The tireless Tim Lambert exposes yet more sociopathic behavior from pro-gun economist John Lott. This time it’s yet another sock puppet who, among other things gives Lott’s books glowing reviews on Amazon. (I won’t document Lott’s long rap sheet on this kind of thing, but Tim’s blog has all the details).

Various people have been asking how Lott manages to keep his job at the American Enterprise Institute. Given that this outfit now houses Karl Zinsmeister, James Glassman, Charles Murray, Lynne Cheney and others, I think the more relevant question is how the few remaining legitimate scholars left over from the days when AEI was a reputable, if conservative, institution can justify their continuing ties.

But it is interesting to ask why so few individual conservatives and libertarians have dumped Lott. Michelle Malkin did so at the time of the Mary Rosh expose (and copped a nasty review from one of Lott’s sock puppets as a result), and of course the expose itself was due to the work of Julian Sanchez.

But Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit, who led the charge against Lott’s liberal counterpart Bellisles, is still saying “all this is way too complex for me” (check the comments thread here at Calpundit, and his attitude appears to be far more representative.

Update The Glenn Reynolds comment was too good to be true, and was someone taking the mickey (see comment by Tim L). Still, it’s a pretty fair summary of Reynolds’ position.