Evidently, the title is autobiographical - Don Luskin explains.
MORE: Hmm, could the Earnest Prof be a serial offender? Here he Meets The Press, and is asked about the Krugman Truth Squad:
...If you take on our current leadership, um [deep breath], you will be pursued, you will be stalked. So far, so far just stalked, uh, intellectually, but it's, it's pretty scary sometimes."
Uh huh.
Admit it, isn't Luskin completely creepy?
Posted by: Mithras | October 20, 2003 at 08:41 PM
Regrettably, you cannot look to me for reason on this point.
Posted by: TM | October 20, 2003 at 09:24 PM
Methinks Krugman's a paranoid with the forum. He distorts, writes half-truths, and exaggerates with wild abandon. Before his full-time gig at the NY Times, Krugman often made sense. Of late he seems to have descended into a maelstrom of delusion; at times his columns border on the puerile.
I’ve followed Luskin and his poorandstupid web site for some time and found him to be a model of clarity as well as a master Krugman fisker. Take a cruise through his body of work and see for yourself.
Posted by: The Kid | October 20, 2003 at 09:58 PM
Yeah, it certainly took a lot of keen insight for Luskin to say, "Waaaaah! Krugman called me a name!"
Posted by: Swopa | October 21, 2003 at 12:53 AM
Or, more likely, to point out yet again Krugman's abuse of the discourse.
Posted by: HH | October 21, 2003 at 01:00 AM
My sense has increasingly been that it's Luskin whose screws are coming loose.
That account of his breathless, manly venture into the very heart of evil (a Krugman lecture) was about as dingy as these things get.
Posted by: Julia Grey | October 21, 2003 at 10:42 PM
Perhaps I'm missing something here, but Luskin seems to have deliberately misrepresented what Krugman said. Saying that someone stalks you on the web is not the same as accusing them of the criminal offence of stalking.
Posted by: Tim Lambert | October 21, 2003 at 11:44 PM
We're really defining stalking down these days, eh?
A critic who shows up at one's public performance with the open intent of criticizing it now is a "stalker".
PK should beware -- right next to him sits his op-ed compatriot Frank Rich, who should be serving consecutive life terms as a 1,000-time serial offender.
Posted by: Jim Glass | October 22, 2003 at 08:57 AM
OK Jim, who wrote "Donald Luskin is stalking Paul Krugman"?
Posted by: Tim Lambert | October 22, 2003 at 09:46 AM
I am taking Ms. Grey's side on one point - I thought Don Luskin's account of his sojourn into the heart of darkness could have been a minor comedy classic. Playing it for doom and gloom was, well, gloomy. And doomed.
However, as to defining stalking down, this is the quote:
KRUGMAN: That's a guy, that's a guy who actually stalks me on the web, and once stalked me personally.
Krugman introduced the "web-stalker" concept on, IIRC, MTP with Tim Russert. However, making it personal evidently made it personal.
Posted by: TM | October 22, 2003 at 01:06 PM
Krugman did not introduce the web-stalking concept. My quote "Donald Luskin is stalking Paul Krugman", was written back in May by Glenn Reynolds. And he was commenting on a Luskin article entitled "We stalked, he balked".
Posted by: Tim Lambert | October 22, 2003 at 09:58 PM
Good job by Tim. Here is the InstaPundit link, here is the Luskin piece, and here is the trapdoor, quoting from Luskin:
The good news is that Krugman is clearly shaken by the new experience of having somebody dare to challenge his insouciant lying. He's even starting to get personal — referring to me in his latest posting as his "stalker-in-chief."
My lucky day. Here is the Krugman piece in question, which seems to precede the Luskin article.
I continue to think it's pretty funny.
Posted by: TM | October 23, 2003 at 12:59 AM
Advantage: Minute Man
The Krugman piece is clearly two days before the Reynolds qoute. So Krugman started the stalking meme. Not that the facts will deter the pro-Krugman crowd.
Posted by: Peter Harrigan | October 23, 2003 at 09:36 AM