Repetitive Regret

Regular readers of my blog are well aware that one of my favorite denizens of the conservative blogosphere is Robert Stacy McCain. Occasionally, Stacy and his friend Christopher L. "Smitty" Smith have been kind enough to throw me a link, for which I am always deeply appreciative. Loyalty and friendship being a two-way street, I feel obliged to say a few words in defense of Stacy McCain in light of scurrilous attacks launched at him by one Charles Johnson, purveyor of a blog named Little Green Footballs.

I assume most reading this are familiar with Johnson and his blog, but for those who aren't I'll provide a brief summary. Charles Johnson was once associated with a group of anti-jihadist bloggers (including Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs and Robert Spencer of JihadWatch) who gained prominence for their aggressive, unapologetic coverage and analysis of various Islamic extremist movements. Johnson himself is said to have been a liberal academic whose eyes were opened by the events of September 11, 2001. In addition to Johnson's critical coverage of Islamic extremists, he played a key role in uncovering the CBS Memogate scandal, where back in 2004 former CBS News anchor Dan Rather tried to smear President George W. Bush using fake documents which allegedly proved that Bush had joined the National Guard in 1968 to avoid service in Vietnam.

Evidently, the good old days of Johnson being a fearless teller of truth are long gone. Beginning in 2007, Johnson engaged in a feud with Geller and Spencer, claiming they were associating with racist, neo-Nazi elements amongst the European political right. Since then, Johnson has made a habit of denouncing other conservatives with whom he disagrees as "racists," in addition to launching increasingly vitriolic attacks against those whom he perceives as creationists and/or deniers of evolution.

Now while my own religious views are best described as ambiguous, I can say with certainty that I despise religious bigotry, particularly that of the type that issues forth from the poison pens of militant atheists like Charles Johnson. And I fully agree with the following statement from Stacy McCain:

No one who attacks religion is a friend of the South, nor a humanitarian vis-a-vis race relations. If we had only science to guide us . . . Well, my father was wounded within an inch of his life in France, you see. I do not believe in accidents. And I am inarguably here, aren't I?

Furthermore, pace Sen. William Blakley's quote posted in my blog banner above, Texas is a Southern state. My family, which has been here since the mid-1700s, includes a number of illustrious ancestors who fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War. I make no apologies for that fact and will defend myself and my family's honor against any miserable, vainglorious cur foolish enough to insult us.

Thus, I fully endorse McCain's sentiment (paraphrased from a statement that Confederate general Jeb Stuart once made about his Yankee father-in-law) that for his vile insults, Johnson will regret it but once, and that will be continuously. When it comes to the matter of the honor of oneself and one's family, we Southerners are a touchy lot. Our detractors defame us at their own peril.

I have yet to have the privilege of meeting Robert Stacy McCain in person, but I can tell from reading his blog for the past year that he is a man of honor whose personal word is as good as gold. If in the eyes of Johnson and those of like mind that makes me a "racist" or whatever the latest politically correct insult du jour may be, then I will wear that label with pride. For as James Day Hodgson once wrote, "The capacity to make the right enemies is part of genius."

Deo vindice.