I just finished reading about some psycho who'd been harassing Jeff Goldstein (lots of disgusting pedophilic threats by her against his child here).

I've been nursing a few theories which seem largely confirmed in this case -- particularly that the field of psychology (double for anyone who remains a permanent academic in the field) attracts those wanting to heal themselves; those who we should (unfortunately) be least likely to allow near another psychologically-damaged person. I say this not as an absolute rule, but it seems to be a trend. (Most of my most screwed-up friends in college were in psych; some of the worst cases were those with one more or parents in the profession. I also had friends who complained about their counsellors' obvious neuroses. Sheesh.)

In this particular case, when I read the disturbed woman's name and profession, alarm bells went off in my head: I remembered her.

Sure enough, she'd posted here too -- attracted here by a post about Ward Churchill being exposed as a fraud. Her comment was "Thank the lord there are some professors willing to speak the truth." A perfectly sensible thing for an atheist to say about a fellow "academic" caught in a lie about being a Native American.

I had read her blog, found it rather disturbing for some reason that escapes me at the moment (probably her near-incoherant hatred of Christians -- coincidence?), half-composed a response, but never got around to posting it. Guess that worked out okay. Somehow, leftism just brings the psychos out of the woodwork. Jeff Goldstein isn't the first anti-liberal to be harassed in this manner: the guys over at Powerline have been, so have La Shawn and Michelle Malkin. And she personally also appears to be have been obsessed with Professor Bainbridge.

Some people -- apparently, mostly on the left -- simply cannot tolerate the idea they are wrong, or even simply that others disagree with them. I get a few visitors here (now and then) who seem positively obsessed with the idea I disagree with their view, but mostly they just want to endlessly re-post the same argument over and over, ignoring any counter-evidence. It's annoying, but ultimately only a waste of time.

But the larger trend is a serious problem for today's political situation. Truly, there have always been fruitcakes on the right, but over on the other side of the political divide, unfortunately, the inmates seem to be running the asylum.