Over at the Brady Blog, Paul Helmke notes a particularly nasty comment he received:

Paul you are a Hypocrite and a Liar, Why don’t you face facts. The Brady Bunch is little more than a Mouth Piece for the ACLU, and the Ultra liberal Wing of the Democratic Party. That the Brady Bunch is a thinly veiled “Hate group” that advocates the methods of the brown shirts, of Nazi Germany in 1933.

This is a prime example of how not to win. When you pull a Godwin, any point you may have made or wanted to make is lost by the utter stupidity of your statement. I’ve referenced this type of rhetoric before (see here and here). You’re not helping. So knock it off. But, Mr. Helmke, here’s the deal: Your side is guilty of abandoning reasoned discourse. For example, when you reference the NRA as the extremist gun lobby, you are being patently dishonest. There has been no federal gun law passed in this country that the NRA did not allow. The NRA supports the pending NICS improvement bill. The NRA supports background checks. The NRA supports registration of NFA weapons. The NRA allowed the ban on weapons that look like assault weapons to pass because it wanted the instant check system more. The NRA is not extremist. I, however, am. And referring to those who engage in lawful commerce as rogue is quite disingenuous as well.

Now, while I do not advocate calling them Nazis, liar is spot on. If we’re going to have reasoned discourse, great. But lying is also not acceptable in reasoned discourse, Mr. Helmke. You know, like the time your organization lied about an Al Qaeda training manual mentioning lax US gun control. Or the time you lied and said the NRA was pushing handgun carry at colleges. Or when you’re lying when you make reference to cop killer bullets, assault weapons, blood in the street, gun show loophole. Or the time you lied about Jim Zumbo and Ceasefire Maryland’s bogus study. Or the time you lied about trace data and endorsed law-breaking. Or lied about how the assault weapons ban banned AK-47s. Or lied about how you don’t want to ban guns but want merely want reasonable restrictions. Or how you lied about how more guns increase crime. Or the time you lied about Florida’s castle doctrine bill. And the time you lied about police officers supporting gun control by adding their name to a letter without their permission. Note: I could go on but that’s just the first three pages of my archives.

It’s either lying or the most prolonged case of willful ignorance I’ve ever seen.

Any way, you guys stop lying and maybe then we can talk about reasoned discourse. And I promise not to call you a Nazi.

Update: Haha: At Least We Don’t Have to Pay Our Bozos

Update 2: Seems the commentators over there are having trouble locating the particular comment that Helmke is referring to. Could be that it doesn’t exist but the more likely explanation is that they cull their comments.

Posted in uncategorized on June 25th, 2007 by SayUncle | RSS 2.0 |