Insane in the Membrane

Well, it was only a matter of time. Much like C. Montgomery Burns when he tried to block out the sun, Michelle Malkin has gone from villainy to cartoonish super villainy.

Ezra Klein has the details:

I know I'm not supposed to, but I pity Michelle Malkin. Really, I do. Punditry is a game of incentives, encouragement, luck. You write a hundred articles before striking paydirt with one. That zeitgeisty dispatch activates an eruption of applause and adulation, so you try to repeat it. Soon enough, you've got a niche, a style, a persona. The lucky ones, among whom I include myself, find their path opening towards responsible, serious commentary. The sort of articles that allow us to wake up, yawn, look in the mirror, and feel good about what we see. And then there are the unlucky ones, the Michelle Malkins, who achieve acceptance through hatred and venom, and find themselves groping down the darkest path to political success.

Right now, the dark-haired, lashy, Ann Coulter understudy is happily wrapped in one of her typical controversies: a crew of students at UC Santa Cruz, my alma mater, protested some military recruiters, and Malkin got hold of a press release with their http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifpersonal contact information -- a poorly conceived inclusion on the students' part, but then, these are undergraduates, not trained media flacks. Rather than calling and speaking to them herself, which is what members of the press are supposed to use such releases for, Malkin published their personal information on her website, prompting her hordes of orcish mouth-breathers to brandish their pitchforks and inundate the unsuspecting students with death threats. When the students frantically called Malkin, asking that she remove their numbers, she posted their contact information again.

Incredibly classy. You know what's even classier? Malkin's update to this post:

If you are contacting them, I do not condone death threats or foul language. As for SAW, my message is this: You are responsible for your individual actions. Other individuals are responsible for theirs. Grow up and take responsibility.

Well, it's nice to know that she doesn't actually condone death threats -- or foul language! As anyone who's ever spent time browsing through the reasoned climes of Free Republic or Little Green Footballs will tell you, the absence of her seal of approval will surely put an end to it all. The students will certainly never get threats like these again, for sure.

I also like the fact that Malkin chides these students to "grow up and take responsibility." That's priceless coming from Malkin as she's furiously backpedaling from her own responsibility for the death threats -- threats that she does not condone! She's simply publishing the students' full names, telephone numbers and email addresses to encourage an open and honest dialogue.

"Grow up and take responsibility." I'm sure Malkin is only preaching what she practices. If something bad should happen to one of these students -- if the threats about snipers shooting at them or thugs with ax handles beating in their heads come true -- well, I'm absolutely certain that Malkin will take responsibility for it as well. To do otherwise would mean she's not just a ranting insane hatemonger, but a hypocritical one as well.