Alex's adventures in the blogosphere: recently, I stumbled on the following quiz. It asks you to distinguish between statements made by the commenters on the pro-Israeli website Little Green Footballs and statements made by various Nazi leaders in the 1930's. I got a 77%.

To be fair, the quiz took a lot of things out of context.

Following this, I engaged in a discussion about this topic at this thread at Crooked Timber. You can find my comments by searching for "Detached Observer."

Next, I went to LGF -- see this thread. For your entertainment, search for "Detached Observer;" read Charles' response at post #281; and then read starting with post #295, after which many of the posts deal with the issue.

The response my claim -- that there is a double standard regarding comments at LGF -- received is interesting. Charles (who runs the LGF site) called me Heartless Observer. A commenter named Morgan wrote "please explain why you are obsessed with Jews to the extent that you compare the murder of Jewish children to an angry anti-Muslim comment on a pro-Israel website." And the most interesting response was by a commenter named Iron Fist which I'd like to quote in full:

Interesting.

You aren't really that detached.

You are on the other side. You support the Islamonazis against the Americans and the Israelis. I'm proud to support the Americans and the Israelis. I don't hide my affiliation.

Instead, I proudly fly my colors, and I'll be happy to waste those who have a problem with it.

Why do you hide your colors?

Ashamed of your affiliation?

Or are you just a coward?

I can only hope that some of these folks clicked on my name and are going to leave comments here.