Peas break out in the blogwar

Well, it appears that after twenty-four hours of nasty invective hurled across the blogosphere, in which the phrase "hate-filled racist communazi sock-puppet" was coined, Mahndisa has regained her senses somewhat.

Now, she's apologizing for being "tacky" and allowing herself "lamely to stoop to Stalin's level". This after conceding that the substance of what sent her into her fit was correct.

Here's what really offends me about this entire sorry episode: racism is a real problem in this country. It hinders the life chances of millions of Americans, corrupts our national discourse, and is a stain on our national honor. People who casually fling around the words racist and racism trivialize and instrumentalize something we should all regard with horror and shame.

I can look past the "communazi" insult, perhaps even past the vicious blog treck, the denigrating, the nastiness and the trolls. But I'm not going to move on from the pejorative of racist. If you had a shred of self-respect, respect for others, let alone judgment and good taste, this would not have happened, Mahndisa. The fact that you can call me a racist, and then casually move on as if nothing had happened, speaks volumes about you. But of course, you've done this before, repeatedly, so why should you expect censure?

There are insults that you can hurl only once; racist is one, for whites, the n-word is as well, for blacks, and with good reason. These are the racial lines you do not cross, unless in deadly seriousness, and there's a price to pay for the people who do so casually: the forfeiture of any right to be considered deserving even of simple disgust by anyone with self-respect. That's you, Mahndisa. You would fill me with loathing, if you had demonstrated the stature to rise to that level. You haven't.

We're done here. I have nothing for you except polite, but firm, contempt. And even that's giving you far more credit than you deserve.