Captain Nimmo Attacks

On Wednesday, I questioned the judgement of the twentysomethings who decide what gets called "news" at Google, using as a particularly egregious example a search return for uruknet featuring the paranoid ravings of a person called Kurt Nimmo. It is Mr. Nimmo's considered opinion that British peace activist Norman Kember and his companions were abducted by agents of the United States government staging a "black op".

Mr. Nimmo has apparently taken offense at my use of the phrase "tinfoil hat territory" and a disparaging opinion of his mental health. Mr. Nimmo has troubled himself to respond:

Some guy calling himself “the Dread Pundit Bluto” is confused because Google returns Uruknet as a news site. Mr. Bluto was in search of news on Norman Kember, the Christian abducted in Iraq by the fake resistance—or alternatively one of the Pentagon’s black op counterinsurgency pseudo-gangs—and stumbled upon one of my blog entries, posted on the Uruknet site.

Well, no, I wasn't "confused". I know about Google's penchant for treating obvious jihadi and terrorist-sympathizer propaganda websites as "news" sites. Nope, no confusion on this end.

According to Bluto, it stands to reason Kember, a pensioner in his mid-seventies with a long history of pacifism (the 1950s, according to Kember’s family, he chose to work as a hospital porter rather than enter into any form of military service), is indeed a spy, probably because Mr. Bluto, like so many Americans, believes whatever pabulum the corporate media feeds him. Of course, this should probably be expected from a guy who goes by the name of a thick-witted cartoon character.

Err...actually, I called the assertion that Mr. Kember is a spy "specious". Mr. Nimmo, that means that I don't believe he is one (note to Mrs. Nimmo: a dictionary is always a thoughtful and useful Christmas gift).

Instead of telling us why he believes my assertion arrives from “tinfoil hat territory,” Mr. Bluto instead decides to play a semantic game, stating that white phosphorus is not a chemical weapon, as I erroneously stated in my blog entry. Indeed, white phosphorus is not technically a chemical munition, like nerve or CS gas. Instead of elaborating on this “faux pas,” Mr. Bluto mentions in passing my assertion (well enough documented) that the Pentagon is running counterinsurgency ops in Iraq and concludes I am insane.

Mr. Nimmo, if you ever hear me utter the sentence, "Aliens ate my pancreas" other than in jest, you have my permission to accuse me of entering "tinfoil hat territory". That, of course, is the same principle I used with you. Conflating US military "counterinsurgency ops" with kidnapping peace activists and Italian citizens is, indeed, entering "tinfoil hat territory", and if you had, as you claimed, "well enough documented" evidence to the contrary, you would be even now receiving your Pulitzer Prize. But now I am confused. If you freely admit your faux pas vis-a-vis white phosphorous, why should I bother to "elaborate" on it? I'm not the kind of guy to run up the score in a battle of wits with a clearly outmatched opponent. T'wouldn't be gentlemanly of me.

Of course, as a good (brainwashed) American, Mr. Bluto believes the Bushcons and the Pentagon are sincerely incapable of such behavior and naturally Arabs and Muslims are responsible for such. Yes, of course, and Saddam had a tea party with Osama, and Saddam showed Osama his shiny new aluminum tubes. I know this because Judith Miller and crew told me so. Never mind that Judy now admits to being a scurrilous liar, although she does not characterize herself as such (she simply made “mistakes” contributing to the mass murder of over 100,000 Iraqis).

Well, if I've been brainwashed they certainly didn't do a very thorough job (there are still so many dirty areas of my mind, you see, but I digress). I don't recall anything from Judith Miller describing a meeting between Saddam and Osama. I do recall however, that there are several thousand Kurds who will not suddenly spring back to life because Mr. Nimmo believes that actual chemical weapons are imaginary unless wielded by fanatical American black ops specialists, intent upon eating the pancreases of innocent Muslims. Mr. Nimmo bemoans the 100,000 imaginary murders he posits, but does everything in his power to ensure that actual murderers, to wit, Iraqi terrorist insurgents and al Qaeda terrorists, shall have his aid and comfort in providing propaganda to further their cause.

Normally, I ignore chowderheads such as Mr. Bluto, real name unknown. But I couldn’t resist because the guy is a primary example of the typical brainwashed American completely void on the subject of military and intelligence history.

Mr. Bluto is the prototypical American no-nothing.

Dammit, Nimmo, if you're going to use ad hominem attacks, could you at least use a little imagination and make them humorous? Many of us are old enough to remember comical phrases like, "running dog lackey" and "Yankee imperialist". You know, the classics.

Now, I don't want Captain Nimmo to get the idea that I'm simply laughing at him. That isn't accurate. I'm mocking him, while laughing at him.