Michele, just use this as an opportunity for you to evaluate how you blog. I can understand you wanting to be the first one out there with commentary about news items, but just try a little exercise.
Next time you get wind of a news article that sounds this outlandish, just take a step back and give it about a half a day. You’re not a journalist, you’re a blogger/commentator. You don’t have to have the first comment on it, you have to have insightful commentary.

Thank you, Michele.

…so I’ll explain in small words.
The problem isn’t believing this loony woman. The problem is trying to put forward these very limited acts, of clearly deranged people, as if they were representative of the opposing campaign.
Even if the woman HAD been attacked by some Obama-supporting black man, this fact would have nothing to do with the validity of the Obama campaign, or the values of his supporters in general. It would simply be the act of one deranged loon.
Hence, posting these other links to stories about other deranged loons, acting largely in isolation, doesn’t prove anything about Barack Obama or his supporters.
They instead prove something about you. They prove that you are so desperately partisan, and so lacking in reasoned argument or creativity, that you’ll post any pointless, inflammatory act as supposed proof of your thinking, whereas in reality they are simply proof of your LACK of thinking.
What next? Some dog peed on a McCain/Palin bumper sticker? “Dressing a moose” is some kind of liberal slang for Palin’s expensive clothing budget?
It would be cool if you actually had something to say, as opposed to this pointless, scattershot spray of paranoid loathing of all that isn’t YOU.

“Of course now we won’t believe anyone who says that they’re attacked, will we? I know you guys won’t…”
Michele, seriously….chill out. We on the left recognize that there are nutcases on both sides of the political divide. And I agree with I_Like_Dragyn’s suggestion…give outlandish stories a half a day before you write about it.

“Todd told police that while she did not remember how the backward ‘B’ got on her face, she may have done it herself since she was the only one in the car.”
Hmm, I wouldn’t go to the other extreme.

Just as I thought. You still can’t bring yourself to apologize to Obama supporters for unfairly smearing them because of this girl’s vile, racist hoax.
Admitting that this was a sick hoax is a start, Michele, but you haven’t gone far enough yet. Apologize for smearing the left by suggesting that they’d immediately try to spin a physical assault on someone.

Hmmm. I guess the GOP is batting for zero credibility. Another case of crying wolf when there isn’t a wolf in sight?
Now this after Joe, the unlicenced plumber. I guess people aren’t aware that using an unlicenced contractor means they have no legal protection if the work is done wrong or badly. That’s what contractor’s licences are for. Consumer protection that is.
But hey, it’s all “good” in the realm of the unreal right? People check your facts.When they throw out a red herring…don’t bite.

There was once a little boy who cried wolf…

There’s no shortage of crazies this year, that’s for sure. Thanks, Michelle, for publishing an update.

The only thing more “stupid and cruel” about this hoax (and the ‘reasoning’ behind it) is Michelle’s unwillingness to apologize for helping to spread it only to unjustly smear a political candidate she opposes.
Some “family values”, ‘specially emanating from a “Reformed” chick. Gosh, I can remember when bearing false witness was considered a sin.

You only give people on one side ‘way too much credit’, Michele.
You give the people who blog on your site no credit whatsoever. You give the other party’s campaign no credit at all. There’s only a very narrow segment of people you give any credit to.

“Of course now we won’t believe anyone who says that they’re attacked, will we? I know you guys won’t but I think I will until they admit they shot up their own home or fire bombed their own sign (though, they did arrest someone — so I guess that one was real, wouldn’t you agree?)”
Do I think the events actually happened?
Yes.
Do I think the owners of the property did it to himself or herself?
No.
Would I be surprised if some McCain campaign functionary paid for the arson/vandalism to be done to stir up animus against the other side?
Not in the least.

For me, the really bizarre part of the story is a blog from Fox’s VP of News. Check this claim out…
If Ms. Todd’s allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator Obama, not because they are racists (with due respect to Rep. John Murtha), but because they suddenly feel they do not know enough about the Democratic nominee.
If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain’s quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting.
What was this guy smoking?
Unless Obama had been the mugger, why on earth would this one incident cause people to reconsider their support for Obama? Doing so on this basis WOULD be racist, and colossally stupid. What an idiotic statement!
And, as an Obama supporter, I don’t see McCain’s campaign as tainted by the actions of one disturbed volunteers, unless McCain himself told her to do it…which is about as likely as Obama being the mugger!
This guy is unfair and unbalanced!

James H., I certainly understand your sentiments. But I’ll repeat myself saying that Michelle makes a valuable contribution with her blog. She really is representative of Reformed Christians, who, on the whole, are a pretty loathsome lot. It’s important people know what they are dealing with before they stumble into their dens of worship. Why any Christian would affiliate with the same church Michelle does is beyond human comprehension.

JPL nailed it. This says something about Michele. So what if some nutbag did something to someone? Do you really think the Obama campaign was responsible? Do you hold the McCain campaign responsible when someone shouts something vile at one of his rallies? What about you, Michele, when you call Obama a Marxist? What Christian love does that foster?

How are you defining Reformed Christians Robert? I think you have a misguided notion of this tradition. Michelle, despite her claims to the contrary, is not representative of the Reformed tradition at all, in any way.

pfft. your appology is accepted, michele. now rush off to write up your next slam against liberals (check hotair if you’re not coming up with any fresh ideas of your own).

But I’ll repeat myself saying that Michelle makes a valuable contribution with her blog.
I find that *very* hard to believe. She posts nothing but classless political garbage that has no religious or spiritual content at all when this is a religion site. And the blogger is supposedly a seminarian but shows no proof of that in her pathetic posts.
Every post by Michele is the same– slandering the left, venerating the right, and not a darn thing to do with Reformed theology or beliefs. It’s an entirely worthless blog that should be pulled by Beliefnet and replaced with something far more relevant to the site at large. Heck, if they want a Reformed blogger so badly, find a better one, because Michele is beyond pathetic at it.
Thank you for the contact information, James H. I look forward to sending e-mails to those people first thing in the morning. This blog is a disgrace to an otherwise fantastic site and needs to be pulled. It’s entirely devoid of any relevant or worthwhile content and offers nothing intelligent to the reader. It’s just a bunch of mindless garbage.

While I do not feel the need to drive Michele from Beliefnet, I do share frustration that it seems to have devolved into an “Obama is the Anti-Christ” political rant.
It has led her to the point of uncrotically accepting what was always a shady story, simply because it was anti-Obama in nature, and to somehow assume that it also reflected on the great majority of Obama supporters whom she persists in believing are cultists of some sort.
Believe it or not, Michele (and it seems that your don’t) we are not kinife-wielding, BB gun toting fanatics, any more than the vast majority of McCain supporters are vaguely racist frauds out to deceive the public.
I have no trouble seeing McCain suporters as honest, decent, sincere people whom I believe are mistaken, but not evil. Are there some nutcases? Yeah. But I won’t judge the whole campaign by them.
Michele, why were you so willing and eager to tar all of Obama’s followers for what was presented as the act of a lone mugger?

Michele, why were you so willing and eager to tar all of Obama’s followers for what was presented as the act of a lone mugger?
Because it allows her to pretend that she’s morally superior to others, particularly liberals or Obama supporters. She doesn’t care about anything on this blog except slandering the left and venerating the right, and in posting the most worthless, mindless garbage.
In the last few posts, Michele has not only suggested that Obama supporters would have somehow defended the attack on this girl if it had been real, but she’s also accused them of shooting and killing a bear cub, stapling Obama signs to it, then dumping the corpse on a college campus just so they could blame it on the Republicans. It’s both classless on her part, and insulting, and it needs to end.
She’s a disgrace to Beliefnet, which is an otherwise fantastic site. They need to find a much better Reformed blogger. Period.

pfft. your appology is accepted, michele. now rush off to write up your next slam against liberals (check hotair if you’re not coming up with any fresh ideas of your own).

It was clear as heck from moment one the B was backwards because she carved it in the mirror.
Why would any attacker purposely carve a backwards B?
This would have occurred to you if you weren’t hell-bent on portraying Obama supporters as violent and nutty.

J…or upside down.
I had doubts about the incident, but not because of the “B”. If she was laying on the ground and the attacker was at her head looking toward her feet, it looks right.
It’s not because of the “B”
Michele jumped the gun. I do the same thing sometimes – we are all human and fall to humanity. That doesn’t make her evil.

Michele jumped the gun.
No. She made up her mind that this vile, sick hoax was true from the moment she heard it because it immediately reinforced all of the stereotypes she believes and it allowed her to once again attack anyone who supports Obama. The smugness in her original post showed her true feelings. I’m sure it was a bitter pill to swallow to find out that the whole story was a lie.

She’s a disgrace to Beliefnet, which is an otherwise fantastic site. They need to find a much better Reformed blogger. Period.
Minnie, calm down.
You wouldn’t want a different Reformed blogger here because michele shows herself to be one of the more vulnerable Calvinists … that is, she’s much easier to exploit and take advantage of than some others.
It seems to me that plenty of people here have their own stereotypes … of Reformed Christians. Lord knows I do.

I know, I give people way too much credit.
Except when you do the opposite and assume — and accuse — the worst.
What an ugly assumption you made. Even if it had happened as alleged, how could you suggest that it bore any relation to the Obama campaign and its supporters?
And still, no apology for a baseless accusation, no contrition, no sense it will be different next time, only another self-congratulatory, defensive, and snarky post.

You wouldn’t want a different Reformed blogger here
Yes. I would. I stand by what I said– Michele’s blog is a disgrace to Beliefnet and is a stain on what is otherwise a fantastic site. It needs to be pulled and replaced with a much better Reformed blogger. Period.
I’d rather have a REAL seminarian, and a real Reformed theologian posting on this site, bringing in politics and talking about issues within the context of the Reformed faith. All Michele does is post mindless political garbage. No mention of religion, no mention of how any of what she posts fits into the Reformed tradition, nothing.
At least with an actual theologian or better Reformed blogger, they’d be bringing in context to all these posts. It wouldn’t just be a series of random links from a bunch of right-wing sites.

Still have not exhibited the Biblical response, Michelle. Reporting it was a hoax, but not taking responsibility for yourown actions, and no apology. Your blog ws never really reformed, but now, out of political pride, no longer Christian.

MizEllen, think about it. All the mugger has to hold the woman in place is the knife. If he is facing her head, how is he holding her down?
It really makes no sense to do that, when the most logical (and natural, no matter how much the man was tweaking) way to hold her down is, well, by sitting on her, so his hands are free to carve.. sorry, scrape that letter on her cheek.
And there was no way a knife could make that letter. Knives are sharp (even the dullest ones are still sharper than that) because the blade portion is /narrow/. There’s no way to make much of a mark with a knife without at /least/ breaking the skin. That wasn’t a cut, a carving, a scarring.. that was a light abrasion at best. More likely to be made with a fingernail than a sharp metal object. The mark wasn’t a cut, it was an abrasion, and far too wide to have been made by anything resembling a knife. They would’ve had to stand there, rubbing the knife in a motion similar to shaving their face with it (though much shorter strokes) to accomplish that. That’d be an odd amount of control and just plain a weird thing for some out of control criminal thug to be doing.
And that’s all even without the ‘backwards’ problem.

And here’s a question..
Why the ‘sigh’? Was she hoping it was true? I mean, in the end, isn’t a GOOD thing that this turned out to be a hoax, and was discovered so quickly to be one?
It is good that this woman, no matter what she did, wasn’t actually mugged, attacked, hit, fondled, robbed, and marked, right?
It is good the police no longer have to waste their time looking for someone who doesn’t really exist.
It is good that every person who fits that rather vague description (which would be a LOT of people) doesn’t have to worry about the police, or random vigilante citizens hunting them down and harassing them.
It is surely good that, as bad as this election cycle has been in some cases, that there AREN’T people out there carving up faces in order to somehow convince the carv-ee that they should change their vote.
Isn’t it?

“How are you defining Reformed Christians Robert? I think you have a misguided notion of this tradition. Michelle, despite her claims to the contrary, is not representative of the Reformed tradition at all, in any way.”
That’s a perfectly reasonable question.
I am defining as Reformed Christians those who define themselves as Reformed Christians to me. Of those who do, Michelle is very representative. It could be I have just run into a whole lot of (insert derogatory term here), but in my experience with Presbyterians, Reformed Church members, Baptists professing Calvinism, etc., Michelle is pretty mainstream. Eager to condemn, filled with Schadenfreude, frenzied to support political platforms, nothing I recognize as Christlike. If you’re telling me there are other Reformed Christians who are nothing like that, I don’t disbelieve you. I just don’t know them, although I suspect some of the commenters here may fall into the happier category.

Okay, there you go CRYBABIES…the blog here posted an article showing the woman lied. Boo hoo…quit yer whinin’.
Next Please!

The above post typifies the complete absence of theological/religious content that is characteristic of this blog.
Yesterday someone proposed that those among us who are so disgusted with the fact that a blog like this is hosted by beliefnet despite a complete lack of theological/religious content should contact people from beliefnet and let them know how we feel. If they want a female or reformed perspective, there are many better and more fair-minded ones out there than Michele. Either the editors of beliefnet are not aware of the content of this blog or their standards have gotten very low.
It appears, though, that Michele has deleted these posts from the comments section of the blog even though they in no way violate Beliefnet’s rules of content. So, in light of that, here again is the contact information which is all public available:
For the pr staff:
pr@beliefnetstaff.com
rebecca.freed@morris-king.com
caren.browning@morris-king.com
And for Steven Waldman, Beliefnet’s editor in chief:
Sdwaldman@beliefnetstaff.com

Strange when the only conservative who cocked her eyebrow at this whole thing was Michelle Malkin. Every other conservative blogger bought it hook, line, and sinker. It’s no wonder these people are so easy to manipulate by the Republican party, just dangle a carrot in front of them (abortion, Sarah Palin) and they’ll follow you anywhere.

anonymous reincarnate,
I just re-read Michele’s entire “aticle” – and there was not a single word of apology in it. How can you “accept” something that was never offered?
Meanwhile, I ask again, isn’t bearing false witness a sin anymore?
What a disgrace to the Reformed movement. And to Beliefnet.

Boo hoo…boo hoo…cry the LEFTY LIBS…then they plot. How can we silence the voices of those we don’t agree with? Ah yes, we must pull out our FASCIST play book. Yes now rise the FASCIST MARXIST LEFTY LIBS demanding that ONLY voices that please them and reflect THEIR view of religion are heard…hahahahahaha! Sorry crybaby Mark, no one is listening to your FASCISM…they know what it is and reject it.
Next Please!

This takes the cake, Michele McGinty. In my opinion you went way over the line with you original post and still haven’t come clean in this one. I’ve asked Beliefnet to review your judgment about the way you manage your blog. You’ve got to ask yourself, Michele: “Is what I post in compliance with Beliefnet policies?” I don’t think so and I believe that particularly during this election season, you’ve let your darker nature get out of hand.

I stand by my post from last week. Thank you, Michele, for proving its accuracy.

“It’s no wonder these people are so easy to manipulate by the Republican party, just dangle a carrot in front of them (abortion, Sarah Palin) and they’ll follow you anywhere.”
Well, face it. When you believe the world was created in seven days by some imaginary being it’s not a big stretch to buy pretty much anything. Weak, gullible minds that buy into this bologna are sitting ducks for manipulators like the Republicans.

How sad. Michele, maybe you need to take a long hard look at what is happening to you. Anger, hatred…it’s costing you your common sense.
I sincerely hope your daughter isn’t reading here anymore. It would be terrible for her to see you this way.

Folks, as long as Michele draws hits to her blog, Beliefnet could care less what she posts here. It’s making them, and her, money.
Now, if you really want to hit them where it hurts, quit coming here. Stop responding to her taunts. Stop reading her posts. Stop giving her page hits and money.
Every one of you who complain here put money into her pocket, just like those who support her. And clearly, she (and Beliefnet/FOX) don’t care as long as the money rolls in.