April 21, 2006
Malkin-vich, Malkin-vich, Malkin-vich
When it comes to getting a graduation speaker for UC Santa Cruz, we don't think it'll be Michelle "Internment Forevah" Malkin. Not that she would, anyways, but her chances went from "not ever" to "no way in frickin' hell" after she published the names and phone numbers of student protestors on her Web site. Hilarity, of course, ensued and by "hilarity" we mean death threats, harassing e-mails, and all sorts of nastiness. See, that's what you get when you hate Freedom.
The reason for all this is over a protest that arose when Military Recruiters tried to show up at a Job Fair at UC Santa Cruz. Lest anyone actually consider exercising their free will and join the military (we hear Iran is even lovelier this time of year than Iraq), members of Students Against War, the organization that was spied on by the Pentagon, started in with the protesting. It got raucous enough that the military recruiters left for fear that they might be hurt. And yes, it does strike us funny that a bunch of military types were intimidated by a bunch of tree-hugging hippies. Serves them right, actually, for thinking that they could find anybody to join the military in Santa Cruz unless Rummy is trying to put together an elite hacky sack squad (Operation Patchouli?). Anyways, Malkin sprung into action, wrote about it on her blog and posted the names and phone numbers of the people who lead the protest. Then, when outrage grew over what she did, she posted the info again.
Now, of course, that might be considered slimy and unprofessional except for the fact we're talking Michelle Malkin here. But, as Malkin points out, the kids who led the protest not only gave out that information on the press release about the protest, but is easily Googleable. And because you can't have one side in our current political climate do dumb and intemperate things without goading the other side into doing dumb and intemperate things, Malkin herself got all sorts of harassing e-mails. Which will probably make her angrier and nastier and more driven to saying stupid things. Which will make the other side angrier and nastier and more driven to saying stupid things.
And there you have the Circle of Political Life.
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Malkin only posted a link to a publicly available PRESS RELEASE that the Students Against War group released which contained the SAW contact information.
If you don't want your contact info in the public domain, you should not put it on a press release that you send to news organizations with the idea that they will publish it.
The people who retaliated against Malkin posted her private contact information.
There's a big difference here.
It seems to me that if you gave people like Malkin everything they ever wanted they would still find something to be angry at and hateful towards.
It's like these people don't feel alive unless they're spewing venom.
Sad. This world, and life in general, is so much more than that.
k.
Now there is an example of a conservative that's ugly on the inside AND the outside. The *hatred* in her eyes.. scary. Must suck to wake up being her.
That doesn't quite fly, AJ. If Malkin's contact information were "private," then how did the people who posted it get ahold of it? If she's going to use the argument that the information is easily found on Google as a rationale for what she did, then why is it so different to do the same thng to her? They're putting their information out on a press release, she's putting herself out on TV and her webpage. They're doing a focused protest against something going on in their own school/community, she's using vitriolic language and trying to whip people up into a frenzy against them. But then she calls foul when her own tactics are used against her?
I agree with Jon's overall conclusion -- it's a stupid circle of nonsense and a sorry state of affairs when you can't make a political statement without yahoos trying to polarize everyone and turn it into a personal attack. But at the same time, when are pundits like Malkin going to take responsibility for what THEY do?
Malkin only posted a link to a publicly available PRESS RELEASE that the Students Against War group released which contained the SAW contact information.
That excuse only works for me if Malkin hadn't refused to take the information down after being told it was being taken to make death threats. Her response, "They shouldn't have done something to make my readers want to make death threats against them." is makes her look horrible. She's still responsible for saying "I don't care!" to hear people she doesn't like are being harassed.
Not that it justifies her being harassed in return, either.
There have been plenty of students who've done ROTC programs while students at UCSC, and their number is small and guess what? No one cares and no one makes a fuss. It's all fine. The ROTC folks do their thing, and the ultimate frisbee types do theirs.
Why anyone would waste taxpayer dollars recruiting at a campus mostly known for astronomy and whatnot is beyond me. And how do a pack of hippies intimidate men with guns? With bad poetry slams and threats of vegan chocolate cake?
Surely men who braved Saddam and MREs could brave that.
I went to UCSC. I'm kinda embarrassed about it now. Great science programs, but otherwise a sorry knot of white guilt, hippy dinosaurs, and whiny, pretentious whankers.