I do love swinging at low-hanging fruit

They just make it so doggone fun. One key personification of a particularly easy target (to the point where it’s almost considered a cheap shot to have at him) has to be right-wing crank Pat from Political Byline (though he’s far better known for his insane(ly hilarious) attack against Ed Brayton a while back, and his continued stupidity since). There really isn’t much to say about the guy that you can’t figure out from five minutes of reading his idiotic, crass, delusionally self-important tripe: he’s teabagger spirit incarnate.

Just take this latest funny example. Erik Wekerly, who blogs at Operation Yellow Elephant, no doubt fell curious about Pat’s admission as to him being a fan of war porn who was unemployed (for the wrong reasons) and living in his mother’s basement. So, he sent Pat an eMail. Perhaps a bit close to baiting, yes, but frankly, it’s almost hard to tell:

I just read your weekend "War Porn" post and it prompted me to ask you a few questions.

Are you a veteran? [If so, thank you for your service.] Are you in ROTC/OCS/something similar? [If so, thank you for your commitment.] Have you previously contacted a recruiter, but were not accepted for enlistment? [If so, thank you for stepping forward.] Do you know that you are not eligible to serve in our military, and therefore don't want to waste a recruiter's time? [If so, please let us know and we won't seek to contact you again.]

Otherwise, it would appear that you are eligible to serve in our military (healthy heterosexual well under 41), but have not. Have you at least considered it? What resulted from your deliberations? If you haven't even considered it, why not? How credible is your 'support' for the troops if you only want "other people" to actually to fight in the ongoing wars?We welcome your response for publication on our blog.

Sincerely,

Erik Wekerle of
Operation Yellow Elephant

Just get what sort of response he got. (*Pat’s head explodes in 3 … 2 … 1 …*)

From: Patrick <tpblogeditor@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Nov 29, 2009 at 2:32 PM
Subject: Re: Be A Man! Enlist!
To: Erik Wekerle <the13thgeneration@gmail.com>

I've looked at your blog. (it's called Google) and I see that you are a liberal. I have no intention of answering your question. Because I know the idiotic game that you are trying to play against me here and I am not interested in playing it. My personal life is none of your damned business.

Let me also warn you. You publish anything on that idiotic liberal blog of yours, that Ido not happen to like and I will SUE you in a court of law. A do not tolerate libelsagainst me and it seems your making a profit from smearing Conservatives. I will not tolerate it. I will sue, if need be. If you don't like what I write on my blog; then do not read it. Simple as that. You can criticize what I write, that is fine. But if you smear ME. I will SUE YOU. Period. I happen to have a good friend, who is a lawyer and will take my case pro-bono.

Further more, before you write and smear me. Know this. I am a unemployed, Disabled, man, who has not worked since 2005. Full time since 2000. I started blogging in 2006, As a "Left of center" blogger. I switched sides because of the bullshit that happened in this election.

Further more, do not contact me again, ever. If you do, I will file stalking charges against you as well.

-Patrick
http://www.politicalbyline.com/

Wow. Just … wow. How many times does Pat have to screech that he’ll SUE HIM before he thinks Erik get the message? Or maybe he repeats it so much to try and delude himself into thinking it would actually happen, considering how any lawyer, even one who is his friend, would simply laugh at him in his face if Pat approached him/her demanding to file a stalking lawsuit against Erik simply for sending one harmless eMail?

There’s so much to pick apart and laugh at and the irony/hypocrisy is so fulminating that, honestly, it’s almost lazy to even try, considering how easy it is. That’s the problem with low-hanging fruit, though – swinging at them is so easy that to actually hit them feels too hollow, unsatisfying.

One note, though: my inner grammarian strongly wishes to note that the entirety of Pat’s eMail is with “[sic]”. That much bad grammar and writing is just painful.

(I dunno if it’s cruel of me, but I’m endlessly amused at the idea of a fat, middle-aged loser^[1] in the dark basement of an old house somewhere furiously gnashing his teeth as he sees his rants and screeds turned into target practice by any number of bloggers and thoze filthy liberulz across the Blogosphere. Oh, I do enjoy a good helping of schadenfreude.)

[1] Pointless disclaimer time: I call Pat a loser, not because he’s a fat middle-aged jobless man living in his mama’s basement (though it doesn’t make it any easier not to), but because of him being so dang pathetic in every way in his behavior.

(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)
Technorati tags: Pat · trolls · losers · Operation Yellow Elephant