Grand inquisitor, Intercollegiate Studies Institute employee, and amateur blues musician Stephen Herreid feels very threatened that I said he should apologize to Artur Rosman for this disgusting post, so he decided to publish my email to him and insinuate that I’m guilty of conservative treason. You can read it here. Honestly I think I come off pretty well.

I mentioned that he works at ISI and that I hoped the number of articles — really, there are a lot, this is not a one-off thing — he has written going after trads and porchers hadn’t been encouraged by his superiors; he says he found that “menacing.” Boo hoo. I know many who share the concern that the institution, for which I have great respect and have benefitted from professionally, not devolve into GOP/conservative movement boosterism of the sort Herreid seems to wish he was the vanguard of. He edited the acronym ISI out of my email to him, presumably because he knows what he’s doing is shameful, so I note it here in the hope that this sparks some conversation.

There’s a lot wrong with Herreid’s post; I said if he didn’t apologize he could expect to hear from the blog, by which I meant this space, not the Daily Caller, which is not a blog. He knows that, but frames the piece around the Daily Caller so he can claim I’m holding a double standard, criticizing him for his ad hominem attack while working for a publication founded and edited by a person who defended Romney’s 47 percent remark. I suspect he also knows that there’s a big difference between making an intellectual argument about tax-payers and tax-receivers and attacking the character of the poor.

He claims:

J. Arthur Bloom … criticized me in an email sent to my place of work, made allusions to my employers that I found menacing, and seemed to me to be trying to use a reputable, patriotic, pro-free-market publication to intimidate me into apologizing for my defense of the American way. I cannot respect that, even if Bloom does claim to represent a publication that I very much admire.

If Herreid thinks it’s necessary to treat Rosman the way he did to defend the American way, then there’s really nothing further to be said. The ends justify the means. Vote GOP. And if Herreid feels intimidated that I said I’d blog about him, well, maybe he’s not the brave defender Christendom needs.

The Mitrailleuse will continue to be a place where well-intentioned people of the left and right can discuss ways to get away from people who conduct themselves like Mr. Herreid.

Update: I’m reminded of something a wise person once wrote to me: “It is very easy to convince yourself that you’ve dealt handily with the devil without selling so much as an inch of your soul. But the devil knows the difference, and so do you.” Just so.