Ann Althouse attacked me! Where's the support group?

As I anticipated, Ann Althouse's all-seeing eye of Technorati found my re-introductory post and my "confession" to being a troll on her blog. She throws it right in my kisser in the comments to this post.

As I pointed out to her, she of all people was well aware of my comments, being on the receiving end of them. Especially because I used the term "troll" to refer to myself on her blog, using the broader definition of "commenter who regularly antagonizes the blogger" rather than the formal "commenter who is only there to disrupt the conversation."

Anyway, she called me "a little shit who hates me and intends destruction -- by his own admission." So I'm feeling pretty proud of myself.

The issue at hand, btw, was her attack on Glenn Greenwald for this post, in which Greenwald addresses "the media's obsession with the faux-masculinity of GOP candidates in general, and the tough-guy military persona of Fred Thompson in particular..."

Ann's summary was as follows:

"Greenwald begins with the subject of how sexy and manly Fred Thompson is..."

That's the kind of unflinching dishonesty that characterizes the Althouse oeuvre. But it's not only that.

The main issue for Althouse isn't what Greenwald has to say about Chris Matthews (although she defends the Thompson business too as the kind of freewheeling, stream-of-consciousness thinking that she approves of). It's that in the same post Greenwald goes after the Instapundit Glenn Reynolds for bemoaning the state of American masculinity even though he "devotes his life to attending convention center conferences on space and playing around with new, cool gadgets in the fun room in his house, like a sheltered adolescent in his secret treehouse club..."

Of course she can't just come out and say: "Hey, that's my warm, supportive traffic generator you're talking about," so she argues that his accusation of hypocrisy is itself hypocritical (because it impugns Reynolds' masculinity). This isn't a good argument, but it's much better than her other main line of attack, which is that Greenwald uses too many words to make his points. This criticism is better founded but doesn't really discredit those points in the least.

Anyway, I just hope I can "leverage [her] popularity" as Jessica Valenti did (in Althouse's addled mind). I mean she got on Colbert fer cryin' out loud.

Is this thing on?

So it's been almost a year since I stopped blogging, and I'm starting to get that itch. I've spent my time in the wilderness, grown a beard, been nominated for a Nobel Prize... oh wait that's not me.

To recap the time that I missed, the Mets did indeed make the playoffs, then there was that called strike three, then the offseason, and now here we are.

There are a couple changes in format to announce, one thematic and two stylistic.

To begin with the thematic, I had shied away from including politics on this blog for a couple reasons:

a) blogs that cover multiple subjects are never going to have the same depth as specialized blogs and
b) it would mean forfeiting the readership of conservative Mets fans.

In retrospect, these were ridiculous concerns. My posts are less than a thousand words each, which isn't enough for much "depth" no matter how laser-focused they might be. And as for losing conservative readers... I hardly have any readers to lose. And who needs wingnut traffic anyway? Not this guy.

Actually, that may not be true. A few people probably stumble on this site from my Blogger profile, which occasionally people click hoping to answer the question: "Who is this guy who hates Ann Althouse so much?" It's not something I'm especially proud of, but yes, I am probably one of her most prolific trolls. I can't stand her. I just can't, and I want to do my small part to discourage her from blogging, or at least to denigrate her in the eyes of her readers. That may sound sad and petty, but I ask that you withhold judgment unless/until you're familiar with her work, which is truly a force of evil in this world (pretty photos, tho).

But in any case I figured people don't want their sports and their politics mixed. This could be true of a lot of people, but they are welcome to take their eyeballs elsewhere. This is not going to become a massive media empire, so I'm going to talk shit about Republicans if I want to.

Which brings us to my first stylistic change: "Now With Profanity!" The decision to keep this blog G-rated, like the decision to keep it apolitical, was motivated by the desire to keep readership as broad as possible. It wasn't that restrictive, actually, no matter how frustrated I got with the Mets, but it would be simply impractical for me to write about politics without having a few F-bombs at my disposal.

The second stylistic change is a much needed move away from simple recaps of each game. I did too much of that, and I'm sorry. If you were reading this blog you didn't need to be told who hit a home run and who booted a ball at second base. You were looking for insightful analysis that can only be found here. That's the value-add, and I'll try to do a better job of focusing on the bigger picture.

So that's it. I've lost weight, I've won Best Documentary, I've lost the boring persona and started telling it like it is, and I'm ready to announce my return to the blogosphere.

Go crazy folks. Go crazy.