As some of you who participate at the liberal community blog My Left Wing (MLW) may know, one of the members of that community posted a diary the other day in which he announced his intention to commit suicide. Maryscott O’Connor, the founder and administrator of MLW left that diary available for public viewing, a decision for which some have roundly criticized her. Fortunately, the individual who did indeed attempt suicide is still with us (details here), thanks in no small past to Maryscott’s decision. Here is the text of the diary I posted at MLW defending that decision:
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Maryscott O’Connor did the right thing
I’m referring of course to the suicide attempt by a member of [My Left Wing], and the diary he posted [t]here, which MSOC did not delete. Let me explain to any doubters why she did the right thing by relating a little parable.
(cont.)
Once upon a time there was a boy who was in love with his best friend’s girlfriend. He was a depressed young man, and though he was very intelligent, and quite charming when he wanted to be, he couldn’t get over the fact that the young woman he loved happened to be involved with someone other than he, and that this someone was, in fact, his best friend. His best friend and and this woman were freshman at the same college, a college that the young man did not himself attend.
The young man had always been subject to mood swings and depression, and these symptoms intensified after he graduated from High School and went away to college. He began abusing alcohol and other drugs, flunked out his first semester, and went back home to live with his parents who didn’t understand him at all. From there, he would make late night phone calls to the young woman, telling her he loved her. She felt sorry for him, and would talk with him long into the night about his depression. However, despite his best efforts, she refused to abandon her relationship with his best friend in order to begin a new romantic relationship with him.
So, one day, he decided to kill himself. He swallowed a bunch of phenobarbital pills when his parents were out for the evening, and then called up the young woman at her college dormitory to tell her what he had just done. Unsurprisingly, her boyfriend, the best friend was there with her, and when she answered the phone and heard what he had to say she immediately told her boyfriend.
The two of them decided to try to keep him on the phone to discover where he was. So she talked to him and learned that he was at his parents’ home. The boyfriend/best friend, who knew all about the young man’s depression and his desire for the young woman, then went to another phone and called his parents, who lived in the same town as the young man’s parents, about five minutes away from their house where the young man had just swallowed the barbiturates and was waiting to die. They agreed to call the police and to go straight over to the young man’s house.
Meanwhile, the young woman could no longer continue talk on the phone, because she was so upset and anxious, and didn’t want to start crying while talking to him. So she turned to phone over to her boyfriend, who kept talking to his friend, his best friend still, despite what had come between them. They talked about a lot of things, including the fact that the young man was sorry that he had tried to break up his best friend’s relationship. His speech began to slur, and what he said started to make less and less sense, but his best friend kept him talking until the best friend’s parents, the police and an ambulance all arrived on the scene. After they entered his house, he was immediately taken to the hospital for emergency treatment.
The young man survived. In fact to my knowledge he’s still alive, some 30 years later. He was angry with his two friends for a while, but he eventually forgave them.
A nice story, isn’t it? And it’s a true story. I know, because I was the best friend. My girl friend and I eventually split up, but we are still on good terms. Neither of us have had any contact with our friend who attempted suicide in the last ten years, but last I knew of him he was living in California, had married, and was gainfully employed.
Each person who attempts suicide has his or her own reasons for doing so, and also the same reason. They want the pain they are suffering to end, whether that pain is physical or psychological (or, as is often the case, a lot of both).
Depression is a serious illness, and it claims the lives of thousands of people every year. However, it is a treatable condition. Even severe depression or other mood disorders, such as bipolar disorder, need not be a death sentence for those who suffer from these afflictions. I believe that most suicidal individuals would choose life, if only they thought that their pain could be alleviated in some other fashion. But because we place such a stigma on those who suffer from “mental illness” (a misnomer that does a great disservice to what is increasingly being recognized as true physical disorders of the brain) many people refuse to seek help. They suffer in silence, and often in shame. And because of the nature of these conditions, they often become socially isolated and cut themselves off from the very people who care about them. Yet, often they will reach out to those who love them, even as they attempt to take their own lives. Why do they do that? I can’t give you an definitive answer, but I like to believe it is a last effort to connect with other human beings, a last plea for help. And if that plea is ignored?
* * *
What Maryscott did the other day here took real courage. She opened herself up to the scorn and criticism of “some people” by leaving the diary in which the suicide attempt was announced available for public viewing. However, it was the right thing to do, because that was they only chance she had to save BeagleandTabby’s life. Just as I believe my former girl friend and I were right in what we did 30 years ago to save our friend’s life. She chose the only option available to her that might help others get medical assistance to BeagleandTabby in time to save his life. I salute her for that.
Thank you Maryscott.
I saw this last night. She did indeed do the right thing. Bravo, Maryscott.
(And bravo to you too, Steven!)
but I don’t see how identifying him by his real name and posting the “suicide picture” was strictly necessary for the outcome. and then stubbornly declaring him dead 3 times. that, to me, was packing a truly critical situation with an extra wallop of drama.
and also, consider that continued discussion across the blogs continues the initial violation of privacy.
she saved his life but she didn’t save it good enough?
but I get the sense that prevailing sentiment will mitigate against examining the the specific issue I addressed.
And I fully understand how emotions will run high on this issue.
continuing the fine tradition that no good deed goes unpunished?
I don’t understand the incessant need to criticize people. I can’t judge someone for how they react to learning their friend has ostensibly killed themselves. All I know is that she was able to help the EMS people locate in time to save his life. How she reacted is not my concern.
This is just more of the same stuff I’ve been seeing from the paparazzi. If there is any opening to be vicious and take things in the worst light, you can be sure it will be done.
in what way could my comment be construed as vicious?
and in your following it up with the little “paparazzi” line shows you to be plenty willing to criticize, and group-generalize yourself.
you did, after all, post an FP article entitled with the name of another blogger whose behavior you were criticising.
oh and I heard a rumor you were going to do a once a week special crit of a particular blog?
and given all the business and uproar about “outing” in recent months, it is odd that you cannot take my point about identifying someone by name and photograph.
I think I get it now…if a picture and personal information that’s been posted elsewhere can be used in an attacking manner to hurt someone, it’s okay. If it’s used to in an effort to help someone who’s in trouble, it’s not.
If the people who use pictures and personal information to attack or out people who they disagree with get criticized for doing so, they become the victims.
My head hurts. Think I’ll go outside and play with the kids…their games are much more fun.
how posting his picture was essential in the life-saving operation. I think I would personally find it very painful, even after surviving a suicide attempt, to have seen that the “suicide” photo had such a public display.I mean, imagine it being picked up by wingnuts of the crueler variety.
but then I see you buy the fiction that lv was “outed” by other than his own doing.
Number one- I looked at his diary and it looks like he is the one that posted the picture. If that’s not the case, then I’ll stand corrected.
Number two- I do not know why it is so hard to understand that there is a difference between allowing people to know your identity and having people use that information to try to destroy you.
and consider the condition he was in when he posted it, does that mean that it HAD to be published? That is a picture of a person in deep pain. And there is also a social convention regarding not publishing people’s suicide notes.
As for the attempted destruction of lv-that is ever so silly of a take.
your words condemn you.
I don’t need to rebut them, as anyone can see for themselves what you are doing. It’s exactly as I described it in my first comment.
If you don’t understand google then you don’t understand why the litterbox constantly uses his real name. Anyone the googles his name will find links that would concern any client. It’s an intentional effort to hurt him professionally. There is no other point.
They are actually investigating and planning to write about Armando’s private life. A lot of people have respect for you for what you’ve done in the past. But if you think this stuff is acceptable and are going to defend it, there is no way to respect that.
But what do I know? Like Maryscott, I am just a paid operative.
Who is investigating Armando’s private life? You must be smoking some serious crack to believe that anyone who posts on OG&P cares one whit about Armando’s personal life… Then again, from what I’ve seen over the years, most of the kewl kids think it’s all about them.
Look, Booman, let me ask you a simple, serious question: Why do you care what marisacat or any others who post at her site say? What is your motivation to take threads completely out of context to malign her and/or any of us who happen to post there on your front page?
Could it be that she holds up a mirror and you don’t like what you see? Because it has been obvious to me for some time that no one in the mainstream liberal blogsphere gives a damn about anyone to the left of them. If they did, they would have managed their sites better so that people like me weren’t turned off by the rampaging of centrist thugs. And honestly, I think the image you have created for yourself is so vastly different from the reality of the BBB’s, that you feel threatened when someone actually tells the truth.
Lucid-
Let me also point something else out. One of the strengths of community blogs is that you can’t get away with saying factually incorrect stuff. If I suddenly started accusing Barbara Mikulski of voting for the Iraq War Resolution it wouldn’t be long before someone corrected me. And if I didn’t acknowledge my error and correct it, I’d lose all credibility.
But it seems like that function of the comments is totally absent in the litterbox and at other meta sites. Correction is deleted or ignored, if it occurs at all. In other words, those sites are not functioning as blogs at all. They are basically garbage and participating there is basically an act of dishonesty, or complicity in dishonesty.
That’s how I see it. And that is why I care.
Cite please.
Everytime I have seen marisacat post anything about you, she encloses a direct link. If people on the thread chime in saying anything about you without a link it is usually in reference to the original link or the immediately previous link. How is linking to what you have actually written a lie?
If anyone is really concerned about their identity being know on a public internet forum for the world to see, then they should be very careful to protect that in public forums. It’s like the police going through your garbage. I know that anyone could figure out who I am in less than 5 minutes given my posting history. And could bring up random posts I made to public forums in 1998. I don’t really care. I am who I am, and I stand by that.
Yes and no. I don’t think you are a centrist thug. And honestly I haven’t really read this site more often than once or twice a week since 2005. This is much more directed at Markos, but I think it is also true of the larger mainstream liberal blogshpere. I came to it from the outside, as a Green & as a Marxist. I voted a straight democratic ticket for the first time in my life in 2004, yet I continue to see the beration of anyone who dissents from Democratic machine politics on all of the BBB’s. And I, for one, dissent from Democratic machine politics.
A. Please cite anything I have said about another blog poster that you think is untruthful. B. Please cite anything from any of the frequent posters over there about other bloggers that you think is untruthful. In both of these, please refrain from citing anything that reflects the opinions of others that are obviously stated as opinion and not fact.
Let me remind you that your entire Paparazzi post was a David Copperfield sleight of hand.
Have you ever really read Dkos? Do you know how many times I’ve had to correct the historical record of both American liberalism, the American left, and Marxism [just for starters], only to find the exact same lies repeated on the front page by Markos himself?
It is groupthink, not rational discussion.
I post at mcat’s blog because I have found people with whom I can have real conversations – and people with open minds. These were the same people with whom I could have real conversations with at, for instance, Dkos until they were banned because they questioned site policy. Or stepped on the wrong foot of the wrong centrist asshole.
So no, I don’t think we are dishonest. We are simply who we are, expressing our opinions freely, without the fear of a mob descending on us to troll rate us out of existence.
I understand your desire for links. I am not going to link. I actually have a reason for not linking to the Armando hunter and that is because they divulge things about his private life that I do not want to link to and spread around.
One thing you should know. My credibility is my most important asset. I’d be crazy to lie about anything at anytime. And I don’t and never have. Some people have doubted me. On occasion I have been wrong. But I have never lied about anything. If you doubt me, that is your right, but I would never jeopardize my credibility.
My identity is public. I’d prefer it if a google search of my name didn’t immediately bring up a link to people telling lies about me. For example, saying that I am anti-choice, a friend of Democrats for Life, and one of the biggest supporters of Bob Casey Jr. on the entire internet (as was done without rebuttal at the litterbox) is not really cool with me. I mean, it’s about 180 degrees away from the truth.
As for your personal truthfulness, I have no idea. I remember you from dKos and do not remember you as dishonest.
You say that you concern is with dKos’s hostility to leftists/marxists. That’s my point. Don’t conflate his site with mine.
I will say that I do not sympathize with Marxists at all, even a little bit. But I have never run anyone off this site for their political opinions (except one or two dittoheads). I will argue with Marxists but I won’t bully them or tolerate ratings abuse.
You may like the litterbox. That’s your taste. I bet you will come to see my point before too long. If my recollection of you from dKos is accurate, it won’t take too much longer.
Then why do you front page flagrant lies about marisacat’s little blog? You know your Paparazzi post was a flagrant lie. You know that many responses to Miss Devore & myself in this thread are full of flagrant lies. Why do you lie in the very face of the people you lie about?
I asked you for specific cites in specific reference to your previous points. You have provided none – because you can’t.
And that makes me sad.
Live up to what you claim yourself to be.
And please stop maligning people.
I’ve lied about nothing. You, on the other hand, have been wrong about everything you have asserted in this thread, as should be obvious by now.
Unfortunately it is a pattern of BooMan’s to make accusations without any cites. I’ve noticed in most of the posts where he accuses others of lying or something else unbecoming he does so as an essayist and asks the reader to just trust him vs. providing any links to back up his statements.
But tha’ts just my observation.
evidence that people are investigating abdt’s private life,and that they post at marisacat.
Myself? marisacat? hrh? madman? Tuston? Ms-xeno? catnip? Boohoohooman? wilfred? Sure we have poked fun at what was out there, but he was delivering daily.
since the community blogs are such a trustworthy place, I’d like to see the evidence.
or did you just believe abdt like you believe dd/lv, who have both talked of grand plots against them. as in grandiose.
You seem to lack the perspective that there are people who do not find either abdt or dd/lv inherently interesting. blustering and hypocritcal, but people who will take themselves down by their own behavior. and I don’t know the intimate details of all his drama of being outed by some troll to some publication, blah blah blah. likely someone he pissed off by the way he treated them.but jesus not everyone he’s been rude to launches a vengeance project–a lot of people have simply said-blow it out yer ass, dude.
anyway–let’s see the strength of the community blogs in getting to the truth on that matter.
I was there. Online when his essay posted. Beagle and Tabby is a front pager at MLW and while he’s been scarce for some time, he’s been lurking. His essay was POSTDATED to appear at that specific time. When we (the collective “we”)saw it pop up, complete with accompanying photos, it was obvious that he had carefully timed it so the assumption was that he was already gone…If not for the quick response and pooling of relevant information, he wouldn’t be recovering now.
if you lie down with dogs…and act like them…
I don’t know where you pick up your rumors…probably the same place that said I ‘was the biggest Casey supporter on the internets’.
As for the privacy issue, I haven’t looked into all the details, but it seems like it was waived in the interest of trying to save his life. Whether it was absolutely necessary, I’m not sure. Maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it was. It is a shame that people now know this person’s identity, and I hope that doesn’t bring them further unhappiness.
And the perfect response. I need add nothing to it.
Thanks for that.
get your facts straight, before you undertake to assassinate someone’s character. The picture was posted by BeagleandTabby in the suicide note that he himself posted on My Left Wing. The particulars were posted in a discussion aimed at tracking him down to assist the police in a rescue attempt. That attempt succeeded. Maryscott thought he was dead because it was posted on a delay, but she took every action imaginable anyway.
God. What is wrong with you people! The ghoulishness. Attacking a person in crisis, doing everything she knew how to save a man’s life. Ick. I can see I’m going to need to return to my ritual cleansing of blogosphere goo. Get it off me. Not enough sage in the world, methinks.
I did have my facts straight about the posting of the picture.
One could also argue it was ghoulish to post the picture; surely some editorial control was available after she found the post. And insisting he was dead before the truth was discovered.
well, like I said, I understand how emotional this issue will be, and my opinion is obviously a minority one here.
we remain unconvinced of each other’s arguments. so be it. with the epithets of dog and ghoul already in place, I see there’s little point in writing anything more.
I don’t know you Ms Devore, but speakign as someone who’s lost about 10 personal friends to suicide since 1985, may I humbly suggest you take a flying fuck at the moon?
This woman was trying to save her friend’s life and all i see here is this bloodless argument over what Ms. O’Connor did in a crisis. Boo-fucking-hoo, I’m sorry you don’t approve and that she didn’t dot all her i’s and cross all her t’s.
What a disgraceful way to act. You should be ashamed of yourself.
And you know what? I don’t even like MSOC and MLW. She did the right thing in a crisis. Go save your armchair qarterbacking for football season.
…here solely on her behalf, but also on behalf of Marisacat (and hence the Marisacat-centrism of her rather odd comment, to which I have already replied).
It’s just a suspicion, mind you.
What I said on MyLeftWing is what I’ll say here:
Maryscott’s detractors will use anything, even her own child, to get at her. There’s no depths to which some of them will not go.
Maryscott saved Beagleandtabby’s life, and is being criticised for the manner in which she did it.
If Maryscott hadn’t saved his life, she’d be criticised for that, too, despite her herculean efforts.
Eh, fuck the critics. She did what she had to do, and she got the job done. That’s all that matters. I didn’t see Miss Devore or her crowd doing a damn thing to help. These are the same people who stand on the sidewalk and tell the firefighters where to point their hoses.
And yes, Miss Devore, I realise yawn I’ve now incurred the wrath of Marisacat. Um, whatever.
I never existed in the blogosphere independent of marisacat. I never posted at Booman until I got banned from kos, etc. etc. add that to the mythology. and don’t forget all the solace abdt gave me.you have it in your power to propagate such bullshit because you are bigger, you get more attention, enough attention to warrant people taking out ads. feel the power you have over a few freebie wordpress blogs.
You know, the only reason I kept posting at BMT–and I say kept because I have been around for almost 2 years–was:
First of all and primarily, to continue with Iraqi Daily Witness. And then I thought I had some old friends here, and some basic commonness with people here.
But–well–I won’t even mention them–lest they be tainted here with my blogfriendship–I know where I can get in touch with those friends. And Rub has his own site now.
the blogging curmudgeon is doing the exact same thing that goes on all day in the litterbox. Just because you are a participant there doesn’t mean you are agent or under the control of the blogowner there. Nor does the fact that I happen to like Armando personally mean that I agree with his online persona and behavior.
However, I have to admit that I can’t muster any sympathy for the people that post there or trust them to not try to screw up this site and spread dissension. Wilfred and Madman are basically decent people, but they don’t stand up to a lot of the absolute crap that goes on there.
I haven’t really ever seen anyone there correct the record or stand up for the truth when it is blatantly violated.
People that complain about misogyny, homophobia, and censorship do not say a peep when those things arise on the paparazzi sites. When people make outrageous claims, like MSOC is a paid operative, no one questions it. If they do, they are banned and no one complains. When people mock homosexuals, no one complains. When women are constantly degraded and run down, no one cries foul.
And, yet, the merest hint of censorship, homophobia, or sexism that rears its head at other sites is held up, exaggerated, if not outright invented, and then used as a cudgel…usually attached to someone’s real name, rather than the nom de blog.
It’s your passive tolerance of this that makes me upset. And your participation in this bashing of MSOC is just more of a pattern that I find really distasteful.
I had nothing against you until I witnessed your participation in the litterbox. It’s a disgusting site filled with very angry people that have no regard for the truth. And, while not everyone there is making these comments, the fact that they don’t mind them and never correct the record makes it impossible for me to be indifferent about it.
And I don’t understand it, because you don’t really seem like the kind of person that would want to associate yourself with people that spread lies and tend towards cruelty.
So, I do take it personally…and I thought I would at least tell you why.
I did put my two cents in on that thread & went on record according MSOC admiration and respect that her actions had saved her friend.
Have I been banned, not as of 5 minutes ago.
I have been over at mcat’s for a month and a half now – ever since I quit Dkos. I have read every comment in every thread since I have been there. I have not seen one instance of bigotry of any kind. I’ve been all over Dkos for over 3 years and find 20% of the comments and diaries to be full of bigotry – and it gets worse by the day.
Now, if one does as you & quotes things completely out of context from mcat’s threads, it might be a short step to inventing bigotry, but if you actually read the thread, it is unequivocally not. So who exactly is exaggerating here?
And honestly, I don’t think it’s your place to lecture people like marisacat, hrh, liberal catnip and others on what constitutes sexism.
Stop maligning people, or has DHinMI taken you on as his Paduan learner?
I have read some of the threads at marisacat, and I personally find it vacuous, tendentious and solipsistic. And why are they overly obsessed with me?
In a month and a half there, I think I have only seen a single post referring to you… And it was somewhat positive – and kind of questioning why you seemed to direct negative comments towards posters at OG&P out of the blue.
I don’t think anyone there is obsessed with you. Or comments on you at all…
What is OG&P? For what do these letters stand? What is it?
the name of marisacat’s blog.
Okay.
But how do you explain the following?
You are obsessed.
uh, yeah – that was posted after you made the original comment. In fact, it was a comment on the comment throwing up hands in a WTF? position.
Because, you know, like Booman’s paranoid aspersions, and MB’s comparing us to serial killers, and complaints about speaking truth about abusive assholes in the blogshpere,
WTF?
Do any of you people understand this?
After bullying? After SYFPH? After ‘fuck anyone who isn’t like us’?
You still claim ignorance?
So when you make a statement that posters on a specific blog are obsessed with your sexuality, when there has never been any discussion of that or you, quite frankly, you don’t expect those posters to throw up their hands and ask:
What the Fuck?
I suppose if I was that paranoid, maybe I would.
I am also referring to other statements from earlier this week and this weekend. As I said, you and everyone else at marisacat is obsessed with me. In fact, you have even discussed my politics, and many of you claim to know my politics based on past statements.
You are obsessed, and I want it to stop.
I’m sorry LG, I have no idea what you’re talking about. I’ve read every comment of every thread over there for the last month and a half and I only remember one comment on you – specifically in relation to the HRH/Catnip bannings at MLW. [And I have a pretty damned photographic memory]. And it was a comment in disappointment – that you sanctioned them [and it had a direct link to your comment].
Now I know mcat has a quote up from you on her site – you’d need to take that up with her… though I doubt she’d take it down.
But, believe me, you or your sexuality have never been discussed, as far as I can tell.
I see Booman has gotten more people into a tizzy about nothing.
Liar. Many at marisacat have discussed my diaries on the Louisiana gubernatorial race, claiming I am a supporter of John Breaux. And one commenter even noted how I opposed the netroots’ promotion of Karen Carter.
So I missed two tiny [and yes they were tiny – what do you google your name & marisacat?] references to you in a post by someone that I skim…
How does that constitute an obsession with your sexuality by ‘all the posters’ there?
Honestly, I have no idea who you are. I have no interest in your sexuality, and no one over at mcat’s blog can figure out where your initial comment came from.
These comments prove that writers at Marisacat are obsessed with my politics, and the other comments posted by me and by Maryscott O’Connor prove that all of you have discussed my sexuality. You have not proved me wrong, and you are simply making excuses for yourself and for your friends.
“Obsessed with your politics”??? Sorry, but aren’t you posting your political opinions on political blogs? DId you think you were talking to yourself and no one else would notice? I don’t get waht your problem is.
So, Steven D writes a diary to share his thoughts and personal experiences relating to Maryscott’s actions the other day, Miss Devore takes issue with what Steven says and Maryscott did, somehow makes it all about Marisacat, you show up to join the game, and it magically becomes “BooMan getting everyone in a tizzy about nothing”?
I showed up for two reasons:
I think I’ve tried to make those two points effectively, despite this inane thread.
On that note, Goodnight.
That’s what I was thinking, and what I’ve already said. How did this diary become about Marisacat Marisacat Marisacat?
Booman, still think that Miss Devore isn’t a proxy for Marisacat? Ok, then.
See: Louisiana Girl’s post at MLW with animated gif of pole dancer.
Further see: incessant discussion at Mcat regarding Lousiana Girl’s pole dancer and why she posted it, whether she wishes she were a pole dancer, whether she wants Armando, whether she uses her sexuality to attract men online, et cetera et cetera ad nauseum
I can see I am going to have to go over to that wretched site and find all the fucking links to prove you and Miss D are talking out of your asses here.
THERE HAVE BEEN MULTIPLE DISCUSSIONS AS TO LG’S SEXUALITY, ALL BASED ON HER POSTING AN ANIMATED POLE DANCER GIF AT MLW.
MSOC, I’m not going argue with you, now.
But I will say that the rumor and innuendo & complete misreading of OG&P really disgusts me even more than the disgust that caused me to leave the BBB’s in the first place.
I have always respected you MSOC. I have never said anything to impeach you, even when I wholeheartedly disagree with you. I supported you in your turmoil yesterday on the only public blog I now post on.
I think you did a wonderful thing in saving your friend. I have had similar experiences.
Let’s not talk about this. Now.
You need to rejoice, you need to sleep. I need to do the same.
K
And notice my response to your comment above.
YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS AT MARISACAT ARE OBSESSED WITH ME.
And where in fact do you find me to be a “liar” in this regard?
My only comment on the original mcat thread there was to remind everyone that MSOC had saved her friend through her actions.
And if you don’t realize that I have had MSOC’s back for a long time, then you don’t go back on Dkos very long.
I have diverged and become somewhat critical,
But don’t accuse me of being a liar.
I recommend you either replace or clean the lenses of your photographic memory.
OK, I’ve come to the conclusion tha you are somewhat in another reality. You’ve repeated the same inane comment thread twice – in which there is revealed no ‘obsession with you’, by anyone at mcat’s place, particularly by me.
Good night and good luck.
It’s hopeless, MSOC.
Can’t reason with the unreasonable, remember?
…I have a “do not engage” policy with ALL of the Marisacat crowd. I’ve read their blog and found it unworthy of my time.
I made an exception in this case to defend MSOC. But I’ve no part in your dispute with the “litterbox” denizens, as you call them.
I just hope you and marisacat do not try to expose me. I know all of you are obsessed with me and my sexuality, and I really wish you would refrain from discussing me.
familiar to me by the quote of yours she has in the right bar–which I think refers to dd/lv?
my only other interpretation is that you are being more sarcastic than anyone.
You, marisacat and all the other degenerates you attract to that site are OBSESSED with me. You are OBSESSSED. I sincerely believe you and your friends must seek the advice and assistance of a professional. I quote:
Why is everyone at marisacat obsessed with me? Why?
or something else.
there are these things called “jokes”
nevermind.
I prefer you and your friends not discuss me at all. To reduce my identity to the butt of your jokes is an egregious act of aggression.
You obviously have a difficult time comprehending me.
DO NOT DISCUSS ME AT MARISACAT’S BLOG. YOU ARE OBSESSED, AND IT IS FRIGHTENING.
This whole comment thread originated from your original comment on the BMT thread that ‘we’ [a misnomer] at mcat’s blog are ‘obsessed with your sexuality’…
I will repeat. I have never said anything about you before. I had no idea who you were before that comment tonight – out of the blue.
How can ‘all of us’ at marisacat’s blog be obsessed with your sexuality, when I have no friggin’ clue who you are?
And why did you post two rather benign posts, twice, by one single commenter on mcat’s blog that had nothing to do with your sexuality in support of your position?
And what if one or two posters made a comment about some pole-dancing thing at some point in the not too distant past? Does that mean that ‘we’, as the booga-booga, hive mind over at OG&P are ‘obsessed’ with you?
This is insane. It is the same behaviour we discuss regularly…
IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT YOU!!!
You and your friends at Mcat discussed AD NAUSEUM your revulsion over LG’s posting that pole dancing animated gif.
And speculated as to her sexual desires, her felings for Armando, her role playing, et cetera, et cetera
That theme carried through several different threads.
Do I really have to drag through all those disgusting posts over there to prove it? You people cackled with glee on discovering another female you could skewer and vivisect, you, the only TRUE feminists in the blogosphere, doing your feminist duty by trashing other women who don’t fit YOUR idea of what women ought to be online.
So what if one or two people once bantered about the pole thing. I have no idea if anyone really did, but honestly, so what.
OG&P is an open forum where we discuss pretty much anything, freely. If someone doesn’t like a post, or a blogger’s style, or anything, they’ll offer their opinion. If people want to discuss other matters – more substantive matters, then poeple do – and it is more frequently the latter.
No one is obsessed with anyone. Please leave it alone.
I honestly don’t understand the obsession all of you have for ‘the evil one and her posse’, because she ain’t evil, and she doesn’t have a ‘posse’.
I did not associate the louisiana girl that I came upon in this thread to the pole dancing post at MLW until much later. and I think somewhere I questioned whether she was being sarcastic about some of her comments.
I regret posting the second or third comment on this diary, for all this uproar. I should have realized that the smallest objection to the author’s premise was not going to be “discussed”, but derided.
That said, I believe that booman brought up the first comment that addressed my comment in terms of me being part of the Mcat “group” rather than the substance of the comment. And thus we end up talking about “factions.”
I understand how emotional this issue will be
Do you? Really? And still you choose to publicly critique and micromanage the grief and shock of another person? Then your comprehension of the emotion of others and your conduct towards them are at odds.
my opinion is obviously a minority one here
Here, and in most of the civilized world I imagine.
Cutting to the chase, your caution about posting photos is understood.
Yes, Maryscott, did the right thing.
and with the best intentions.
Dang, I occasionally pop on over to MLW, though I don’t even have an account there. I saw the suicide note and felt like I was watching a train wreck. It just broke my heart. Thank the goddess that MSOC did what she did. She absolutely did the right thing. I’m with BooMan, no way can I judge her response at a time when she must have been completely freaked out. She saved a young man’s life. That is what is important.
Is anyone aware of a treatment for overexposure to meta?
C-SPAN.
a morning of Animaniacs cartoons, followed by an afternoon out with the family…but IANAD, or even “Hello Nurse!” 🙂
…definitely did the right thing. And second guessing what she did… especially given that his life was actually saved…seems questionable to me. Why? Why is it your business to do that? Doing so only adds to the stigma and stereotyping about suicide — reinforcing that it is somehow “shameful”. It isn’t. His was a cry for help. That was heard. And acted upon. No shame in that. Many of us have been there ourselves at one point or another, have we not? You should only hope someone like Maryscott O’Connor would be there to help you out if you need it.
Thank you, too, Steven D. (as well as Booman), for telling your very relevant story….and how it played out. Our ability to tell each other our stories is so important. I’m just glad I lived long enough to fully appreciate the miracle of Internet communications!
Finally, I just wish to God there had been a Maryscott O’Connor to respond as she did….just exactly as she did….when our highly successful, wonderful 27-year-old son (our only child) killed himself years ago.
And sorry about your son. Unfortunately, sometimes people need help and it isn’t there for one reason or another. People slip through our fingers even with the best of intentions and the best of efforts.
This time, BeagleandTabby got the help he needed. He’s alive and he has another chance to with his life what he will. Maryscott and some others on MyLeftWing (5Hearts is the one who posted B&T’s last known address on MLW) gave B&T that chance. B&T’s own mother posted a thank you note–a note of gratitude, on MyLeftWing:
I’m sorry, your point about what Maryscott did was what, again? She rescued a drowning man, so to speak, and you don’t like the swimming strokes she used when she did it? Yeesh.
Moonfire is actually B&T’s father. His mother is far too distraught to do much of anything right now, though she did convey, on the phone, through her husband, her thanks to me and everyone at MLW for what we did and said.
Let me just repeat that, for all the people who actually expressed fond wishes that B&T and his parents SUE ME FOR EVERY DIME I HAVE:
His parents are also my friends, now, and they have expressed NOTHING BUT GRATITUDE.
Just… for the record.
People actually said that? Why am I surprised? After all that I’ve seen in the last 2 days. Why am I surprised? I am being stripped of the last shred of naivete I had to my name. I actually thought I was pretty jaded. Hmmm… I must ponder.
Goldfish rails against me, speculates as to the base nature of my character and hopes his parents sue me for every penny I have
and then Goldfish hopes HE sues me
It was a traumatic thing, to wake up and find that on my front page.
I probably made a lot of mistakes, but I regret nothing, because he is alive.
As for the barrage of cruelty I’ve encountered from DKos and Marisacat — par for the course, of course, but nonetheless shocking and hurtful and despicable.
Someone even posted (and later deleted) a diary at DKos asking if I’d “PLAYED them all” — for the love of god, after 3 years as a constant member, having MET over 800 of them, these people actually contemplated the possibility that it was a HOAX perpetrated by me to get ATTENTION?
And the horrorshow goes on and on.
But my friend is alive.
So fuck ’em all. Somehow the opinions of a bunch of sociopathic douchebags just don’t mean much in the final analysis when measured against the fact that I will see my friend again.
I know you’re not religious (though you’re probably one of the most spiritual people on the liberal Internets), but you have truly proved that you are your brother’s keeper.
Blessings and peace to B&T, and to you and your family…
When you make an intervention like that, you can’t worry about the consequences — whether it’s your relationship with the person in need, or with others observing. You just do it because it’s the right thing to do. I had to make that call once, almost a decade ago, for an ex living in another city, and while she’s still alive now, we haven’t had contact since that day.
I understand how traumatic it would be to wake up to that. You yourself say you probably made some mistakes. That is all I am saying. Of course I am glad the outcome was as it was, and I don’t doubt your sincere grief or intentions. But I just posted a qualification to the “doing the right thing theme” But my posting seems to have made it yet another opportunity to globally condemn people at other blogs.
Oh yes-marisacat’s snakepit, dogpound, etc. All for the shibboleth that dd/lv was destroyed by her alleged outing.
And someone even created the “Outing Marisacat” blog, and whoever it was, one of their first orders of duty was to locate comments where she prayed about her own condition and that of her dying mother.
And more recently, all the incredibly misogynist–misogynist is too tame of a word–the horrid spam she received–fantasies about women being raped by their husband to the point of paralysis, and saying–I cannot even walk–my husband thinks it’s so hot.
But she’s fair game for that, right? Because big names in blogging can trump up charges against her, and by association, anyone that posts there.
Witness Booman’s ridiculous assertion that there are people investigating abdt’s private life with intentions to publish. His private life was shoved in everyone’s face due to his behavior. I never spent a second trying to find out anything more, and I doubt anyone else would that I am familiar with.
And as far as you and other posters here go with accusations of cruelty and insensitivity–just because some people don’t type out extensive details of their lives, it’s a bit more than presumptuous to assess what their experiences have been.
there you go. You say my assertion is ridiculous, but it’s true.
First of all, anyone sending marisacat emails like those you describe is a despicable miscreant and should condemned for their behavior. Despite marisacat’s provocations, there is no excuse for sending her messages like that. None.
See how easy that was?
And the exact same principle applies to anyone else. I have never disputed that the targeted lawyers have provoked the response. They can be criticized for opening themselves up for malicious attempts to make them unemployable. If you don’t want to be bullied, don’t bully. All that is true. But it doesn’t make what they are doing right. It’s the same principle that I apply to people attacking marisacat. I don’t say that she had it coming. She provoked this response. But it doesn’t excuse the people trying to intimidate her.
I want to say something else here.
I am not fond of the bullying at Daily Kos. It has created a toxic stew of people that truly, and somewhat justifiably, have a blood grudge against Daily Kos and anyone remotely associated with it.
And this has caused me, and Bowers, and MSOC no end of problems that we didn’t create and we didn’t want. I don’t talk about this publicly very much because it isn’t really productive. But it needs to be said. The bullies at Daily Kos are responsible for not only screwing up that site, but community sites in general.
At the same time, the people that are making it pretty much a full time occupation to criticize Daily Kos and anyone remotely associated with it are also to blame. They seem to lack basic reasoning skills. They cannot disassociate the behavior of Daily Kos capos from other bloggers on other sites that have different rules and that don’t, in any way, support the actions of Daily Kos policemen and women.
One last thing: it actually helps to know people in real life. You never see anyone that has actually met me or Chris or Duncan or MSOC ascribing conspiracy theories to us. People are letting their wounds from mistreatment at the orange place drive them into fits of spite and vindictiveness and now pretty much anything goes.
Accusing everyone of being insincere, on the take, in collusion, trying to tamp down criticism, etc.
Here’s what I want. I want some adherence to the truth, some ability to distinguish between different personalities with different political beliefs, and, above all, a stop to attempts to destroy or wound people that have acted badly.
The cumulative result of all this bad behavior is to undermine the very concept of community blogging.
Miss Devore
I’m not accusing you of being vicious, just for the record. I know MSOC a little bit, so perhaps I am biased, but I support what she did. It was a traumatic experience. No one knows how they will react when a friend tells you (in whatever manner) that they intend to kill themselves. Trust me on that.
For my money you are welcome to express your opinion, but to the extent you think MSOC did something wrong, I must respectfully disagree. She may not have done everything perfectly (however you or I may measure perfection under such circumstances) but she did enough.
The larger point I was trying to make, which I’m sorry has been lost in the meta, is that we all need to be more sensitive to those who suffer from depression, suicidal ideation and other mental disorders, and to always, always, take threats to harm themselves seriously. I’ve known several people who have unsuccessfully attempted suicide and have afterwards have gone on to lead productive and worthwhile lives. I can’t say that about those who succeeded.
I thought this diary was supposed to be a discussion of whether or not Maryscott O’Connor did the right thing on MyLeftWing when Beagleandtabby posted his suicide note online.
She did the right thing in the one thing that ever truly mattered: saving his life. Nobody here can say for certainty that they would have done things differently, unless they have dealt with this situation (which was rather unique, for reasons I hope I don’t have to explain).
So my question is: how the heck did this become about Marisacat? Miss Devore’s post makes sense in a diary discussing Marisacat, I suppose, but doesn’t address Steven D’s diary in any discernible way. It’s as if her comment was copied and pasted from another discussion and dropped down into the middle of this one.
It’s very curious.
and figure out when booman dragged the rest of the sphere into it.
I’m not in the mood for homework assignments, especially from someone (ahem) who has conveniently ignored the most important facts in this case–because, erm, those facts show that Steven D is right and Maryscott DID do the right thing.
You did good, tou saved a life, and that is all that matters.
I was one of the people on Daily Kos who criticized MSOC for the original diary, and maybe I missed it somehow, but did that original diary ask for assistance in trying to find him? I don’t see how I could have read past that, but maybe I’m wrong.
About 8 years ago, a friend of ours called my wife at 11:00 p.m., slurring her speech, saying she had chased her entire bottle of antidepressants with a fifth of Yukon Jack. We drove from D.C. to Baltimore at about 100 mph, on the way calling 9/11, the local hospital, a poison control number to see if we could get tips on how to get what she had ingested out of her if we got there before an ambulance, her cousin who also lived in Baltimore, and anybody else we could think of. So I know how it feels to think somebody you care about has tried to commit suicide and that you need to do whatever you can to save that person.
My problem was this. As I recall it – and, again, I sincerely apologize if I somehow missed it, but I was already late for a work-related call – the diary took the reader through the suicide note with commentary interspersed between sections. But I don’t remember a plea for help in trying to find him. Wasn’t the title something like, “A friend’s suicide note”?
If MSOC was trying to help him, shouldn’t the title have been: “Need Immediate Help to Prevent a Suicide!” or something along those lines?
If there was nothing in the diary requesting help, then how was it the right thing to post somebody’s suicide note before confirming that he actually did it? From my point of view, people do think they are going to commit suicided and back out at the very last second. The fact that he posted the diary was a sign that he wanted help. I’m very serious. I want somebody to explain it to me. Call me a fucking moron, call me a cold-hearted bastard. That’s fine. I just want to know how this was the right thing to do…
I’d say that it increased the chances that someone would see it and provide information about their whereabouts. It was critical to find them and the more eyeballs working the issue the better.
I think the need for help was implicit even if it wasn’t explicit. It also appears to have worked.
Not to sound like a dick (which I’m sure I will be called, which is fine and understandable), but an “implicit” call to help prevent a suicide?
I am truly glad that this fellow is alive, and if that diary is partly responsible, the MSOC is right that her being called all the names in the world is well worth it. I just don’t believe that’s what she was doing. I’m not sure what she was doing, but I don’t believe it was a plea for help.
yeah…I think you are being a dick. No offense.
And yes, you’re a dick.
It seems as if you are the one politicizing the event.
Did you miss the part where Maryscott’s actions saved his life? I think that’s probably the important bit. I didn’t read it Kos, so I can’t speak to that, but I do read MLW where she gathered contact info from members and reported that she was in contact with the police and family. But, yes, she thought he was dead. The diary was posted on a delay. I suppose you could quibble that reports of B&T’s death were premature, but quibbling is exactly what it would be.
I just don’t get this. A woman in shock and grief scrambles to locate a friend who posted a public suicide note and facilitates his rescue. And people who did nothing to save him sit and bitch about how maybe in her highly distressed state, she should have written a little more carefully. Jesus H. Christ. This is one for the books.
I did not know about MSOC’s posts on MLW to gather contact info, etc., only the diary on Daily Kos that posted the suicide note with her commentary interspersed and included no pleas for help, info, etc.
As I said, I am glad he is alive and that her efforts paid off. I won’t belabor this point any more.
When people post suicide notes on blogs, or call friends after taking pills sufficient to kill themselves, they are reaching out for help. If someone doesn’t want that help they don’t make that effort to notify anyone in advance. They drive their car off a cliff or into a concrete barrier at high speed, or they put a gun in their mouth and pull the trigger. Or any other of a number of methods certain to cause death relatively quickly.
This was a classic example pf someone in pain, making one last attempt to be heard. MSOC did the right thing. She was trying to save a life. As it worked out, she did save a life, but even if she had failed, the effort was one worth making.
As for my knowledge of this, I saw the original diary at MLW. I did not know it had been posted at DKos until later, after she had already deleted it because of all the criticism she was receiving, so I can’t say what was ort wasn’t included in it. However, it was a reasonable step to take because of the number of people she could reach at Daily Kos, some of whom might have know the person in question.
She acted in good faith in my opinion, even if every i was not dotted or every t was not crossed. This was a rush against time. An emergency situation. If she didn’t satisfy proper blog ettiquette, if she made any mistakes, they were mistakes of the heart. This was a friend of hers. This is how I would hope my friends would come to my aid if I ever found myself behaving in a similar fashion.
I confess, I met MSOC in person at the September, 2005 March on Washington and spent much of that day with her and her husband, and perhaps that colors my judgment of this incident. I find it easier to trust her sincerity and believe in her good faith because I have seen her up close and personal, and she struck me then, as she strikes me now as an authentic human being passionate about life, and about the lives of others. She has her own ongoing struggles with illness, and a personality that not everyone appreciates, but one thing she is not is a phony.
Even beyond the fact that the diary helped save a life, MSOC had very good reason for posting it on Dkos because B&T posted on Dkos. MSOC believed he had died and wanted to let the community know exactly how he felt in his own words. Perfectly reasonable. If I was a friend of B&T, I surely would have wanted to know.
Perhaps she wanted to alert his friends at that site. And perhaps she wanted to alert members of that site who are also members of her site.
I remember BeagleandTabby from this place – the absolute best username around. I’m so glad he’s still with us, and I’m so sorry for whatever events led him to try to end his life.
I don’t normally read MLW – if you hear of anything, can you pass it on here? Especially if there’s anything we can do.
UPDATE:
Wednesday, March 28, 4:34 pm Pacific
I just spoke with beagleand tabby.
He expressed his wish that I delete his post and I have done so; I have saved the comments thereto, and will work on putting them in a coherent order to give to him at a later date.
He is, as one might guess, not in a pleasant mood.
He is not ready or willing to talk to anyone yet. He has refused phone calls from everyone — his parents, his friends, his relatives.
It is unlikely he would receive any visitors at this point, either.
That is all the information I have right now.
Thank you so much for the update. I know B&T is hurting, but because he made it public, there are many of us who care and want to know that he is ok.
My daughter has a lot to say on suicide. She is a lot like MSOC, strong and opinionated, and disgusted. I used this saga to talk with her more and showed her how suicide effects all of us and talked with her about people who depend on her. I told her about how our community really cared about B&T and how her community cared about her. Y’all just might have saved another life too, or at the very least made another person think about their connections. Thank you.
Yesterday, on a break at work, I checked out My Left Wing from my phone, and saw the post where Maryscott posted that beagleandtabby was alive. That post was the first I heard of the suicide note and the ensuing desperate efforts to do something if it wasn’t too late. So I was just beginning to piece together what had transpired, when I was met with a string of comments by someone browbeating her for how she handled the situation.
I felt like I had to say something in response, but really had no idea what to say, and at the end of the work day didn’t really have a full diary in me at that point. So I just posted a quick “Thank you, Maryscott“.
Today, I still wasn’t sure what, if anything, I had to say. But then I came over here and saw that Maryscott was still being criticized and second-guessed. Oh, for the love of–!
So I ended up spending the huge bulk of my evening writing Two Wolves.
The pole dancing animated gif originally posted by LG at MLW:
Subsequent obsessive comments about LG and her pole dancer gif posted at Mcat:
Scattershot & Bloodspatter — the Thread Itself, Opening Slavo Mentions the Pole Dancer
Comparison to muflaps
Comment calling LG “Miss PoleDancer”
ALL the Gals get it in this comment
Benefit of the doubt?
Nahhhh
LIE about me supposedly putting up NUDE PHOTOS of myself to get in good with the Big Boys in the early days.
Colleen mixes me up with someone else; now I know who they’re talking about — it ain’t me
Actually — you have to read the entire thread from there on out — the obsessive talk about LG peters out (don’t worry — it carries over into at least one other thread) and they move onto me, all based on the erroneous assumption that the nude pictorial colleen mentions is mine, when in fact it was lorraine’s…
Marisacat accuses me not only of being a paid POLITICAL operative of of being a paid sex worker — I can’t quite figure out if she means I was a paid sex worker ONLINE? or what…
It simply gets uglier and uglier.
It is no wonder supersoling’s conscience would no longer allow him to remain silent.
What IS a wonder is that Miss Devore and Catnip REMAIN, after everything their Alpha CAt said in that one thread alone…
My ignominious past, my 4 months in Chicago, inebriated beyond belief, right before I hit bottom and got sober for the final time.
Yeah. Look it up. It’s not something I would have wished to be repeated all over the internets, but if it must be, so be it.
but they’re feminists…
and you are just a blogmaid or a waitress.
The idea that people will defend that crap and then think they won’t get called on it is totally ludicrous. It’s amusing to see them scream like stuck pigs when you link back to their shameful posts.
I remember that erotica post of Lorraine’s. It was awesome. But fact checking is so “old media.” And besides, it interferes with the free flow of gossip. It would be nice if one could post corrections over there and head off these merry mix-ups, but as I recently learned through hard experience, they cannot let pesky facts distract them from their crucial work in character assassination.
Now I hope we can all follow a Do Not Engage policy from this moment forward.
To turn Arthur Miller’s famous line on its head, finally, to such people, attention must not be paid.
Since Marisacat is so found of Spanish: Habla a la mano, bebé
As a refugee from the pie wars who found my way to BMT, I really object to that animated gif being posted here.
I will repeat my advice from another thread:
If you don’t want the “paparazzi” to get you down, why are you going out of your way to read the “paparazzi”?
And I shan’t be acknowledging their existence any longer.
As for the offending gif, I’ll make it disappear momentarily.
My apologies – I was making a point. No intent to offend.
And I shan’t be acknowledging their existence any longer. THats too bad since it seems to be the only thing driving this sites traffic these days.
Yes, that thread is not particularly kind to you. But it doesn’t constitute an ‘obessession with LG’s sexuality’ as the two of you have been ranting about here. In fact LG comes up only as a blip in the thread, and only by way of the fact that she posted the poledancer image.
I agree with marisacat’s assessment – we are not your keeper. You are an adult and need to be responsible for yourself. You have a high profile online personality that can be very divisive. And you have a long history of lashing out at others and then either apologizing or trying to disguise it by deleting diaries. Because of this, you will be criticized. Whining about criticism isn’t going to make it go away. Marisacat and others there have never asked you to shut up. They should be given the same courtesy.
And please, everyone, read that entire thread and understand the context [pt. 1 above]. There is nothing in it that is ‘sexist’. There is no opinion stated there that doesn’t have some basis in fact. Whether or not you agree with the opinions or the manner in which they are stated is another issue entirely.
This is the last comment I will make in this thread. And unless Booman starts front paging lies about me, you can be relieved that I probably won’t be back here.
Stop maligning people.
I am not “whining.” That mischaracterisation has been bandied about, attached to my name, long enough. I do not WHINE.
I do RANT. But in this case, I am not RANTING, either — not about LG, not about Mcat, not about any of it. Just stating the facts as I see them.
Marisacat did not STATE that I am a paid operative. She merely IMPLIED it, SPECULATED that I might be, et cetera. Sort of like putting a question mark in an ad — “Better Than Botox?” Sleazy marketing tactics — just her style?
As for my past — I am not ashamed of it, and you can talk about it till the bovines return to their domicile. I do, however, think it’s tacky as hell to talk about it when it’s so obviously a painful issue for me. But hey, if my KID isn’t off limits, and my GRIEF over a friend I thought was DEAD isn’t off limits, why on EARTH would I expect THAT to be off limits? I don’t. But I can still cal foul, and I did and I do. FOUL. Like everything else about her and her site and her hangers-on. And tacky tacky tacky.
Lucid, I used to respect you. The fact that you’re making excuses for inexcusable behaviour is depressing as hell; I only hope that, like Supersoling and Spit, you one day inadvertently do something to OFFEND the Fetid Feline and discover for yourself just what a psychotic whackjob she really is.
And now, in accordance with a decision I reached through consultation wit my dear friend The Blogging Curmudgeon, I bid you and all the sycophants and the Queen Sociopath herself adieu: As far as I am concerned, anyone who condones and excuses and defends the goings-on at that blog is dead to me. I shall neither speak of them or their hideaway again, nor respond to anyone who fits in that category again.
Dead to me. Or, in the words of The Blogging Curmudgeon and Glinda, the Good Witch of the North:
Begone! You have no power here!
Stop maligning people?
From a fan of this?
You aren’t really trying to be serious, are you? lucid, if you want to correct the record, please do.
Booman, are you comfortable with an animated gif of a pole dancer on your site?
I thought we pie war refugees were warmly invited to the pond.
Not anymore?
Or am I the only one left?
Venice, I am trying to delete it.
I deleted it from my photobucket account — usually that works.
Maybe it just takes a while?
At any rate, Please trust me, I am doing my best to make it go away.
I guess it just took a while to register that it had been deleted from the Photobucket account.
Again, please accept my apolgy for the offense — none was intended.
You posted it, and now you delete it. But I guess if others delete comments, you have the right to eviscerate them. You are inconsistent, and you are a hypocrite.
Actually, you intended to exploit for your selfish purposes. And now that you have capriciously decided that I am the bane of civilization because I happen to have an opinion, you are trying to play the role of the innocent victim. Take charge of your impulses, Maryscott. And instead of shying away from others when they ask you to explain your erratic behavior, you should at least have the courage to speak with your interlocutor.
I am not a fan of strip clubs. But I have nothing against exotic dancers and I am not personally offended by a depiction of a ‘pole dancer’. If I understand it correctly, the picture was posted so that we would know what all the dispute about it was. And if I understand it correctly, it was originally posted as a kind of joke.
I understand why some people will be offended by it. And I respect that. I’m perfectly happy for MSOC to take it down.
I appreciate the removal of the image and also your response. However, I think your understanding that the gif and accompanying text was a “joke” is mistaken.
Supersoling calls out the use of the gif and links to the original at MLW. If I am correct in my reading of the additional comments by louisianagirl at MLW, she does not treat the image and the accompanying comments as if they were a joke.
LG’s response to supersoling is that her MLW post was not a joke.
BTW MSOC down-rated, the original comment by LG on her own site by giving a “1”, but still posted the offending image here when a link would have been sufficient. I hope in the future more thought is given to what is cross-posted. If a comment and/or image is rated as offensive by the owner of one site, it is likely to be just as offensive when posted on another.
I do not understand why this is an issue. Clearly MSOC wanted to exploit it in order to fuel controversy, and when I finally decided to address Marisacat, I was alienated and ridiculed. And even after I thought the mature gesture would be to withdraw completely from the venom MSOC’s site seems to attact with much gusto, she reposted my diary and continued to write negative assessments of my character on her site. Sometimes the pettiness astounds me, and I am glad I have assumed the more mature position, having had moved on to more interesting and satisfying enterprises.
Someone….
Someone…
Who is this mysterious “someone”, Lucid?
This unaccountable, mysterious, “someone”.
Is this the same person Katie Couric referred to in her contentious interview with John and Elizabeth Edwards, the “some say” person?
I wish this “someone” would stand up and be identified.
Sigh. I guess weaseling out of things is what separates us from the animals. Except for the weasels.
clicks heels three times and disappears
MSOC, I thought the whole thing about me dressing up as the Good Witch of the North and wearing the ruby slippers was our little secret. It’s strictly a comfort, thing, you know. I have wide hips.
And you repost my diary on 31 March and claim I was obsessed with them. You are a hypocrite, and you thrive on the pain of others. I tried to just withdraw from your site, but you had to revive what was already a dead debate. This is very disappointing, and your sanctimonious rhetoric about the pole dancer after you crossposted it here further demonstrates my point. But the thank you for the futile attempt nonetheless.