A Damp Chill in Hades

Doug goes all Jimmy Swaggart, after getting called out on his bullshit.

Mike Pollard set the record straight in the comments section regarding my "ALL CAPS" post from yesterday that was simply a copied e-mail.

I am man enough to admit you are correct, and my excuse is lame - I had no time to write a post and threw that baby up there without considering the factual (or lack thereof) content. However, smear tactics was not my intention, and I regret that it came across as such.

I assume that Doug read the "e-mail" before he copy/pasted it into the blogger editor and hit the "publish post" button.

I often do not have the opportunity to proof-read much either, though of late I have had a little more time (until a couple days ago anyway) so poor writing and silly posts like e-mail re-treads pop up from time to time due to my busy schedule (once again, a lame excuse, but true)

Ya.. it's lame. You read that e-mail.. and it patently obvious to normal people that it was complete unsubstantiated drivel. Heck, all you have to to do is see that something is in ALL-CAPS and you don't even have to bother reading it. In the entire history of the Inter-Tubes, there has never been anything written in caps that wasn't complete bullshit.

The "I'm busy" excuse doesn't pass the smell test on that one. I assume Doug read it before he posted it.. since he wrote, "Things that make you go hmmmmmmmmmm", in reference to that email. It's not a time consuming process to read something before you post it, and obviously doesn't take any extra time to realize it's all bullshit.

It clearly is more evidence that what is obvious to most people makes Doug go "hmmmm". The issue has nothing to do with Doug trying to avoid a "smear job", as smearing is his stock-in-trade. He simply got called out on it, by somebody whose comment he didn't delete this time.

Doug deleted my comment on his blog where I pointed out that he could easily find out where the Obama's got their money by looking at their tax returns. I'd also note that John McCain got his money by divorcing his wife, and mother of 3 of his children, after she was disfigured in a car accident. His new, much younger hot blond, wife brought in all the money.

But hey.. Doug goes even further in his mea culpa.

I also regret the failure to accurately relay factual information on the "Closet" post in which Tom the Liberal Blogger set the record straight by locating the post that caused Chuck to be shut down - it turned out to be because he identified himself, which I guess as an active military servicemember doing so and spouting political opinion like he was doing is a no-no.

He even linked to my post.

It's nearly schizophrenic the way that Doug sometimes links to me, and other times insists that I don't "deserve the traffic". But, that's neither here nor there.

Ya.. I actually checked Doug's claims because far more often than not, he's full of shit. Hell, just on health care and the Veterans Administration, I'd had to correct his bullshit here, here.. and other general bullshit here.. correcting Doug on casualty statistics of soldiers during the Clinton and Bush administration, here.

Heck, just do a google search on my blog for "Doug statistics" and there are 13 hits on my blog. Here, I'll do it for you.. click here.

Doug claims that he didn't have enough time to check the post that caused the soldier to have his web site "shut down". You know how long it took me to find it? It was about 20 seconds using google. I don't think Doug knows how to do a search on a particular web site.

For example, suppose you wanted to see every post of mine where I referenced Doug. Just open Google, and search for "Doug site:tomsneurosis.blogspot.com", without the quotes, and bam.. pages and pages of me correcting Doug's bullshit.

Doug simply said he was wrong about the cause of the "blog shutdown".. but he also erroneously called the "left", "cowardly scumbags". He didn't apologize for that smear. He said gays are "sick", and being gay is a "decision". He didn't correct those factual inaccuracies.

Nobody but the most hard core of the hard core think that gay people choose to be that way. You can't find a reputable scientist in the world that will claim that. You won't find a gay person in the world that will say that.

Doug just isn't interested in factual accuracy. I always just refer to him as a propagandist, and so he uses the language of a propagandist. Gay people "choose".. they are "sick". He won't articulate a reasoned point of view, divorced from the hate language, because that's not his interest. It's all about his movement, and being that he completely lacks in integrity, he will continue to post factually inaccurate assertions, and he will continue to refuse to correct the record when I prove him wrong, yet again.

I just don't think Doug understands the difference between a "factual assertion", and an "opinion".. and has no idea what "hyperbole" is. All 3 can be found in a quality essay.. a piece of partisan, persuasive arguing. Doug is consistently wrong in his factual assertions, and can't distinguish when I'm making a point with opinion.

I call them "fucking loons". That's both an opinion and hyperbole. I also make factual assertions.. such as referencing statistics. I'm always careful to point out that the value of an opinion is not in how it's stated, it's what it substantiates.

I NEVER criticize typos.. or spelling errors.. or other things that naturally happen when somebody sits down to write. It's not an easy process for most people. However, if you can't be factually accurate, and if you can't say what you actually mean, then that's all the fault of the writer. If you don't correct your post when it's proven you are factually inaccurate - that just makes you a lying propagandist.

And there you have Douglas V. Gibbs in a nutshell.. (har, nice pun??)

A large part of my busy schedule and lack of time for writing has to do with my being (of late) in and out of doctor's offices. . . I will explain, hopefully, someday in the future. I'm not one to normally discuss my health, so I will leave it at that for now. My health is not an excuse for my failure to bring Political Pistachio readers the best I can provide, just a quick explanation. However, as my time available for blogging increases, so will the quality, and due to unforseen circumstances my time available is increasing ten-fold real soon.

Being busy has nothing to do with being factually wrong, over and over. Everyone is busy. Heck, I want to respond to a bunch of things that Jennifer has said, related to me.. because I think it's important to take the time to talk to people who take the time to talk to me. I understand being busy, and it can take it's toll on the volume of writing that a blogger does.. but it has NOTHING to do with a pattern of factual inaccuracy, and a failure to correct those factual inaccuracies.

Doug did it this once.. and there are literally dozens of examples where I've fully researched and documented his errors.

I've always said that Doug is a shitty writer, and there he is admitting as much.. and placing the blame on events beyond his control. That's a cop-out. If you have only 5 minutes in a day to write, you can craft one grammatically correct, factually correct paragraph. You can do one simple paragraph that states what you mean.

That's better than copy/pasting one huge smear, and claiming you didn't have enough time to do anything more. Here's an suggestion for next time. Don't post the fucking bullshit.