Instapundit has paid us the supreme compliment. Glenn Reynolds's kind words suggest that we're beginning to land some punches on our old-media adversary, deputy editorial page editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune Jim Boyd, known here variously as "the cowardly lion of Portland Avenue" and "Boydot" for reasons that will become apparent below. Boyd is the kind of bully who uses his megaphone to call names but who absolutely refuses to come out for a fair fight.

On August 18, the Star Tribune editorial page published our column on John Kerry's Kurtz chronicles: "Apocalypse Kerry." It was a straightforward reported opinion piece, as much a critique of mainstream media coverage as of John Kerry.

This past Sunday the Star Tribune published Boyd's extraordinarily abusive column criticizing us personally as smear artists and frauds: "Republican smear machine can't stand up to the facts." We responded in two long posts on Sunday, "The empire strikes back" and "A further response to Jim Boyd."

We also issued a challenge to Boyd to debate us on our Northern Alliance Radio Network show this Saturday regarding Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia tall tale (we'll be broadcasting live from the Minnesota State Fair). To no one's surprise, Boyd has failed to respond to our challenge. Since Monday evening we have accordingly posted daily "Waiting for Boydot" updates.

On Tuesday one of our readers forwarded "A suggestion for Boydot." Yesterday we began to learn a bit more about Boydot's deep thoughts. With the invaluable help of our readers, we explored "Boydot's hermeneutics," then "Boydot's epistemology" and "Boydot's judgment." We continued early this morning with "Epistemologically speaking."

Stay tuned for our daily "Waiting for Boydot" updates until our Saturday show as well as our upcoming Sunday point/counterpoint with Boyd in the Star Tribune. Boydot demands the last word, of course, if not the last laugh. We seem to be learning a little bit more about Jim Boyd every day and I'm afraid to say we've already learned more than we ever wanted to know.

Posted by Scott at 02:17 PM  |    |  

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