There are REALLY weird people who post here

I just read about the blogger who is not attending a computer conference due to death threats against her online, and I thought of the weird people like Ben Dover who post here. So often it's misogynistic and frankly ... well, weird. These are obviously not people who have friends or good relationships. And they're probably very angry and sexually frustrated as well. My question: why don't they get help? Why don't they see what they've just written and think 'ewww ... I'm sounding a bit off here - or at least, other people are saying that I am. Maybe I SHOULD check it out. Get a little bit of help.' ??? Instead they seem proud of themselves??? I think Salon needs to start coming down a LOT harder on these people, anyway and posts that are obscene/aggressive/threatening should be deleted.

And don't bring on the old 'free speech' argument. It's such an old leftist stalinist load of old bollocks. Yes free speech is important when in parliament or court or on the streets. No it's not important when it's in the context of a magazine that edits itself constantly anyway.

I was never defending alimony, I'm not going to get into it because i really don't know that much about it. If it is administered equally (meaning, all other things being equal, the higher-income spouse will pay alimony to the lower-income spouse, regardless of gender), it doesn't seem like a big problem to me. The fact that men may be disproprionately affected does not mean that the whole idea is a bad one. The fact that rich, white people are the ones who are most likely to be affected by laws against white-collar crime, for example, does not mean that we shouldn't have laws against white collar crime.

If it is not administered equally, then that should be changed. Then you should support the Equal Rights Amendment.

PS I do pay for myself. I don't expect alimony or any financial favors because of my gender.

Dammit all, I agree with you. Why did you go a ruin a perfectly good relationship?

Peace on earth? :)

peace on earth. You are right.

One major deficit of online communication is that the information needed to read human intent and status is largely missing. What is provided by written language and symbols is limited compared to what nonverbal and contextual cues might provide toward assessment of homicidal intent. In the absence of those cues that would allow some assessment of risk, it’s reasonable for someone on the short end of aggression and power differentials (a female) to be fearful.

Like the Duke strippers, Ms. Sierra was psychologically assaulted, partly the result of circumstances she chose to place herself in. The pathology and misogyny that drove these assaults have nothing to do with criminal evidence or conviction, and the obsessive focus on the role of the criminal justice system serves primarily to safely avoid confronting the underlying issues.

went the party of the Duke lacrosse team WERE NOT fucking assualted in any manner or former. Not verbal, not physical, not detained, nothing. They are simply liars, drug addicts, criminals, thieves who made claims that were utterly and completely false. No one yelled any racial epithets. No one restrained them. No one assaulted them. Get over it. The young men did nothing except party and be accused, wrongly, of rape. Jesus. Let go of that bone. It is goddam false and libelous/slanderous, end of story.

I agree that most feminists are incapable of applying the same logic and standards to themselves as they do to men, but that is their problem and not mine.

You just described human beings. Very few human beings can apply the same standards to themselves as they do to others.

The great majority of people are incapable of forming a truly logical argument.

If you are truly an atheist then you'll be happy to know that you are in the group least likely to get divorced. Jews have the highest divorce rate and after them the rate goes in descending order from the most fundamentalist churches down to the most tolerant churches with atheists coming in last.

FWIW, I'm a happily married atheist with three beautiful grandchildren.

anything I ever post on these boards with anything this blogger claims is being done to her!

I never threaten or insult anyone, male or female. I merely state my opinion, vociferously, rudely sometimes, politically incorrectly as often as I can.

If my mere opinion is perceived as a threat, then I guess the problem is in YOUR COURT, not mine.

Sorry if my opinion is not the opinion you want to hear, but sooner or later you have to get your head out of your ass and wake up to the fact you will not always hear only that which flatters your inflated sense of self worth and entitlement.

If anything, I call the responses to my postings insulting and threatening because it makes me question whether I have a right to an opinion AT ALL.

In college about twenty five years ago, i took a class called "digital electronics". The professor was the sort of female hating gay academic that you see in the sciences and mathmatics. The large remainder of the students in the class were clearly destined to experience most of their sex in "lifelike rubber." There wa a commen thread of female hatred and anger running through the class.

As an english major, i only took the class on a whim. It turned out to be an eyeopener i have remembered ever since.

I read Ms. sierra's posts and found them to be well written, technical, non-political, and largely innocuous. The fact i did not understand any of it didn't aid me in examining why someone could get so worked up.

In my business we get threats all the time, and in person. (I am a criminal defense attorney who deals entirely in Major criminal cases) The best thing to do is not let them know they have affected you. just to note, the peculiar nature of the internet seems to draw behavior that the same people would never do in person, nor even consider doing.