'An absolute douchebag'

Just checked the SiteMeter and noticed traffic from a blog whose proprietor is a member of the "progressive netroots community" Apparently, being a "progressive" in good standing requires spewing epithets like a Tourette's sufferer.

The aforesaid progressive blogger has dubbed me "Girlname McS---head," and further elaborates: "Jesus Christ f---ing a pogo stick, what an absolute douchebag."

That last string of incoherence was in reaction to my self-description as, "Award-winning columnist, reporter, editor, author, bon vivant and raconteur." These are simply facts:

• In 1996 I was awarded the George Washington Medal from the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, Pa., for my 1995 series of columns about the National Standards for U.S. History. (The award was presented to me by Georgia Gov. Zell Miller in a ceremony at the governor's mansion in Atlanta.)
• I have earned my living as a reporter and editor since 1986.
• I am co-author (with Lynn Vincent) of Donkey Cons.
• My Thorndike-Barnhart Dictionary (1967 edition) defines bon vivant as "a person who is fond of good food and luxury" -- just ask anyone who knows me.
• Thorndike-Barnhart defines raconteur as "a person clever at telling stories, anecdotes, etc." -- again, just ask my friends. (I've even been known to employ le mot juste now and again.)

Judging from the limited vocabulary displayed in his screed against me, that progressive blogger could benefit from a little more time spent with a dictionary.

More to the point, he has no sense of humor. He doesn't get the mock-braggadocio of ending my self-description with "bon vivant and raconteur." I might just as easily have described myself as "the clown prince of wingnut pundits" or some other jesting pomposity. This mixture of boasting and self-deprecation is my routine, my shtick. It's like the garbage man who tells his friends he's a "sanitation engineer." Get it?

No, he doesn't get it, because he's a fanatic who has no life. Speaking of which, I never did get around to posting photos of the Code Pink protesters at the Karl Rove speech Friday at GW:

Now that you've seen a couple of pictures of the idiots who wasted their Friday afternoon bothering motorists on E Street, let me show you two photos from inside GW's Elliott School of International Affairs, where students were lined up to hear Karl Rove speak:

Notice the difference? Outside: A handful of aging losers with nothing better to do than to make nuisances of themselves. Inside: Well-dressed young people who are ambitious to lead lives of meaning and purpose.

The saddest thing to me is that the people on the outside chose to be there. Nobody forced them to join Code Pink and become public nuisances. They volunteered for that gig.