Posted 3:57 PM by Robert

Mother's Little Helper

Some of Atrios' recent thoughts are: Of all the 9/11 conspiracies, I think the "flight 93 was shot down" one is the most credible given available evidence (and lack of).

"Of all the 9/11 conspiracies...?" Atrios writes as if his readers will know what this means. Could he be refering to al Qaeda? Was al Qaeda one of "the 9/11 conspiracies" on which Atrios' thoughts and private language revolve here?

Maybe Atrios went out and had himself - in words he chooses to describe a woman commentator with a rather conservative Jewish viewpoint - "a good cockpunching" to his head, and these are the thoughts that filled his head in the afterglow. Maybe it was her writing in her column about her own "soon-to-be third and first-graders [who] are looking forward to starting school in a couple of weeks" that he feels justifies his helpful observation.

Also, Atrios finds "the Lackawanna Terrroist story is a bit...thin." To Atrios it may be one of "the 9/11 conspiracies" that's not as "credible" as the "flight 93 was shot down" one.

As he explores his deepening suspicions about this "most credible" conspiracy and the need he feels for certain women who have come into his consciousness to get themselves "cockpunched", Atrios may want to remember: Haloperidol is indicated in the management of manifestations of acute and chronic psychosis, including schizophrenia and manic states. It may also be of value in the management of aggressive and agitated behavior in patients with chronic brain syndrome and mental retardation and in the symptomatic control of Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome.

Just a helpful observation of my own.
______________________________________________________________________

UPDATE: Atrios now says that one should change "conspiracies" to "conspiracy theories" and "my words should be clear to Musil as they were to everyone else who read what I wrote." Apparently, all "possible alternative explanations to the official one" are "conspiracies" as far as Atrios is concerned. An honest mistake would not be permitted. Of course, Atrios' equation [Government is wrong] = [conspiracy] must lead to a lot of conspiracies in his thinking.

But, even accepting this approach, I guess I'm still slow, because I still think that if Atrios believes that Flight 93 being shot down is a "possible alternative explanation to the official one" that has "credibility" then Atrios is quite simply stark, raving nuts. And most reasonable people agree that this "possible alternative explanation to the official one" is crazy. Atrios dissents.

Atrios also says: that he "wasn't even aware that Betsy Hart was Jewish." I don't know that she's Jewish now. I never heard of her before I saw Atrios suggest that she be attacked. I immediately found that her column appears on the Jewish World Review website. In fact, it's the very first site that comes up when one does a Yahoo! search under "Betsy Hart." But Atrios wants us to believe he is unschooled in the very basic ways of the net. He just didn't know who Betsy Hart was when he singled her out for his violent, unexplained image. Is my comment, as Atrios puts it, "a not-so-thin-veiled accusation of anti-Semitism? You bet it is. Atrios says my suggestion is "laughable for a variety of reasons" - one almost expects him to suggest that some of his best friends are Jewish or something of the kind. Instead he "defends" himself by pointing to his own, unknowable, subjective lack of knowledge of the ethnicity of the woman whose physical attack he is urging. Nice guy.

[UPDATE: Contrary to my initial concern, I have no evidence that Atrios' attack of Ms. Hart is motivated by antisemitism. Jewish World Review runs various gentile conservative columnists. And, to be fair to Atrios, his vicious impulse towards Ms. Hart is clearly sexual in nature - not ethnic.]

[FURTHER UPDATE: Ampersand has some reasonable things to say about the above post. A fine point: I did not say that Atrios was being antisemitic simply because he said something bad about a Jewish World Review columnist. I did intend to raise antisemitism as a possible explanation for Atrios vicious, unexplained image (or, as Atrios puts it, "a not-so-thin-veiled accusation of anti-Semitism" - where I construe raising antisemitism as a possible explanation as a variety of "a not-so-thin-veiled accusation" ), where Atrios provided no explanation at all. Atrios' subsequent coy reference to an old Onion squib and a TV show only makes his motivation (which he has still not fully articulated) more obscure. I now believe that I assigned more weight to Ms. Hart's column appearing in the Review than I should have - even for the purpose of asking if antisemitism were a possible explanation for Atrios' assault on her. The Review has many gentile columnists. So I am treating Atrios' comment as sexual (which it obviously is) - not ethnic.]

Atrios also explains that it was just fine for him to say that Ms. Hart needs to get herself "cockpunched" because the Onion used the term more than six months ago to refer to punching someone in the groin. The Onion does not mention Betsy Hart - or any woman. And the meaning of such a term is clearly different where it appears in a humor magazine which consistently achieves deliberate, effective parody than its unexplained meaning in Atrios' blog, which is characterized only by unintentional self parody. Atrios says: "I didn't specify what I was referring to," so now it's OK for him to specify after the fact that he meant that Ms. Hart "needs" to be brutalized because she acted up on a television show Atrios didn't mention before. The reader can decide for herself how much sense Atrios' explanation makes. In the mean time, whoever this guy is, the women in his life may want to exit as quickly as possible.

Hey, perhaps Atrios will convince himself that he "needs" to order the relevant federal official investigating Flight 93 to swear on a Bible that the Flight wasn't shot down, on pain of the official being cockpunched by Atrios. After all, Atrios says Ms. Hart needs to be cockpunched for expressing views in a way of which he doesn't appove, so Atrios must think that the federal official who has allowed the "credibility" of the "flight 93 was shot down" theory to fester deserves at least that much.

Atrios' assertion that "Projection is a typical part of standard conservative mental illness." has a creepy similarity to the language of Soviet prision psychiatrists. But the remainder of Atrios' "reply" is even more bizarre and childish than the part addressed above, and bears no further comment. But I cheerfully acknowledge Atrios' leading suggestion that his hit count is bigger than mine. That must mean something to him.

And what is it with Atrios' fixation with cocks, anyway? Did anyone know this book existed before Atrios zeroed in on it? I sure didn't. But the web promo for the book that Atrios links to doesn't even mention Clinton's personal behavior except as a minor, buried point attributed to Dick Morris - so what the heck is Atrios talking about?