So the firestorm from this weekend continues and it threatens to take down someone who is totally innocent because those who view the world through a single political lens, as usual, lack reading comprehension skills.
As I noted in another post, this weekend after the news broke of the attempted assassination of the Congresswoman, my Twitterstream began to fill up with tweet after tweet casting aspersions on Sarah Palin, as if she had stood behind the assassin, personally goading him on.
I already highlighted one of those tweets:
http://twitter.com/#!/xenijardin/status/23819848236662784
As this litany went on, as people kept sending around the Palin map, I finally got disgusted and tweeted:
http://twitter.com/#!/mikecane/statuses/23836744935804929
And I wouldn’t let that go, either. When it was revealed that a screensnap of the would-be assassin’s MySpace page was available, I tweeted:
http://twitter.com/#!/mikecane/statuses/23851148700024833
http://twitter.com/#!/mikecane/statuses/23852180553342976
http://twitter.com/#!/mikecane/statuses/23852822118277120
http://twitter.com/#!/mikecane/statuses/23862980567367680
Some of those anti-Palin tweets I re-tweeted, because I wanted people to see some of what I was seeing.
Moriah Jovan saw my anti-map tweets, some of those earlier retweets, and some of the original tweets too, because we have some overlap in Followers.
She tweeted in disgust:
http://twitter.com/#!/MoriahJovan/statuses/23857842133929984
Now notice the timestamp on her tweet: 4:45PM. That’s right within my anti-map tweets she had been seeing. She was part of my conversation about that.
As details came out that incontrovertibly cleared Palin of any connection to the assassination attempt, the ridiculous tweets ceased. I thought that was the end of it.
Then yesterday, I got this tweet from Moriah Jovan:
http://twitter.com/#!/MoriahJovan/status/24859399780569089
If you click on that link, you’ll find the tweet from @MaxCUA it points to has been deleted. I didn’t screensnap it at the time.
What the tweet did was point to a video — which I will not embed — that some self-appointed Palin defender compiled of anti-Palin tweets. Some of the tweets are outright disgusting in clearly and overtly wishing death to Palin. But at least two of the tweets have no business being there because anyone with reading comprehension skills can correctly parse them as commenting against the pile-on. One of those two tweets is from Moriah Jovan.
I told @MaxCUA he was wrong and that probably led to the deletion of his original tweet. He said the video wasn’t his. He never apologized [update: Moriah says he did apologize and then deleted the tweet]. or even acknowledged being wrong. At least he had the decency to delete his tweet, so I guess that’s something.
I Flagged and Commented at the YouTube video. I said at the very least Moriah Jovan’s tweet should be edited out of the video and one other needed to be re-examined in its context. Fat lot of good that will do. The Comments at YouTube are overwhelmingly from other people who failed reading comprehension in school.
Again, I thought this would be over. But no. Yet another self-appointed human shield for Palin popped up:
http://twitter.com/#!/Serr8d/status/24982347669577729
And he posted a screensnap!
Click = big
I jumped in with:
http://twitter.com/mikecane/statuses/24974709938454528
And he replied:
http://twitter.com/#!/Serr8d/status/24985195979481088
And I replied back:
http://twitter.com/mikecane/statuses/24994248218644480
I also did some knocking on his skull:
http://twitter.com/mikecane/statuses/25000961571295232
http://twitter.com/mikecane/statuses/25001619049414656
Why would I invoke the sacred name of Harlan Ellison? Because this is in that guy’s Blogger profile:
Click = big
It’s difficult for me to believe he could ever have anything in common with Harlan Ellison. He is the type of person Ellison rails against. And given how he couldn’t even parse Moriah Jovan’s tweet, I doubt that even if he has read Ellison’s works, he understood any of it.
As of the time I’m typing this post:
1) He has not deleted the TwitPic screenshot
2) He has not admitted to making a mistake
So much for his own words here.
And the madness is continuing, as yet another single-focus blog has picked up that video as if it was straight truth: ‘Can We Get Someone To Shoot Sarah Palin?’: Twitter Users Call for Palin’s Death
Which now goes to show that all of those who are defending Palin today are as rabid and narrow-minded and as dismissive of facts as the original people who were condemning Palin.
I’ve done this post for two reasons:
1) To clear Moriah Jovan’s name from this error. She can point to this post as the correct and indisputable context for her tweet. This is the Internet and this error might keep popping up for some time. She can send people here for the truth.
2) To again display my disgust at those who can view the world only through a narrow focus that’s been handed to them by others.
If you can’t think for yourself, if you need other people to tell you how to view the world, you have no business opening your mouth about anything. You’ve abdicated the brain God gave you at birth and you’ve become a tool, a ventriloquist’s dummy, mouthing the lines someone else has written for you.
And particularly to my fellow Americans: You don’t deserve the Constitution you’ve inherited because you don’t understand the reasons behind it or the words in it. All of you will lead to the death of the United States of America, not any outside force.
Update: Here is Moriah Jovan’s post: Conservatism is dead
Previously here:
And Now We Descend Into Farce
Low Politicians Need To Meet High Ground
If YOU Do Something, Only YOU Are Responsible
We Can’t Report Potential Nuts
Indecency For Jesus
Decency Has No Nationality And No Color
Quote Of The Day: Nutjobs Edition
Welcome To The Whiplash Of 2011
Mike Cane’s xBlog 
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Thank you sir for your considerable efforts taken to clear my wife’s good name. I appreciate the time and trouble you have taken to do so. Hats off to you. You have earned my respect and admiration.
Michael
And you’ve managed 18. Good for you.
So, analyze this, Cane. For one to parse Moriah’s tweet correctly one would have had to check her tweet stream carefully, and each individual tweeter’s tweet stream, for ‘friendly fire’. I had a lot of tweets to screencap and post in a short amount of time; I didn’t check the context of each tweet. You can’t click on a screecap and be directed to the source. The original videographer, not I, originally read each tweet and determined it stood as damning. I actually wondered about Moriah’s; but again, didn’t have time (or inclination) to give it proper research.
To determine the original intent of a writer is important to me. But anyone carefully reading that tweet, as a 140-character stand-alone message, can not determine that the writer’s intent was ‘sarcasm’. Both I and the unknown videographer called it ‘malicious’. But I had some doubt…which is why I asked the question posted with the screencap ‘explain yourself’. Then, my reply, intended to assuage the butt-hurt just a bit. I pointed out that she did not make herself clear enough, did not signify her intent in such a way to make her tweet come across as ‘sarcasm’ without deep research. So, the fault is some with the readers (for not spending time researching) but mostly with the author; the author failed to signify intent clearly enough. Thus you have this kerfuffle.
I also give you this observation: sarcasm is difficult to pull off in 140 characters. If you can’t signify your intent clearly, forget the tweet; you might wind up on a hundred websites…
http://proteinwisdom.com/?p=24043
http://legalinsurrection.blogspot.com/2011/01/person-tweeting-death-wish-for-palin.html
http://sixmeatbuffet.com/archives/2011/01/11/the-heart-of-the-left/
Those just ones that’re on my RSS feed.
What I’ll do is link a correction to @Moriah and to you on the Twitpic to this post, so’s you feel less stinging butt-hurt.
As far as you attacking me, kindly kiss my ass.
Best,
serr
Ah, aren’t you just an avid disciple of the teachings of Jesus? So full of the light that draws people to you. Typical hypocrite. But thanks for having the balls to man-up and Comment.
Well, no, actually I’m very much backslid to likely ruin.
I blame Ellison, of course.
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Well done. I intend to write a post about the raw deal Jovan got later today.
I think you might be painting *all* Palin supporters with a broad brush with some of your language, but otherwise a very good post.
As I Commented at your site, I’ve voted for Nader every time he’s run and will do so again. A pox on BOTH the Left and Right as they are currently organized, symbolized, and run.
To be fair to serr8d, he IS a PW acolyte. This sort of douchery is pretty much their hallmark.
And, to further fairness, you should know that Scott Jacobs is also a kept-pet acolyte; he’s done amazing stunts with ropes and trees. Death threats? Scott Jacobs invents them out of thin air with mist and mirrors.
Funny, not in the humorous sense but the ironic sense. I came across this after following several links through Moria’s blog to try and understand the context of this self-described “Regan conservative.”
Immediately on reading the screen shot of the tweet it was obvious to me that this was sarcasm, not a wish of death. Anyone who would think otherwise is simply overlaying the words with their own prejudice.
I haven’t been to see the YouTube video, have no need to, I’ve heard enough vitriol. But it wouldn’t surprise if someone with the want to checked the background of the tweeters and learned they were all left wingers spoofing as conservatives simply to make us look like idiots.
Wasn’t that part of the strategy of some on the left, to infiltrate the Tea Party rallies, display rancid signs and behavior to make them/us appear to be what we are not?
Certainly there’s been enough garbage to go around, from both sides over the past few election cycles and Congresses. But in my experience, the left wingers are astonishingly quick to declare someone they disagree with deserving of a short life and limited oxygen.
Their hatred for all who are not in line with their beliefs is palpable. All the while they declare “tolerance” for all. How absurd.
Mike,that armor you’re sporting sure is shiny!
You’re a doll. I don’t care what anyone says. So very nice of you to go to bat for Moriah. :)
perhaps this gives you an insight into the daily life of Governor Palin, where anything she sais is constantly taken out of context and misused to attack her by most major media outlets When she comes back to defend or clarify, she is attacked again for her clarification. Not too pretty when it happens to you or someone you know is it? Maybe some empathy for the Governor is in order. Good of you to try to help your friend though.
I can’t have any empathy for her at all. She is clearly unqualified for any sort of public office and in the time since she’s come to prominence it doesn’t seem as if she’s done any reading that matters.
Ah, Mike, you still haven’t learned anything, who else speaks up for the values, of limited government, strong
defense, an ethical health care regime, the nearly criminal QE 2 policy
your rhetorical question was on point, it was buried in the twitter stream, like a raging torrent.
I have zero idea WTF your Comment means.
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