Not to worry

NPR had a feature on the website today about the importance of not stressing out about things.

According to some of our good friends on the far right, here are a few more things not to worry about:

*Unemployment. John Boehner says unemployed people are just lazy.

*Racism. Bill O'Reilly said last month that white privilege doesn't exist. A rich white guy would know, right? and...

*Climate change. The American Spectator says it's "A false alert."

And here's a bonus item: a WV radio personality says poverty isn't really a problem because lots of people have cars, video games and air conditioning.

Now all that is a relief. I feel better already.

I could get used to this

I mentioned yesterday that after a long period of being fed up with right wing trolls who lurk around news websites and make toxic comments, I decided to try to out-troll the trolls. That involves saying trying to think of things that are even more Whackadoodle than what the Whackadoodles are saying. It's not that easy these days.

Here's one example. There was an op-ed in the Gazette supporting Senator Rockefeller's brave statement on the need to have an honest conversation about the future of coal. The article got swarmed by trolls. Since part of what drove the controversy was a Republican led effort to oppose measures to limit mercury emissions, I came up with this:

Mercury is awesome. There is nothing in the Bible that says you can't eat it so Rockefeller is against God. Put that in your illegal substance pipe and smoke it, coal haters.

Then my friends at the WV Center on Budget and Policy put up a blog post arguing that regulations weren't to blame for the coal industry's problems. I posted a comment that asked how much they got paid by the Kenyan Secret Service for doing that.

Finally, although I am not feeling well today, I could not resist the chance to comment on an op-ed on the Affordable Care Act by Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. As you might well imagine, right wing trolls swarmed all over it. I figured I'd have to really strut the troll on this one:

Obamacare is a devil plot dreamed up by the Bavarian Illuminati and the Kenyan Secret Service in the Service of the Antichrist. Read the bill. It's all in there. Here's proof: Barack has six letters. Hussein has seven. Obama has five. Take one from the middle name and add it to the last and you have 666.

On reflection, however, I think I'd better stop doing this. There are probably Whackadoodles out there who really believe all that.

So I'm going to swear it off. Cold turkey. No more trolling for me. Unless it seems like the right thing to do at the time.

NO LINKS TODAY. I have a fever.

On becoming a troll

People who view news stories online have no doubt come across the right wing comments that are written by  anonymous people who lurk around these sites the way carp hang out at lakeside bait shops. Such people are called trolls in the parlance of our times.

Sometimes reading troll writing can be infuriating. There have been times when I dreamed of challenging this or that one to a no-rules cage match, although I realize such a move would likely do little to advance my status as someone working in a Quaker organization. Sometimes troll lit is just kind of funny in a sad way.


But lately, as I've noted when the occasion arises, some people have joined the fun by parodying trollish comments on the web. I finally decided it you can't beat join em and plan on out-trolling the trolls whenever the opportunity arises.


My first effort appeared in an online editorial about climate change, a subject always ready to enrage coal-groveling Whackadoodles. Here's what I came up with:

Yeah, anyone who believes in climate change hates America and freedom and probably Jesus too. Science is stupid. So is the environment. I mean, if animals eat each other and go to the bathroom in nature, why should we care about it.

I'm kinda proud of that one. It's a little over the top but comes closer than you would probably like to believe to real things people say on line. As the late great Don Marsh, longtime editor at the Charleston Gazette, sometimes said, "Vox populi, vox wuffo!"

SPEAKING OF TROLLS, they'd really go off on this.

BLACK LUNG. Here's the next installment in NPR's series and more from the Gazette.

HE THINKS TOO MUCH. Such men are dangerous.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED