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Which brings us to the subject of Kejda Gjermani, who joined the Little Green Footballs attack on me yesterday and replied to my defense by accusing me of "threatening" her:
All I need to know about you before I opine on you are your own statements and a list of people and organizations you are affiliated with.Gjermani does not "opine" on me, but asserts flatly that I am a "white supremacist." Understand that I've been a professional journalist for 23 years, so I know libel law inside and out.
Before you issue further threats, a word of caution: Research Robert Spencer’s exchanges with me. He has called me many unflattering an epithet and tried to shut me down. He has harassed my employer with seething e-mails. But he is worse for wear. My research on him has brought to his reputation ruin from which he may never recover. The only reason I have not taken him down even further is because he bores me.
You, sir, do not wish to become my target if you have skeletons in your closet.
When I call Charles Johnson a cowardly lying crazy fool, that is not actionable (besides which, truth is an ironclad defense). American libel law does not protect anyone from verbal abuse. However unbecoming it is for a professional journalist to engage in such behavior, it's not libel. If I were to state as a fact that Charles Johnson has sodomized Thai child prostitutes, that would be actionable. (Note that this is a hypothetical; I have no interest in or knowledge of Charles Johnson's sexual interests or activities.)
One of the most important points in this engagement is that since October 2007, Charles Johnson has accepted the credibility of LGF's pseudonymous commenters (e.g., "Dave of Sweden") attacking Geller, etc., without making any evident independent effort to verify these charges.
Is Vlaams Belang "fascist"? I can't even pretend to know that. I've never set foot in Belgium, I don't know any Belgians, and everything I know about the political sympathies of Vlaams Belang would therefore be second-hand at best. An old reporter's motto: "If your mother says she loves you, check it out." No one has offered to pay my way to investigate extremism in Europe, and I claim no authority on the subject.
Are Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer (Diana West, Richard Miniter, et al.) fascist sympathizers, as Charles Johnson has repeatedly alleged? All four of the individuals named are persons known to me, and I am utterly certain that these allegations against them are false. That Robert Spencer may have an unfortunate habit of sending "seething e-mails" (a temptation to which I have at times yielded myself) is known to me, but does not cause me to suspect him of being a crypto-fascist.
If I know that Charles Johnson has lied about people whom I know, and whose bona fides I have no reason to doubt, the question arises as to Johnson's motive. As I have repeatedly pointed out, Johnson has become obsessed with his commenters, promoting their contributions to his blog, and relentlessly purging those who question these accusations against Geller, et al.
Considering how accepting at face value the accusations of pseudonymous commenters has played such a large part in the Madness of King Charles, I am hesitant to do the same. However, a commenter on a previous post suggested that Gjermani is the LGF contributor "Medaura" who, in May, was subject of a post at the ex-Lizard site Blogmocracy:
Charles Johnson is the gift that keeps on giving, his new target: Michael Savage. As I posted earlier Savage has been banned from the UK. This is bogus as the UK allows Islamist groups to operate on its soil. Charles agrees with the banning and even lumps in Savage, who is Jewish with Neo-Nazi Don Black. Savage hates Nazis and Fascists, but Charles thinks anyone who stands against Islam and for America is a Nazi. . . .Cited in that Blogmocracy article was this comment by "Medaura":
But wait it gets really better, now The Militant Albanian Islamist Medaura chimes in.
Medaura was one the reasons LGF went down. She came in and spread Albanian/Al Qaeda propaganda against the Serbs. She also instigated the Charles-Robert Spencer split. Now if anyone on LGF supports Serbia’s struggle against Islamo-Fascism, they get banned.
361 medaura18586 5/05/09 10:37:49 amRead the whole thing. Accusing Michael Savage of advocating genocide in Bosnia and Kosovo? To borrow from Marc Anthony's funeral oration for Caesar, if Kejda Gjermani is indeed "Medaura," it is a grievous fault, and grievously shall she answer it. See Robert Spencer's writings on the subject of "Medaura," Kejda, and the KLA.
Savage is nothing but a conceited fuck, and while I don’t listen to his show enough to know whether he has advocated violence on air, I know he has supported genocide and attempted genocide in Bosnia and Kosovo, respectively. That’s good enough for me
Yet I cannot vouch for this commenter's assertion that Kejda is "Medaura." Please see my comment (2:09 p.m. 9/23) on the Green Room LGF thread:
It is an elementary mistake of logic to suppose that any particular fact you know (or think you know) is the only fact relevant to a controversy. In a universe of facts, the numerous facts you don’t know may be far more important than you think. This is the Hayekian insight, with which you ought to acquaint yourself.Read the whole thing. Hey, I'm just askin' questions.
UPDATE 6 p.m.: Conservative lesbian Cynthia Yockey:
Is Kejda Gjermani working as a concern troll to support Islamic jihad?Read the whole thing. Meanwhile, we note this from former LGF admirer Brian Ledbettter at Snapped Shot:
Charles Johnson -- and his minions, including Kejda Gjermani -- are, (1) forcing legitimate anti-jihadists to defend themselves non-stop so they can't do any work against the Islamic jihad against the West, AND (2), put such a fog of complicated accusations on them that it is almost impossible for their prospective supporters and allies to recognize them as allies.
Another technique that Kejda Gjermani seems to be using is the pose of the "concern troll."
I learned about "concern trolls" in the fall of 2008 from HillBuzz, which was a regular target of the Obama campaign's paid trolls. They operate by feigning agreement and support, but then express fears and concerns with the objective of demoralizing the blogger and his or her readers. This is consistent with the persuasion model employed by sociopaths: say one thing, do another. Kejda Gjermani may say she opposes Islamic jihad against the West and just wants to purify the European and North American anti-jihad movement of people she claims oppose jihad for the wrong reasons -- racism, fascism, whatever. Never mind the reality that she -- and Charles Johnson -- are destroying the reputations of jihad’s legitimate opponents like Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer and thwarting their efforts against the Islamic jihad against the West. . . .
Once again, we can conclusively show that Charles Johnson cares not for the facts when they're found to be inconvenient to him.Frankly, Brian, at this point, I fear that the Madness of King Charles is so far gone that he wouldn't even recognize a fact if you showed it to him. And I have replied to Wild Irish Rose.
Standing at mid-ring, I await the bell . . .
I'll give her this much, she has a flair for the dramatic. Also, I clicked over to her site. University of Waterloo?
ReplyDeleteI had not heard of you before Charles' Johnson began attacking you. I looked at his accusations, and I looked at your responses. I believe you and not him. I examined his evidence for your alleged white suremacy and none of it panned out. None of it.
ReplyDeleteCurrently, he proudly displays his R.S. McCain idee fixe on LGF as a masthead, while he accuses you of obsessively attacking him. Such an unintentionally ironic douchebag is he.
He is an apologist for all things Left now, or should I say once again - he took an eight year leave of absence from that, I gather. I used to have an account there. I wrote a (rather mild and respectful) comment that I knew would get me banned. Good riddance to him.
Charles recently asked rhetorically, why anybody would hate him. What he ought to ask himself instead is why so many people are laughing at him.
Wm T Sherman
(No offense at the nom de plume, I hope. That was a long time ago.)
You have yet to answer any of the key factual allegations made against you by Charles Johnson. Did you, or did you not, state that inter-racial couples provoked "revulsion"?
ReplyDeleteThe problem with all these assertions is the fact that for someone so "notorious" you certainly were not worthy of mention or denunciation until before Sept 12 2009.
ReplyDeleteBefore that date you were just another blogger who had 19 or 20 more instalances than me.
Since that date Charles and now other bloggers who are picking up his line such as Wild Irish Rose are going on about your notoriety even though apparently they never found time to denounce you on their blogs before that date or before the 5000+ posts you made on the blog.
Expect the left wing to run with it, and viola, the proof will be that dozens of blogger you never met were willing to repeat something one blogger said who decided that you were too close to six degrees of separation from Glenn Beck, Pam Geller or whoever Charles is upset with when the moon happens to be a particular shade of blue.
Kadja is a live one--right out of the Amanda Maracotte school of journalistic ethics. How she managed to get in with the Commentary folks (who I have nothing but respect and admiration for) is beyond me.
ReplyDeleteAs for Michael Savage, I am not defending his content, but banning him from Great Britain? Why? Because you disagree with his content? I have listened to him a few times and while I did not care for his show, I have not heard him promote violence or criminal behavior. Isn't that the criteria for such a significant act of some foreign state (especially an ally like GB)? It is now apparent that Savage was banned merely as some political tradeoff to appease the left in GB. It does not surprise me at all that guys like CJ are for it. They are thugs and for them the ends (their ends) always justify the means. God help us all if folks like this ever get control of the government...oh wait...
God help us all.
And Kedja, where is the list of racist and white supremacist quotes from R.S. McCain? With your masterly of reading comprehension and editorial skills, I am sure you would be all over that.
You know, this is getting juicy.
ReplyDeleteMedaura is identified on PeekYou as Kejda Gjermani. A commenter on your post, "As predicted, LGF attacks Malkin," says that her husband founded PeekYou. If her husband identifies Kejda as Medaura, it seems reasonable to accept his word as definitive.
ReplyDeleteI speak as an Australian libertarian. Nothing suggests to me more the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of the current American right than the kind of comments being posted on the subject of this stoush. RSM has effectively "plead the fifth" on whether or not he suggested that inter-racial couples provoke "revulsion". Everything else here is just ad hominem. Either he said it, or he didn't. And he has not denied saying it. (He also managed to add the 'no true Scotsman' fallacy to his already impressive selection of arguments that have nothing to do with the facts).
ReplyDeleteI've been peeking in over there to see what's going on. Right now, I'm LMAO at the banner adds in the sidebar.
ReplyDeleteOne is for online Anger Management classes.
The other is for Glenn Beck's new book "Arguing with Idiots".
I don't believe I need to supply a punch line.
RichyHansup said... You have yet to answer any of the key factual allegations made against you by Charles Johnson. Did you, or did you not, state that inter-racial couples provoked "revulsion"?
ReplyDeleteWhen and where did I say this, Mr. Hansup?
What is your source? This is what I keep trying to tell you. The world is a more complex place than you imagine, and the repetition of the same accusation (first made by Michelangelo Signorile, in a factually deficient column) does not constitute any requirement that I respond.
Under what principle of logic can anyone demand that I respond to things written by the alcoholic* George Archibald? Or by neo-Nazi leader Bill White? Or by Max Blumenthal?
The sources of any named accuser's animosity toward me are known -- if not to you, then certainly to me.
The fact that I am willing to defend myself without addressing any particular accusation (and, in fact, I have specifically addressed everything, at some point or another) does not lend any credibility to my accuser. Rather, it is the conduct of a man who knows his own actions and beliefs, and does not fear that his friends will be silent while he is repeatedly attacked by such a lowdown polecat as Charles Johnson.
(* I have reason to believe that Mr. Archibald has begun to recover from the drinking problem which caused him so many woes. He was a friend, his attacks on me were motivated by his resentment of what he perceived to be his mistreatment by my superiors, and I have never desired to be his enemy. Were he to extend an apology to me and to recant his unjust attacks, I would give him all the help he might ask, without his having to ask. As it is, I can only pray for him.)
Good grief!
ReplyDeleteThis "woman" is an idiot, a complete idiot.
Oh, the drama....the silly threat to you is hysterical.
But what I, and many others, really want to know is when did Charles stop beating his live in boyfriend?
I believe you will find the answer to that on the same page as all your "racist" rants....
Charles is really sh*thouse rat crazy.....no two ways about it.
Kejda "Medaura" Gjermani has been a long time poster at LGF. She popped up shortly before the Vlaams Belaang kerfuffle (kerfluffle?) started and was instrumental in turning Charles against Robert Spencer. She staged a campaign against LGF posters who were skeptical of Clinton's splendid little war in the Balkans with the aid of the stinking fish, Killgore Trout, and the assent of Chuckles himself. She has attacked Serge Trifkovic, formerly of Chronicles Magazine and author of "Sword of the Prophet" as a "genocidal Serb nationalist".
ReplyDeleteIf you still have any doubts, Kedja and Medaura absolutely are the same person. Her photo is posted on LGF and she is posting about her article attacking you on LGF. She also posts that she plans to delete comments she dislikes on her board.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you have a different code of journalistic ethics at the Washington Times. As a practising journalist myself, I have often encountered a journalistic situation where a quote has been made anonymously or under a pseudonym, and has subsequently been attributed by rumour or a direct allegation (often from another source). The protocol in such a situation is usually to call the person to whom the quote is attributed, and to ask them whether or not they did, in fact, make the comment.
ReplyDeleteThe reponse is either a yes, a no, or a no comment. Your response seems to be the latter, although I have never before heard "no comment" expressed in terms of nonsensical Hayekian epistemology. Michael Signiorele says that he repeatedly tried to contact you, and that you declined an interview. I'd be very interested to know why.
Yes, the motives for the attribution may be impure. They may be reliant on the testimony of neo-Nazis, alchoholics and polecats. But these are people you have chosen to associate with, sometimes the Devil speaks the truth, and calling someone names doesn't make them wrong.
Let's forget about the attributed quote for a moment - I can simply ask you directly. Is revulsion a natural response, in your opinion, to seeing an inter-racial couple on television? That seems like a fairly simple question, one to which you can provide a direct answer. You are, after all, privy to your own opinion. But perhaps I need a refresher course in the make-up of the universe.
Good catch Cynthia!
ReplyDeleteIf anyone wants to see the linkage between medaura and Kejda Gjermani on PeekYou, click the pretty blue text
Are you talking "Medaura" or "Maitreya"?
ReplyDeleteWhen did racists become enemy number one? I am sick and tired of people throwing out the charge of racist, sexist, anti-semite, etc. to tarnish and quiet their opponents.
ReplyDeleteYou can't have discussions anymore. It's like a game of chess, once the king is exposed it's checkmate, game over. Once someone levels the charge of racist, debate ends.
What difference does it make if someone did or did not say that interracial couples provoke revulsion? Did that person do harm to anybody's body or property? Did they violate anyone's rights?
Is it racist because it supposedly came from a white man? What if a black man had stated this? What if a Jew had stated this concerning intermarriage with a Gentile? Would you still be as offended?
What is the point of saying McCain is a racist? Does it mean we have to discount all he says? Am I now supposed to be against small government and low taxes simply because he is not?
I cannot for the LIFE OF ME imagine Robert Spencer sending threatening, "seething" emails to anybody. For any reason. The man routinely tries to "reason" with lunatics, has been criticized even by people who think they're defending him (the old "it's not what you say it's how you say it" morons)and never loses his cool.
ReplyDeleteI wish he would sometimes. I don't know how that man gets up in the morning. Eight years. Eight years after 9/11. And Robert Spencer defends himself more often than CAIR has to.
I don't believe it for a minute. In CJ's world, simply defending yourself against his accusations means you are threatening him. YOU are attacking HIM. It works, so of course his minions would use the same tactic.
He's trolling for traffic now. He knows he's lost the right, so he has to get more on the left to hit his site. Even if he doesn't get any new subjects for his Kingdom, just pissing off all his enemies is enough for him.
That's why he made that Rifqa Bary post last week. He's going to keep baiting because now it's fun.
medaura and Kejda Gjermani are one and the same.Here's the twitter page.
ReplyDeletehttp://twitter.com/kejda
On her web site, Kejda G. claims to be of Jewish descent:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.kejda.net/about-me/
Perhaps that is how she fooled the personnel vetters at Commentary.
But Kejda is not only non-religious, she's virulently anti-religious (hmmm...sounds like a certain "mad king"...):
From a 3/17/2008 blog post on her site:
"Beyond Conservatism: Freedom in a Godless Future"
http://www.kejda.net/2008/03/17/beyond-conservatism-freedom-in-a-godless-future/
It's a pretty scary manifesto--but fortunately, thanks to the good sense of her employers, it is unlikely to be posted soon on "Contentions."
Read the whole thing, and the picture of what KG believes (and why she is comfortable hanging around in the Lizard Lounge) becomes much clearer.
A choice bit:
"The inane treatment of Judeo-Christianity as a proxy for Western Civilization should be first to go. Tying the moral foundations of the American Nation with cultural archetypes of prehistoric Biblical Jews, or with those of devout Europeans emulating them is beyond preposterous. The dogmatic authoritarianism inherent in Judeo-Christianity and its ubiquitous tradition of framing Man as a wretched sinful creature fallen from grace since birth, are antithetical to a societal infrastructure built around individual freedom and dignity."
And this is rich:
"Religion never provided a particularly satisfying map of reality for its subscribers, its main redeeming quality being community building. Churchgoing used to be an essential social event for millions of interaction-starved Americans. It is no longer so. With new lanes being added to the information highway, increasing opportunities for remote social networking, and free access to scientific materials, the Church cannot compete with the sophisticated social outlets Americans can afford today."
Shorter Kejda: Who needs organized religion anymore, when you can fulfill your need for community using my husband's social networking site, peekyou?
"When did racists become enemy number one?"
ReplyDeleteI haven't once accused Robert of being racist. I've simply asked if a opinion being attributed to him is his.
"What difference does it make if he said it or not?"
If it makes no difference, why not simply confirm or deny having made it?
"viola"?
ReplyDeleteRSM: "The fact that I am willing to defend myself without addressing any particular accusation..."
ReplyDeleteHow exactly do you propose to do that?
Kedja will tell you herself that she is Medaura.
ReplyDeleteGood Work RSM. I had never visited this blog before. I had seen Charles guilt note about it. But when he made a bigger todo about it, I visited and I see that Charles is wrong here.
Since then it seems I have become a daily reader.
Separated at Birth?
ReplyDeleteKedja "Medaura" Gjermani.
Amanda Maracotte
Spooky.
Kedja is a fan of the pony tailed Lizard King, Charles Johnson.
Amanda worked for the Silky Pony lounge lizard John Edwards.
"...the madness of King Charles..."
ReplyDeleteIt is well-known that the remnants of syphilis brings on dementia later in life.
I left a comment on Kejda-Medaura's website. Since she's a Charles Johnson acolyte, that comment will never see the light of day.
ReplyDeleteWhat's with these people who exist only as acolytes to a madman? Is the koolaid really that good?
Oh. The comment...
Charles Johnson, as a blogger, has become functionally irrational. He started picking fights with the right-side of the blogosphere in 2007, when he turned away from Pajamas Media, and began his strange journey towards becoming Andrew Sullivan, hoping for open arms and a hero's welcome by the Left. He's viewed as pond scum by nearly all mainstream bloggers; even the ones on the Left, whom he wishes to join, can't and won't ever trust him. Unlike decent writers who've made the switch based on their excellent writing styles (that Balloon Juice guy comes to mind), CJ. can't. write. Period.
RSM, on the other hand, is an excellent right blogger and serves as replacement for the small-minded Charles Johnson. Plus, he's a thousand times better writer.
Compare the two for writing quality and style. Show me where Charles has intelligibly written more than a paragraph or so of simple text; all he's capable of writing are slashing, humorless rants primarily aimed at soliciting fawning agreement from his remaining cadre of childlike lizardroids (those few who are left are dedicated to whatever ideas this insane CJ posts; nevermind the reality that it is a broken, troubled CJ) who walk on eggshells wondering not if, but when their accounts will be blocked.
I've said before: Charles, get your melon checked. You may have a physical ailment what needs attention!
Serr8d, if you are going to get banned, get banned by the sites you are proud to be banned from. She deleted my response to her when she said I was a "racist scumbag" and she would want to see my SAT scores.
ReplyDeleteMy response that got me banned? I said she was uncivil and I understood why she was friends with CJ and Wild Irish Rose. Why a legitmate blog like Commentary would hire such a nut job is beyond me.
I just found a comment on the "About Me" page on Kedja's site that explains a lot about her, her writing, her research methods--or lack thereof--and the people she chooses to attack:
ReplyDelete*I don’t take notes: That’s a skill you’d think one would learn through four years of university, but I lack even the most basic note-taking capabilities. I wouldn’t recognize my own hand-writing/symbols, so I have built my academic career on copying others’ notes.
http://www.kejda.net/about-me/
Is she now attempting to build a "career" in journalism by copying Charles Johnson's notes? Probably not the wisest strategy.
"Is revulsion a natural response, in your opinion, to seeing an inter-racial couple on television? That seems like a fairly simple question, one to which you can provide a direct answer. You are, after all, privy to your own opinion."
ReplyDeleteIt's not a matter of opinion. Scientific research has shown that revulsion is the "natural" reaction, and that people prefer to be around their own race. No doubt you don't like that, but that is human nature.
"I haven't once accused Robert of being racist. I've simply asked if a opinion being attributed to him is his."
ReplyDeleteWhat makes it any of your business?
Rich Hansup, when did you quit beating your wife?
ReplyDeleteYou are making the blog comment equivalent of a SLAPP. Just because Mr. McCain doesn't dance to your tune doesn't make him guilty.
Is this person another iteration of matoko/nishi/kate that used to frequent ProteinWisdom?
ReplyDelete-Mikey NTH