The Pale Scot Affair

A combination of busyness and laziness has kept me from revisiting this bit of Douglas hysteria. First, the comment by Pale Scot (if that is your true name):

The Pale Scot said..

Damn Don, howda a swarthy looking fellow like you end with a fine Scottish name Like Douglas? And a Donald to boot!? America is a wonderful place where we can all re-invent ourselves.
The Pale Scot

This is followed by Don’s train going off the rails with over-reaction and accusations as weighty as gossamer:

My morality is just fine, thanks exDLB. I don't wish leftists dead. But why would I be sad when these same leftists make ugly racist slurs against me? I request that you write a post at American Nihilist denouncing this bigotry and demanding that Brendan issue an apology. For all I know, you logged in as "The Pale Scot" to slur my name. That would be disgraceful and truly evil. So, what do you say? You claim to be such a good American. Please indicate to me who made that slur and please request of Brendan to issue an apology.

Yes, and his morality is fine despite the fact that:

“And God forgive me, but somehow I don't think I'd be bothered to see leftists in these videos. Perhaps they'd take this stuff more seriously if they took the place of folks like Daniel Pearl:”

In a moment of weakness, I actually played into his lunacy:

Don, first I want to thank you for allowing my comment. Second, I have no freakin' clue who the pale Scot is. I believe his comment to be uncalled for and to be racist. I don't know why you would suggest that it might be me who posted it, though. Have you considered that it might be your blogging cohort Robert Stacy McCain? Though I realize you believe he has not a racist bone in his body.
If it appeared on my blog I would delete it or leave it up and reprimand the commenter. And for you I am denouncing the pale Scot now. I'm not sure it rises to the level of ugly racist slur however and certainly don't believe he should be beheaded for it.

Of course that wasn’t good enough and God forbid suggesting it might be the Other McCain:

"Have you considered that it might be your blogging cohort Robert Stacy McCain?
I'm not sure it rises to the level of ugly racist slur..."
exDLB: You are either pure evil or stupid as dirt. I think it's a little of both, actually. I know R.S. McCain personally, and he would never saying anything as awful as the sentiments of "The Pale Scot." And you must be completely clueless to claim that that grotesque remark doesn't "rise to the level of a racist slur." What does it rise to, then, exDLB? "Pale" is white. "Swarthy" is black. Do you need any more clues, you fucking dolt? And since you love that thread, and made yourself quite at home there, I think you should publish a call to Brendan to offer a full apology. To borrow from Janeane Garofalo, "This is racism straight up.

Leaving aside the irony of Don’s quoting Garofalo… I’d like to apologize to the Pale Scot.

Don, words mean what they mean based on something other than you and your neocon brethren. You don’t get to just make up your own definitions. Pale can indeed mean white, though in this case I would suggest it is used to mean pallid or wan. In any case, it does not mean white as in Caucasian. Swarthy does not mean black in color or in race in any sense or any case. It means, according to my trusty American Heritage, “having a dark or sunburned complexion.” By that definition John Boehner could be termed swarthy.

The Pale Scot (or I or JBW) could have easily said:

Damn John, howda a swarthy looking fellow like you end with a fine Germanic name Like Boehner? And a Johan to boot!? America is a wonderful place where we can all re-invent ourselves.

I guess he would be the Pale German in that instance. Excuse the poetic license with Johan. I believe the humor or attempt at by PS was as much self-deprecating as it was Don-deprecating. He was poking fun at himself for being light in complexion. Tbogg is right. You are a drama queen.