Repositioning Sully
I've never delinked another blogger, and if I were to do so I'd probably do it quietly, without making a big deal over it. I have to admit, however, I am sorely tempted to delink Andrew Sullivan after his hysterical meltdown yesterday upon learning that the new pope is, well, you know, Catholic.
That's a fairly small thing in itself, but it's kind of the last straw for a guy who's been steadily pissing me off for more than a year now. His devolution on the war is, of course, at the core of my problems with Sully. It's not just that he's gone squishy -- there are many principled opponents of the war on both sides whom I respect deeply. It's that prior to the war, he was as gung-ho as any one human on this planet. He made Wolfowitz look like Ramsey Clark.
Hell, even I approached the conflict with a deep, gnawing sense of dread in my gut. Sullivan seemed completely unburdened by any such doubt, however, sitting there in P-town, watching Fox News with a flag in one hand and a Zima in the other, shouting "America, fuck yeah!!"
Then, of course, when people started actually getting hurt, the hand-wringing began in earnest, and now he's a full-fledged basket case. At the risk of sounding harsh, Andrew, what the hell did you think war was all about? Drop a few bombs from outer space, no one gets hurt, and everybody loves us, except for Saddam and a few Ba'athists? Maybe next time you'll think a little harder on the sacrifices involved when you support sending our bravest kids halfway around the world to fight and die in a war that you support today but will oppose tomorrow.
Argh!
Well anyway, I'm not delinking Sully just yet. He still occasionally makes sense, unlike some other fixtures of my blogroll, such as Ted Rall and Oliver Willis.
But he certainly no longer deserves to be at the very top of my blogroll either, so I'm burying him. He's still in there somewhere, if you're intent on finding him, but I won't tell you where. That's kind of the point. And yes, I'm still planning to clean up and organize my blogroll in the very near future, but this adjustment could simply no longer wait.
And the other good thing about this? I don't have to worry that he'll retaliate... because he doesn't have a blogroll!!!
Jerk.
Comments
Barry, I hate to disagree with you but I think that AS's position on the war went South when Bush announced his support for the amendment on marriage.
Sullivan's entire mindset is guided by his Johnson and once he felt 'betrayed' by Bush, he opposed everything the president (and he) supported.
Posted by: mal | April 20, 2005 10:31 AM
Y'all, come on. Can you imagine how hard it is for him to be gay AND catholic. Not to feel sorry for the guy exactly, but hey, what a dilemma to have!
His bitching about the war seems somewhat reasonable to me. He's got beef about torture policies, coverups, and b.s. job promotions and stuff. This kind of criticism doesn't exactly put him on par with Ted Rall or OWillis who I think are blatantly moronic. At least he puts links to stories that actually question the 'execution' of the war and i believe there have been some serious problems too.
Posted by: ortho | April 20, 2005 12:48 PM
Mal, I think you may well be right.
ortho, I also agree with the substance of some of Sully's knocks on the way the war was prosecuted. I just find his transparent, turn-on-a-dime anti-Bush snit to be off-putting. In fact, I might say I was "gob-smacked," but I don't know what that means.
Posted by: Barry N. Johnson | April 20, 2005 02:23 PM