Goldstein and the Tolerant Left

A word to the wise. You don't want to threaten to kill Jeff Goldstein's kid (or anyone's kid for that matter).

Really.

UPDATE: OK, now things have really gotten out of hand.

If you try to click the link above you won't get anywhere. That's because Jeff Goldstein's site has been under a D.O.S. attack, not once but twice over the past 36 hours. It seems that the few Leftists who agree with Deb Frisch, the University of Arizona adjunct professor of psychology who started all this business, decided to put a whammy on Protein Wisdom, effectively knocking it offline. The latest is that Jeff found a new host and should be blogging again soon.

As for Frisch, it appears that her gusto in the rough and tumble was short lived. Earlier today she waived the white flag in an attempt to defuse the situation. She lamented the fact that her abusive comments found their way to her superiors at the U of A, and as a result, she claimed to have voluntarily resigned from her adjuct professorship. She apologized to Goldstein, but the way she did it left me to believe that her sincerity was less than genuine. Her apology easily translated into a claim of victimhood, an instinctive reaction so typical of the Left. Instead of lowering the temperature, the boiling pot overflowed. The blogosphere has erupted. There are gawkers everywhere, and people are making phone calls.

I followed the early part of this "story" and since then I've tried to put myself in Goldstein's shoes. How would I have reacted to Frisch? I would have ignored her. I would have banned her from my site, and that would have been that. Problem solved, for me. But that would not have stopped Deb Frisch from running to another conservative blog to pick up where she left off. Moreover, Frisch's comments weren't just in disagreement to Goldstein. She got personal. She went way over the line and as a result, she's become Exhibit 'A' for right-side bloggers who are sick and tired of the Left's brand of tolerance. And you know what? The Left is worried about the Frisch fallout. They should be. Not only has Frisch given them a black eye, her sympathizers who have perpetrated the D.O.S. attack on Goldstein's site look just like terrorists. If identified, they should be treated as such.

The blogger on blog reader war concerns me. I've seen the blogosphere do wonderful things. Some of the investigative reporting that's been done has been Grade A. But when blogs attack other blogs, or get attacked by blog readers, I become distressed at how quickly the voyeurs give in to the instinct to engage in school playground behavior. The pile-on, hand wringing and 'ah-ha' -ism becomes childish pretty quickly. Personally, I'd like to read less of this.

So let's close the book on all this Frisch-ing, and get back to the important things - Iraq, Immigration reform, and those crazy North Koreans.

UPDATE II: Protein Wisdom is back up.

UPDATE III: It ain’t over yet. Jeff, on Inside Higher Ed.