It got to the point where Daily Kos readers were actively calling for Schmalfeldt to issue a mea culpa and delete his diary post. Instead of a mea culpa, Schmalfeldt wrote another post that politely told anyone who was offended where they could go, for all intents and purposes.
Was Schmalfeldt's piece offensive? Yours truly didn't think it was, but then again, I'm a guy with an eye towards biting sarcasm and satire. I saw the vast majority of the piece as dripping with sarcasm, especially when it came to the following:
Heck, if you're a man and you're honest with yourself, you LIKE being on the "doling it out" end of anal sex. How many heterosexual men reading this diary right now have never asked their wife or girlfriend to just take a deep breath, relax, "I'll just put in the tip and we'll see how it goes," and then you ram it home like Captain Kidd jamming his sword back into his scabbard while she hollers "takeitouttakeitouttakeitout" and you tell her to just relax and it won't hurt so bad and she starts kicking and screaming "takeitOUTtakeitOUTtakeitOUT youfuckingbastardpieceofshit" and you finally do (because the walls are thin and your neighbors just LOVE calling the cops) and you tell her she should have at least given herself a chance to relax and enjoy it and she (if she's your wife) doesn't let you anywhere near her with "that thing" for weeks and if she's your girlfriend she stops returning your calls?
Some people thought Schmalfeldt was being callous and juvenile. Others thought he actually condoned rough, non-consensual sex, gay or straight. A few commentators pointed out what they thought to be "rape language" and took Schmalfeldt to task. Two commentators who were rape survivors were "triggered" by the prostate exam illustration (yes, the same one that was also posted in "The True Reasons Why Conservatives Are Against Gay Marriage.") The criticism bordered on vitriolic and borderline-slanderous, so much so that one commentator chimed in, worried that defending Schmalfeldt would get him banned from Daily Kos.
I wanted to get some background on the whole thing and find out what Schmalfeldt was all about. Instead, I ran into what reads as a gloat piece from Robert Stacy McCain's blog:
Schmalfeldt created that Photoshop of Palin bleeding with a stake through her forehead to illustrate a post he wrote under his “Bill Matthews” alias at the Examiner, a deceit he perpetrated after his harassment of fellow Examiner contributors got Schmalfeldt axed as the “Liberal in Baltimore” columnist at the Examiner. He returned as “Bill Matthews” of Wisconsin (despite being a Maryland resident not named Matthews) and kept up that charade until getting banned permanently from the Examiner in August.
Photoshopped images of Republicans spattered in blood is a favorite theme with Schmalfeldt, as shown by an image of Allen West he created to illustrate a May post at Daily Kos.
So much for the Schmalfeldt “image integrity” lecture, eh? My apologies for using “Schmalfeldt” and “integrity” in the same sentence.
Schmalfeldt is forever burning bridges behind him as he careens from disaster to disaster caused by his antisocial personality. He never accepts responsibility for his failures, always externalizing blame onto his scapegoated enemies. The classic example of this was when Schmalfeldt, clumsily attempting to smear “homophobic” conservatives, published a May 18 Daily Kos diary about anal sex.
Go ahead and click that link. Double-dog dare ya.
To say that Schmalfeldt’s graphic discussion of what he called “the Butt Stuff” was obscene and offensive is to understate the matter. Perhaps the most adequate description is “Too Disgusting for Daily Kos,” which is really saying something.
And another from Lee Stranahan:
R.S. McCain has been putting the career of Bill Schmalfeldt into proper perspective over at The Other McCain and it felt it was time to highlight another aspect of Schmalfeldt’s work and personality.
Bill Schmalfeldt is disgusting.
That sounds like a petty insult. It’s not. In the case of Mr. Schmalfeldt, it’s true and very specific. He is intentionally sickeningly repulsive and his writings show a sexual obsession that is profoundly disturbing.
I’m not a prude. I’m not easily offended. This isn’t even a liberal / conservative thing. Bill Schmalfeldt actually managed to offend the readers at the Daily Kos so much that he was essentially run off the website back in May of this year in an article entitled The REAL Conservative Case Against Gay Marriage.
Say, where have we heard that name before? Last mention of Stranahan on DDSS was on the "SWAT-Gate" post, where he played a rather significant role alongside Brandon Darby in their complex hit job of political activist and infamous "Speedway Bomber" Brett Kimberlin. These days, the former liberal-turned-conservative feathers his bed over at Breitbart.
After wading through various posts from McCain, Stranahan, Schmalfeldt himself and Matt Osborne, what I found was...a mess. Stranahan claims he's been stalked and harassed by Schmalfeldt, McCain piles on in defense of Stranahan and Schmalfeldt attacks Stranahan by bringing up countless unsavory aspects of his life before touching the helm of St. Andrew's stained garment.
There's little point in trying to sort this shit out except for my own general amusement, so I'll save others the drama and stop here. In short, I thought the criticism aimed at Schmalfeldt's article back at Daily Kos was overdone and borderline malicious. I also thought Schmalfeldt's banishment from Daily Kos was a bit heavy-handed, as well. In a way, it makes me glad to have my own blog, where I don't have to worry about being shut out after posting material that others find controversial.
