Sunday, December 23, 2012

In Reply: "I've been "evolving" on the gun control debate since at least VA Tech..."

In reply to Saberpoint: "An Opinion on Gun Control" Article Goes Viral
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A good post over there. Shocked as you may be, I think Larry Correia comes off--and actually is--very knowledgable and persuasive. I've been "evolving" on the gun control debate since at least VA Tech--even suggesting in comments after that one that military vets and other law enforcement types who're also college students or employees be permitted concealed carry on campuses. (I went back recently to find, quote and cite those earlier comments at that blog, but the blogger where I'd posted them had changed commenting platforms, deleting all the old reader commentary.) By this point, I'm probably not too far away from supporting unlimited concealed carry.

Since you're probably more familiar with the issue in general and Correia in particular (and since 1000+ comments are a whole lot to even skim through), are you aware of (and can you point me to) anything he's said about the argument that when the police do arrive to a "shots fired" crime scene, they won't be able to tell the good gunmen from the bad ones. Where I have seen that addressed at all by people who I think would know (police officers, mostly), they do see it as an issue. (Not one that should prevent CC necessarily, but an issue.) Curious to see what this guy has to say...

I do still worry that more guns in more hands could well lead to more / more lethal "crime of passion" / "heat of the moment" violence, but as I've been saying recently about another situation, you can't legislate away possibilities and " what if's."
--

I originally "posted" this comment today at 10:48 AM (Saberpoint blog time), but it only showed up via the mobile device Saberpoint blog feed. I also e-mailed Stogie about this "mobile (google comments) vs desktop (Disqus comments)" disconnect an hour or two ago, but curiosity got the better of me... I wanted to see whether this Disqus comment would show up in the mobile stream, or whether it's one or the other, whichever way a commenter starts. Needless to say, Stogie, you can delete the earlier one, as long as this one shows up for folks to read on the blog. (As long as I was "re"posting, I also corrected a spelling and grammar error or five I didn't notice the first time.)
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Posted Saturday, December 23, 2012, 3:48 PM (or thereabouts)

Friday, December 21, 2012

A Dishonest [blogger], Smirking

"Should he be fired for this? Of course not."
Bravo. Well said.
Perhaps I'd be more bothered by efforts to get Loomis fired if I hadn't been on the receiving end of identical efforts by his co-bloggers at Lawyers, Guns and Money and by his ideological allies in the progressive ASFL fever swamps.
Isn't that exactly why [that guy] should be EXTREMELY bothered?

Isn't he espousing one set of standards for himself and another for those with whom he disagrees, or are--in his mind--guilty-by-association with those who have wronged him in this way?

And putting the two quotes together, is the saying it's alright (or "alright, so long as it's someone in some way associated with someone else who did a similar thing") to attempt to get someone fired for what they say online, so long as the attempt is ultimately unsuccessful?
"And as regular readers know full well, Walter James Casper III used his blog, with his co-bloggers, to post my contact information and exhort his readers to contact my college."
Still, as always, factually untrue. I have never posted the guy's college contact information (though I may've linked to posts where others have--including posts at the guy's own blog--in the course of discussing why it's ethically wrong for others to post or use it against him), and have repeatedly spoken out against every single person--no matter their political ideology--who has posted his workplace contact information, used his workplace contact information to complain about anything he's ever done online or off, or suggested that anyone else use his workplace contact information to do so, either.

I did not delete the post (or any/all comments expressing similar themes, or those posts or comments expressing other ideas or behaviors with which I may've personally disagreed, or indeed much of anything ever, aside spam), because I believe(d) that everyone speaking here is an adult who can string together and then defend their own words and the ideas they convey, and doesn't need a metaphorical mommy or daddy to make decisions on their behalf.

If I didn't like or agree with something posted here, I either starved it of my attention by ignoring it, or commented about it, saying why I disagreed or didn't like it. That [the guy] refuses to comprehend this simple concept (willfully, I suspect) continues to amaze me.

"Screw these people. They reap what they sow. When they start calling out the workplace harassers among their own partisans maybe I'll give a f-k about stooges like Loomis."
Demonstrably untrue, just based on the paragraphs above (and many, many more like them posted by me over the years). But par for the course.
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Links:
[his blog]: Smirking Spectator? Guilty as Charged

Workplace Harassment - (btdt FAQ files)

Obsessed much?

An x-post from a blog that once was

Thursday, December 20, 2012

In Reply: Rolling Heads Stuck on Sticks (Erik Loomis, metaphor, partisanship; National Review)

In reply to: Poor Erik Loomis - By George Leef - Phi Beta Cons - National Review Online, and the following piece, in particular:

"Some academics are mounting a defense of Loomis, as if he had transgressed no boundary of civility. I think he did. It’s bad enough to blow your lid and blame someone you dislike for a tragedy he had nothing to do with, but unacceptable for a professor to suggest, even rhetorically, that violence is warranted."
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Dr. Loomis "blew his lid?"

No, I'm pretty sure Dr. Loomis doesn't even have a lid.

See, that's a metaphor for something else; being very angry and reacting inappropriately. Generally it's only non-native speakers who take a metaphors literally, and when they do, miscommunication runs rampant. (Well... not literally rampant.)

Wanting someone's head on a stick? A metaphor for wanting that person to be publicly punished for something they did, thus made an example of. To (willfully or otherwise) misunderstand that fairly common idiom as a call to violence and “eliminationist rhetoric” is, well, kind of transparent.

I would think having too many writers at National Review who consistently took metaphorical statements literally would cause heads to roll. (though not literally, one hopes.)
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Submitted for moderator approval Posted (for real, this time) 12/20/12, 5:20 PM (or so)
(Thought I saw that it had posted over there while I was finishing this post here. Either I was mistaken--the guess I'm going with for now--or it was moderated away after the fact.)

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

In Reply: If this clown saw his mother use her "hardware" to cook, she was doing it wrong. (and it would explain a lot about him, too.)

Revised and extended, in reply to: Do We Really Need Easy Bake Ovens For Boys? (Video) | The Lonely Conservative, and the following video and comment, in particular:



Zilla sez:
People freak out over the silliest things these days. A boy playing with a toy that is pink won’t make him less of a boy and a girl playing with a blue toy won’t make her less of a girl. My kids know better than to judge based on color.
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If grown men cook--and I'm pretty sure most do, these days--I see nothing wrong with young boys pretending to cook. (...or helping out in the kitchen with real meal preparation, for that matter.)

Zilla's right about the color thing...but it's so ingrained in this culture, I can see why one would want to avoid that fight (especially when there are people like the guy in the video, still getting so worked up (and dare I say, emotional?) about boys playing at assuming "female" roles like cooking. (If this is the way he actually lives, his wife must be thrilled to be doing all the cooking and cleaning and laundry and childcare in their home.) The bigger issue is whether or not we want children role-playing (and thereby learning about) the various roles the adults and older siblings in their lives exhibit, day to day. The color battle can wait.

The gentleman in the video can raise his children according to outdated strict gender roles if he chooses...but to whatever extent his sons can't feed themselves when mom's out of the house, or his daughters need rescuing because they can't change a flat tire "like a man," the fault will be with him.

All that said, we bought one of these new easy-bake ovens for our niece last Christmas. NO ONE needs the version they make today. The light bulb was less safe, but the narrow slit through which kids are supposed to insert the baking tin full of mix insures a complete mess. My sister-in-law let my niece try it two or three times, then cleaned it all up, packed it back up, and donated it to her church's daycare program. (And she suspects that they didn't use it either, but sold it at a garage sale fundraiser.) As the one's who gave the gift, it was kinda disappointing...but having been there for at least one of the baking sessions--and subsequent clean-up--we understood completely.
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Posted 12/18/12, 1:04 PM

Monday, December 17, 2012

X-Post: Tragedy and Exploitation – The Way of the Lying Ass

The man is pathological.

First he lashes out at me for RT'ing a tweet from early in the day that said the Bushmaster rifle was used in the Newtown massacre when--unbeknownst to me, obviously--subsequent reporting said that it wasn't. According to him I was "ghoulishly exploiting the massacre," and "intentionally spreading lies and disinformation," and like that...

BUT THEN...

It turns out that the reporting the ass was relying on for his absurd attack was wrong, and the Bushmaster rifle WAS used during the massacre. So of course, the lying ass wrote a post apologizing for his "ghoulishly exploiting the massacre" just to launch an unprovoked attack on me and "intentionally spreading lies and disinformation," right?

No, of course not.

When our friend over there posts information during a news story that later turns out not to be true, it's completely different than when someone else does. And without so much as a blink--or ANYTHING at all in the way of support or evidence--the guy continues to say it is me to whom the actual facts of the story don't matter.

Which brings us to today. Another post where the lying ass breathlessly accuses me of "lies and disinformation," and by still linking back to that first absurd attack post where HE got the facts wrong, and damned near 12 hours after HE himself POSTED that the information in that first post was incorrect. (He never went so far as to say he was wrong, of course.)

Literally --L-I-T-E-R-A-L-L-Y-- Un-fucking-believable.

Lies and disinformation for all, and to all a good night...


Links:
[his blog]: Tragedy and Exploitation – the Progressive Way

[Lying Ass] Exploits Newtown Gun Massacre to Lash Out and Lie About Me (So what else is new?)

[his blog]: Ghoulish Walter James Casper III Exploits Connecticut School Massacre to Push Gun Control, Spread Lies and Disinformation

Ghoulish [Ass] Exploits Connecticut School Massacre to Attack Enemies, Spread Lies and Disinformation

[his blog]: Semiautomatic Rifle Was Used in Attack

Obsessed much?
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An x-post from a blog that once was

In Reply: Glorifying Violence, and How Not To...

Revised and extended, in Reply to: Why Do We Tolerate Glorified Gun Violence In Movies And On TV? | The Lonely Conservative, and the following passage in particular:

Even if you don’t go out seeking violent movies and TV shows, just watching a football game can bring the violence into your home during commercials. It happened yesterday when ads for Gangster Squad, starring Josh Brolin ran.
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There are plenty who argue that the football game itself promotes and glorifies violence (along with--variously-- boxing, pro-wrestling, mixed martial arts fighting, ...).

In a similar vein, some applaud the fact that Little Rascals" shorts and copies of Disney's "Song of the South" are so hard to find, celebrating their removal from society as a blow against racism. (And a subset of these folks advocate removing "Huckleberry Finn" from school libraries, too.)

The key is what WE individually tolerate. I trust no one here is advocating government or corporate censorship of violent films--or having someone like Bill Cosby buy them up and lock them away in a vault, either--but there is something to be said for asking why WE support these violent films and video games with our entertainment dollars. The less money these things make, the less those in charge will choose to make or bankroll them.

We have to decide where to draw the lines for ourselves and for our children--I wouldn't want the government preventing films from being made or marketed, and I doubt any of you would, either--but there's always going to be someone advocating against "violence" (or "racism") that you find perfectly acceptable.

Free speech isn't pretty.
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Submitted for moderator approval Posted 12/17/12, 1:28 PM (or so)

X-Post: Ghoulish Blogger Exploits Connecticut School Massacre to Attack Enemies, Spread Lies and Disinformation

So, it turns out that facts make no difference to my dishonest, despicable far-right criminal stalker, who posted this bald face lie on his blog early yesterday:

LINK

As we now know,
link









There's lots more disinformation where that came from, at the same guy's blog.
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Of course, the guy wasn't REALLY lying when he said the rifle wasn't used during the massacre (and attacking me as a liar spreading disinformation for a retweet saying it had been); he was simply working with the facts available at the time (a whole lot like I was, though of course, it's ALL DIFFERENT when he screws up.) He is a lying douchebag, but not for reporting facts that later change. No, he is a lying douchebag for failing to acknowledge the fact that my error was very similar to his, and that in these fast moving stories, reported facts do turn out to be wrong, sometimes, and that both his error and mine as regards whether the gun was used in the massacre were not the result of deliberate malice or disinformation. His attacks on me, on the other hand, clearly are.

This cannot be more clearly evidenced by what the ass says next in his post reporting that the rifle was used during the massacre (and that he reported bad information in saying that it wasn't):
"Well, the actual facts of the story didn't matter to the radical leftists like Angie Coiro and her hate-addled followers like Walter James "Hatesac" Casper III. Indeed, it's not about "gun control" with these people. It's about literally destroying right-wing impediments to statist authoritarianism:"
That's right... This idiot gets "the actual facts" wrong in his earlier post, where he also cast all manner of aspersions on me for "being wrong," and in the very post saying I had it right after all and that HE was wrong, still lashes out at me as though I somehow lied.

In these posts at least, the guy doesn't care one bit about the kids who were massacred or about getting the story right. All he cares about is attacking me in any way he can.

I quote information that I believed to be true when I posted it, but that later turns out not to be, and he accuses me of spreading lies and disinformation.
Then he quotes information that he believes to be true when he posted it, but that later turns out not to be, and he STILL accuses me of spreading lies and disinformation (only now, without any evidence, at all.)
"This is the evil that [I] posted yesterday in [my] utterly inhumane rush to politically capitalize on the deaths of those innocent children, 16 of them just 6 years old. This is why decent, intelligent and God-fearing people stand up for the truth. This is why decent, law-abiding Americans repudiate [my] lies. They know where it leads. They know that [my] dishonesty will bring the reign of terror and the camps. The piles of bodies stacked like cord wood is the "taste of what's coming." [I] just lay it out there for everyone to see. It would be shocking but we've seen this play before and the millions of piled corpses before the final curtain."
This lying propagandist can kiss my ass. He's an obsessed, pathetic, desperate liar, and the more he lashes out at me and at "the left"--whatever that is--with this kind of crazy, easily debunked nonsense, the more he makes it obvious to everyone concerned.
---

Links:
[his blog]: Ghoulish Walter James Casper III Exploits Connecticut School Massacre to Push Gun Control, Spread Lies and Disinformation

[his blog]: Semiautomatic Rifle Was Used in Attack

Obsessed Much?
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An x-post from a blog that once was

Sunday, December 16, 2012

X-Post: Dishonest Donald Douglas Exploits Newtown Gun Massacre to Lash Out and Lie About Me (So what else is new?)



Ok... In one respect, Dishonest Donald caught me. I did RT a tweet originally posted at 1:39 PM (and RT'd by a person I follow at 9:37 PM) somewhere around 10 PM without checking to verify that the information I heard somewhere around 3 PM (I'm guessing... it was early-to-mid afternoon eastern the last time I watched a straight news report on the shootings) was still true in the 10 o'clock hour. As Donald notes, the information about this gun not being used in the massacre was updated (by CNN, anyway)at 6:51 PM. (I have since sent out two tweets (see below), one of which was @'ed to both the original tweeter and the retweeter)--and soon, there'll be this post, too--correcting the error.)





So, yeah, I was guilty of further spreading one "fact" reported early in the day that turned out not to be a fact later on. Anyone who thinks my doing so constitutes a "bald-faced lie" (like our friend Dishonest Donald Douglas, fer'instance) is claiming that they can read minds, and can somehow prove what I knew and when I knew it. And that's just nuts.

I should've checked. As soon as I found out--from Dishonest Don's absurd attack post--I corrected the error.

But given Donald's history of lashing out at me, I suspect that his most recent hissy-fit post--like oh so many others where he lashes out at me in similar fashion--has nothing to do with the Newtown massacre or with whether or not I intentionally lied or hit RT before verifying that nothing had changed since 1:39 PM, and everything to do with Donald Douglas' creepy obsession with me. As always, I invite each reader to check the facts and come to your own conclusions.

Links:
American Power: Ghoulish Walter James Casper III Exploits Connecticut School Massacre to Push Gun Control, Spread Lies and Disinformation

Obsessed much, Dr. Douglas?
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An American Nihilist X-post

In Reply: The "Now is not the time" / "Don't politicize the tragedy" Waiting Period

In reply to the following comment I received on Facebook, which in turn was a reply to a share of the following tweet:



"Can we start by enforcing the laws we already have? Adding new ones is pointless if none of them are enforced. We also need to close the gun show loopholes."
---
I'm with you on all points... I just want there to be an intelligent conversation about all of the issues involved, including the mental health and family/societal issues you posted about on your wall. I believe we probably ought to reinstate the automatic weapons ban--it wasn't a factor in this massacre, but those weapons have played a part in others--and maybe do something to limit large magazines/clips, too, but aside that I don't have any real suggestions or answers.

My goal in signing this petition was to combat the ever-present bullshit about "it being too soon to talk about it" and admonitions against "politicizing the tragedy," both of which impose "waiting periods" that always seem to last just long enough to get us to the next tragedy that some would have us not talk about or politicize, either.

I don't know whether or not there are any new laws that could minimize the number of mass shootings in this country or the number of victims of them when they do occur... but I believe it's high time we stop waiting until the moment is perfect--it never will be--start talking about it and exploring the issues now, before the next mass casualty gun massacre occurs, and the "now's not the time"/"don't politicize the tragedy" waiting period clock starts all over again.
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(Ironically, I accidentally posted about the White House petition twice; Once via the tweet, and once by sharing the link at the petition site. The friend who commented chose to do so at the tweet share, rather than at the link share to the petition, to which I'd added the following note in the first place):

This petition is a little vague, but because it's being featured at Memeorandum, it's likely going to get the signatures. I DON'T want to blindly limit access to guns across the board. But I would support waiting periods, more thorough background checks, closing gun show loopholes, and limiting access to weapons of war. No, you can't prevent every crime, and yes, a person determined to kill who cannot get a gun will probably use a knife or a bat. But if the killers at Va Tech (or Aurora, or Columbine, or ..., or ...) had been murdering with knives, far fewer would've died. We can talk about limiting access to knives when homicide by blade even begins to approach the numbers of those murdered by firearm.
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Immediately address the issue of gun control through the introduction of legislation in Congress. | We the People: Your Voice in Our Government

Friday, December 14, 2012

In Reply: "...and the man who was coming at me I think tripped over the tent peg, fell towards me, and that’s when I said ‘You assaulted me.’" - Steven Crowder

In reply to: What Did Steven Crowder Say About His Video Editing? - Forbes

From the article:
I asked Crowder why that initial assault was edited, he responded:

"The camera pans away because the camera was jostled, the camera man was shoved around too, a bunch of people were being shoved as the protesters tried to tear down the tent. A tent which wasn’t their property. They were tearing down a tent with women and children in it, and the man who was coming at me I think tripped over the tent peg, fell towards me, and that’s when I said ‘You assaulted me.’ Right after that he sucker punched me. My guess is that he was on his way down, he grabbed me, and started shoving me.”
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If Crowder knew the guy tripped and fell into him–which is the story he’s telling here–then it was awful dishonest of him to claim he was assaulted there in the video BEFORE the guy ever got up or threw the first punch.

However the guy went down–and even if he believed Steven Crowder put him down, somehow–trying to clock Crowder repeatedly wasn’t the moral/spiritual/legal response. (I don’t know where justice will come down on this, since it’ll probably be one guy’s word against the other’s, with video that isn’t conclusive about who did what first…assuming that matters, that is.) But eye-for-an-eye caveman behavior is a part of who we are, and there’s some aspect of “being a man” that calls for it, which for me anyway, makes the response to being knocked off one’s feet and thinking it was done on purpose understandable…Still subject to civilized law and Christian standards of behavior, but understandable.

The fact that Crowder stated ahead of time that he was there to prove that union folks were thugs, AND the fact that he made the knowingly false assault claim above–in real time in the video, AND that he intentionally edited the fall out of the video he released on youtube, AND that he has yet to file charges with the police–instead walking this weird tightrope between “I’m a victim” / “I’m an MMA tough guy” and taking part in the vaguely vigilante-looking “wanted/reward” postings on various rightwing websites, all suggests to me that something isn’t quite Christmas morning with his version of events…even if he’s telling you the truth, and honestly played no part in the union guy’s initial fall…but I’m suspicious as to whether that’s the case, as well… (…And not only that… This isn’t the first time Mr Crowder has claimed to be assaulted–by a woman, the last time. How many wolves are in these pastures, anyway?)

One other thing… It sure looked to me like from “Tony’s” appearance at :33 to the edit at :38, he was focused on and arguing with the guy in the grey hat/black earmuffs to Crowder’s left, NOT Crowder. Post edit, that guy goes out of frame, and I never notice him again. (Even in the FoxNews less edited version, the guy kinda slips away.) I don’t know how significant that is, but I did notice it…and that I think you’re misstating the facts to say that “Tony” was actually approaching Crowder in those 5 seconds. (Part of me even wonders whether it was the Gray Hatted Man who knocked “Tony” down…)

Posted (in two parts) Friday, 12/14/12 and about five minutes after the first.
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ADDED: Not an admission that Steven Crowder was himself responsible for "Tony" ending up on the ground, but he's obviously aware that the man did not simply trip over a tent post, and an admission that he himself was among the people who "got into a physical confrontation with the union activists.":
However, during an interview with a conservative blogger, Crowder noted that the scuffle began when pro-union protesters tried to bring down the white tent on the site provided by the group Americans for Prosperity.

The Fox News contributor then stated that he and other people defending the canopy did get into a physical confrontation with the union activists.

“We didn’t get violent with them, but we did try and push them off the tent,” he said, adding that the reason the man was seen getting up off the ground was because he was one of the people who were pushed away from the tent and fell to the ground as a result.


Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/randy-hall/2012/12/15/steven-crowder-files-criminal-complaint-regarding-alleged-assault-pro-un#ixzz2FK9UuCm3

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

In Reply: Crowder Unedited? and Why No Police Report?

In reply to: 'Democratic Underground' Users Claim Steven Crowder Caused Michigan Union Violence | NewsBusters.org, and the following lines in particular:
"
Despite all the incredibly irrational comments made at DU about this incident, there was one very apt question poised by one DUer:

Everybody has a videocamera in their phone nowadays. Shouldn't there be some unedited footage out there?"
---

There is (or should be) unedited footage, already... Where is the raw version of Crowder's tape (and why didn't he post that to youtube, rather than this edited version?)

There is very little that Crowder could've done that would legally or spiritually excuse the swings that the guy took...but something is edited out at 38 seconds in (right in the middle of the confrontation), and the union guy is getting up from the ground when the edit is over... If Crowder was responsible for the guy landing on the ground, that would explain why he got up swinging, at least... (Maybe the guy was just standing his ground.) A lot of people turn the other cheek (and in that regard, I think Crowder handled himself admirably once the guy started swinging.) Some don't--and while it may be against the law to throw punches, even in retaliation--and certainly not what Jesus would do--it's not all that uncommon, either.)

Crowder still needs to file a police report, so the police can investigate and work toward punishing the guilty...and maybe provide a narrative of the story that's less potentially biased than Crowder, the union guys, or the partisan pundits and online spinners, too. (That he hasn't done so yet is also kinda suspicious.)

Then too, is the fact that apparently, this isn't the first time Crowder's yelled wolf. (or "I've been hit!! I've been hit!!"), and that he's a student of the Breitbart school of video manipulation and low-rent propaganda, who now works for the professional version of Breitbart's BigPropaganda sites, FoxNews. When you have a Brietbart tape that's been edited, you should always ask why, and be careful not to judge the facts of the case until you actually HAVE all the facts...

Also, he's awful smug and cocky...

Still no excuse for hitting the guy, but curiouser and curiouser...
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Posted '12-12-12, 6:00 PM, EDST

X-Post: I bet he can write his name in the snow with it, too...

Epic loser Dishonest Donald Douglas thinks I care...



They're like two teenage boys in the high school shower room... (I can understand McCain's fascination with his blog-hit / follower penis size... It is his only job, I think... But Ol' Dishonest Don just wants to fool himself into thinking he plays with the big boys...)

Original link: Epic Loser Walter James Casper III 'Isn't a Very Effective User' of Twitter

Twitter / rsmccain: @AmPowerBlog The troll to whom ... (and still misusing the word "troll," I see)
---

And lest anyone forget, I answered that tweet a few days ago, as well:



Reporting speakers you don't like to the authorities is no way to stand up for free speech...even if "the authorities" laugh in your face (or behind your back), and refuse to act on your whiny complaints...
(...and what's with that "#retard" thing? Methinks Sarah Palin (or Trig, at least) would not approve...)

Quick update: Saw this tweet. Suspect McCain thought I was defending the Schmalfeldt guy (who I know very little about, and haven't the time or inclination to find out about, either), rather than questioning how Dishonest Don's mind can turn a small number of on-topic comments submitted to the moderation queue of his blog--generally at posts where Donald attacks me by name--into "harassment," and then try to report that "harassment" (those comments) to the police, the FBI, his local congressman, lawyers, Google, etc...

It's ok, McCain... I probably wouldn't be following my story either, if Dishonest Don didn't keep dragging me back into it by periodically lashing out at me...
---

Obsessed much, Dr. Douglas?
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An American Nihilist X-post

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

X-Post: Dishonest Donald Douglas Cries "Victimhood!!!" (and changes the definitions of common words to "prove it.")

In a recent post, Donald Douglas once again claims that a "criminal" "troll" (yours truly) has "harassed" him over the internet, "coordinating" actions with others. Donald wants so badly to be seen as a victim that he invents "obsessive email stalking campaigns," and periodically lashes out at me by name with imagined slights, even when (and I suspect, BECAUSE) I don't post anything about him at all.

But as frequently happens when dealing with Dishonest Donald Douglas, the facts are far different... In a nutshell:

Dishonest Donald Douglas is whining and whinging and begging for the sympathies of his ideological tribe because up until ten months ago-- (Yes, pretty much everything Donald is complaining about took place in the first two months of 2012, if not earlier. Some incidents took place as early as 2008...and he's still going on about them.) --I submitted a reasonable number (read "one," generally) of on-topic rebuttals to the public comment section of his moderated blog--most often at posts where he discussed me by name--against his expressed wishes. Donald is also upset because I had the temerity to call out and expose his self-reported pleas to Google, two California police departments, the FBI, one or more lawyers, and his congressman, all done in a misguided attempt to have them enforce the rules he laid out for his blog-- (rather than, y'know, just not approving the comments held in the moderation queue, like pretty much every other blogger who screens his comment section does) --for the anti-free speech nonsense it always has been. That's the whole ball of wax. Everything that follows expands on these few sentences.

1) I have never "harassed" Donald Douglas. I used to submit public comments to his blog, often disagreeing with his posts. I did not submit an unreasonable number of comments, either at individual posts or to the blog in general. (If I did submit more comments to a particular post than others, it was because I was responding to the points of several other participants who had all addressed me.) I did not engage in crude language or ad hominem attacks any more frequently than did other participants or Dr. Douglas himself. My comments were on topic disagreements (or occasionally, supportive agreement) with what Donald or one of the other comment area participants had to say.

Once Dishonest Don began deleting posted comments and moderating his comment stream before the fact to weed out content with which he did not approve, I restricted my comment submissions to blog posts where he lashed out at me by name, making sure to keep a record of the submission and post a copy of the comment where Dr Douglas could not make it disappear. I did not make repeated submissions or otherwise abuse the comment system. I was a member of the public submitting comments to an area open to public comment, in rebuttal of posts attacking me by name. And just to be crystal clear, I have not attempted to submit a single comment to the American Power blog since sometime in January, 2012.

A quick word about RS McCain's term "Troll Rights:" the "antisocial belief that [one] should be able to say anything to anyone in other people’s privately-owned online space, without regard for the proprietors’ rules or even basic human decency."

I don't know about "troll rights," but free speech rights as understood here in the US anyway, suggest that yes, one ought to be able to submit one's point of view to the comment area of a blog that accepts public comments. It does not mean that those comments must to be PUBLISHED by the blog owner--and I've never said otherwise--or that free speech rights absolve the commenter for hateful, disgusting comments or genuinely harassing behavior, as either is legally or socially understood--and I've never said otherwise. But one does have the right to submit one's comments, and to make note of the ones the blog owner chooses to keep hidden, as well--especially when one is the subject of the blog post in question. One also has the responsibility to stand behind one's words and the reactions one receives for doing so, both positive and negative. And while Donald Douglas apparently disagrees, I'd be surprised if RS McCain says he is similarly opposed to this use of speech. (I suspect RS was conceding as much by saying that "troll rights may be an interesting legal concept..." Indeed they are, McCain. Free speech rights (including the speech of those some might (incorrectly) label internet trolls) are seldom called on to protect popular, pretty speech.)

2) Nothing I've said or done as regards Donald Douglas has been "criminal." While Dishonest Don cited a whole series of laws in support of his claims, he also took his so-called "evidence" to lawyers, police officers, and congressmen, all in an effort to criminalize my speech and stop me from posting. AND...Nothing came of any of it. No individual or office that Donald complained to has ever contacted me in any way, shape or form. (I did initiate a conversation with the officer at one of the police departments Donald contacted, who assured me that she had seen no evidence of my running afoul of any law.) And according to the internet lawyer I spoke to in one of those "you pay nothing unless we win" free consultations, Donald's repeated claims that I had broken the law were far more actionable in civil court than anything I had ever done as regards Dr Douglas. Needless to say, I declined the lawyer's offer to file a suit for libel.

3) When did "troll" get redefined to mean "disagrees with me on the internet," anyway? That ain't it, kids... And for gosh sakes, stop being so damned thin-skinned.

Almost all of my internet comments have been on-topic, or at least reasonably related to what someone else has said. I have never dropped a single provocative bit of prose into a comment section or message board and then sat back and watched the chaos ensue. I've never been unwilling to defend the positions I've taken or to admit when someone else has a valid point. Once upon a time, THAT (or "not doing those things," I guess) was the definition of trolling...

Reasonable folks can certainly argue that it is impolite to submit comments to a moderated blog after the blogger in question has stated that he would prefer you do not do so, but being impolite isn't the same as trolling.

4) There has been no "obsessive e-mail campaign." I sent three comments via e-mail in response to blog posts...because that was what Dr. Douglas requested:





And finally... It doesn't take much to figure out which of us is actually the obsessed aggressor... It's been almost a year (1/5/12, for those keeping score) since I last authored a post at American Nihilist that was not responding to an American Power post where Dishonest Donald Douglas mentioned me by name (often in posts where he shoehorned my name into posts ostensibly about other topics). I do still read his blog, and I sometimes follow the links or discuss the same topics in other venues, but it isn't me who is periodically lashing out in some crazy desperate plea for attention and relevance.

Like I said in my earlier post, I feel very sorry for Donald Douglas. I can't imagine what it must be like to hate so many people for such petty reasons.

Life's too short to waste much time on him... but I do reserve the right to respond to Donald Douglas' attacks on me, when and where I choose:

[Dr Douglas is] not going to run my life. And I am not going to spend every waking hour responding to [his many] lies. I’ve come to realize that there is no point in worrying about the latest defamation from a tiny and already discredited [man]. Put simply, I’m not going to spend my life obsessing over [him] — even if [he] insist[s] on being obsessed with me. Unlike [Donald Douglas], I have a life apart from the Internet.

That said, I am also not going away. And if I feel like setting the record straight on a particular point, and have the time and motivation to do so, I will.

Threats just give me something new to talk about. At a time of my choosing.


[Donald Douglas has] tried to intimidate and threaten me for over [four] years now. No threat [or lie he's told on the internet or to "the authorities"] will stop me.

I am not going away.

Links:
American Power: Cyber-Stalking Harassment Troll Bill Schmalfeldt

Donald Douglas Abuses His Google

June 3: Bill Schmalfeldt Begins Cyberstalking Aaron Walker : The Other McCain

Criminalizing the Internet - The Ongoing Saga

I’m not a troll—why does everyone on the Internet keep calling me one? - Slate Magazine

American Power: W. James Casper's Demonic Band of Progressive Totalitarians

American Power's Cyber-Stalking Harassment Troll Donald Kent Douglas

Patterico's Pontifications � Stacy McCain on Cyberstalking
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An American Nihilist X-post

Monday, December 10, 2012

X-Post: In Reply: American Power's Cyber-Stalking Harassment Troll Donald Kent Douglas

Blah, blah, blah... Maybe I'll respond to Dishonest Donald's most recent attack post more thoroughly in some future offering--or at least add the relevant rebuttal links to this one--(I'd do it now, but I had some minor surgery a few days ago that makes keeping my arm up high enough to use the keyboard on the desktop for any length of time a little uncomfortable), but there really is no need. It's all the same old, same old unsubstantiated bullshit accusations and attacks Donald Douglas has been repeatedly posting about me for years:

American Power: Cyber-Stalking Harassment Troll Bill Schmalfeldt

Just think about this; In Donald Douglas' world, one fights the words and ideas one does not like by going to the police, lawyers, the FBI, and his congressional representatives...

"That sounds familiar. Progressive stalking trolls claim a "free speech right" to harass someone even after they have been told repeatedly to cease and desist. This is why I reported Walter James Casper III to the authorities: "Intent to Annoy and the Fascist Hate-Blogging Campaign of Walter James Casper III." As we've seen for some time, progressives have quite a different view of how free speech works, the most important manifestation being the notion that left-wing free speech includes the right to suppress political views that contradict the left's radical agenda."
If that isn't the scariest view of free speech I've ever seen, I don't know what is... (And for the record, Dishonest Donald's many reports went exactly nowhere. Not one person, office, or agency contacted me in any official or unofficial capacity as a result of his anti-free speech reports to his various authorities. Not one.)

I feel sorry for Dishonest Donald Douglas... I really do. I can't imagine what it must be like for him to so dislike the world and the people with whom he must share it that he feels compelled to post the things he does about others. It's just sad.
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A double-down, because when you're lashing out, once is never enough.: American Power: Progressives Can Just FOAD
Of course, a double-down... Dishonest Donald Douglas is so very predictable...
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LINKS:

Dishonest Donald Douglas attempts to wage lawfare: In Reply: "I never thought that person did it because of their political leanings, I think they did it because they were cowardly bullies." (Popehat, Team Kimberlin, Donald Douglas)

Donald's low-budget conception of "free speech": Dishonest Donald Douglas' "Raging Primordial Rage"

Free speech for me, but not for thee: Dishonest Donald Douglas: Fascist First Amendment Fail

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An American Nihilist X-post

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