Mea Culpa: I Am Rock-Dumb

As you'll notice from my most recent update (posted late this afternoon) to the blog I've set up to deal with the substance of Ponnuru's article about Tribe, after "going nuclear" on Ponnuru by buying all those web-sites with his name, in an effort "de-escalate the level of rhetoric" I offered to release the domain names or else turn them over to Ponnuru.

Full disclosure: I didn't make that offer solely out of a desire to de-escalate the rhetoric. As I mentioned in my update, my announcement that I'd bought the web-sites "generated a lot of attention," and someone helpfully pointed out that what I was doing was a federal criminal offense.

Based on all the circumstances, letting Ponnuru have the domain names seemed like the right thing to do.

Problem is, Ponnuru couldn't care less what I do. He's waived any objection to my using the domain names as I've promised to do -- he says go right ahead if I want! Looks like I haven't scared him too much. And now, I look like an idiot no matter what I do with those web-sites.

Which brings me to the subject of this post: my mea culpa. As part of my continuing effort to de-escalate the rhetoric and smooth over the situation with Ponnuru, I plan to address in the next series of posts various attacks Ponnuru and others have made on me. Let me hasten to add it is only a partial mea culpa. I deny Ponnuru's charge that I am slippery. I deny Ponnuru's charge that I am dishonest. But I plead guilty to his charge that I am "rock-dumb." That fact, as I hope to show, fully explains the various actions for which I have been criticized which Ponnuru and others have suggested are the product of slipperiness or dishonesty. I am not malevolent. Just rock-dumb.