1. morons like oreally (or even lefties) who jump on the red herring bandwagon of 'unacceptable' blog commments, need to be slapped down EVERY TIME they try to make this an issue...

A. NO DOUBT that reichwing sites -who even bother to allow open, unmoderated comments (you know, what used to be called free speech)- are far worse with violent and nasty comments than lefties... NO DOUBT...

B. i would bet dollars to donut holes, that for every 'leftie' who acts as a reichwing troll spouting extreme violence/etc on reichwing sites to 'discredit' them; there are 100 riechwing trolls who masquerade as lefties to spew extreme violence/etc on leftwing sites...

C. the simple fact that public comments are NOT the same as the sites owner's views or writings should be enough to stop the idiotic bleatings over such tempests in a teacup...

2. when 'our' (sic) gummint is paying mainstream quasi-journalists and punditocracy to spout gummint propaganda; when 'our' (sic) CIA is planting propaganda/lies/etc in foreign media that are REALLY intended to be republished (oh-we-didn't-know!) in domestic media for the purpose of evading strictures they mostly ignore anyway; when this corrupt administration consistently perverts EVERY gummint action, EVERY law, EVERY issue as a means to enforce their political messages; only naive sheeple (ie 50-75% of the citizenry) would NOT think that maybe -just maybe- 'our' (sic) gummint (and their spooky cutouts and private kontractors) are also tilting the playing field in blogsylvania by gaming comments/etc to reflect reichwing/administration views uncritically...

gee, surely they wouldn't be so petty, deceptive, and anti-democratic to do that, would they ? *snicker*

3. 'progressives' CENSOR too; yes, painful as that SHOULD be to admit, it is twuly twue... besides yours truly being CENSORED here for daring to criticize regular (subscribing) posters in strong words (nothing violent or personal), i have witnessed VALID, non-profane, and GERMANE posts deleted because they were critical of one of salon's kewl kidz...

(in this case, an astute reader pointed out the hypocrisy of a writer's husband in defending conrad black when he was on a significant ($30-40k/year) 'retainer' from senor black; *pfft* too revealing for salon to allow *that* little nugget of free speech to exist...)

4. i totally reject the pleas of scaredy babbits who ask for posters to stay 'on topic', etc: THISY HERE is a water cooler conversation, a corner pub, a front stoop hangout; NOT a duly authorized and constituted meta-jury to ajudicate the wisdom or folly of the subject at hand... ESPECIALLY when there are ancillary issues or unstated premises that should be explored in relation to the immediate issue at hand... further, IF people are relating and reacting to 'off topic' conversations, then who the fuck are the comment police to 'demand' that people stay 'on topic' ?

authoritarianism/control freak much ?

come the revolution, there will be plenty'o'cussin'...

art guerrilla

aka ann archy

eof

1. as numerous posters point out, the screenname is (at least, superficially) anonymous...

so, evidently, EVERYONE IS for anonymous postings, they just don't want *really* anonymous postings...

hmmm, hypocrisy much ?

(um, if we are talking about the babbitry at salon, then the answer is 'yes'... oh geez, was that a 'personal attack' ?)

kind of like dawkin's point: EVERYONE is an atheist, he is just an atheist about one more religion than the religionists are...

2. people who CENSOR are NOT exhibiting progressive values, and DON'T believe in true free speech, PERIOD... you can dress it up about how CENSORSHIP is simply to eliminate 'personal attacks'; merely attempting to 'elevate' the conversation (*snicker*), and otherwise protect overlysensitive sheeple from, you know, unpleasantness; but it is CENSORSHIP plain and simple... salon -or whoever- is NO BETTER than closeminded, open-mouthed, and 'moderated' reichwing sites who CENSOR, when they adopt similar policies...

3. salon -and other supposedly progressive sites- DO CENSOR for reasons which have more to do with avoiding embarassing facts, rank hypocrisy, 'protecting' the delicate sensibilities of writers, etc, than have anything to do with 'personal attacks'... besides the fact that yours truly has been CENSORED for 'attacking' a class of people, NOT an individual; i have seen a couple instances of the egregious deleting of poster's comments which were VERY TELLING, and VERY GERMANE to the issue at hand...

(and those were just seen by chance; how many 'valid' posts are deleted before anyone notices ?)

the one post was a couple sentences long, 'attacked' no one, but pointed out several salient facts which threw the author's post in a TOTALLY different light... of course, it was deleted posthaste... (i just happened to catch the post before deletion, checked out the facts portrayed, and found them to be correct as reported...) in short, i will not buy the 'CENSORSHIP is only used to protect the po' po' sensitive eyes/ears of delicate saloonists who are trying to save the world one post at a time...'

4. what a bunch of all-too-typical, spoiled 'merikan babies: don't make me see unpleasantness; don't allow anyone to criticize me/my views; don't let pottymouthed ne'er-do-wells spoil my day and implant just the tiniest seed of doubt in my obscene-consumerist-status-quo-seeking life...

go away, speakers of harsh truths ! go away, mean people who actually get upset over the dismantling of the last vestiges of democracy ! go away, loudmouths who ungraciously point out your rampant hypocrisy and cowardice ! just go away ! ! !

oh, and garryowen, i'd say what i think of you, but that would get my whole post deleted, wouldn't it ? gosh, i guess the 'policy' weally, weally works ! ! ! (jerk)

come the revolution, the babbits and wormtongues will be scorned...

art guerrilla

aka ann archy

eof