Lighten up, Francis.

So I’ve been away for a couple of days – family emergency – and I get back to learn (via William Teach) of a little kerfuffle regarding one of John Hawkins’ Right Wing News surveys.  This one was Conservative Bloggers Select The 25 Worst Figures In American History.  It seems Rick Moran of Right Wing Nuthouse (who doesn’t deign to link the people he’s slamming, so I’ll follow his example) wrote about the “Top 43 Dumbest Conservative Bloggers.”  Mr. Moran was offended by the lack of some names on the survey.  He finds it ridiculous that Barack Obama was included, but Jeffrey Dahmer was not.  In the immortal words of Sergeant Hulka, “Lighten up, Francis.”

I can’t speak for anyone else, but news about insane criminals like Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy, and the like doesn’t even make my radar.  The likelihood of me encountering such a person is practically nil, and my personal security is already as good as it can be, so there’s nothing there for me to do.  I have no interest in their particular brand of insanity or the crimes they committed.  To me, it seems intrusive to the victims and their families to immerse myself in the details of these crimes.  It’s too late to help their victims, and I really don’t care why killers kill.  I don’t follow that news at all, ever.  It makes absolutely no impact on my life.  I don’t think about it, and consequently, nobody like that made my list.  On the other hand, I follow politics pretty closely.  I read, watch, and think about modern politics a great deal.

About the list – it’s more or less meaningless anyway.  It’s a fun survey – I find it interesting to see what other bloggers put on the various lists – and John sends this stuff out regularly on various topics like movies and whatever else strikes his fancy.  It’s not scientific.  It’s just a snapshot of what various bloggers think at the time.  My practice with all email is to read it, and then delete it, reply to it or archive it immediately.  So I responded, quickly, with:

• Barack Obama
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt
• Jimmy Carter
• Lyndon Johnson
• Howard Zinn
• Zbigniew Brezinski
• Noam Chomsky
• Al Gore
• Rachel Carson

These people came to mind because they have affected my life and the lives of people I know, unlike Gacy, Dahmer, and whoever else Moran thinks should have made the list.  Like Troglopundit, I wish I’d thought of Margaret Sanger.  And if I’d spent more time thinking about it, Tim McVeigh would have made the list as well.  But that was the list right off the top of my head for better or worse, and frankly, I think some nut job like Moran’s pick of Bundy who kills, what, 50 or so people? has a lot less impact on our society and culture and daily life than anyone I did put on the list.  Scanning Moran’s post, I can see some historical figures who deserve to be on it.  I did a paper on William Walker twenty years ago, and yes, I wish I’d thought of him as well.  He actually did a great deal to shape modern politics – we’re still dealing with the fallout of that asshat’s behavior; he helped create the environment that created the Somozas, Chavez and a bunch of other tin pot dictators.  As I said, it was a top-of-the-head response – even before the family emergency I mentioned it’s been a busy couple of weeks.  (As evidenced by the lack of posting here, at the Examiner and in Hot Air’s Green Room.)

So my advice to you, Rick, is first, to lighten up.  Second, if you don’t like the shape of this list, shoot John Hawkins an email and ask to be included next time so you can help form a list more to your liking next time.