Big Mouth Strikes Again II

More reaction to Malkin

PZ Myers, referring to the WaPo's recent hackjob profile of the angry left:

I don't quite understand this etiquette thing. So Maryscott O'Connor is angry about war and corruption and our incompetent administration, and that's bad. Naughty leftist, she should be better mannered and respectful to our president, no matter how badly he screws up.

Meanwhile, Michelle Malkin sics her mouth-breathing minions on some college-aged peace activists, and they get swamped with death threats from right wingers. And she does it twice, even after learning what kind of sewage her pals are spewing.

Hmmm. Decisions, decisions. Angry denunciations of political actions vs. vicious but infantile threats. Unstinting demands that our leaders do right vs. outrageous extortion. Which side do I want to be on?

I'll pick the door on the left, Bob. Without hesitation.

Carla at Preemptive Karma:

Malkin's inability to muster up even basic scruples here is astounding--especially for a woman of her age. Anyone with even a rudimentary set of life experiences and maturity would know better than to put other people's lives in danger this way…

There's something fundamentally wrong with an individual who would deliberately put the lives of others in danger like this. Some innate screw is in need of tightening.

But then again, that's what karma is for...tightening screws…or putting the screws…to those who deserve them.

Maha has a good round-up of other responses, and also addresses some of the defenses of Malkin starting to pop up in Righty blogs (and elsewhere):

The rightie excuse for Malkin’s publishing of names and phone numbers (see previous post for background) is that the names and phone numbers were on a press release (see Joe Gandelman, who is a nice guy, for an explanation). If they hadn’t wanted their names and phone numbers made public, why were they on a press release?

And the answer is, press releases always come with the name and contact information of someone responsible for the press release, either above or below the text of the news release. This is so journalists can call that individual for more information or to confirm the relase is legitimate. Without such contact information most news desk editors would pitch the release into the famous round file. But anyone who has worked in a newsroom for more than ten minutes understands that the contact information itself is not "released" unless it appears in the text of the release.

The other excuse: "Lefties do it too." As I’ve said many times, the foundation of all rightie moral standards is Billy hit me first and variations thereof. I regret that there are some people who lack the common sense and impulse control to not stoop to the level of sending Malkin obscene email. However, that doesn’t excuse what Malkin did.

And Roxanne suggests sending Malkin some toenail clippers.

(Crossposted at AlterNet PEEK.)