The ape in the anteroom, or: The missing link

Never trust a blogger who refuses to provide links for the articles he cites as substantiating evidence.

There’s just something off about Paul L. Williams, PhD. It’s not just that he uses the phrase the ape in the anteroom in his post about the Sotomayor confirmation hearings, something more than a little tone deaf for someone who (allegedly) holds a doctorate in philosophical theology. It’s also that he scrupulously avoids providing links, something more than a little odd for someone who (allegedly) once wrote a dissertation.

In his Sotomayor column, Williams goes full-tilt Aztlan-o-phobic and cherry picks articles with “lurid titles” that have appeared on an Aztlan website to “substantiate” his claim that Judge Sotomayor -- by group taint apparently -- is pro-Islam and anti-Israel.

In addition, La Raza and other Latino activist groups have expressed widespread anti-Jewish sentiments and support for radical Islam. This finding is supported by articles in “The Voice of Aztlan” with such lurid titles as “That Shitty Little Country Israel,” “Pat Tillman Got What Was coming to Him,” and “Osama bin Laden: the ‘Pancho Villa’ of Islam.”

Williams doesn’t link to the articles, and it’s not because of simple link laziness. If you read the articles with the “lurid titles” -- something Williams obviously does not want his readers to bother with, you’ll find more nuanced thinking than Williams himself is capable of. Of course, the articles themselves undercut Williams' laughable hyperbole.

Here’s an excerpt from the opening of the 2002 article, Osama bin Laden: The ‘Pancho Villa’ of Islam.

"Villa is everywhere but Villa is nowhere" was the telegraphed message sent to Washington D. C. by General John J. Pershing after failing to capture the elusive and brilliant military strategist of the Mexican Revolution….

The U.S. Army Punitive Expedition consisting of 10,000 troops went as far south as Parral, Chihuahua but gave up catching General Villa after an 11 month search. General Villa… proved too evasive for John "Black Jack" Pershing [because he] knew every rock, every stream, every cave, and every cactus of the immense sierra of Chihuahua.

Today, we are hearing similar accounts concerning the search for Osama bin Laden by the U.S. Special Forces expedition into Afghanistan under the command of General Tommy Franks. Yesterday General Franks as well as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) sent a message to President George Bush that they believe that Osama bin Laden has managed to escape…. Like Pancho Villa, it looks like Osama bin Laden has outsmarted the U.S. military generals.

Beyond the “lurid title” is a brief, straightforward account of two guerilla leaders and a consideration of their folk hero status among aggrieved populations. To Paul L. Williams, PhD, this article supports his finding that La Raza and, by extension, Sonia Sotomayor are pro-Islam.

The 2004 column about Tillman, Pat Tillman Is Not a Hero: He Got What Was Coming to Him, does not live up to its “lurid title” in terms of bluntness. If anything, the article has gained a poignant irony when you realize that it was written before the US military revealed -- after first covering up -- the fact that Tillman had died by friendly fire.

And there are double reverse bonus points for That Shitty Little Country Israel since the “lurid title” is actually a comment (and is enclosed within quotation marks as such in the article’s original posting) made by a French ambassador.

Paul L. Williams, PhD, you should be ashamed.