The controversial Grossberger-rgnadkzin correspondence

The crackpot in question (Image via Wikipedia)

I got my first hate mail on a T/S post! OK, that’s too strong. My first Shut-Up-You-Idiot mail. Almost as exciting.

It was an e-mail headed “Tip: Cut the Crackpot Crap,” from one rgnadkzin, not a person known to me, which took issue with my latest headline grab. You can see the grab over on the right, the one about Minnesota’s Michele Bachmann declaring she wouldn’t fill out most of her census form because it looks like dangerous, conspiratorial stuff— who knows, maybe even liberal stuff?—is going on there.

I had indicated my displeasure by my use of the word “crackpot” in reference to Representative Bachmann.

So the rgnadkzin person wrote (and I know I’m going to lose readers just with his or her first sentence but I’m trying to be fair, or at least give the illusion of fair, which is just as good):

There are no implementing regulations for 13 USC 221 (see http://www4.law.cornell.edu/usc-cgi/usc_cfr.cgi?title=13&section=221), which means that there is no “general effect” of this statute. See the federal APA and the FRA. If you look at the OMB control number for the “American Community Survey” census form, it shows that this form is applicable only in Puerto Rico.

Please refrain from making inflammatory characterizations on matters for which you have no education.

So now I reply to rgnadkzin as follows:

Dear Sir or Madam:

Actually, I do have an education in this field. You see, many years ago, I majored in crackpot studies at a large university and I’ve kept up ever since by following American politics.

But I do kind of regret calling Representative Bachmann a crackpot, as it exposes me to the charge of stating the obvious. Also, “paranoid” would have been more precise. She is among the nuttiest of prominent right-wing extremist nuts in a country overrun with them. I’d list a few dozen of her more amusing errors, falsehoods and expeditions into the apocalyptic irrational, but you seem adept at Internet use so I’m sure you can find them yourself.

Oh, hell, I can’t resist. Have a couple on me…

Responding to a Minnesota radio reporter’s question about President Obama’s cap-and-trade plans:

“I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back. Thomas Jefferson told us, ‘Having a revolution every now and then is a good thing,’ and the people – we the people – are going to have to fight back hard if we’re not going to lose our country. And I think this has the potential of changing the dynamic of freedom forever in the United States.”

And this classic, spoken to Chris Matthews on Hardball: “I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out: Are they pro-America or anti-America?”

Beautiful, isn’t it? Here we have an official of the government who wants her constituents to take up arms against the government. Also she is worried about the Americanism of her colleagues in the American government. (You can just imagine what she would consider “anti-America.”)

As for the census non-issue, your alphabet soup means nothing to me. I looked at the website you provided; it didn’t help. If you’re trying to claim that the U.S. census is somehow illegal or non-mandatory, at least in areas other than Puerto Rico, please make the argument in a language closer to English so I can be sure of exactly what your position is when I inform you that you too are a crackpot.

Also, please let me know what happens when you refuse to fill out your census forms. I’m really interested in the outcome. Of course, nothing will happen to Ms. Bachmann; Members of Congress tend to get away with things. The rest of us, less so.

Oh and thanks for reading my post and taking the time to comment.