Newsflash: Blogger makes same typo four times!

You may wish to consider that my title is somewhat sarcastic. Sarcastic? Noooooooo?

With no disrespect to Jenny, who does deserve a hat tip for bringing my attention to my mildly embarrassing typo where I wrote “benzine” instead of “benzene”, it’s not really such a biggy (although apologies to anyone who thought I was actually talking about benzine if anyone was actually lead down that road – clearly Jenny knew what I was talking about).

So why make a big deal out of it? Well I’m not really and neither did Jenny. But the blogosphere can be a pathetic place. So pathetic some times that you just can’t help but laugh.

Read on for the yucks.

Apparently mistakenly thinking that the job of right-wing blogger laughing stock needed filling after the position was discontinued (i.e. not vacated), J.F Beck is back and still obsessing over his last dunder.

“Big-brained Bruce (proprietor of the modestly named Thinkers’ Podium and soon to be an asset to the teaching profession) is a bit miffed at having to point out to a commenter…”

(J.F. Beck, 2008 )

Miffed? Not even a bit. It was dead set funny in it’s Strangelovian character! Miffed is just a bit of a stretch!

Is it just me or does the right wing get humor and anger mixed up a lot and why on earth does he (still) think that “Thinkers’ Podium” is immodest (he’s attempting sarcasm you see)? What’s next? Speakers’ Corner!?!? Hubris!

“The Thinkers’ Podium” is a pretty innocuous title. I can’t imagine what kind of complex you would need for it to get under your skin (which given Beck’s bizarre obsession with the title of my blog, is probably a pretty legitimate query).

Beck goes on to point out my typo, claiming that I’m confused and so on before providing us with another gem.

“It is funny, however, because when Bruce makes such mistakes he’s inclined to pass them off as a typo (same typo four times), blame low blood sugar or claim the error was intentionally designed to elicit snarky comments from evil right-wingers.”

(J.F. Beck, 2008 )

I pass of a typo off as a typo! Shocking! And the same typo was made four times! TEH HORROR!

I use the word “TEH” to make a point of course. “TEH” (as in “CATCH TEH GAY!”) being Internet slang arising from the common typo where “the” is misspelled. “TEH” along with other similarly derived (ie from typo)
pieces of Internet slang would never have arisen if repeated typos weren’t common!

I’m quite sure that I’m not even close to being alone in making the benzine/benzene typo. I’d bother to ask a chemist for their anecdotes but really, it’s kind of obvious and Beck shouldn’t be taken seriously anyway.

I’m having drinks with a lab technician friend Saturday week, so maybe we’ll have a chuckle over Beck’s typo obsession then (techie chat over beers being what it is).

As for Beck’s claim that I “…claim the error was intentionally designed to elicit snarky comments from evil right-wingers.” Not true at all. Beck repeatedly had the falsity of this statement pointed out to him last year, yet he still repeats it like a Creationist with a misquote of Darwin’s comments on the human eye.

When feeling cheeky and when the trolls are obsessing about that kind of thing (and truth be told when I’m feeling a bit lazy), I isometimes intentionally let my (inconsequential) mistakes go through to see if I get a bite. This is what I’ve maintained ever since I brought it up. At no point did I claim that the making of mistakes was intentional, just that the occasional lack of correction was (even then some/most mistakes getting though unintentionally).

Beck knows this.

Beck is lying and it’s an obvious lie. This is a good part of what amuses me about J.F. Beck. How desperate for an argument do you have to be to repeat the lie to an audience who know it’s a lie (or to pander to an audience that don’t care that it’s a lie)?

But this isn’t the part that makes me laugh the hardest.

A year ago Saturday week, AV made the comment (in relation to some of Beck’s prior silliness);

“I mean, seriously, what could be lamer than picking up on your opponent’s spelling errors as a form of debate?”

(AV, 2007)

Indeed. In and of itself, this is a pathetic debating strategy. But in Beck’s case it just gets so very much worse. Indeed, I wouldn’t be commenting about it if it wasn’t. The same bungle twice by itself just isn’t funny enough.

You see, Beck tried (and failed as usual) to take the axe to me over a post I wrote on shonky science journalism last year where channel nine conflated benzoate and benzene, hyped up potential threats posed by benzoate (making exaggerated claims not supported by the actual research they cited – i.e. that the threat was a killer) and so forth. Reminiscent of his embarrassingly backfiring attack on Tim Lambert, Beck tried to paint me as somehow downplaying what was actually a very serious environmental hazard (that isn’t as serious as Nine made out) and totally missing the thrust of what I wrote (ironically also engaging in environmental scaremongering for political argument).

I laughed at Beck then as I laugh at him now, although now I laugh harder. Why?

Seriously, if he (or anyone for that matter) witnessed me use the correct “benzene” before, why would he honestly think that I can’t tell the difference between the compound benzene and the benzine group now? Beck’s fallen for that old (self-laid) trap shonks often fall for; you have to keep track of the crap you spout lest you start contradicting yourself. The more you spout, the greater the amount you have to keep track of and Beck has spouted a lot of crap.

But still I digress. Beck being an intellectual fraud is nothing new to me, nor entirely funny in and of itself.

It’s the fact that he’s pulling such a desperate one so long after the last exchange. It’s been over eight months since Beck’s bungled benzene faux-fisk and after all that time, all he’s come back with is to point out what is obviosuly a typo!

Talk about obsessive! He’s been sitting there in the Beck-Cave, wringing his hands and finally his chance has arrived! A typo! That angry kid off of YouTube has never seemed to apt!

J.F. Beck: The fisking isn’t going as planned.

I wasn’t fishing for amusing idiocy this time I swear. My typo was a genuine, unintentional mistake left in place unintentionally, entirely oblivious to the fact that I had made it. Yet I’ve landed the biggest fish in the pond.

Why is Beck so motivated? Why does he just jump out of the water, into the boat and start flapping around on the deck? What could motivate such sillyness?

Well, some time back, when Miss Politics was being assailed by misogynistic attacks in which Beck took part, I labeled Beck’s actions misogynistic. That and a heap of confected offense about me supposedly alluding to him being a pedophile which is just untrue.

Allthough I doubt any of this fully explains (much less justifies) his behaviour as there has to be some other general dysfunction going on, there’s also the old favourite of affected trolls the world over.

“I’d go over to his blog and needle him about this but Bruce, who subscribes to “the notion of democratic free speech, almost to the point of being an absolute”, has banned me from his blog for making intemperate comments. Funny how lefties can’t tolerate criticism.”

(J.F. Beck, 2008 )

Cry me a bleeding river, Beck. Nanotechnology hasn’t advanced sufficiently to the point where they can make a violin small enough to play the backing to your lament. “Intemperate comments” weren’t why you were banned from my blog. Red-herrings predicated on lies was why. This blog has always been for free, reasoned and honest debate.

I wasn’t intolerant of your right to criticise or your right to freedom of expression (indeed, have I ever contacted blogger to complain that your own blog contains objectionable content?) I was intolerant of your lack of respect for others’ right to free, reasoned and honest debate, as evidenced by your profound dishonesty, Beck. I direct you to what I’ve only just told Clari.

Failing to get your head around the nature and logic of liberty (heck even die-hard libertarians generally know that no freedoms are absolute), you could always check out GrodsCorp. They let all sorts of stuff through and I think they’d enjoy having you (at least until you cyber-stalked someone or otherwise got boringly obsessive.)

But enough of addressing the jester.

It’s the weekend people. If your AWA permits, sit back, relax, watch the show and enjoy the LOLs. I am and I’m not sure if I should be ashamed of the mild schadenfreude, or be ashamed that I’m not ashamed of it.

~ Bruce

P.S. I’m not going to spell check this post. Apparently it seems to give his life meaning.