Workman and Gottlieb exhibit bad case of penis envy. The backing, scuttling and crawfishing of mudbugs in a bucket of their own creation. I challenge Alan Gottlieb to a debate at the NRA Convention.

Mudbug: Cajun slang term for crayfish, also known as crawfish, crawdads, or freshwater lobsters, are freshwater crustaceans resembling small lobsters, to which they are related.

The success of Saturday's armed civil disobedience action has Alan Gottlieb and his journalistic Igor Dave Workman grasping at strawmen in the on-going propaganda battle to maintain the flow of donor funds into Gottlieb's rice bowl. The latest example? "Vanderboegh calls Jan. 15 open carry protester a ‘moron.’"

Alabama blogger and gun rights activist Mike Vanderboegh, appearing at a Saturday protest in Olympia, referred to a Jan. 15 incident inside the Capitol that resulted in a ban on open carry in the Senate and House viewing galleries, dubbed one of the participants in that exercise “a moron” in a YouTube video that may be seen here.

He was alluding to a demonstration of about 15 people who entered the House gallery at the end of the mid-January event. Photographs from that event have been seen in various newspaper accounts. Saturday’s small demonstration was to protest the ban. Was Vanderboegh being fair? Was his criticism justified?

Now I will admit that to call the guy a "moron" was an insult to honest morons everywhere, but given the fact that Gottlieb used the moke's behavior to dub the entire group of activists who entered the gallery with him as "extremists" as Gottlieb did, it is more than a little ironic that Workman should now leap to his defense to criticize me in an apples-and-oranges comparison. Indeed, Workman doesn't give a rat's ass if I am being "unfair" to the moron, he's merely desperate to use any argument to discredit me. Workman continues:

“This moron,” Vanderboegh says at 28 seconds into the video, as he addresses a sparse crowd at the top of the Capitol steps, “was counseled not to flash his pistol. Because the rule said pistols had to be concealed. And this person…waited until he got inside the door…and did this movement irreparable harm by then pulling out his pistol and handling it in an unsafe manner and getting his picture on the front page of a whole lot of papers.”

Vanderboegh’s comments seem almost to echo something said by Bellevue Second Amendment advocate Alan Gottlieb last month in the wake of the demonstration that led to the open carry prohibition. At the time, Gottlieb said of the ban that, “This is the result of a few stupid extremists on our side who not only handled their firearms unsafely, but made the hundreds of Second Amendment supporters at the rally look foolish.”

Gottlieb was criticized by Vanderboegh for that remark, and for adding that, “Irresponsible actions get us bad results. Unfortunately, some of the fools in town are on our side. This kind of childish theater hurts our cause. The gun ban crowd is having a field day over this.”

What's the difference between a "moron" and a "stupid extremist?" What's the difference between "did this movement irreparable harm" and "This kind of childish theater hurts our cause?" Apparently, it’s okay if Vanderboegh says it, but not Gottlieb. Vanderboegh even has Saturday's video linked on the Sipsey Street blog.

The difference between a moron and an extremist may be discovered by checking a dictionary, assuming Workman has access to one. The difference between calling an individual a moron for his behavior and unfairly smearing a group as extremists in order to discredit the entire action is obvious. "Extremist," as I commented at the time, is a value-freighted dog-whistle distortion used by the enemies of liberty such as Media Matters (who recently called journalist Emily Miller an extremist for speaking at a rally in Virginia next to my friend David Codrea) and the misnamed Southern "Poverty" Law Center. Workman certainly knows this.

But in his desperation to defend his boss and attack me and the armed civil disobedience movement in Washington state, this is actually the least of his dishonesties and distortions.

Workman's belittling of the numbers at the Saturday event (which, like the 2,000 strong event back in December Workman did not attend)is revealing.

Rain dampened everything but the spirits of about 50 people, most carrying guns . . Vanderboegh even had an exposed hammer double barrel shotgun carried on a sling, during the sparse protest. . . . . . the small gathering. . . The disappointing turnout might be attributed to any number of things, including weather, timing and no small amount of controversy over the event that led to the open carry ban. There were allegations of unsafe gun handling, countered by insistence that firearms were handled properly. . . Vanderboegh told the small crowd that, “The important thing you bring here today is your heart and the purity of your intent” . . . While the demonstration was something of an anti-climax to some the saber rattling that had occurred in recent days — and barely a shadow of the Dec. 13 demonstration that launched the so-called “We Will Not Comply” movement against Initiative 594 . . . There are some in Olympia, and others in Washington’s Second Amendment community, who also worry that the actions of a handful of Jan. 15 protesters, or the single individual singled out by Vanderboegh’s remarks, did “irreparable harm.” Hearings are set this week on some gun legislation, so those Evergreen State gun owners should find out soon if their concerns are warranted.

Geez, Dave, how many ways can you belittle the size of an event you didn't even witness? Now, I am informed by the organizers that by actual count there were 105 folks there for the speeches with at least a dozen joining us as we entered the building. People continued to come up even at the end, when the aforementioned moron also got there late, only to be shunned by the other participants. For Workman to compare the 13 December event (which he and his boss did their best to discourage beforehand and belittle afterward but which he does not now dare to criticize openly after its success) with the original gallery occupation on 15 December (carried out by the same folks who organized the earlier mass civil disobedience) and with Saturday's action (also organized by the same folks) and conclude that this is evidence of a fading failure is the height of wishful thinking on Gottlieb's part. And note that no matter how small Gottlieb's fantasy of the incredible shrinking armed civil disobedience movement is, it still gets in the way of his traditional efforts. One might headline this story: "Workman and Gottlieb agree: 'Mike Vanderboegh has a small penis but ours are even smaller.'"

The inconsistent logic and propagandist's use of belittling language are self-revelatory of internal desperation. Alan Gottlieb is worried about the revenue stream into his rice bowl and it shows. Indeed, this is the backing, scuttling and crawfishing of mudbugs in a bucket of their own creation. They must belittle the participants in armed civil disobedience because that's all they really have.

Let me share with you an anecdote from Saturday's event. I brought some hats for the organizers to sell to raise money for the bail fund. When it was announced that they were down to one hat, a bidding war developed and it was auctioned off for $200! And what did the winner do? He turned right around and gave the hat to a young woman. This is the character of the brave men and women who risk every in these armed civil disobedience actions here in Washington state that Workman and Gottlieb disparage, despise and distort the truth about.

I have a challenge for Dr. Gottlieb and his Igor Workman: Why don't we get together at the NRA Convention, somewhere off venue of course, and debate these issues? If your case is so strong and ours is so weak, what do you have to lose? Let's see how your strawman arguments stand up to facts and searching examination of opposing argument.

And if they think that Saturday's action represents a dying movement, I also invite them to the arms expo in June near Yakima. I rather expect, however, that both Gottlieb and Workman will continue to avoid any gathering where real American heroes, like those I am privileged to stand beside here in Washington state, gather in determined defiance to tyrannical government. It's just not their thing, even if calling such people names and disparaging their characters is.