No comments (part II)

From: Ivan Raikov Subject: Your rather perplexing response to Edgar Brown Date: August 30, 2005 5:56:22 PM EDT To: billmon@billmon.org Cc: Edgar Brown Dear Billmon, I am a long-time reader of your blog, and I have thoroughly enjoyed many of your well-researched and thoughtful posts. I hold your writing in a very high esteem, and consider it a fine example of what independent, critical journalism should be, in stark contrast with the shallow opinions and farcical analysis that have become prevalent in the corporate media. I found your post entitled _Bring me the head of Hugo Chavez_ intriguing, because it was what I thought a good piece on Robertson, while at the same it did not cover the subject of Chavez and Venezuela in sufficient depth. The reason why I say this is because I believe the "left" in the United States (i.e. those who loosely align themselves with Social-Democratic ideals) is sharply divided in their opinion of Chavez, and I have thought for a long time that both sides would benefit from a serious, thoughtful discussion about what exactly is going on in Venezuela. While it is difficult to get the facts without living there, and without being fluent in Spanish, I have witnessed many misinformed and pointless flame wars on "leftist" forums, and as I am keenly interested in both Latin-American politics and oppressive regimes, I want to get as much information about the subject, and to have reasoned arguments about it. This is why I asked my friend and colleague Edgar Brown to write a rebuttal of sorts to your post---not really a rebuttal, but an elaboration of the weaker points you make about Chavez; I imagined that if you do get around to reading Edgar's email, and verifying the information contained in his links, you would perhaps do further research into the subject of Chavez, and gain further insights and perspective into Venezuelan politics and how it relates to the United States. I have not finished reading Edgar's email, and I do not know whether his sources are reliable, but nevertheless I thought there was a good chance that all sides involved might learn a little something in the subjects they are passionately interested in. Your response, however---"fuck off, pig"---stunned me. Quite literally, I am dumbstruck. Stupefied. I had imagined you will completely disregard Edgar's email, or that it will get lost in the vast ocean of email that you probably receive every day, but to say that your response was unexpected is an understatement of an incomprehensible magnitude. Even if Edgar is completely wrong and does not make any sense, what kind of a response is that? How could you possibly write something worthy of Rush Limbaugh and the rest of "America's leading mental patients?" I am ashamed and disappointed with you, I really am. And I hope you respond to this email and apologize, because this is ridiculous and unworthy of you---of anybody over the age of 12, really. I am waiting for your response. Sincerely yours, Ivan Raikov -- Democracy isn't Freedom. Inalienable Rights are. Democracy is only a precondition for Inalienability of Rights.