Wednesday, July 12, 2006

FOAD Thursday... Showing The Peace and Love

So it is once again Thursday and another edition of FOAD and I'll be Showing The Peace and Love. It's going to be a long one, so you really should buckle up.


Miss Ann Thrope happened to point out that she had left a comment on this blog at this post here. Her comment about the subject, which was how people who are "childfree" are on the way to having a "stunted soul". Well she had a problem with this, and rightfully so. So she spoke her mind as always, and her comment was deleted. If you click on that link it takes you to where the comment was actually deleted. Her comment # should have been #c001370. It goes from #c001369 to #c001371 (you can tell by mousing over the # sign) which indicates a deleted comment. Now I read the comment, and considering the source, it was very tame on a subject personal to a LOT of people including my cousins who have some issues in having children.

So what was SO bad that had to be deleted. Well here it is in her words. I don't see anything wrong with it... and to be honest I abhor people who delete comments. So me being me... I interjected my two cents here with this comment:

This is a very interesting article regarding sibling relations. I think you make some very valid points about children needing to navigate certain things on their own. In fact, I would encourage more so activity to avoid a severe lack of stimuli that could lead to a medicore intelligence quotient and severe lack of initiative when common sense demands action.

I would also like to say that it has painfully come to my attention that you are a comment deleter. This in fact is very troubling in light of this wonderful article since you will not allow your readers to debate and challenge the concepts behind these wonderful posts. I will be returning soon to see if this troubling news is indeed true and that you are not a professional but rather an electronic evangelist preparing your followers to provide their children with a Kool-Aid party. Should I find this comment deleted or altered in any way then your mask will be removed and I will be revealing the true you… who lacks the respect for your readers and common sense in that this is the Internet and everything is connected.

And that is what arguing with my sibling brought me… some serious peace and love I share at a moment’s notice.

Thanks… and have a nice day…

Now how many people are asking yourselves who wrote that? Go on... raise your hand... yeah I know Scottage... you're not the only one... just the only brave one. Yes, I did write that, and yes I did read the post the comment was left in and found the theory somewhat interesting and relevant to the actual topic I wanted to discuss... the deletion of comments. By the way, peace and love are bolded for a reason which I will go into later.

Now not only did my comment NOT get deleted, but I got a reply that went like this:

Dear NYC watchdog. Thanks for writing. I think you will find that there is vigorous debate and “challenge” on this blog, which I am delighted to welcome. By all means scroll through and you will find exactly that! What you will not find is foul or vulgar language, threats, or abusive comments. Such things are of course deleted, without apology! And so they will continue to be. This is my blog, and I want to make it a place where folks of different viewpoints feel welcome, safe, and appreciated.

“Write on”. . . Betsy

Someone pinch me. Did Betsy actually say, "Write on"? That was pretty dumb. Obviously she doesn't know me... then again it seems more and more people don't know me so she may as well join their ranks. She claims that she removes foul or vulgar language, threats, or abusive comments. Did she miss where I said, "will be returning soon to see if this troubling news is indeed true and that you are not a professional but rather an electronic evangelist preparing your followers to provide their children with a Kool-Aid party." which is telling her I think she is preparing parents to murder their children ala cult style. Isn't that just a little abusive? How about where I said, "Should I find this comment deleted or altered in any way then your mask will be removed and I will be revealing the true you… who lacks the respect for your readers and common sense in that this is the Internet and everything is connected." Isn't that a bit threatening? Yet, she removes threatening and abusive comments. NOT.

Had Betsy actually said to, "Write on"? Well... okay... if she insists... here was comment #2:

Betsy… I must say I am more than pleasantly surprised to find not only my comment intact, but a response as well! Thank you also for the invitation to “write on”, because on this subject I believe I will one more time.

Thank you very much for clarification on the subject of comments here on your blog. I too have a blog. Now I will openly admit my blog is in no way shape or form at the quality level of your own. For one thing, I blog on Blogger therefore lacking the ”.com” name only the elite have attained. For another, I usually touch more on personal topics and write about them more for an audience I believe to be more blue collar than white… although you never can tell with the Internet. Nevertheless, I too once said that I would not allow threatening or abusive comments. For the most part, they never appeared, except for one. To be honest, my finger was on the delete button but I hesitated. Here is the brief reason why.

In 1994 I was on the staff of my college newspaper, The QC Quad of Queens College. We received an ad with a check that was put out by a man named Bradley Smith, who is a Holocaust Revisionist. His advertisement outlined a number of “reported” falacies regarding the Holocaust that claimed the lives of 6 Million Jews. His claims for the most part were outlandish to most educated people. Since this was an ad, the dilemna was do we run it or not?

The fact that this landed on our doorstop garnered us national media attention including a segment on 60 Minutes with Mike Wallace and for myself a brief appearance on The Phil Donahue Show.

In the end, we decided to remove his contact information at the top of the ad, we sent him back his money, and printed it as an “Illustration of Hate” with an OP-Ed piece next to it countering him point by point.

I do not mean to be long winded, but my point is, that although you may feel a comment is threatening or abusive, as a journalist you have a duty to your reader’s not to ignore it. You should address it, defend your viewpoint or that of your reader’s if they are the ones being assaulted, and let the world see them for the heathens they are!

In a way, commenters are like our own (a blogger’s) siblings. We can all name different commenters as tormenters to our ideas, and there are things that our commenters have to learn to negotiate on their own.

As for vulgarity, it speaks for itself. I have never seen the need to remove a vulgar comment, partially because as I mentioned my blog is more for the “blue collar” readers, but also because I believe vulgarity exposes a person’s true lack of intellectuality and I prefer to leave it as an example of those who will never quite understand what is being said.

Once again I would like to thank you for this opportunity. I would also like to let you know that I have decided that you will be the object of my “Peace and Love” Thursday post… so by all means please feel free to stop by. I would like to warn you though that you may need to warn protective eye gear. I have been accused of trying to burn the retinas out of my readers by having an orange template. Perhpas one day that will change… perhaps one day I can have a real blog at a ”.com”... but until then, I make do with what I have.

Thanks again.

Now allow me to clarify something because I am now about to admit I am retarded. I used the word intellectuality and in reality the word I had wanted to use was creativity. Allow me a second of diligence on this. If I see a comment that says, "You suck dick." I am not impressed. In fact I feel it pointless to use some sort of phrase I used in 4th Grade to describe the Penguins waking me with the yard stick. I would much prefer something along the lines of, "You must understand that I am in mourning since thousands of my possible future children died in your mouth last night." Anybody see the difference? Here's another occasionally crude one, "Fuck you!". If you really want to, sure, but that's neither here nor there because what I would much rather see is something like, "My purple helmeted warrior of love will be razing and ravaging through the wet jungle known as Your Pubes before causing a nuclear holocaust in the pink valley below to make it flow red with blood." I prefer creativity. I also understand that there are sometimes when those four letter words are what transmits the message perfectly, and lord knows I am very vulgar in that aspect and hardly creative in many of my posts, but the point is it rarely does anything for me in comments when I read them. So now that I cleared that up... yes I will accept that I am a bitch... not only a bitch though, I'm a chatty one according to her... and while I don't mind being called one saying "You are a perfect example of a transgender operation gone wrong. Going to grow a penis soon you little bitch you?"... just sayin. So let's move on shall we?

So I have been trying to figure out what it was in the comment that could have been found vulgar... but I honestly couldn't. Miss Ann herself pointed out it may have been her use of the words "Crack Whore" which I do not find any vulgarity and in seeing as how both words, the second being recognized as the world's oldest profession for that matter, are both found in the dictionary. The FCC itself has never ruled those two terms as obscene... then again they never really ruled any words obscene as you can read in the FCC obscenity laws. In fact they say that "An average person, applying contemporary community standards, must find that the material, as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest;" meaning that since I am an average person, who writes for average people on a more than average blog, in a community that is often dominated by four letter words, and since I do not find "Crack Whore" obscene, well then it isn't.

Here is the total part that kills me. Betsy wrote this book called It Takes A Parent and apparently has a nationally syndicated column. I was originally mistaken in thinking that she was a journalist, when in fact she is only an author with a book ranking on Amazon.com at #274,081. Not too shabby... but here is an excerpt from her promo:

Tyrannized by "experts." Obsessed with perfection. Harried and anxious to the point of misery. Columnist and commentator Betsy Hart sees these traits in what she calls today's "parenting culture"-... This insightful, commonsense book will help shift the focus back to the role and responsibilities of parents-for guiding the character and hearts of their children, so they will grow up to be responsible adults themselves.

So Betsy apparently feels people are "tyrannized". Tyranny is defined as "Absolute power, or its use" by Wikitionary. So here the she is, claiming parents are "tryrannizd"... but the she is participating in Blogger Tyranny by deleting comments herself! Hypocritical? Absolutely. Unethical? Absolutely. But then again, she isn't a true Blogger anyway.

I think what Betsy needs to do is stick to a static website (that she has already) that doesn't allow comments. Or maybe what she should do is open her own forum for just such occasions... something that requires a membership in her cult. I realize Blogs are the chic in thing to do... but if it is going to be on an open platform then that's how it should stay... open. It's incidents like this, where Old Media practices of editing and censoring infect the Blogosphere that give Blogs a bad name.

Is your head spinning yet? Yeah, I figured. Sorry... but this needed to be done. So for the following crimes against her readers and commentors:

• The deletion of comments, the VERY voice of your readers with NO justification and a tyrannical act in the Blogosphere
• The crime of hypocriticism when performing said deletion in standards set forth, just because a comment appears to be worded by an intellectual (can I get a *SNORT* here?)
• The crime of misrepresenting yourself as a blogger when in fact you are an author trying to self-promote your book

For these crimes you have been found guilty Betsy of Betsy's Blog. You are hereby sentenced to a Blogernity receiving Peace and Love here at APODB on this post. I figured that pretty much everyone who reads here knows what Peace and Love are when I refer to it, but apparently it either escaped some people's attention or in honesty they don't read here. I think it is the latter, which is fine, my error, and I surely won't make that mistake again. Now this is not your average Peace and Love. This will be the ORIGINAL 51 David1 Universal EMS Sign for Peace and Love... twice the fun... twice the meaning. I commonly refer to the singular message simply as Peace and Love, but it all originates from the same place. For those wishing to understand exactly what I mean when I use those two word in conjunction here is an illustration for all you special people out there...


So now Betsy from Betsy's Blog... Fuck Off And Die you hypocritical snobby deceitful blathering tyrannical beotch before I am forced to kill thousands of my potential children all over the face of your blog in an attempt to make it look better. Here is some very special Peace and Love for you my dear and it is right up your alley...


If you decide not to heed my recommendations then at the very least do yourself a favor and go here and get a decent template. No one can take you seriously with that crap look you have going on... it's as bad as wearing a t-shirt and jeans to a black tie affair you unbloggerized heathen.

P.S.

Rumor has it you have some guy "Tom" as a pitbull. Warning dear old "Tom", unlike your master I'll let you say anything you want about me in my comments without fear of deletion... just try to be original and creative... but if you attack one of MY commenters you'll end up like this closed minded ass. Pitbulls ain't got nothing on me... I'm pure mofo Shepard. Kabeesh?

Labels: FOAD

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