Brooks Bayne

Skeevy

This is in response to the numerous people who have asked what my beef is with a certain professional blog commenter, and talk show not-host, I’ll refer to as “Skeevy”. Typically, I reserve my public disdain for Marxists, shysters in the tea party movement, beltway douchebags, and emo “adults”, but I’m making an exception in this case.

Some have suggested that my position toward Skeevy is because I “wanted to be a guest on their show and they wouldn’t have me”. Let’s settle that nonsense straight away. I’ve never asked to be on any show, including Skeevy’s, or anyone else’s. In fact, and this can be corroborated by anyone who’s worked with me in the Tea Party movement for the last year and a half, I don’t want or need the spotlight. I don’t even speak at the Tea Party events I have organized. I have routinely turned down requests for radio and TV. Besides, their show is a little too campy and queer acting for my taste, even if I were wanting to be a talking head. I had plenty of spotlight from my touring days (yes, I even toured playing music for almost 10 years), thanks!

The next suggestion is that I’m “just a blogger that nobody knows” and I’m “making all this up for publicity”. That’s a cute one, but, granted, I’m not a celebretard, and I don’t aspire to be one. However, I’ve been involved in the sale of 3 tech companies, including my last one to Amazon.com in 2008. I also helped start the Tea Party movement and I’m still one of its biggest activists today. Quite a few people know who I am. And just because I have a blog, doesn’t mean that I consider myself a blogger, or even a blog commenter. I leave such designations for those people who deserve, and have earned them.

Last year, I met Skeevy in L.A. after only knowing of him a few months on ze Twitter. Seemed like a typical neo-Libertarian from what I could tell. He was in town for a political event that was talking place the next day that I was also planning to attend. A few of us hung out, had some drinks and discussed the weather and politics.

The subject of gay marriage came up and I shared the view that I’ve held for a long time. I’m against it, but if a state wants to allow it, per the 10th amendment, that’s the state’s call. Skeevy quickly questioned how I “could be against freedom”. I then explained all the historical, scientific and legal reasons for my position. I proffered much more than a typical “because” response due to the fact that I’m fairly well-versed on the subject. It’s clearly a state’s rights issue (as supported by Baker v Nelson), as long as there’s no discrimination based on race (Loving v Virginia). His position was the typical neo-Libertarian blather I’ve heard before ad nauseum…”You’re just wrong.”<ok, commenter of blogs, is it time for another drink yet?>

I found out that I couldn’t attend the political event with my acquaintance because of a miscommunication about the number of people going with them to the event. So, at the table, as was suggested by the girl Skeevy was “hanging out” with at the time, Skeevy should take me with him since he had a +1 available. His response was immediate: “No. He’s an asshole, because he thinks gays shouldn’t be allowed to get married.” There were at least a half dozen people at the table who heard the comment.

I didn’t think much of the classless affront in a political forum. That’s common when people have opposing political views. I mean, if he would’ve said, “No, he can’t come with me just because he’s an asshole”, there probably wouldn’t be more to this story. But, due to the “because he thinks gays shouldn’t be allowed to get married” qualification, and the fact that his show panders to conservatives, here we are. I was convinced that, due to his night shift job, and their conservative audience, his political convictions on this subject would be understandably offputting to many who watch the show.

I’ve since called him out on this position of his, which he publicly denies, even though there were a half dozen people there who heard his statement to me that night. He’s acted tough over there in NYC behind that Twitter account of his. So, I told him he could talk to me about it the next time he saw me if he didn’t like me calling him out publicly. Well, what do you know? He would have a chance to set me straight.

Fast-forward to June 21st, 2010. My son was flying into town and I get a call from a friend from DC, who was in town for the same political event as the one I mentioned above from last year. I told him I was picking up my son from LAX, but he encouraged me to stop by after I picked up my son, for a few minutes, anyway. So I did. My son and I met some cool people including a Hollywood director who wants me to help him with a Tea Party movie.

As I was leaving, my good friend, Tony Katz, pulls me into a discussion about the 14th Amendment (he knows I like the Constitutional discussions). Just after I join this group of guys, Tony sees Skeevy (who was about 10 feet away), who I didn’t know was at this year’s event, and asks him to join our discussion. Skeevy acted like he was coming our way…until he saw me and heard Tony say my name. At that point, Skeevy does an abrupt about-face and walks away. My 13 year old son, who was standing right beside me, asked, “Why did that guy turn around so fast when he saw you?” I laughed. Our impromptu group finished our chat about the 14th, and my son and I departed.

I figured I’d chide Skeevy on Twitter the next day for being such a spineless hypocrite (previously, I didn’t realize how spineless since he plays up that Army border gig he had every chance he gets on Twitter when he wants to pretend he’s tough). He first responds via @ reply with “xoxo”. Then it hits him that I had a followup, and his next response was to claim that he didn’t know I was even at the event. Utter hilarity! I wasn’t really going to beat Skeevy down in front of my son. Not unless Skeevy was going to trash talk me over something other than a political viewpoint, then I would’ve demonstrated to my son, and to Skeevy, how southerners deal with bi-coastal indiscretionists (just coined). I’ll be sure to get Skeevy’s attention next time, since standing 10 feet away from him as he’s looking right at me, while the person who called him over is pointing at me and saying my name isn’t enough to make my presence known. <cough>bs</cough>

Personally, I don’t care if Skeevy doesn’t like me as an individual. The feeling is mutual, as I don’t hang out with anyone who acts as wimpy, reactionary, and negative as he does. Although, I do think others need to know his underlying beliefs, considering he panders to conservatives for ratings on a daily basis. It’s important that conservatives know this guy is out there, on a network they watch, who thinks they’re “assholes” privately for being against gay marriage - while he’s winking at them publicly. In a word…skeevy.