When Divas Have Hissy Fits
Ron Bailey breaks the polite silence to provide eyewitness account of what really happened at the Liberty Fund conference that Ann Althouse has been making such hay about lately. Hysterical tears are involved. (I didn't know any of this back story when I made my original post here and comments on Althouse's blog. Like everyone else, I assumed her account reflected reality.)
UPDATE: Jonah Goldberg, who went very easy on Althouse in a recent Blogginheads.tv appearance has second thoughts: "I should say that while Ron and I have many serious ideological differences, my faith in Ron's honesty and good faith is unshakable. All I will add for now is that I had no idea about the events around the dinner table--when Althouse accused fellow conferees of racism--when I participated in my bloggingheads conversation with her or when I called her original blog post 'odd.' I would have used a different adjective." Like Jonah, I have heard privately from multiple sources confirming Ron's account. Althouse was clearly out of her intellectual depth during the discussions and vented her frustration by lashing out at fellow conferees in person--she even called one female participant who dared to disagree with her an "intellectual lightweight" and an embarrassment to women everywhere--and by using her blog to recast what happened with herself as the martyred star. Now that's a diva. Diana Ross would be jealous.
UPDATE III: After she mentioned this post, I attempted to post the following comment on Ann Althouse's blog. I hadn't planned to say more on this topic, but she's managed to push my buttons:
Since I made my views clear in a previous comment, which Ann Althouse quoted in another post, I can only assume that her question of what my views are is another dramatic pose. Sorry, Ann, you got yourself into this mess not only by blowing up in a hysterical way but by constantly harping on the subject when everyone else would have happily let it drop, with no embarrassment to you. You consistently misrepresented people's views and personalities and the nature of a Liberty Fund conversation. It's a Grande Diva pose, but has nothing to do with civil rights law or libertarian thought. As you know, your entire dinnertime meltdown started after you asked about the previous night's discussion and were told it involved Ron Bailey's vigorous defense of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. (He also noted in his blog posting that no one in the discussion around the table agreed with Meyer's position on civil rights laws.) Stop pretending you were an innocent little martyr surrounded by racist ideologues. It's b.s., albeit great for generating attention and blog hits. And, for the record, since you seem to care more about righteous preening than argument, my family was defending civil rights in the South--including Little Rock in 1957--long before it was popular. (I was just a little kid doing my part by attending integrated--25% black--public schools.)
And, yes, like Jonah I've known Ron (who, contrary to Althouse's description, is not my colleague) for years and found him to be a person of enormous integrity and good will--and a vehement supporter of civil rights. So between the diva and the rational reporter, I'll choose to believe the reporter.
While I appreciate the good intent of the folks at GayPatriot.net, I don't aspire to be a diva. It's not all about me.