Introducing Jay Reding Watch

Welcome to the beginning of Jay Reding Watch, a blog I've started to correct the distortions and inaccuracies promulgated by the self-described Single Malt Pundit, Jay Reding.

...Who?

Well, ok. Who indeed. He's just a guy I knew in college who writes a conservative blog of almost no note. So why bother? Well, like I said, I knew him in college. We're both Gusties. And the level of unintelligent, echo-chamber "discourse" that he spews forth on his blog makes the rest of us Gusties look like idiots. I'm doing this for myself, and for the rest of us, because Jay's loudmouth brand of nonsense devalues our degrees by association.

Wait, who?

Look, he's just a guy with a blog. Almost nobody reads it who doesn't know him, and few people who know him are interested in challenging his ideas. He's not interested in fostering a spirit of open dialogue on his blog; rather, he'd prefer to collect a peanut gallery of lauditory nabobs.

Well, that's where I come in. When he repeats a stale GOP talking point, I'll be there with the rebuttal. When he references a source to defend an argument that the source itself contradicts (hoping you won't notice), I'll be there to call foul.

So this is like, a vendetta?

Actually, I'm just taking Jay's advice:

I don’t tolerate stupidity, and I really don’t tolerate offensive levels of stupidity. When you have someone who clearly doesn’t know how to behave as a guest on someone’s site, then it’s not worth it. There’s no point in refuting someone who tries to argue that the sky is purple, and there’s no reason to bother with someone who makes a dumb argument like the economy being a zero-sum game, that’s something every educated person should know not to be true. I can accept critical comments, I can accept people making dumb arguments, and I can except a certain amount of liberal talking points, but since I pay the bills, I only have to accept a certain amount of it, and won’t tolerate the sort of idiotic styles of “argumentation” found on fever swamps like Kos or DU. The level of discourse on this site will not be allowed to descend to that level.

Since it is my policy not to edit comments in any way, my two choices are to start deleting comments entirely or ban the person making them.

Those who don’t like that are more than welcome to go elsewhere.

Fair enough. So I went to blogger like he said and started my own blog. Jay thinks rebuttals to his arguments constitute "fever-swamp discourse." Well, I just checked my temperature and I'm feeling fine.

But here's the deal. I don't plan on running a site where I snipe at people who can't defend themselves. I'll leave running that kind of blog to Jay Reding. So open comments. Nobody gets banned except for spammers.

Even Jay himself can come here, any time he feels like defending his arguments in a venue where he doesn't also run the game. He can run an echo-chamber, if he likes. I'm not so fascinated by the sound of my own voice, so that simply doesn't appeal to me.

Let's have a venue where Jay's arguments are investigated fairly. Since he's not interested in running that, I'm taking it upon myself.

But I guess I'm just that kind of guy.

Actually, that's a good point. Who the hell are you?

Justin Payne. I'm a former conservative, former creationist, former Bush voter. I've since seen the evidence that all those positions are wrong. That's what it's about for me, the evidence. It's what I intend to stick to.

I've got a busy schedule at the greenhouse, and a busy raiding schedule at night. I casemod. So this isn't going to necessarily be a timely blog. But then, jayreding.com usually isn't.

That's it for now. The first real entry of Jay Reding Watch should be forthcoming.