was a baby you have done nothing put whine about it. Maybe you should lay off parody work if you don’t have a thick enough skin to accept even this.
Neither version is funny, the only really funny thing is the reaction here. Just go to bed and stop making a joke out of YOURSELF.
In response to another comment. See in context »And now Barrett is threatening to sue me for objecting to him stealing my artwork. Wow. I can see why you guys are such huge fans. Straight out of the Obama playbook, nice. If someone disagrees with you, OH MY GOD WHERE’S THE NUMBER FOR MY LAWYER!?!
The big shot author and columnist is going to sue the nobody nothing guy. That just might get you a Czar position! Good job!
Barrett, just wanted to say I found your blog for the first time today and am larfing me arse orf. Genuine lulz from a smart guy, I’m really enjoying browsing through your archives.
tfmo: google “fair use”. if you do somehow manage to bring legal action, pleeease video and post to youtubes the moment in civil trial where you provide the cartoon at issue as evidence to the court. I want to see the judge’s reaction as he wonders where he went wrong in his career.
Wow. What is with you “Lord” people?
Please do point out in any of my posts where I said I was going to sue Barrett? Actually, Barrett is saying he’s going to sue ME.
So does your little rant need to be redirected to Barrett, Lord Feather Whatever?
Jesus-tapdancing-CHRIST, dude, go and get some therapy already. I know you “artist-types” are all angst-y and shit. But you’re taking it to a whole ‘nother level.
In response to another comment. See in context »Wow. What is with you “Lord” people?
It is my entirely proper, legal and not-made-up title bestowed by the temporarily discredited and penniless royal line of the Pfistersons of Buttshire, descended from an illegitimate son of Henry VIIIII, and I’ll beg you to respect it.
Please do point out in any of my posts where I said I was going to sue Barrett?
What other reason is there to bring up copyright? Just an excuse to complain about something?
Actually, Barrett is saying he’s going to sue ME.
Unless you’ve received an email saying such, it’s pretty clear there’s nothing in these comments that would indicate that.
However, just for you, I have prepared an ENTIRELY ORIGINAL COMIC I DREW WITH MY OWN TWO HANDS, any similarity to any other comics (or as the French say, animes) is entirely coincidental, no matter how remote the probability may seem, TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION:
In response to another comment. See in context »http://imgur.com/PO7Ra.png
Implicit threats. As I asked LordFeatheryaddayadda, please point out where I threatened to sue you.
I pointed out Fair Use because of MY action; which was to draw images that belonged to someone else. Note the difference here: ~I~ drew pictures. You, Barrett, drew nothing. You stole my artwork and slapped your own little script on it, defacing my work. And you continuously mock me for objecting and even threaten to sue me over it.
Please step back a moment, breathe, and try to objectively look at what you are doing here. You have stolen my artwork. You vandalized it, sent it to me in an e-mail as an insult, which you admitted in another e-mail. You post my artwork without my permission. I request that you remove my artwork from your site. You threaten me with a lawsuit and continue to mock me.
You are only damaging your own credibility, Barrett. You’re coming off as a petty schoolyard bully, attacking some nobody who posted a crappy little cartoon as a request from someone, simply because you didn’t like it.
Was there ever a point to any of this, or is this just how you get your kicks? Were you trying to “teach me a lesson” because I made fun of your friend, based off his own words and actions, and chose not to side with him? Or do you just need to remind the peasantry just who the Big Scary Man is?
THIS is the sort of thing you aspire to? I started off the whole thing pissed off because you screwed around with my artwork. And I am still pissed about that. But along with that, I just feel a great deal of pity for you, that your life is so empty and yet so full of rancor and jealousy and ego that you feel the need to act like this.
I am not remotely surprised that you side with CJ. You’re acting just like him. I’m sure you take great pride in that, and that just makes me pity you all the more.
lord #s is a sockpuppet of lord #2.
This is the guy who created 3 accounts under three different names at the same time over at LGF. After he was banned for it, he came here and lied about why he was banned and is now doing the same thing. Not the brightest lad…
i most certainly am not a sockpuppet! this is the first time i’ve ever heard of any of you people. i signed up to compliment Barrett, and i won’t be sticking around for long, just wanted to poke the bear a bit.
In response to another comment. See in context »And you’re basing this assumption of yours on… what, exactly? You said I, “came over here and lied about why I was banned from LGF?” Really? That’s fascinating, because I was under the (apparently false) impression that I was telling the truth. Thanks for clearing that up for me.
You were wrong about the other Lord-fellow being a “sock-puppet” of mine (I didn’t even KNOW what a sock-puppet was, until I saw the obsessive posts about them on LGF – you people sure are on your guard against them, whatever the fuck they are) doesn’t it stand to reason in that seemingly unreasonable head of yours that you might be wrong about the other thing, too? Where exactly do you get off calling someone a liar when you have NO WAY of knowing whether the person is in fact lying? I’m just curious. I, myself, would be a little leery of besmirching someone in such a way without any proof whatsoever. But that’s just me.
In response to another comment. See in context »I certainly interpreted your comment as a threat to sue him. You’re the professional writer. If your writing is being misinterpreted you have no one else to blame but yourself.
Sorry, Willie…I’m having some pronoun confusion here. Was this post directed at me, or Barrett?
If it was directed at me, then allow me to answer. If you interpreted my words as an implied threat to a lawsuit, then that is how you interpreted it. Not much I can do about that. Perhaps I should have clarified. As to being a professional writer, I never claimed that. I’m not. Nor am I a professional artist. I’ve received not one thin dime for any article I’ve written or cartoon I’ve drawn in the blogosphere. I’m just an old fart with a laptop, a little bit of artistic talent, and an opinion.
In response to another comment. See in context »Was this post directed at me, or Barrett?
Barrett. Sorry for the confusion.
In response to another comment. See in context »I gotta tell you, “willie” (in Scotland, that’s what they call a dick, oddly enough) I take offense at your calling me a liar. It makes you sound exactly like one if the over-zealous, LGF sycophant, yes-men that CJ is always accused of harboring. You folks are waaaay out there, man.
You got that chick sharmuta, for instance. Now, I don’t know her, other than what I’ve seen her write, and she could be the nicest person in the world, for all I know. But what I DO know of her is what I saw on her profile – that she’s been a LGF registrant since 1997, and that she’s posted an astonishing 67,000 times (OVER 67K, actually, but I’m not sure of the exact number, so we’ll just say 67K, for brevity’s sake.)
In a two year period, that’s almost ONE HUNDRED POSTS PER DAY. I’m sure I don’t need to point out to YOU how deranged that might seem to the casual observer. I mean, you – someone who goes on another thread on another blog altogether to call someone you don’t know anything about at all a liar, without a shred of evidence to back up that claim, all in an effort at defending your beloved LGF against some perceived slight, be it real or imagined. No, I guess that wouldn’t seem deranged to you at all.
If there’s one thing that’s been made crystal clear over the last year or so – ever since those McCain/Palin rallies that seemed to bring out the absolute WORST of the racist freaks of the Reich-Wing, the ones that were a harbinger of the Tea Parties to come – it’s that I now have ZERO tolerance for extremist on EITHER side of the debate. The country seems to be on the brink of splitting down the middle, ideologically. Forget about the fact that we’re at war; that the economy makes one absolutely pine for what seems now like the salad days of the early 80’s; that you have 1/2 the country accusing the other half of trying to destroy it; that you have parents willing to say their son is trapped in a balloon that’s doing 500 miles per hour over Colorado just to get on fucking TV. In my mind, at least, it’s been made super abundantly clear that what’s killing us as a country is pure, unadulterated stupidity, of the kind evidenced by you, right here, tonight. Whether you’re liberal or conservative, if you’re THAT willing to make a perfect ass out of yourself in some misguided effort to advance your cause (in your case it would be positioning your nasal passages as far up Charles Johnson’s rectum as is possible given the constraints of the law of physics) then there’s just no help for you. Or us, as a country. Period.
In response to another comment. See in context »LordFeatherwhatever:
The reason for bringing up copyright and Fair use was to 1: point out that my drawing Snoopy and a Jawa is protected, since Barrett tried to take issue with that earlier. And 2: to once again point out that this drawing is MY property. Not his.
Nothing in the comments. Barrett, you need better readers. Perhaps some that can, I don’t know, READ? Exerpted from an earlier post:
You’ll receive an e-mail from my lawyer either tomorrow or Sunday.
And:
Actually, scratch that; you’re the one with the potential lolsuit. E-mail me if you want her contact info.
Sounds like a threat of lawsuit to me. Not that I believe he has a case. I think he’s just trying to bully the little guy.
Drew that with your own two hands, huh? Care to post the pencil sketches? The inks? Got them Photoshop files?
I DO.
And I never questioned your royal legitimacy, “Your Lordship.” Just amused at an example of the rampant inbreeding of the line.
And 2: to once again point out that this drawing is MY property. Not his.
here’s a hint, buddy: if you want something private, don’t put it online. people will appropriate it. this is known as “Newton’s First Law of Gravitation.”
Drew that with your own two hands, huh? Care to post the pencil sketches? The inks? Got them Photoshop files?
I DO.
I have nothing to prove. And I use crayons and lipstick, FYI. I don’t use photoshop, I draw right on the screen. And my copyright notice is in the bottom-right corner, check it out.
In fact, I’m going to sue YOU for ripping ME off how do you like them apples. Well, I’ve got news for you, those aren’t apples at all, they’re bananas. They just LOOK like apples.
This has grown beyond pointless, and I do have better things to do. The facts are unchanged; you stole my artwork, altered it, and posted it without my permission. When I requested you take it down, you mocked me and threatened to sue me. Now you’ve got your little sycophants here to harrass me and insult me as well.
Such a hot shot. Such a big man.
You’re a greasy little punk with a magnifying glass, just looking for ants to scorch. The best joke in all of this? Not my cartoon, not your bastardized version of it. Just you.
yeah, FIFTEEN comments over a six-hour period is probably sufficient response for what took Barrett probably 5 minutes to do in MS Paint.
In response to another comment. See in context »“This has grown beyond pointless…”
Holy SHIT you can say that again. I thought – through this whole entire episode, starting with the LGF post that led me to this post – that you originally just had your little cartoon posted on a thread on Hot Air. I didn’t know you had your own fancy blog; a blog in which you’ve apparently devoted what seems like 10 pages of ranting and raving about the injustice committed upon you by Mr. Brown and his theft of your “art.”
So you got that whole tirade/chloroform-in-print over there; you’ve got this endless thread here where you’ve just gone on and on and on and on; and you’ve also got the comments section on your OWN blog, where people THERE have ALSO highlighted the hypocrisy in you posting a cartoon wherein you call someone ELSE a baby, and then proceed to cry like you shit your diaper over someone making fun of YOU?! Classic.
What’s really awesome about you Reich-Wing nut job/wack-a-doos is that you never fail to remain completely oblivious to how much of a jackass you make yourselves out to be. And yet through it all, you go to bed each night secure in the knowledge that, “You showed them!”
Well, you showed us, alright – showed us all what a total fucking loser you really are.
In response to another comment. See in context »Oh, Oh, ooohhh… Mr. Brown, you have wrecked my consciousness by pointing me towards ChristmasGhost and the madness that lurks therein. It contains not only “humor” but…
Links to Pammycakes promoting “Lord” Christopher Monckton lamenting the falling of America to the Kommunist Klimate Konspiracy…. a “science” advisor, no wait “economics” advisor, hold on… a journalist advisor to PM Thatcher! OMG Teh Kredibility of it all! ITZ A PLOT I TELL YA!
Barrett, trust me, you don’t want to review videogames for a living if they are your hobby. The moment you _have_ to write a review on Morrowind, it becomes work, and it’s much less fun. (Speaking of Morrowind, have you tried _Gothic_? It seems like a lot of the same type of fun but without the “the only way to really enjoy it is to use all the game-breaking mechanics”)
So stick to writing about things you _don’t_ enjoy, such as having to deal with right-wing douchebags who are friends with racists.
[...] week I challenged the conservative blogger Christmas Ghost to back up her claim that I’d never poin…. Simply getting this person to understand what was being asked of her – to find even a single [...]
[...] turned out to mean was that Elmore had just published our e-mail exchange on his blog. So I wrote a big long article making fun of both of them and a few other people that I hadn’t made fun of in a while for [...]