Just in case you were interested, there’s a whole email spam campaign going around the web about that Juan Cole non-bet from two years ago. I discussed it here and here, and have nothing substantive to add. But the vitriol and bullying of this crowd is something to behold. It’s now become something of a little media story and since the other side knows all about it (and is now badgering folks who carry my column, etc), it seems silly to keep you folks in the dark. Here’s the E&P write up.

Update: Oh and since so many of these enraged emailers seem to believe whatever lefty bloggers tell them, for the record this was Juan Cole’s response to my offer of a wager:

“I cannot tell you how this paragraph hit me in the gut. I was nearly immobilized by disgust and grief. This man really does see Iraqis as playthings. He is proposing a wager on the backs of Iraqis. Millions of Iraqis are going through winter with insufficient heating oil. They are jobless. The innocent 250,000 Fallujans are homeless. Imagine what $1000 means to them. And here we have an prominent American media star, a man who sets opinion on the Sunday afternoon talking heads shows, betting on them as though they are greyhounds in a race. They are not human beings to him, but political playthings on which to be wagered. “

That sounds like a rejection to me. Elsewhere in that post, he goes on to explain how he previously took a similar bet (for personal gain, unlike what I was offering), but was too good to try to collect.