Saturday, February 9, 2013

Genius of History David Barton Finds Reliable Gun Facts In Louis L’Amour Novel

This made Wonkette here.

13 comments:

Tom Van Dyke said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tom Van Dyke said...

Trolling Glenn Beck broadcasts to catch David Barton errors is like, geez lemme think of one...

Something about attending a Joe Biden rally to catch him in an idiocy except no sane person actually does that. It's like hiking down to the beach to make sure the tide comes in. We just let him rock on, it is what it is.

And Joe's actually been elected to something, which makes him an actual danger, not a potential one.

[Chris, I see you're the central Wonkette, duh. WarrenT's source too. This is no way to go through life, girl. At least Barton and Biden turn a buck off it. You and WarrenT gotta chill, for your own sakes.]

["One of the signs of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important."---Bertrand Russell]

[I thought of you and Warren when I ran across this quote recently. Even Joe Biden, a heartbeat away, doesn't take himself this seriously. And neither do I, him or me. To spend my life trolling Joe Biden?]

[That's no way to go through life, girl. That's not heaven, that's hell on earth. Come back to us. Get outside and smell the roses, smell the humanity. Don't spend it smelling David Barton in some room somewhere through a video screen.]

[You can do this. It's not all bad out here. I wasn't kidding about Javert. David Barton has a life. Valjean builds a life despite it all. This is the truth here, this is the lesson. Javert has nothing.]

CYFFR said...

Hmmm.... The title of this article caught our attention today for the fact that movies based on fiction and classic literature tend to do that -- reveal central truths of history. We are disappointed, but not surprised that the comments so far are a fizzle!

Anonymous said...

Tom Van Dyke cleverly redirects this and somehow blames Joe Biden (go figure). Bottom line: David Barton is a fucking retard! My God!

Chris Rodda said...

@ Tom ...

You know absolutely nothing about my life. Fighting the religious right is my job. It's how I make my living. I don't do it solely to make money, of course, but my income is a combination of my salary from my job at the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), my book sales, and my blogging. Debunking Barton actually becomes part of my job at MRFF at times, since his lies are used to justify the promotion of Christianity in the military. You say that David Barton, who makes his living concocting and spreading his version of history has a life, but my work debunking his work means I don't have a life. Like anyone who works, my job is a big part of my life, and my job includes debunking Barton's lies. It's you who doesn't seem to have a life.

And you referring to me as "girl" is just plain insulting and offensive, boy.

Chris Rodda said...

And, BTW, I don't even watch or listen to Beck's and Barton's shows, with the exception of listening to Barton's show if it's on a military related topic (Barton has taken to bashing my boss lately). I don't have to listen to Beck and Barton because the guys over at PFAW's Right Wing Watch do, and they post the crazy claims that Barton makes. I just look at their Right Wing Round-Up and a few other sites that keep an eye on Barton to see if there's anything I should look into and debunk. By your standards, I guess the guys over at Right Wing Watch who monitor Beck's and Barton's shows every day as part of their job must not have lives, right? Or is that somehow different because it's not me?

Tom Van Dyke said...

Just remember, when you stare into the abyss the abyss stares back at you.

I guess the guys over at Right Wing Watch who monitor Beck's and Barton's shows every day as part of their job must not have lives, right?

Pretty much, yeah. And the Southern Poverty pimps who drive people nuts with their "hate group" nonsense.

Absolutely. You're getting it. Crazy is as crazy does, and frankly, Barton and his pals are not the worst of it. Barton is but a pimple on a boil of a blister on the butt of the American polity.

Chris Rodda said...

Isn't everybody touched by Tom's concern for my mental health? LOL

jimmiraybob said...

In his Barton Apologetics Tour it would seem that Tom spends as much time seeking out and trolling the comment sections of blogs involved in discussing Barton's hackery as anyone putting in actual research on the facts.

Of course, Tom's developed a Greater Metaphysical Truth defense that doesn't need the actual facts to be presented accurately or interpreted in an intellectually honest manner by Barton et al (and the fan base), thus rendering facts to insignificant factoids. And, of course also too, anyone spending time rigorously criticising Barton's work must also be rendered to liberal haters in an attempt to poison the well - just in case the GMT defense isn't doing its magic.

It's interesting that he has the temerity to admonish anyone else involved in the issue for not having a life. Especially, given his self-claimed lawyer-for-the-defense role.

And yes, his "concern" for your mental health is touching ..... in a passive-aggressive, poisoning the well kind of way. And amusing for its lack of self awareness.

Chris Rodda said...

What's really funny is that Tom probably spent much more time thinking about Barton this weekend than I did. I was kind of sort of thinking about working on my next Barton piece yesterday, but I'm just too easily distracted to be a good "obsessed" person. First a neighbor asked me if I could watch her dog, so I ended up playing with my dog and our "guest," then a friend who used to live downstairs from me came over to hang out. I did try to work a bit after my friend left, but only got as far as transcribing a couple of old newspaper articles and then said screw it because there was a movie I've been wanting to watch that I finally found online. I guess I have some work to do on developing the discipline to stay in the "abyss" and become the mentally unbalanced, life-less person that Tom seems to need me to be. :-)

Tom Van Dyke said...


In his Barton Apologetics Tour it would seem that Tom spends as much time seeking out and trolling the comment sections of blogs involved in discussing Barton's hackery as anyone putting in actual research on the facts.

Actually, only when Jon posts Barton critics' antics here on this blog. He finds it amusing.

And yes, it's they who are the haters. They're the ones calling people names, attacking ad hom. That's why I don't find it so amusing.

Even Abe Foxman, the taurine head of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), doesn’t talk to Weinstein any more. “He said to me, ‘Why do you have to be so nasty? You’ll just make them madder.’”

When Abe Foxman finds you abrasive, imagine what the non-Jews think.


http://www.patheos.com/blogs/getreligion/2010/02/air-force-academys-pagan-altar/

Rock on. But you're nuts.

jimmiraybob said...

Chris does a little more research here:

http://freethoughtblogs.com/rodda/2013/02/13/david-barton-claims-that-gun-accidents-just-didnt-happen-in-the-founding-era-yeah-right/

Nuts indeed.

Tom Van Dyke said...

A corrollary of the straw man fallacy is to seek out the weakest opponent and the worst arguments on the other side. barton fills both bills.

For an adult examination of the gun question, see Jeffrey Goldberg in the new Atlantic.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/12/the-case-for-more-guns-and-more-gun-control/309161/

For the demagogue's, Joe Biden's:

http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/163364/