Mr. Ghost-
Obviously, you have every right to say anything you'd like about me, and you may publish this correspondence as well if you think that my act of parodying your cartoon constitutes some great crime against art or civility or whatever it is that you think I am guilty of and are of the opinion that this exchange will help to support whatever contention you're trying to make. I hope you'll publish the entire exchange, though - if I'm truly in the wrong, the full context will help your case.
But I am truly astonished that you think the act of parodying someone's work is some unconventional or evil thing. Let me walk you through this one more time:
1. You did a cartoon making fun of Charles Johnson, which is of course your right.
2. I considered the cartoon to be ridiculously unfair and frankly misleading insomuch as that McCain is very clearly a white supremacist (and not particularly funny insomuch as that it hinges largely on Johnson being, like, a baby who wets his baby diaper).
3. I downloaded a copy of your cartoon and altered it in order to turn it into a parody of the situation.
4. I sent a copy of this parody to you, McCain, and Johnson. I did not profit from it or even publish it, although it would be totally legal for me to have done so thanks to Fair Use - you know, that legal doctrine which allows you to take the intellectual property of others, such as Snoopy and the Jawas, and employ them in your own ham-fisted attempt at satire.
5. You went fucking nuts.
Regarding Johnson and McCain - I admire Johnson for taking a stand against those whom he deems to be in the wrong. McCain is clearly in the wrong - that he wrote for a white supremacist outlet and posted links to the neo-Nazi site
overthrow.com, for instance, constitutes pretty clear evidence that he is himself a racist. All of the stuff he wrote in defense of slavery doesn't really help much, either. There is, in addition, another incident that I have recently discovered and will be revealing soon, and which goes beyond simply holding distasteful opinions. Suffice to say that am in a better position than you are to characterize the fellow insomuch as that I have actually bothered to look into the evidence whereas you have not, and I suspect that you wouldn't care even if you had. At any rate, I take responsibility for the charges I make, as I make these charges under my own name and expose myself to the consequences. You do not.
People such as yourself are not interested in getting things right; you are interested in getting things done.
Regards,
Barrett Brown
On Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 3:39 PM,
<ghost@christmasghost.com> wrote:
Barrett,
I realize that you are not an artist, so perhaps you would
have no way of knowing that you just don't take someone's
artwork and deface it...virtually or otherwise.
It's just not done.
Or at the very least, if you feel you must do it, be funny about it. Your
"parody" was pathetic attempt to carry water for a vile and disgusting
little man who wouldn't know the meaning of honesty or decency if it
jumped up and bit him in the ass. And it made me very curious; why you, of
all people, would you waste your time and energy carrying water for Mad
King Charles is beyond me.
Surely the monetary problems at HuffPo would be a more pressing issue?
Or perhaps you could advance your own career by doing some investigative
journalism and expose the corruption that is right under your own
nose....
ACORN ring any bells for you?
Journalists like you give the profession a very bad name, and people are
going to remember this...all of it. People like myself will make sure of
that, and it won't be a difficult job. I realize that since you weren't
even aware of how crass it is to defile someone's artwork,perhaps you
also aren't aware of the huge backlash that is coming your way....
Perhaps you should spend a little more time worrying about your own
career and less about carrying water for a certifiable idiot.
Just a thought....
Fondly, Ghost
Howdy!
> I liked your recent comic strip, but thought the text could use a
> little-reworking. I've attached my version here.
>
> Regards,
>
> Barrett Brown
> Brooklyn, NY
>