Behind Enemy Lines

BulbWell, as some of you might guess, J.J. Sefton’s not my real name, though since November of 2008, I feel more and more as if I’m in a prison.  I live in Manhattan, my significant other is a professor at a major institution of higher learning and, though I love her with every fibre of my being, to be charitable we don’t exactly see eye to eye politically, and I work as a writer in both show business as well as advertising.  Taken all together, it’s like being bound hand and foot inside D-Block behind the walls of a maximum security prison with a ball gag stuffed in my mouth, surrounded by a dozen muscle bound gorillas named Turdelle.  Well, what am I going to do, right?

But wait! There’s more! Recently, I’ve been working freelance at a major liberal news publication (pardon the redundancies) which shall also remain nameless, but has been described due to its lack of credibility/intellectual honesty by some of my friends as “an amateur little webzine.” Although I had apprehensions about working there because of its political leanings, mercifully, my gig as a writer has limited me to writing responses to RFP’s from potential advertisers (the paycheck doesn’t hurt either, by the way). As a side note, that is journalism today; basically hacks, scum and shysters pitching story ideas to “journalists” as opposed to the latter actually going out and hunting actual news stories to report.  Or, in a word, prostitution. Apologies to the ladies and transvestite junk-tuckers who work hard for the money.

But I digress.  So, my first few days are all fairly harmless enough, writing up dumb pitches for stories involving automobiles, movies, software, etc., but across the wide aisle are the “writers” working on stories for the website.  And then, the inevitable happens.  The stupid I have dreaded finally wafts over the void and hits my eardrum:

“Hey, didn’t Trump have a board game?” “Yeah, let’s get it and see if there’s some sort of angle that really REVEALS something about him!”

Yes, gentle reader. These are the heirs to H.L. Mencken and Theodore White. And yet, though you’d never really know it by reading the papers, we have a woman who sold the State Dept. by the pound, kept and conducted official government business on illegal servers, exposing top government secrets, not to mention goniffed most of the state of Arkansas (what there is of it to goniff), was an acolyte of Saul Alinsky and on her watch allowed 4 brave Americans to die in Benghazi while lying about the nature of the attack and the fact that they lied to cover an arms smuggling deal to ISIS terrorists in Syria.  Just off the top of my head, people.  And yet, from the fearless members of the 5th Column 4th Estate just a few feet away from me… nothing.  Nothing but Trump, that is.

And then today, I’m writing a proposal for some sort of interactive article to promote a new TV series in the vein of “Wall Street.” The idea is to find scandals, stupid quotes and other bits of nasty trivia but all my boss could guide me to were websites about Chris Christie, Dan Quayle, Rudy Giuliani, Dubya, Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann.  I bet you’re seeing a pattern here.  I tried sneaking in a few “corpse-men,” “57 states” and other references, but to no avail.  Oh well, within a few minutes I was mercifully onto another, much less politically-oriented assignment. It’s sad really. I really like my colleagues, but what the hell am I going to do?

It’s one thing to grow up with a certain political viewpoint and mindset, but hopefully, along the way you are at least exposed to opposing viewpoints where you can at least understand why someone you don’t agree with thinks the way they do.  That’s how I grew up, but that was from the 70’s through the 90’s, culminating on 9/11/01.  But today, people are educated/brainwashed into having a default leftist mindset and to shout down anyone who deviates from that in the slightest. Or at least to treat that person as insane/wrong/evil and to be shunned or be given the Torquemada treatment.

Oh well, as Vito taught Michael, “keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.”

60 comments to “Behind Enemy Lines”
  1. All best wishes J.J. Thanks for going behind enemy lines to do a little recon and spread subtle discord.

  2. Nice site JJ !

    Hope you Scotch-guarded everything , you know, for the morons. Just to be safe.

  3. Congrats on the blog, especially snagging the name. Always love your comments at the HQ. I know how you feel. I’ve only commented several times there, even though I’ve been lurking since right after the HQ went up. I’m always hours behind any new thread. I’m your age, and grew up in the Bronx. From near Yankee Stadium to Kingsbridge to Riverdale..Right smack in the middle of the trifecta of the snooty schools, Horace Mann, Riverdale Country School and Fieldston. I I could see RCS and HM from my apartment. Luckily most of my cohorts were more towards the conservative side, but I know what you mean about NY being lib town. I was Gene Simmons personal bodyguard way back when and even though Gene was very much a conservative mensch, the crowd he ran with made me insane. I left the city over 30 years ago, but always come back every few months. All my friends feel the same way you do, increasingly after 911. Every time I came home, whether by plane or car, seeing the twin towers gave me a thrill to be back and see my friends and family. Now, that thrill is gone. Coming up the Jersey Tpke, I couldn’t be sure if the buildings I saw were NYC or Hoboken. Keep on keeping on my pixel friend, and best of luck with the blog.

  4. “Hope you Scotch-guarded everything , you know, for the morons. Just to be safe.”

    *clomp clomp clomp*
    *sprawls on sofa, feet up on coffee table*

    Got any fizzy water?

  5. Good stuff!

    Trump board game?
    Lefty still be looking for their “binders full of women”, high school hair cut, “war on women”, 47%-er type AstroTurf jobs to pull on him, to be sure.

  6. Best of success JJ. I understand this is just to collect emails from us gentiles for the great matzoh uprising of 2018. But I’ll play along. …for now.

  7. I might as well add my stank to this place, too. Thanks for the heads-up, JJ. Always looking for fresh pixels to read. So far, I like the cu—- well, you get it.

  8. Prison, indeed.

    I feel like a cat waiting to pounce. I patiently wait for my lib friends to bring up a topic, then I gently add my take — it’s strangely gratifying.

  9. Thanks for all the well-wishes and other vile outpourings I take as affection. So, is the term “morons” copyrighted by Ace, or should we refer to you all as “Cutters” or “Jibbers?”

  10. I was told there may be a bandwagon around here somewhere . . .

    Hope this pans out, we’ll all be listening.

    And . . . What do you get when you cross an agnostic with a dyslexic and an insomniac?

    Someone who stays up all night wondering if there really is a dog.

  11. Honestly, JJ, I just peaked in to see if you had stolen Vic away from the HQ. No? Dajmn!

    Best of luck, lookin’ good so far…

  12. 2 steps up from Lesbian poetry you say.
    I think in the grand hierarchy of truth though that still may be 1 step above a made up field with even more made up degrees.

    (I REGRET NOTHING!)
    (Ok, maybe I should have had a better plan before the made up field with at least a real degree.)

  13. “it’s like being bound hand and foot inside D-Block behind the walls of a maximum security prison with a ball gag stuffed in my mouth, surrounded by a dozen muscle bound gorillas named Turdelle.”

    Man, if Hallmark only knew….

  14. Again, thanks and please throw some love at CBD. This was his idea and I’m in the co-pilot’s seat.

  15. And just to piss off whoever is behind the door running the comment moderation machine I’ll add another comment.

    I have to follow this? Jeebuz, I knew I should have cranked out some crap to be first, now I actually have to work. Way to raise standards Sefton!

  16. Congratulations.

    You have now given me a second blog that I will be too slow to comment on.

    What am I doing in the corner over here you ask?

    Ummm. Nothing. Nothing at all……

  17. No worries, dude. Can’t speak for CBD but this is not a full time thing for me. I am going to try to achieve one post a day, and not an open thread.

  18. Congrats on the new site! And yes, it’s tough being surrounded by Lefties. Any time someone says to write my Senators, I think “Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell really aren’t going to change their minds on this”. You have to keep trying because not all Lefties have closed minds. We need everyone that we can reach.

  19. Schumer and Gillibrand. And she’s supporting the Iran surrender. She doesn’t go to the can without written permission in triplicate from Chuck, so it leads me to believe his tepid though seemingly important opposition is Kabuki/Bukkake theater. Still, I’ll try and get that dame on the Ameche.

  20. Long time lurker slithering out from under my keyboard to wish you the best JJ and CBD.

    Live long and prosper!

  21. (long-time lurger at AoSHQ)

    JJ – good on you – I sympathize! I am married to someone who works for a VERY liberal NE senator; you learn to be careful with the words when the spouse’s friends are around.

    Bill Whittle is someone whose world, and worldview, changed on 9/11, like you.

    He has some brilliant essays over at http://www.ejectejecteject dot com

    Also available at http://fearlessdream.blogspot dot com/2010/03/index-of-bill-whittle-america-essays dot html

    If your wife hasn’t read them, try COURAGE, CONFIDENCE, and HISTORY, then the others…

  22. In my experience, lib friends are like jellyfish in a sea of liberalism, not very aware of their surroundings, but just going along with the current.

    They tend to have no idea of any other viewpoint, and think that non-liberals are beneath contempt.

    They rarely notice the double-entendre “shiv” between the ribs…;)

  23. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&, yay ampersands!! and everybody go take a picture, the barrel in this place appears to have never been used!

  24. Does CBD do website design, or was he “just” the one to motivate you to get started? I’m in desperate need of a website if it’s the first.

  25. WHOA! This is HIS idea and site! Give credit where due. Anyway, I think this is standard WordPress design but ask CBD anyway.

  26. I read AoS regularly, but haven’t decided if I should post there more often than I (very occasionally) do. I’m glad you’re here.

  27. Hi, J.J. Long time lurker, sometimes commenter at the other place. Looking forward to reading more. Take it easy behind those enemy lines.

  28. Good on ya, J.J.!

    I, too, work in the deep shadows and it’s a tough row to hoe. I can’t imagine I haven’t been secretly vetted by this point, so they probably know I’m conservative, but I’m a very useful engine, pretty low on the totem pole, and I have never, and will never, use any confidential knowledge gleaned to my employers’ detriment. That is a matter of personal honor. I would never cheat on my husband, either!

    Anyway, good luck, here, and in your career. Now to go offer congrats to CBD!

  29. I sympathize wholeheartedly. My own wife is in media and academia, while I’m a writer too. I know exactly one person here in the Northeast who isn’t a complete in-the-tank Obama/Hillary worshipper. I actually know people who literally get their news from the Daily Show.

    Some days it’s hard not to go mad. They say and (apparently) believe things which are palpably insane, and they treat common-sense statements of fact as horrible, unspeakable offenses.

    So keep up the good fight! And since you’re literally in the belly of the beast . . . take notes. Keep a file. Keep track of who pulls your editor’s leash, and where the money comes from, and who gets favors, and where the bodies are buried. Might come in handy some day.

  30. Thanks, dude. I’m really working in the advertising dept. at said media outlet, but the default attitude mindset, though not always in your face, is quite obviously there. Meh, it’s only freelance and I can use the money!

  31. Appreciate that, sir. I guess Ace is like an iceberg, with like 85% of the visitors lurking. But comments and suggestions are always welcome.

  32. JJ,

    Enjoyed reading your background and story.
    Unfortunately , there are a LOT of us behind enemy lines these days.
    But whatever else he has done or will do , Trump has parachuted in an in fusion of resolve to persevere and win this war.
    You, via the pen, have been an effective guerrilla fighter on AOSHQ–and other places I guess.
    Thanks for the website.
    Carry on.

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