Zero Hedge seems to have his panties twisted. Instead of just admitting his post accusing the Fed of rigging the bond auctions may have been over the top or at least just moving on to something else, he decided to come out swinging. Sigh.

Here is what I had to say yesterday and it contains links to John Jansen’s original post as well as Yves Smith’s. In his new post Zero Hedge takes the time to stick it to Smith who has been a mentor and to insult Jansen who happens to be one of the more respected bloggers around. Here are his comments about Jansen:

Zero Hedge is not making any claims, but merely asking questions. And while we appreciate the opinions of self-professed experts such as John Jansen, these answers should really come from the proper authorities – the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve of the US.

To set the record straight, John Jansen is not a self-professed expert, he is an expert with more experience than this kid is likely to accumulate if he lives to be a hundred. Jansen is also a gentleman who doesn’t stoop to this sort of journalism. Witness the fact that he had the good grace to reprint Chris Martenson’s comments on his blog yesterday concerning this issue in a full blog post today (link here). Martenson represents an opposing view but Jansen is adult enough to recognize that reasonable discourse involves the airing of opinions that might differ from the ones you espouse.

Zero Hedge needs to avoid making a larger ass of himself than he already has. Derogatory remarks about two of the better bloggers around as well as an obstinate insistence on sticking with an iffy at best meme will not due anything to expand his audience beyond the conspiracy crazies that he attracts. He has talent and ought to concentrate on that rather than the tired old blogger trick of building a following through outrage and innuendo.

You gotta know when to fold ’em, kid.