Protein Wisdom (blog)

Protein Wisdom is a constitutional conservative-libertarian weblog created by former academic and sometime fiction writer Jeff Goldstein—a self-described classical liberal.

Background

Barrett Brown of The Huffington Post has described the blog as catering to "one of the most collectively cerebral audiences one may find within the right side of the blogosphere". ^[1] Goldstein's respect for the legacy of Hunter S. Thompson is an enduring theme, as is his sardonic allusions to such popular cult figures as Martha Stewart and the fictional Billy Jack. The blog is known for its bawdy overtones, surrealistic sense of humor, and biting wit.^[2] The site moved past the nine-million-hit mark in March 2008; Goldstein is noted for his eccentric, intellectual work, best captured in his oddball collections of posts (e.g., "red pills found behind the sofa cushions,"^[3] and "the protein wisdom conceptual series"^[4]). He's also known for his highly ironic entries^[5] (one of which was picked up by Howard Kurtz of The Washington Post^[2]), and discussions of hermeneutics (from an intentionalist stance^[6]), with a concentration on how interpretive strategies both inform and reinforce certain philosophical assumptions and, by extension, social policies. Goldstein is particularly critical of identity politics,^[7] racialism^[8] and multiculturalism.^[9] The blog's title comes from a line in a piece of Goldstein's fiction, written during his years at the University of Denver, and relates to the idea of the possibility of genetic memory; any connection to other iterations of the phrase are coincidental.

Controversies

Goldstein vocally opposed the abrupt change of financial arrangements by Pajamas Media in 2009, which deprived him — and other bloggers such as The Anchoress and Ace of Spades HQ — of income from PJM-mediated advertising. He also publicly chastised those he refers to as GOP pragmatists or realists for their criticism of Rush Limbaugh's answer to a question about the coming Obama presidency, once again relying on linguistics and hermeneutics to make the point that "losing more slowly" is still losing, and that there is nothing more pragmatic, as a political strategy, than standing on principle^[10]

In 2016, he was a vocal critic of the Trump nomination and of the idea of "White Nationalism" ^[11] – which he equated with progressivism and identity politics, marking it as anti-conservative / classical liberal – leading to his being blocked on social media by such high-profile right-side pundits as Laura Ingraham, Tammy Bruce, Ace of Spades, and the majority of the regular columnists at Breitbart Media. His site was later hacked, and no fix has yet been found to restore his archives.

Deborah Frisch incident

On July 4, 2006, University of Arizona adjunct professor Deborah Frisch started writing comments at Protein Wisdom. Two days later, she wrote "You live in Colorado, I see. Hope no one JonBenets your baby." She then added: "I reiterate: If some nutcase kidnapped your child tomorrow and did to him what was done to your fellow Coloradan, JonBenet Ramsey, I wouldn't give a damn."^[12] She later resigned and apologized,^[13] saying "I don’t think professors should do that. I crossed the line."^[14] Her behavior gained nationwide news coverage.^[15] Following further incidents, Goldstein obtained a restraining order and preliminary injunction against her. Goldstein has said he took temporary breaks from blogging to deal with continued harassment from Frisch, who has faced continued legal problems since her relocation to the Pacific Northwest.^[16] Goldstein has been accused by some of "overreacting", whereas others from the "Gerbil Nation" (those who track Frisch's movement online) have applauded him for "standing up to her". Conservative bloggers have alleged cyberstalking and other strange behavior by Frisch since then.^[16][17] In 2015, Frisch was arrested four times on charges including stalking, menacing, criminal trespass, and initiating a false police report.^[18][19][20]

On April 26, 2017 – after having been arrested for violating the Colorado protection order in November 2016 and extradited from California to Weld County, Colorado – Frisch was sentenced in a plea deal wherein she pled guilty to felony stalking and harassment. She requested to be returned to California to live with her parents, adding an additional 45 days to her jail time to allow the interstate compact to take effect. Jail time for the November 16 incident totaled 7 1/2 months. She was sentenced to 10 years' probation; a prohibition from posting online about private citizens (this includes all social media platforms); supervised Internet access and potential state review of her computer and phone; mandatory courses in victim empathy and moral decision making; and state supervision over compliance with prescribed medications for bi-polar disorder. On behalf of the victims, Jeff Goldstein read a prepared statement to the court before sentencing. Frisch's free speech defense was dismissed as immaterial once she pled guilty to a felony in exchange for dismissal of four other felonies, including threatening a judge. After a fallout with her parents, Frisch was required to return to Colorado under the conditions of the interstate pact. Once back in Colorado, Frisch incurred new felony charges, including threatening and harassing her former parole officer and her family.

On November 16, 2017, Ms Frisch, who was acting as her own counsel, failed to appear at a revocation of probation hearing in Weld County, CO, in re: the Goldstein case, and began hiding out in San Diego County, California and later Oregon. A nationwide warrant, along with a number of local warrants, was issued out of Colorado. Since her initial sentencing in April 2017, Frisch had been charged with several new felonies. After firing two attorneys, Frisch, in an October 6, 2017 hearing, asked for and was granted by Judge Shannon Lyons both the right to represent herself and a travel waiver to return to California to see her own doctors and ophthamollogist. While in California on release, Ms Frisch escalated her online and telephonic harassment of several of the victims in her Colorado cases, including a number of law enforcement officials and their families. Frisch is facing multiple new felony and misdemeanor charges in Colorado.

Active on Twitter and through email and blogspot, Frisch continued to harass and taunt her victims and law enforcement between Nov 16 and Nov 23rd. On November 23, 2017, Mr Goldstein and members of "Gerbil Nation" were able to use various Frisch-dedicated websites Ms Frisch was known to visit to narrow down her whereabouts using IP addresses and prior knowledge of Frisch's computer settings. Frisch had fled from San Diego County, CA, to Bend, OR, where she took up short term residence in the Riverhouse on the Deschutes Hotel. Using content gleaned from Ms Frisch's Tweets, Mr Goldstein narrowed down the hotels at which she might potentially be staying and, via phone, was able to locate the hotel at which she was registered. From there, Bend OR police dispatch was contacted; given Ms Frisch's warrant information along with the make/model of her vehicle, driver's license number, and social security number; and on the evening of Thanksgiving 2017, Bend Police took Ms Frisch into custody to await extradition to Colorado.

During her time as a fugitive, Ms Frisch revealed that she was receiving a combined $4000 per month from Social Security Disability and Oregon PERS.

Today

Goldstein is a writer and producer of martial arts videos who remains in Colorado. Though Protein Wisdom reflects his own voice, it also relies heavily on the work of his co-bloggers, such as Darleen Click—who lives in the desert in Southern California.

After the 2010 midterm elections, Protein Wisdom for a time placed less emphasis on the linguistic and academic dissection of news coverage, and became a more full-blooded constitutionalist voice, emphasizing news summaries and straightforward commentary on the issues of the day while also outlining, in his nascent "outlaw" movement, fundamentals that would later find greater voice in the Tea Party's coalition,^[21] most particularly with respect to its burgeoning break with the GOP establishment.^[22] By 2013–2014, the site once again has focused at length on hermeneutics and their legitimacy, arguing that Originalism is, from a separation of powers perspective, the only legitimate form of judicial interpretation, a manifestation of intentionalism applied to legal documents written (intended) and passed (via corporate intent) by a legislature, whose function under the Constitution is to write law. Goldstein argues that "You cannot sustain for long the veneer of coequal branches of govt once you empower [the] judiciary, under [the] guise of interpretation, to rewrite law,"^[23] because to shift that proxy legislative power to the judiciary "makes a mockery of legislature & realigns [the] power of supposedly coequal branches"^[24]—the resultant systemic alteration creating the conditions for judicial oligarchy.

Goldstein also answered scholar Danielle Allen's claim that a punctuation error in the Declaration of Independence has led to a "routine but serious misunderstanding" of the document,^[25] arguing that, even were one to accept the punctuation change, the meaning routinely gleaned from the clausal connections, namely the primacy of individual liberty, is actually strengthened by the punctuation change, and that proof of Jefferson's intent becomes manifest in the practical application of the Declaration's principles, encoded in the Constitution.^[26]

References

External links

• Official website
• Jeff Goldstein Biography