The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Go and Do Thou Likewise

Posted on | April 22, 2010 | 39 Comments

“Robert Stacy McCain is on my RSS reader so I never miss any of the craziness . . .”

That’s liberal “Dougj” at Balloon Juice, reacting to my American Spectator blog post about Mark Levin’s evisceration of Jim Manzi. Getting linked by liberals, of course, brings the troll commenters, including “D Aristophanes” of the Sadly No blog, who writes:

Manzi has replied to Levin. The reply doesn’t ‘portray Levin’s defense as an act of aggression’ or ‘claim that [Manzi] is being “purged” by intolerant right-wingers.’
Perhaps an update is warranted, Robert. Might be a good place to work in a Nathan Bedford Forrest quote while you’re at it . . .

Well, first things first. Manzi has responded at length and, at least for now, avoids further personalizing the debate:

Why . . . am I not just going along with the “don’t worry about AGW” line? Because of uncertainty. The problem of the lack of confidence . . . is crucial. It is the basis of the sophisticated argument for emissions mitigation. . . .
[T]he legitimate risk from climate change is that our current best forecast is wrong; more specifically that climate change will be worse than current forecasts.

By which, I take it, he means we should err on the side of caution: If man-made global-warming could possibly be catastrophic, we must curtail carbon emissions.

Superficially, this makes sense, except that (a) the AGW theorists insist that the necessary amount of “emissions mitigation” is very large, requiring drastic interventions that can only be imposed by government coercion; and (b) such a draconian regulatory regime might be a complete waste of time, as the climate-catastrophe scenario may well be a statistical mirage.

In other words, to “err on the side of caution” in regard to AGW could mean crippling our economy in response to a threat that may prove to be non-existent.

What’s mystifying here is why Manzi would pick a fight with Levin over AGW in the wake of devastating revelations about data problems in the climate-research community. It’s almost as if Manzi resents a generalist like Levin writing about a subject on which he, Manzi, considers himself a specialist. No one could reasonably expect that Levin, writing for a mass readership, would devote himself to a detailed scientific discussion that would cause readers to skip the whole chapter. If Manzi doesn’t like Levin’s treatment of the subject, OK, but isn’t there an apples-and-oranges problem in expecting popular polemic to be conducted in the manner of academic discourse?

The whole “epistemic closure” donnybrook, of which the Manzi-Levin duel is but a fraction, has provided endless amusement for the Left side of the blogosphere. As I said tonight in a phone conversation with another conservative blogger, this kind of intellectual infighting is an unfortunate (but fascinating) distraction from the real business of politics. However, I’m happy to discover that some lefties are smart enough to subscribe to the “craziness” in RSS, as everyone should.

As for the request from “D Aristophanes” that I “work in a Nathan Bedford Forrest quote,” I am most happy to oblige. Shortly after the Battle of Chickamauga, in which Forrest and his hard-fighting cavalry had distinguished themselves, Gen. Braxton Bragg ordered Forrest to turn over his command to Joe Wheeler. Forrest stormed into headquarters and, refusing even to shake Bragg’s hand, recited the history of his grievances against Bragg, a recitation that ended with this memorable denunciation:

“I have stood your meanness as long as I intend to. You have played the part of a damned scoundrel, and are a coward, and if you were any part of a man I would slap your jaws and force you to resent it. You may as well not issue any more orders to me, for I will not obey them, and I will hold you personally responsible for any further indignities you endeavor to inflict upon me. You have threatened to arrest me for not obeying your orders promptly. I dare you to do it, and I say to you that if you ever again try to interfere with me or cross my path it will be at the peril of your life.”

Any more requests? My membership card, perhaps?

As I explained last year about my speech in Rome, Ga.:

What I actually said was that when you go to defend the South, you had better be prepared to defend it “down to the last boll weevil on the last cotton patch beside the last tar-paper shack on the last dirt road in Mississippi.” . . .
I have frequently described the widespread prejudice against the South as boreal supremacy, the belief that everything about the North is superior to everything about the South. Such prejudice against the South is so common that some people don’t even notice it, but I do, and I resent the hell out of it.
Confronted with the assumption of Northern superiority, some Southerners will react by attempting to ape Northern ways and adopt characteristically Northern attitudes, and start “putting on airs,” as Alabama folks would say. . . .
When I think of my own ancestors — hard-working people who toiled from dawn to sundown on the red clay hills of Alabama — I am quite naturally filled with pride. The suggestion that I should be ashamed of my ancestors is an insult I deeply resent.

A refusal to kowtow to boreal supremacy can get a Southern man in a lot of trouble. But if I was afraid of getting in trouble, would people be subscribing to the RSS to make sure they “never miss any of the craziness”?

Speaking of which, don’t miss Republicans for Arlen Specter.

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Category: Global Warming

Comments

  • Joe

    boreal supremacy? I know historically that was the case, but have you been to these boreal lands (I know you have you did the NY-23 and of course the Brown race in Massachusetts just this year)? The only thing Detroit is first in anymore is the NFL draft.

    With Texas and the southeast growing in manufacturing while the upper mid west and northeast are hurting–and with higher end tech and professional jobs moving south and west for decades–the idea of eastern establishment boreal supremacy seems a bit of a joke. Now obviously there is still plenty of wealth in states like Massachusetts, Conn., NJ, NY, etc., but they sure as hell do not have a lock on morality (nor are they completely corrupt). And while New England can be a very pretty place, but so are places in the Carolinas, Georgia, etc.

    As far as putting on airs, that is more about putting on falsehood. That is not a north south thing, or east west thing, but a universal thing that unfortunately happens to some degree everywhere (usually with insecure people). I respect honest unpretenious people who treat you straight, where ever they are from.

  • Joe

    boreal supremacy? I know historically that was the case, but have you been to these boreal lands (I know you have you did the NY-23 and of course the Brown race in Massachusetts just this year)? The only thing Detroit is first in anymore is the NFL draft.

    With Texas and the southeast growing in manufacturing while the upper mid west and northeast are hurting–and with higher end tech and professional jobs moving south and west for decades–the idea of eastern establishment boreal supremacy seems a bit of a joke. Now obviously there is still plenty of wealth in states like Massachusetts, Conn., NJ, NY, etc., but they sure as hell do not have a lock on morality (nor are they completely corrupt). And while New England can be a very pretty place, but so are places in the Carolinas, Georgia, etc.

    As far as putting on airs, that is more about putting on falsehood. That is not a north south thing, or east west thing, but a universal thing that unfortunately happens to some degree everywhere (usually with insecure people). I respect honest unpretenious people who treat you straight, where ever they are from.

  • http://www.southtexian.com Mike LaRoche

    Now that’s why I love reading this blog, Stacy!

    No man should be required to spit on the graves of his ancestors. And I cordially invite anyone who suggests that I do so to get well and truly stuffed.

  • http://www.southtexian.com Mike LaRoche

    Now that’s why I love reading this blog, Stacy!

    No man should be required to spit on the graves of his ancestors. And I cordially invite anyone who suggests that I do so to get well and truly stuffed.

  • http://theothermccain.com Robert Stacy McCain

    No man should be required to spit on the graves of his ancestors.

    Indeed. I’ve long observed that nothing so bespeaks low character as the habit of routinely speaking ill of one’s parents.

    You see this atrocious habit — a mixture of impudence and self-pity — quite commonly among spoiled, selfish youth. And the kind of person who derogates his own family is unwittingly indicting himself. Either (a) they’re as bad as he says they are, in which case, the apple doesn’t usually fall far from the tree, or else (b) he’s cruelly slandering them.

    Either way, he’s a bad person whose companionship ought to be avoided as much as possible.

  • http://theothermccain.com Robert Stacy McCain

    No man should be required to spit on the graves of his ancestors.

    Indeed. I’ve long observed that nothing so bespeaks low character as the habit of routinely speaking ill of one’s parents.

    You see this atrocious habit — a mixture of impudence and self-pity — quite commonly among spoiled, selfish youth. And the kind of person who derogates his own family is unwittingly indicting himself. Either (a) they’re as bad as he says they are, in which case, the apple doesn’t usually fall far from the tree, or else (b) he’s cruelly slandering them.

    Either way, he’s a bad person whose companionship ought to be avoided as much as possible.

  • Joe

    You see this atrocious habit — a mixture of impudence and self-pity — quite commonly among spoiled, selfish youth. And the kind of person who derogates his own family is unwittingly indicting himself. Either (a) they’re as bad as he says they are, in which case, the apple doesn’t usually fall far from the tree, or else (b) he’s cruelly slandering them.

    Now that is well said. We should honor our ancestors.

    Frankly I am rather beyond regionalism, however, because so many of us move so often it does not mean that much anymore. I love traveling because I keep finding amazing places every time I do so. If we are really lucky, we find a community where everything clicks and we can raise our families.

  • Joe

    You see this atrocious habit — a mixture of impudence and self-pity — quite commonly among spoiled, selfish youth. And the kind of person who derogates his own family is unwittingly indicting himself. Either (a) they’re as bad as he says they are, in which case, the apple doesn’t usually fall far from the tree, or else (b) he’s cruelly slandering them.

    Now that is well said. We should honor our ancestors.

    Frankly I am rather beyond regionalism, however, because so many of us move so often it does not mean that much anymore. I love traveling because I keep finding amazing places every time I do so. If we are really lucky, we find a community where everything clicks and we can raise our families.

  • http://www.haemet.blogivists.com Roxeanne de Luca

    Re: AGW. If you were to “err on the side of caution”, it would actually be to not implement cap-and-tax or other environmental regulatory schemes, as there is a 100% chance that such laws will harm the economy and in turn actually worsen the state of the environment. The chances that the laws will actually help the environment (or prevent catastrophic harm) are incredibly small, so caution dictates that we NOT act to stop AGW.

    Re: the South. The way that people in the North look down on their Southern counterparts is nauseating, as is the way that they are utterly apathetic to the suffering that happens someplace outside of a major metropolitan area. The same people who want to throw billions of dollars at every inner-city crack whore would rather disembowel themselves before giving any of their precious government funds to a coal miner’s kids in rural Appalachia. They sneer at Southerners for being racist, but miss the irony that they are doing so from communities that are 99% white.

    On a side note, one only wonders if, generations from now, Northerners will be expected to spit on their ancestor’s graves for their fervent support of child-murder – support that went not just to legalisation in their own states, but outright prohibitions on allowing the South to protect human life.

  • http://www.haemet.blogivists.com Roxeanne de Luca

    Re: AGW. If you were to “err on the side of caution”, it would actually be to not implement cap-and-tax or other environmental regulatory schemes, as there is a 100% chance that such laws will harm the economy and in turn actually worsen the state of the environment. The chances that the laws will actually help the environment (or prevent catastrophic harm) are incredibly small, so caution dictates that we NOT act to stop AGW.

    Re: the South. The way that people in the North look down on their Southern counterparts is nauseating, as is the way that they are utterly apathetic to the suffering that happens someplace outside of a major metropolitan area. The same people who want to throw billions of dollars at every inner-city crack whore would rather disembowel themselves before giving any of their precious government funds to a coal miner’s kids in rural Appalachia. They sneer at Southerners for being racist, but miss the irony that they are doing so from communities that are 99% white.

    On a side note, one only wonders if, generations from now, Northerners will be expected to spit on their ancestor’s graves for their fervent support of child-murder – support that went not just to legalisation in their own states, but outright prohibitions on allowing the South to protect human life.

  • http://www.haemet.blogivists.com Roxeanne de Luca

    And the kind of person who derogates his own family is unwittingly indicting himself. Either (a) they’re as bad as he says they are, in which case, the apple doesn’t usually fall far from the tree, or else (b) he’s cruelly slandering them.

    Ditto Joe, and:
    and also (c) he’s showing himself to lack class and manners: one simply does not hang dirty family laundry – no matter how long it’s been in the hamper – out in public.

  • http://www.haemet.blogivists.com Roxeanne de Luca

    And the kind of person who derogates his own family is unwittingly indicting himself. Either (a) they’re as bad as he says they are, in which case, the apple doesn’t usually fall far from the tree, or else (b) he’s cruelly slandering them.

    Ditto Joe, and:
    and also (c) he’s showing himself to lack class and manners: one simply does not hang dirty family laundry – no matter how long it’s been in the hamper – out in public.

  • Joe

    Yes, Stacy need not be forced to listen to Southern Man (and pretend to like it).

    And if there is dirty family laundry, well then don’t wail about how you got stuck with it, do the laundry. Once the clothes are clean they are clean aren’t they?

  • Joe

    Yes, Stacy need not be forced to listen to Southern Man (and pretend to like it).

    And if there is dirty family laundry, well then don’t wail about how you got stuck with it, do the laundry. Once the clothes are clean they are clean aren’t they?

  • http://theothermccain.com Robert Stacy McCain

    Looking at the comments here, I remember that I used to do a lot more wee-hours blogging than I’ve been doing lately. Perhaps I’ve been neglecting the RSS night owls?

  • http://theothermccain.com Robert Stacy McCain

    Looking at the comments here, I remember that I used to do a lot more wee-hours blogging than I’ve been doing lately. Perhaps I’ve been neglecting the RSS night owls?

  • http://theothermccain.com Robert Stacy McCain

    And if there is dirty family laundry, well then don’t wail about how you got stuck with it, do the laundry.

    Good point, Joe. Winston Churchill was an ardent admirer of Robert E. Lee, and I think it was because both were men who sought to redeem a family name tarnished by misfortune.

    Lee’s father, Light-Horse Harry, had ruined his fortune through reckless business endeavors and involvement in political controversy, which seems to have inspired Lee at an early age to strive for an honorable reputation. Churchill’s father Randolph had also suffered disastrous embarrassment in politics and, as a result, Winston was keenly desirous of recovering for the Churchills the ancient glory of their famed ancestor, Marlborough. I think Churchill took inspiration from Lee in that regard and, of course, succeeded magnificently.

  • http://theothermccain.com Robert Stacy McCain

    And if there is dirty family laundry, well then don’t wail about how you got stuck with it, do the laundry.

    Good point, Joe. Winston Churchill was an ardent admirer of Robert E. Lee, and I think it was because both were men who sought to redeem a family name tarnished by misfortune.

    Lee’s father, Light-Horse Harry, had ruined his fortune through reckless business endeavors and involvement in political controversy, which seems to have inspired Lee at an early age to strive for an honorable reputation. Churchill’s father Randolph had also suffered disastrous embarrassment in politics and, as a result, Winston was keenly desirous of recovering for the Churchills the ancient glory of their famed ancestor, Marlborough. I think Churchill took inspiration from Lee in that regard and, of course, succeeded magnificently.

  • http://www.sadlyno.com D. Aristophanes

    Indeed. I’ve long observed that nothing so bespeaks low character as the habit of routinely speaking ill of one’s parents.

    Well it’s a good thing Hitler didn’t have a kid! Your ill-considered axiom might not survive such a test.

  • http://www.sadlyno.com D. Aristophanes

    Indeed. I’ve long observed that nothing so bespeaks low character as the habit of routinely speaking ill of one’s parents.

    Well it’s a good thing Hitler didn’t have a kid! Your ill-considered axiom might not survive such a test.

  • http://www.southtexian.com Mike LaRoche

    Interesting comments, all. I did a write-up of our discussion, with some further commentary of my own in my latest blog post.

  • http://www.southtexian.com Mike LaRoche

    Interesting comments, all. I did a write-up of our discussion, with some further commentary of my own in my latest blog post.

  • http://theothermccain.com Robert Stacy McCain

    Well it’s a good thing Hitler didn’t have a kid!

    No, but Hillary Clinton did. I’ve actually met and spoken to Chelsea, who seems like a sweet, well-adjusted young lady. And you may notice she doesn’t go around bad-mouthing her parents.

    By comparison, how many minutes do you think will elapse between the time (a) John McCain’s body reaches room temperature and (b) his slutty attention-whore daughter Meghan signs a contract for a “tell-all” memoir?

  • http://theothermccain.com Robert Stacy McCain

    Well it’s a good thing Hitler didn’t have a kid!

    No, but Hillary Clinton did. I’ve actually met and spoken to Chelsea, who seems like a sweet, well-adjusted young lady. And you may notice she doesn’t go around bad-mouthing her parents.

    By comparison, how many minutes do you think will elapse between the time (a) John McCain’s body reaches room temperature and (b) his slutty attention-whore daughter Meghan signs a contract for a “tell-all” memoir?

  • http://thecampofthesaints.wordpress.com Bob Belvedere

    My great great great Grandfather, Charles, fought for the South in The Civil War / War Between The States, one of his sons fought for the North [my great great Grandfather Robert].

    No wonder one part of me sometimes looks down on the other – and visa versa: I have boreal supremacy and boll-weevil supremacy!

    Question: Does Obamacare cover this?

  • http://thecampofthesaints.wordpress.com Bob Belvedere

    My great great great Grandfather, Charles, fought for the South in The Civil War / War Between The States, one of his sons fought for the North [my great great Grandfather Robert].

    No wonder one part of me sometimes looks down on the other – and visa versa: I have boreal supremacy and boll-weevil supremacy!

    Question: Does Obamacare cover this?

  • Dandapani

    And you know what I love best about living in Florida… It’s South without being Suthern!

    My roots are Suthern, but I was raised in the North. Whenever we visited our relatives in the South I could feel the detestedness of our presence by those non-relative Sutherns. “Ya’ll come back now…” they said, but under their breath they would mutter “none too soon!”

    And the Yankee vs Damn Yankee jokes…

    The South will rise again as soon as they get over the damn war. You lost. Dry your tears and grow up.

  • Dandapani

    And you know what I love best about living in Florida… It’s South without being Suthern!

    My roots are Suthern, but I was raised in the North. Whenever we visited our relatives in the South I could feel the detestedness of our presence by those non-relative Sutherns. “Ya’ll come back now…” they said, but under their breath they would mutter “none too soon!”

    And the Yankee vs Damn Yankee jokes…

    The South will rise again as soon as they get over the damn war. You lost. Dry your tears and grow up.

  • ConantheCimmerian

    Southrons have no reason to apologise or to feel any shame. The is no shame in defending one’s country and family from foreign aggression and invasion. The South was right and is right. The North was wrong and is wrong. The Anti-Federalists were right. We can see the rightness now with our current govt. including the preceeding president.

    The South is already rising again.

    “Truth crushed to the earth is truth still, and like a seed, will rise again.”
    -Jefferson Davis

  • ConantheCimmerian

    Southrons have no reason to apologise or to feel any shame. The is no shame in defending one’s country and family from foreign aggression and invasion. The South was right and is right. The North was wrong and is wrong. The Anti-Federalists were right. We can see the rightness now with our current govt. including the preceeding president.

    The South is already rising again.

    “Truth crushed to the earth is truth still, and like a seed, will rise again.”
    -Jefferson Davis

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  • Blake

    D. Aristophanes,

    I see, so, one should endlessly carp about how terrible one’s parents are?

    I guess you’re of the generation that, rather than the protest cry of “I’m not my father,” prefers to blubber “my father made me what I am.”

    Such is the abdication of responsibility by the left. And the reason I find leftists to be such boorish bores.

  • Blake

    D. Aristophanes,

    I see, so, one should endlessly carp about how terrible one’s parents are?

    I guess you’re of the generation that, rather than the protest cry of “I’m not my father,” prefers to blubber “my father made me what I am.”

    Such is the abdication of responsibility by the left. And the reason I find leftists to be such boorish bores.

  • http://thecampofthesaints.wordpress.com Bob Belvedere

    Blake: Shouldn’t that be ‘boorish boreals’?

  • http://thecampofthesaints.wordpress.com Bob Belvedere

    Blake: Shouldn’t that be ‘boorish boreals’?

  • http://thecampofthesaints.wordpress.com Bob Belvedere

    Blake: Shouldn’t that be ‘boorish boreals’?

  • http://thedaleygator.wordpress.com/ Doug Hagin

    Nice job. Your Forrest quote is one of my favorites. I have recently given two historical presentations on Forrest and what actually happened at Ft. Pillow. One to my SCV Camp, O.M. Roberts #178 Waxahachie, Texas, and one to a camp in Arlington. Right now, I am working on puttting together one comparing Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln and their characters.

  • http://thedaleygator.wordpress.com/ Doug Hagin

    Nice job. Your Forrest quote is one of my favorites. I have recently given two historical presentations on Forrest and what actually happened at Ft. Pillow. One to my SCV Camp, O.M. Roberts #178 Waxahachie, Texas, and one to a camp in Arlington. Right now, I am working on puttting together one comparing Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln and their characters.

  • http://thedaleygator.wordpress.com/ Doug Hagin

    Nice job. Your Forrest quote is one of my favorites. I have recently given two historical presentations on Forrest and what actually happened at Ft. Pillow. One to my SCV Camp, O.M. Roberts #178 Waxahachie, Texas, and one to a camp in Arlington. Right now, I am working on puttting together one comparing Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln and their characters.

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