{"id":1493,"date":"2007-10-23T06:00:49","date_gmt":"2007-10-23T11:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=1493"},"modified":"2007-10-22T14:36:59","modified_gmt":"2007-10-22T19:36:59","slug":"im-going-to-start-a-count","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=1493","title":{"rendered":"I’m Going To Start To Count…"},"content":{"rendered":"

…the days until a leftyblogger actually addresses the facts <\/em>of a Katherine Kersten column, rather than\u00a0just blurting out\u00a0facile, juvenile ad-hominem.<\/p>\n

Two of her recent columns have drawn the ire of the not-too-smartosphere (here <\/a>and here<\/a>)<\/p>\n

I’ll start the count at one <\/strong>day right now, based on these two (obtuse <\/a>and selectively ignorant<\/a>) posts <\/strike>bits of blog discharge.<\/p>\n

We’ll start with obtuse; Matt Snyders, who seems to be on a mission to rhetorically peck at Kersten’s ankles<\/a>, writes:<\/p>\n

Depending on what kind of reactionary observer you ask, these individuals had it coming because they a) blocked traffic, b) taunted police in mysterious ways that the MPD has so far been unable to describe, c) are bourgeois hipsters and bourgeois hipsters deserve to be beaten, g*d damn it!, or d) some combination of all of the above.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Actually, there’s an option “d”, one that I suspect is the real<\/em> answer that Matt Snyders (and the entire CP staff) dare not whisper:\u00a0 Critical Mass are patsies for other people<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This topic comes up for discussion again a month-and-a-half later for two reasons: first, the resident she-jackal at the Strib<\/a>\u00a0 [She-jackal?\u00a0 I feel like I’m reading a screed by some Campus Maoist – Ed<\/em>.] has had a field day with the incident, penning two columns in the past three weeks on her newfound bogeymen. Check ’em out here<\/a> and here<\/a>. You won’t be disappointed. (“Minneapolis isn\u2019t the only place where the Mass mob has strong-armed the police and City Hall,” it wrote on October 8, presumably with a straight face.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One ad-hominem (ad-feminem?), two giggly but unsupported inferences…zero actual beef.\u00a0 I mean – would Snyders at least let us knuckle-draggers in on where Kersten might be wrong?<\/em><\/p>\n

Secondly, Critical Mass supporters launched a website <\/a>earlier this week in order to “support the victims of the police violence and brutality” and to “help resist the remaining charges that are being leveled against 4 individual participants so that the cops and the city can save face and have someone to blame for their misconduct.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, that should settle it then.<\/p>\n

Look – as I wrote before, as a guy who dices it out with Twin Cities drivers on my bike at\u00a0 least a couple of days a week (having the kids back in school cuts down on my biking time), I’m not unsympathetic to at least the part of Critical Mass’ agenda related to raising awareness about bikers.\u00a0 But Snyders doesn’t apparently feel it necessary to show the reader where Kersten is supposedly wrong<\/em> about Critical Mass.\u00a0 Perhaps the CP staff knows that their audience is going to reach the conclusion they want no matter what they write – it’s nothing new<\/a>. Or maybe Snyders needs to work on writing to an actual point, lest he be regarded as “the worst writer in the Twin Cities’ altmedia since the legendary Margaret Grebe”.<\/p>\n

You be the judge.<\/p>\n

Oh, it gets worse<\/a>. This’d be the guy from “mobjectivist”, which if you want to get nit-picky about philosphy might be too-telling a name after all:<\/p>\n

Trying to understand her obsession over bicyclists, I think the StarTribune columnist, Katherine Kersten, has tried to frame and conflate other recent Critical Mass<\/a> events with the sanctioned ride.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, actually, she wrote about the ride that turned into a riot.\u00a0 Remember that?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0And another local assbag blogger<\/a>, [“Assbag”? Mommy?\u00a0 Is that you?\u00a0 – Ed<\/em>.] thinks it has something to do with prepping “greens” for bad behavior when the RNC comes into town next year. I guess what better way to practice intimidating conservatives than a bunch of bicyclists roaming the streets?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Prepping greens?<\/p>\n

Where on earth did the “writer” get that?<\/p>\n

Look, numbnuts <\/strike>“WHT” – I could care less about “Critical Mass”.\u00a0 Indeed, I bike<\/em>, so if they have something in mind to actually get drivers to stop knocking us off, more power to ’em.\u00a0 Indeed, friends of mine ride with ’em.\u00a0 And as far as “intimidation” goes, most of them are from Minneapolis, and if they ever crossed the river they’d need me to help them get out alive.<\/p>\n

But if either of y’all have any ideas about facts that Kersten supposedly got wrong<\/em>, sound off, m’kay?<\/p>\n

(And “Needing someplace to refer to her as a snaggled-tooth witch” isnt’ even warm).<\/p>\n

So – one day and counting!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…the days until a leftyblogger actually addresses the facts of a Katherine Kersten column, rather than\u00a0just blurting out\u00a0facile, juvenile ad-hominem. Two of her recent columns have drawn the ire of the not-too-smartosphere (here and here) I’ll start the count at one day right now, based on these two (obtuse and selectively ignorant) posts bits of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-war","category-days-of-adolescent-rage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1493\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}