Catching revisionist history in flight

Fascinating to watch the conservative mind at work. No, really. One can almost hear the scratching of quill pens as they beaver away making stuff up.

Apparently I've been "scolded" by Mark Steyn in Macleans this week. And, according to a commenter here, "I notice Dawg is even mentioned in a national magazine this week as being rather unreliabe [sic] in terms of facts, evidence, etc. Seems Dawg must hate that whole honesty ethos, to me."

Well, lessee, here. Why not go right to the source, as I am wont to do?

Here is Steyn:

The photograph in question was emailed to me by readers of Warren Kinsella, former hit man for Jean Chrétien, and Mr. Kinsella's friend, the blogger "Dr. Dawg," accompanied by messages on the lines of: "How do you feel about the company you and your fellow 'freespeechers' are keeping now, Steyn? The Ernst Zundel Road Show revival tour has a new member, eh?" Etc.

Actually, I had a good old laugh about it. The black fascist garb would be more menacing if it didn't have the cute little Maple Leaf blaze on the shoulder, which makes the uniforms look like costumes for some post-Anschluss dystopian rewrite of Rose-Marie played in summer stock at Totleigh Village Hall by Sir Roderick Spode's Black Shorts. But the same types who email me scoffing that Bush's so-called "war on terror" is just a racket to boost Halliburton's stock price and enable Dick Cheney to find out what library books Americans are reading are nevertheless convinced that there is a clear and present Nazi threat to the wee delicate Dominion that can only be prevented by dragging every two-bit Internet poster up before the thought-crime enforcers.

Unfortunately, Mr. Lemire is insistent that the swarthy fellow in the reflector shades standing behind Herr Zundel is not him. He claims he was 17 at the time and had never met the celebrated neo-Nazi. "Dr. Dawg" says he got the picture from the Nizkor website, which he describes as "impeccable." We sent off an email seeking clarification to Ken McVay, who runs Nizkor, and it seems he has now withdrawn the identification of the man in the picture as Marc Lemire. I regret the error.

Why, so do I. And I issued my correction on March 31. Two days before Steyn, but there you go.

Since then, Lemire has dropped by to say that he had informed Ken McVay of Nizkor years ago that the photo was fake. I challenged him to provide proof of any such thing. He hasn't been back. (Hey, Marc, I'll waive my new no-fascists rule just this once if you want to post proof of your claim.)

In the meantime, folks, have some popcorn and observe a minor bit of historical revisionism taking place right before your eyes.