metablog

This is going to be quite entertaining, in the same way that I occasionally enjoy a stop at Robert Stacy McCain's place or the Corner followed by a chat with Stephen on the found inanities, but much easier, because the commentary is already provided:

Ace of Spades HQ began in 2004. Its eponymous blogger, Ace, started the site for three reasons: he wanted to inject his views about American foreign policy into the media, he desired a vanity project, and he sought an outlet for his spite.

His blog is a success on all counts.

On an average weekday, it isn't unusual for it to attract 80,000 visits. Fans site his sarcasm and humor as draws. Introducing Ace as the 2008 Blogger of the Year at CPAC, an annual conference attended by movement conservatives, the presenter described him as a man of colorful language who isn't afraid to take note and take names, saying that Ace "describes himself as being hard right, with a left-leaning sense of decorum and taste, meaning he has none at all."

...

Atop the banner on Ace's site is the motto, "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting floats." Shtick? It's hard to say. In the circles of the Blogosphere where Ace writes, there is this weird idea that battle analogies map onto public discourse. So there is little doubt, for example, that Ace thinks he is doing the rhetorical equivalent of slitting throats. The problem is that this makes no sense at all. In piratical battle if you slit someone's throat you kill him, and take one step closer to vanquishing the opposing ship. There is no parallel in the world of political conversation, where success is to persuade, not to vanquish.

This week, I'll be posting each day on Ace of Spades HQ, delving deeper into its mysteries.

(Astute readers, or at least the three of you who bother to click on the links I provide you with, will note that the quoted passage is from Friedersdorf's previous post, which introduces the target of metacommentary, rather than the linked post, which is the beginning of said commentary.)