The Madness of the Bernstein

If you've been reading the Volokh Conspiracy, and increasingly one has to wonder why you would do that now that Prof. Kerr has his own blog, you've no doubt been amazed by some of Prof. Bernstein's recent posts, in which he suggests that the presence of the same rescue worker at more than one bombing scene in Lebanon proves that he is an agent of Hezbollah, and that the bodies dragged out of the rubble are being somehow transported to the bombing scenes from... well, he doesn't really explain... perhaps a giant, secret Hezbollah deep freeze... for staged photo ops. And despite a gentle counter-post from Eugene Volokh illustrating the absurdity of his claims, he goes on, and on, and on.... (Seriously - he makes the "fake moon landing" crowd look credible....)

Today he goes after one of his favorite targets, Juan Cole. Even though he agrees with Juan Cole. Fascinating stuff, really:

By the way, what does it say about Cole's readers that he feels the need to go into some detail to refute Gibson's absurd meanderings?

Well, let's see... If we go back all the way to, well, Monday another blogger wrote this:

Beyond not shedding tears, do I support a boycott of Gibson? That's a difficult question. Supposedly, he has been very nice and fair to many Jews he has worked with, and I tend think that actions speak louder than words, especially words not uttered for public consumption (H.L. Mencken, who was prejudiced against Jews, but not only was extremely fair to them as an editor, but was one of a very few public figures who advocated allowing Jews from Germany to immigrate to the U.S. in the 1930s, comes to mind).

Well, how nice. Gibson might be an okay guy if he can claim the "Some of my best friends are Jewish" response to accusations of anti-Semitism. Who was it who offered Gibson such an "easy out" of the charges of anti-Semitism levelled against him? Um... yeah. I leave it to Prof. Bernstein to explain what that tells us about his own readers.