Wow, that’s a pretty big move, I was wondering when the sensible Republican Right were going to jettison the loons.

I think it may be the other way round – the loons making the right uninhabitable for the sensible Republicans.

The hard right of the Reps has been behaving in an incredibly vile way – over death panels, health care in general, the war, obama’s birth certificate, turning every issue into one of communism and/or fascism… etc.

To some extent this is good because it should keep them out of power for longer. On the other hand if they lose it will be so much worse for everyone.

I do so ever hope you’re not trying to make the hoffmeister look silly with you comment jimjay, because that just won’t be on.

Gosh.This could go either way: either the Republicans see the warning signs and try and squeeze out the hard-right fruit-loops, or the GOP gets taken over and utterly dominated by them, which in the US’s duopoly of parties would be very dangerous: remember they still have a shedload of support who’d never vote any other way, so it’s better to have as moderate and sane a Republican party as possible.

Not surprised. I’ve been reading ‘what’s happened to LGF’ posts for a year or more.

The funny thing is, five years back LGF was considered a hate blog by lefties.

He’s ‘done an Andrew Sullivan‘.

five years back LGF was considered a hate blog by lefties

Very accurately.

Sullivan was decent enough to do a fair bit of self-criticism. Though I’d be pleased to see a change from Johnson, we haven’t seen any of that from the guy who once posted a hee-larious cartoon of a crushed Rachel Corrie.

(As far as I know, anyway.)

An apt list.

Not surprised. I’ve been reading ‘what’s happened to LGF’ posts for a year or more.

The funny thing is, five years back LGF was considered a hate blog by lefties.

Obvious conclusion:
a) it stopped being one
b) the hate-blogging right didn’t like that.

NEXT.

@2 jim jay: I think it may be the other way round – the loons making the right uninhabitable for the sensible Republicans.

Indeed, and because the electoral system in the USA enforces a rigid two party system, the sensible Republicans can’t split from the nutters. Another reason why FPTP is bad.

To some extent this is good because it should keep them out of power for longer. On the other hand if they lose it will be so much worse for everyone.

Indeed. This affects Britain because, like it or not, the USA is the leader of the West.

Incidently, it’s because both (1) the Republican Party is dominated by nutters, and (2) they stand a reasonable chance of winning elections in future, that we need a strong European Union to be a potential counyterweight to the USA. Yes the EU is wasteful (common agricultural policy), corrupt (accounts not audited for years) and has a democratic deficit (no-one elected Rompuy and Ashton), but if it didn’t exist it would have to be invented.

A slightly different view from someone who has monitored Charles quite closely, ever since he was involved in the set up of Pajamas Media.

http://dennisthepeasant.typepad.com/dennis_the_peasant/2009/12/more-ethics-from-charles-johnson.html

Splitter!

difficult to understand how it took him so long to realise all of this given the comments his blog generated pretty much from day one.

and given the stuff he’s posted about Islam before (eg mocking acronym ‘RoP, meaning ‘Religion of Peace’), and indeed some of the ME coverage, it’s hard to take seriously his idea that others on the right travel from anti-Islamism to anti-Islam feelings in general and then onto violence. The LGF website has always been deeply hostile to Islam in general.

He needs to look at his own past statements – he’s been part of that journey for a long time, no matter what he might say about himself now.

He needs to look at his own past statements – he’s been part of that journey for a long time, no matter what he might say about himself now.

I think it’s right to say that he encouraged or at least helped grow part of that lunacy.

In that regard I think Andrew Sullivan does a better job of criticising the lunacy of the American right.

For him to criticise “climate denial” is just bizarre: just look at the name of his blog! It’s the ‘envious communist scientists want to take away my Hummer’ theory written out in three words.

Still, a welcome conversion…