Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
This one may actually be the dumbass quote of the century and it comes, unsurprisingly, from our friend Pat:
All of the media outlets; including Fox News are asking, "why?" Hello! It does not take a damned rocket scientist to figure that little problem out. It is the elephant in the room, that nobody and I mean NOBODY wants to talk about. Has anyone else in the world bothered to notice the skin color of this terrorist suspect? Uh, Duh. He is a black person. Our President is also a black person. One plus one usually equals two! It seems that nobody is either willing or even possibly able to make that connection.
Oh, this really should be good. Let's look at the actual argument he's making here. He's actually claiming that no one in the government did anything about this because the bomber was black and it would make Obama mad if they stopped a black man from bombing an airplane full of American citizens. Seriously:
Our Government officials new about this guy and knew that plans were being made; but they did not do anything about it. Why? I will tell you why! Because they knew, that if they acted upon this little piece of evidence, that it would possibly upset the President; because the mean ol' United States Government was picking on some poor young black man -- of whom the the white man oppressed and the Government did nothing about it for so many years. I mean, if you were employed by the NSA or CIA and you were aware of this situation, would you want to risk angering a black President, who was all down with "The Struggle"(tm)? I think you all know what I mean.
Seriously, how does someone get this fucking stupid and not blow themselves up with fireworks as a child, or swallow too many marbles or something?
Politics
Comments
Maybe not taking out behind the woodshed often enough as a kid?
Posted by: DPSisler | December 31, 2009 9:38 AM
Too stupid to be left alone with either fireworks or marbles as a kid?
Posted by: Connie | December 31, 2009 9:40 AM
We live in a society where the more ludicrous your statements, the more widespread they become. Ed, your continual posting of Pat's statements is only further encouragement for him to top them in the future with more ridiculousness.
I love your "Dumbass Quotes...", but only when they come from people who are not supposed to be dumbasses (elected officials, trusted media icons, etc). A dumbass quote from a dumbass isn't really news-worthy (same reason why Sarah Palin's quotes shouldn't be news-worthy).
Obviously, my opinion on the matter means nothing. And I will occasionally still read your posts that mention Pat. I'm just a little disappointed you saved a "Dumbass Quote of the Century" title for someone so insignificant.
(I assume what I've written in this comment has been mentioned before from some of your other readers, but I don't read the comments to the Pat threads)
Posted by: Jordan G | December 31, 2009 9:43 AM
That is one of the most stupid things I've ever seen in print, I fear.
Posted by: Josh | December 31, 2009 9:43 AM
Posted by: Jonathan | December 31, 2009 9:44 AM
Lacked the cognitive ability to set off fireworks or swallow marbles as a kid?
Posted by: JohnV | December 31, 2009 9:48 AM
He's right; it's a well-known fact that since Barack Obama was elected, not a single black person has been arrested, for fear of angering our Ebony Overlord.
Posted by: Aaron M | December 31, 2009 9:53 AM
So, the reason Timothy McVeigh wasn't arrested before Oklahoma City was because he was a white guy?
Posted by: a different phil | December 31, 2009 9:56 AM
Right, the FBI knew all about McVeigh's plans, they didn't do anything for fear of upsetting the Ivory Overlord.
Posted by: chris | December 31, 2009 10:05 AM
PLEASE continue posting these idiot gems. The more exposure they are given, the more people are able to discover just how stupid the far right really is. The more the merrier!
Posted by: Blaidd Drwg | December 31, 2009 10:09 AM
What I want to know is how does Ed plumb the endless depths of human stupidity day after day and not go insane himself? A couple of articles like this and I begin to go apoplectic.
Posted by: Spaceman Spiff | December 31, 2009 10:10 AM
This ranks right up there with Colin Ferguson's defense that his victims were actually shot by another man but were covering for the latter because we was white and would rather find a black man to pin it on.
Posted by: DaveL | December 31, 2009 10:12 AM
Blaidd Drwg, you may not consider that a substantial portion of humanity is dumb enough to think the same crap as what the moron is saying.
Posted by: Katharine | December 31, 2009 10:17 AM
[Questions inside Pat's brain stem] So why did Obama sell out Tiger Woods? Guess he couldn't stand for another mixed-race guy being more famous than himself. What will "the One" do to Oprah? How has the MSM managed to miss that Obama is a Negro? What does Clark Kent do now that there are neither phone booths nor newspapers?[/Questions inside Pat's brain stem]
Posted by: kehrsam | December 31, 2009 10:17 AM
Ed, have you tried to contact his parents? I'd be curious to know if they understand how deeply disturbed he is. Do they know of his online activities? Are they encouraging it, or merely supporting him while hoping he gets better?
Posted by: Jeff Eyges | December 31, 2009 10:19 AM
Pat, learn some history and then you'll recall how Obama gave the SEALs the go-ahead to cap some black Somali pirates.
Posted by: History Punk | December 31, 2009 10:27 AM
What a fucking idiot. This guy really seems to think he's the only person capable of noticing his enemies' skin color and thinking it's significant. And he also seems to think he's the only person who thinks this is some sort of intellectual leap that no one else dared make.
Oh, and does he really think that the President -- white or black -- would even NOTICE if one more Muslim schmuck got busted trying to board a plane?
Posted by: Raging Bee | December 31, 2009 10:29 AM
Ed, at some point, you are going to have to stop giving this guy what he wants, attention.
I certainly have no intention of reading his blog.
so, please. ignore the idiot.
Posted by: Chilidog | December 31, 2009 10:41 AM
Ed,
I enjoy your blog, read it every day, and find almost everything you post to have some interest and insight. Except Pat. Yes, this guy is a disturbed whackaloon, but his ranting is simply a mirror of oh so many more out there, such that he is uninteresting and a waste of electron-volts. Please give your attention to issues of greater interest and import, like the whackaloons in the House and Senate (and keep an eye on Michigan -- It's a great state, I used to live there, but like so many others had to go where the jobs were).
Keep up the good work.
Posted by: ohioobserver | December 31, 2009 11:04 AM
I agree with ohioobserver, except I'll be more frank: I'm sick and tired of hearing everything that comes out of Pat's insane, moronic head. Seriously. I don't care anymore. Please move on to something or someone more interesting.
Posted by: marilove | December 31, 2009 11:14 AM
OMG 12/25 WAS AN INSIDE JOB111
Posted by: josh | December 31, 2009 11:27 AM
Re ohioobservor and marilove's request for no more Pat and more of something else . . .
I've never criticized Ed for what topics he choose to write about, publically in this forum or privately via email. Is it even good form to do so? I've always considered this a free forum (free in the sense that no $$$ are expended) where Ed virtually invites us into his living room and therefore it's his prerogative what topics he'll expound upon.
Ed - are you looking for feedback on your selection criteria for topics? What's your take on people attempting to steer you towards or away from certain topics or focusing more attention on items you cover but infrequently?
Disclaimer: I occasionally send emails to Ed about certain topics as some other commentors obviously do as well. Those topics however fit the parameters of topics he regularly publishes already, I've not demonstrated any initiative in attempting to steer Ed to different topics I wish he'd cover or cover more frequently.
Posted by: Michael Heath | December 31, 2009 11:34 AM
--- Seriously, how does someone get this fucking stupid and not blow themselves up with fireworks as a child, or swallow too many marbles or something? ---
Never underestimate the ability of the stupid to keep on living. This provides weak evidence that there is a god; and it has unadultered hate for anyone with the two clicks in the making of a clue. Makes me wish that voodoo dolls were real.
Posted by: Gregory Weagle | December 31, 2009 11:57 AM
I look at the Pat droppings as light entertainment, not a chance for deep probing discussion. As such, I have no issue with Ed continuing to mine the font of stupid from the basement of crazy. So many serious, contentious, and (often) enlightening discussions take place on this forum that a little levity is tolerable and even welcome.
New Year's eve is upon us and a lot of change and crap is coming are way in the new year. Enjoy the lunacy and be thankful Pat's not in your basement.
Posted by: MikeMa | December 31, 2009 12:03 PM
Over protective parents. I've met people like this, Dad and Mom never let them out of their sight and still living with their parents in their 30's, 40's and beyond.
Sounds like Pat.
Posted by: Owen | December 31, 2009 12:05 PM
@19 and 20.
The solution is simple, skip the Pat posts and move on to the content that is more to your liking here. I'm sure there is plenty of that.
In defense of the Pat posts. I think it is a good idea. We should be reminded that there are people like Pat out there, far too many of them.
Posted by: Owen | December 31, 2009 12:10 PM
Ed, you're being too hasty!
Being white, I was going to target some black people for hate crimes, but Pat's words have convinced me that in so doing I could incur the wrath of Obama. Several African Americans will sleep in their own beds tonight because of Pat's unintentional call for moderation.
Posted by: barry | December 31, 2009 12:11 PM
What makes Mr. Pat even more ridiculous is the fact that President Obama is half Caucasian and was brought up in Hawaii by his Caucasian mother and maternal grandparents.
Posted by: SLC | December 31, 2009 12:19 PM
I don't really care if it's "good form" to do so.
This shit is getting old. And it's boring.
I doubt I'm going to hurt Ed's feelings.
Posted by: marilove | December 31, 2009 12:32 PM
Michael Heath wrote:
I'm not looking for such feedback, but it doesn't bother me either. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and I don't expect everything I write about to be interesting to every reader. Everyone is going to have their own issues that pique their interest and others that bore them to tears. In the end, I just write about what I want to write about and people can decide for themselves whether there's enough to hold their attention here.
I admit that I've probably paid too much attention to Pat. To paraphrase Mencken, it's really not sound sport to agitate such a feeble mind. But no matter how cynical I am, I still react the same way to egregious stupidity -- by saying to myself, and often to others, in essence, "Holy fuck! Did he really just say that? In public?" It's the proverbial train wreck that I can't stop looking at because it just keeps getting worse and worse. Just when you think he's hit bottom, he starts digging.
Posted by: Ed Brayton | December 31, 2009 12:33 PM
marilove-
Nope, no feelings being hurt here. You're going to like what you like and be bored by what you're bored by and I can't do a thing about that. I'll just encourage you to read the stuff that interests you and ignore the stuff that doesn't.
Posted by: Ed Brayton | December 31, 2009 12:40 PM
OT and I suppose this is getting repetitious but when is Mr. Michael Heath going to get his own blog?
Posted by: SLC | December 31, 2009 1:04 PM
Or "the score is still Q to 12!" The way wingnuts mix and match the most random observations reminds me more of Calvinball than mathematics.
Posted by: Scott Hanley | December 31, 2009 1:06 PM
"Has anyone else in the world bothered to notice the skin color of this terrorist suspect? Uh, Duh. He is a black person. Our President is also a black person. One plus one usually equals two! It seems that nobody is either willing or even possibly able to make that connection."
Holy Fuckin Shit that's stupid.
Posted by: steve s | December 31, 2009 1:34 PM
The idea that if the POTUS is black it means black bombers get a pass is breathtakingly stupid. But such brainless assertions are also so common that they are just part of the background noise. In this nation, at this time, there is no down side to stupid.
Used to be that if you made stupid assertions that people stopped listening. One good point-by-point take down was enough to buy your silence for a pretty good period of time. Then again people moved in relatively small circles of friends. You talked to, maintained a reputation with and depended on a couple of dozen people and were acquaintances with perhaps a hundred more. Saying something really stupid would get you blank stares, scowls and the occasional dope slap. After which you were expected to stay quiet for a time and reconsider your thought process. Repeated stupidity got you ignored.
Now, with the internet, if you wear out your welcome in one place, you slide over to the next forum. Potentially, every day is a new audience. There is just so much bandwidth to fill and always someone who hasn't heard the latest outrage.
But also there has grown entire virtual communities of stupid. Communities where there is an agreement that some weaknesses in some arguments are not talked about. Where certain thoughts are assumed to be true and remain always above question. Stupid has become a lifestyle, a way of being, and saddest of all, a constituency.
Posted by: Art | December 31, 2009 1:36 PM
I agree completely. The whinging about Pat-related posts is getting on my nerves far more than reading about Pat day after day. If the topic of Pat bores you, don't read these posts or the comments they generate. I don't think it's more complicated than that.
Posted by: Sadie Morrison | December 31, 2009 1:56 PM
Should we take Pat's use of the word "black" as a racial descriptive as an indication that he may be slowly evolving into something approaching a life form? What did he call the Seattle shooter, a cauliflower-head?
Posted by: Shay | December 31, 2009 2:28 PM
I concur with Sadie: Don't bother with PaTHetically stoopid if it bugs you.
And with MikeMa: It's light entertainment, nothing more.
Admittedly, the entertainment value is quite low—Mr Pathetic fails as a clown—but the odd sprinklings of vapid “thoughts” from perhaps the dumbest person in the universe does not detract from Ed's normally excellent blog.
Posted by: blf | December 31, 2009 2:39 PM
Ed,
I seriously think Pat may have some mental issue. Not kidding really. If he does then this barrage is not warranted. You should check into it. I am not trying to be funny something is off here and if he is sick then he should not be ridiculed. I could be wrong though.
Posted by: King of Ireland | December 31, 2009 4:04 PM
KoI, Pat probably does have mental issues of sorts. I would be very surprised if, from everything Ed has shared with us and from Pat's responses at this blog, Pat did not have anger management issues and some degree of narcissism. I also think he's phenomenally immature. In other words, Pat is a professional douchebag. But that is not the same thing as insanity. If Pat were truly insane, I would strenuously request Ed to stop badgering him. I don't think he is insane.
Posted by: Sadie Morrison | December 31, 2009 4:13 PM
. They see some Negro Muslim terrorist, who tried to blow up a damned plane . . .
When guys like him bitch about concessions to "political correctness," here's what they mean: The effort it took him to write "Negro" instead of whatever charming expression he was probably thinking.
Posted by: Molly, NYC | December 31, 2009 4:39 PM
I'm sure it's obvious to all lunatics that our president is a Kenyan terrorist. I'm sure I saw him blowing up some of Shell's oil pipelines just a few weeks ago - the president I mean. It's a great alibi - his whereabouts can't be made public as a matter of national security and the taxpayer picks up the bill for Air Force One. He's also immune to prosecution for actions relating to his office. Dang, those terrorists are good.
Posted by: MadScientist | December 31, 2009 5:00 PM
Oh no. Now terrorists come in every color under the rainbow. I guess TSA will have to start profiling everybody of color: black, brown, white, red, or whatever.
Oh wait, they do that now.
Posted by: Chasman | December 31, 2009 5:48 PM
I honestly, honestly, honestly did not believe that even Pat could be this stupid. Due to my glaring oversight, I'm feeling a bit dense myself at the moment.
Posted by: Michael Hoaglin | December 31, 2009 7:33 PM
I do not have Ed's fortitude to read through the pages and pages of pure drivel on Pat's moronic website.
I appreciate the nuggets that Ed shares with us on a regular basis.
It's a true pleasure to peer into the mind of the supremely stupid.
Make no mistake, it is a rare opportunity, few people are actually stupid enough not to realize how stupid they are, so most of them keep their traps shut. We are fortunate enough to have someone as dumb as Pat so we can see how they think and feel.
And we are lucky to have Ed, who risks the mind numbing task of reading it to pick out just the gems for us to enjoy.
Thank you Ed.
Posted by: DuggleBogey | December 31, 2009 7:54 PM
Re DuggleBogey
Considering that Mr. Brayton peruses the Worldnutdaily every day, he is used to absolute stupidity by this time.
Posted by: SLC | December 31, 2009 8:06 PM
I'm guessing, based on a quick perusal of Patrick's site, that my political views align more closely with his than many on this blog, but I'll agree his conclusions were a bit of a stretch.
Posted by: mroberts | December 31, 2009 8:13 PM
A bit of a stretch? If by "a bit of a stretch" you mean utterly fucking insane.
Posted by: Ed Brayton | December 31, 2009 8:15 PM
Posted by: Spartan | December 31, 2009 8:54 PM
These whining complaints are so fucking tiresome.
If you don't like a post, don't read it. My musical tastes are very different from Ed's, and I don't give a shit about most of the bands Ed posts about. But I don't go into Ed's music threads and bitch about how the bands he promotes don't deserve it.
I actually find Ed's posts about Pat to be funny, and I think Pat deserves to be mocked ruthlessly. If you don't like the Pat mockery, read different posts. But stop fucking complaining.
Posted by: Wes | December 31, 2009 10:50 PM
Can I just say that the obsession with Pat, well... it's starting to get creepy. I enjoy a good train wreck as much as the next person, but lately I've felt like your blog has become "Pat Watch 2009!"
Posted by: David | January 1, 2010 2:14 AM
I agree with Wes. Go read another post. Or get your own blog where you can discuss the pros and cons of Metamucil or whatever.
(I'll admit it, though, the temptation to tease Ed about his music is sometimes unbearable. I've given in maybe once. Or twice. Now I just don't even click on them. I know better. And since I am easily the most juvenile poster here, that's sort of saying something.)
Posted by: Leni | January 1, 2010 5:02 AM
You're hardly the most juvenile poster here.
Poopy.
Posted by: Modusoperandi | January 1, 2010 5:16 AM
what a double douchebag!
Posted by: carlitos | January 1, 2010 10:01 AM
Pat's living in Mom's basement, so it's more accurate to say that he merely aspires to be a professional douchebag.
Posted by: Scott Hanley | January 1, 2010 11:41 AM
I disagree with a lot of Ed's musical opinions, and don't give a rat's patoot about college basketball, but this is the first blog I check every day.
The Pat posts are easily identified as such. If you don't want to read about Pat, the solution is a mouse-click. It's a lot less effort than writing a complaining paragraph.
Back in my Usenet days, a wise fellow had as his sigline something to the effect that the only way to improve the signal-to-noise ratio is to inject more signal. Complaining about it increases the noise. It's still true.
Posted by: Pieter B | January 2, 2010 1:30 AM
Sorry, but saying "if you don't like the Pat posts, don't read them" is not a sufficient response, IMO. My problem with the posts about Pat is not simply that I find them dull or distasteful. Rather, I would argue that it's morally wrong to exploit the rantings of a mentally deficient individual for entertainment. It's not very different from the eighteenth-century gentlemen of leisure who used to visit Bethlem Hospital and poke the chained lunatics with sticks.
We can, and should, point and laugh at public figures, with actual power and influence, who say stupid things. For them, being mocked goes with the territory. And in a free society, it's essential for political figures to be open to criticism, especially when they talk utter bullshit. But Pat isn't a political figure, nor does he have any power or influence. He's an unemployed, mentally unbalanced man living on the poverty line. He needs treatment, not mockery. And while it's not Ed's responsibility to sort Pat's life out, it certainly is Ed's responsibility to leave Pat alone and stop baiting him. And the same responsibility lies on every reader of this blog. It's not a case of "if you don't like it, don't read it". It's a case of calling Ed out when he behaves in a morally unacceptable manner. I can't stop him from writing what he wants on his personal blog, but I can, and am morally obliged to, criticise him when I think he's being needlessly cruel.
Of course, I fully expect that several people will say "Walton, your concern is noted" or accuse me of "concern trolling" as an easy pretext for ignoring criticism of their behaviour.
Posted by: Walton | January 2, 2010 5:56 AM
Walton, as a mentally unbalanced man who has lived on, under and over the poverty line - unemployed and employed, my response to your concern is a hardy "Fuck you." Sometimes my neurological issues come out in my commentary - rather often actually, to some degree or another and when my commentary is completely unhinged because of it, I expect to be criticized for it.
And while I would totally agree that he needs treatment, that does not mean he should get a pass on being mocked - any more than I believe that I should. Mental issues, serious or otherwise are not a blank check to being mocked as a fool. I have rather serious mental issues and have never considered that they should provide me some blanket protection for being a fucking ridiculous asshole - in spite of occasionally being just that.
Posted by: DuWayne | January 2, 2010 4:11 PM