"Who knows where the winds of outrageous fortune will take you…" Or something pompous like that. Who knows where the randomly chosen link will take you. That’s more like it. From Mike Shea’s Website, via Reddit.com, I found Stephen King’s "Everything You Need To Know About Writing."
It’s all there, in under 10 minutes.
I've been quietly stewing over my compassionate-gone-wrong missive to Jeff Goldstein the other day, when I caught up with Sadly, No's character assassination of aforementioned blogger. The sheer volume of quoted bile was overwhelming, and this is only Part 1. And I apologized to this wretch? It's the gesture that counts, I tell myself. It's not like I ever read Jeff's blog.
Today, I happen across perhaps the best example of the value of Grain-Of-Salt thinking regarding bloggers. After all, anyone can blog these days ( I'm living proof.) Here's a heartfelt anti-abortion posting. I'm dumbfounded (pun intended) that this guy is serious. Read the comments, they're great! It must suck to be him right now…
UPDATE:
The Instigator
The Response
At time one reads something that makes one want to tear down the blogger shingle and close up shop. Billmon at the Whiskey Bar just walloped my muse with a beer bottle. Read: An Inconvenient Al.
Out-blogged again. I should be used to this by now…
On Sundays’s post on Karmic convergence, I attempted a reasonable missive to conservative blogger of repute Jeff Goldstein, the recipient of a one-woman flame war gone overboard. I felt so good about myself that I left a link to my post on his message board. Unfortunately, my message was undermined by two hyper-liberal hyperbolic sentences I was fool enough not to delete. As result, I enjoyed some karmic backlash of my own. I deserved it.
One guy, calling him/herself Chaos, even left a message on a different post. It’s delicious:
And you wonder why progressives are stereotyped as immature, paranoid buffoons.
Hence the title of this posting.
Regarding the karma post, some interesting things were said in response. I’d like to thank the people who took the time and thought to leave their comments. I’ve been mulling them since Sunday night. Chaos piped in to inform me that "the vast majority of you clearly don’t know better." Thank you, but that is a ping pong ball. I can lob that at you and yours just as easily. No matter who says it, it is purely opinion and therefore improvable. Meanwhile, Pablo asked:
Why can’t it just be wrong? Why does condemnation have to go both ways regarding the clear wrongdoing of just one person? … Why isn’t it enough to note that one of yours is way off the rails?
This is why we never get anywhere.
He’s dead right: that is why we never get anywhere. He’s right to take me to task, I was foolish. I apologize. CosmicConservative also berated me calling me in my hypocritical stance.
But you had to put this sentence in there too: “No doubt her army of salivating lap-dog pit bulls are Googling the perp’s address…” and this: “To be sure, the right suffers from it’s share of whackjobs, but that’s their mystique. They benefit from that, feed on it as Ms. Malkin frequently demonstrates.”
And then you have this plea to Jeff Goldstein: “Please refrain from the very human tendency to generalize all progressives by her actions.”
Yeah. what you said. Please refrain from the very human tendency to generalize all conservatives by any one conservatives actions.
CC - I stand accused and I am guilty. He wasn’t finished, though:
Is it possible you don’t understand that when liberals get together to gush over the political hit-job movie “Fahrenheit 911″ that we view that as you “feeding on the mystique” of lies, exaggerations and intentional misrepresentations?
I am unaware of that happening. I’ve never seen the movie, and none of my friends have been known to "gush" over it (sounds dirty!) Lord of the Rings, maybe, but not F 9/11.
Cosmic also had another point to make, one I have noted before. (sic)
[I]t is amazaing how startingly similar the attitudes and condescenscion is on both sides. You could take a typical post on a right-wing website, replace “moonbat” with “wingnut”, replace “Kossack” with “Dittohead”, replace “traitor” with “baby-killer” and post that on a leftwing site and it would slide right into the thread as if it were born to be there.
It’s sad, really.
Quite.
Ahh, Zen and the Art of Paranoid Buffoonery… I learned something here: Stick my neck out, the hatchet will fall. All the faster when I deserve it.
Kyle MacDonald at OneRedPaperclip finally got his house. It took less than a year for him to utilize Internet social networking to achieve his dream. Hat’s off to you dude!
Check out his story here. And while you’re at it, click the link to petition the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame to induct Alice Cooper. This is what the Internet is for, not for trolling and flame wars.
"What comes around, goes around." or, "You reap what you sow." Two famous expressions we in the West have, which sums up the Eastern concept of Karma. The Matrix films called it "Causality," while interlacing Jewish and Biblical imagery, but I digress.
Most people would agree with the concept, whatever expression one prefers. This morning, as I fire up one of my favorite blog-watching sites, Blogsnow, I see karma in action.
Righty blogger of repute, Jeff Goldstein, was trolled by a "progressive blogger" who has some very nasty things to say. Details can be found in his post: More from the tolerant left. Black Five harps on it: BLACKFIVE: A New Low, deservedly. And the Wicked Witch of the Right fairly bubbles with vitriol. No doubt her army of salivating lap-dog pit bulls are Googling the perp’s address…
Even Liberal bloggers are flaming her comment pages in disgust.
The blogger in the cross-hairs, Dr. Debbie Frisch, a psyche professor at the University of Arizona until this blew up, deserves what she is getting. Ill intentions, beget ill deeds, resulting in unwanted consequences: It’s Karma, folks. Although I don’t wish her ill, and although I understand this is a learning experience that likely will change her demeanor and help her work out whatever issues caused this, I can’t help being amused by the whole thing. Can any Buddhist ask for a better Dharma lesson than this?
She has since recanted - South(west)paw: white flag - but words, once issued, cannot be retracted. As many from either side of the political fence extend the flame war by contacting her employer, she was forced to resign. As she puts it:
Jeff - I lost my job. You won. Could you call off the troops?
She hasn’t yet realized that the "troops" also consist of her readership and like-minded philosophers - like myself - who lost a great deal of credibility thanks to her lack of mindfulness. To be sure, the right suffers from it’s share of whackjobs, but that’s their mystique. They benefit from that, feed on it as Ms. Malkin frequently demonstrates. The progressives, however, by their self-chosen title and the label "Liberal," must hold to a higher standard of behavior at all times. Dr. Frisch blew it. And by doing so, took all of us lefties down with her, by the karmic convergence of ideological association.
This illustrates another Buddhist teaching of Interdependence: All things are connected. By shamelessly spouting her vile thoughts, Liberals and their ideas nationwide are discredited. I’ve never met the women, and likely never will, but I am affected by her senseless tirade, as much as any.
To Jeff Goldstein, to all conservative Americans, I extend a heartfelt apology from the Liberal sphere for Dr. Frisch’s words. Please refrain from the very human tendency to generalize all progressives by her actions. The vast majority of us know better. May you and your family live in peace.
Namaste.
No one’s ever called me a fast learner, nor an early adopter. I started my first blog in February 2005, what may be the downward slope of the blogging wave as blogs changed from ultra-cool-chic to mainstream. The plan was to upgrade my old-school Tannish Page web presence, which never really took off.
Since I’ve been a contented Earthlink customer since 1998, and because money is always a factor, I began using their free web space and software. The space is minimal, but my needs are modest; the software, however, is pathetic. I’ve mentioned this before.
So I start a blog and name it Left of Center, apropos to my politics but neither inspired nor unique. Still, it was a start. It wasn’t long before I grew irritated at the web interface Earthlink provided, so I tried Blogger. Much better. Tannishblog was born, and for a while I kept both blogs running. But being creative while maintaining a work-a-day life is problematic. I ended up with two blogs mainlining politics, with very little to differentiate them besides their names.
As Tannishblog on Blogger was doing okay, I tried to reinvent LoC, renaming it IdiotSyncracies after an article I wrote previously. Another odd name, but unique. To diverge from politics I took (or stole) and idea from my daughter’s fiction blog and started one of my own. That’s harder work that I thought, but some good came of it. Ultimately, Tannishblog took more and more time, was easier for the work-weary blogger, and was actually being read by people. Imagine that! IdiotSynchracies died a lingering death.
Eventually, I outgrew Blogger. My daughter, who did not use Google’s service, was frustrated with several other free blog sites she tried. So I got us our own domains and we rebuilt. Inevitable, really. We both are merging our scattered writings into one site, thanks to Wordpress, which can adapt to our more-than-a-blog concepts.
The merger is still happening. Expect some favorite posts from IdiotSynchracies to reappear here, as I have already ported my essays and stuff from the Tannish Page, R.I.P.
A unanimous consensus between myself and my (I guess it's) two readers, Travis and the ominously named Sister Atom Bomb (etc.); We all agree the current template is a keeper. So be it: Tannishblog is now brown.
If anyone out there cares, feel free to pipe in… your comments are always welcome.
Here’s another look at a likely template for Tannishblog. The first one was hard to read, the second - too bland for my tastes. this one is both bold and readable. this one,mm3 1.0 by Michael Martine shows promise.
The original image of an orange maple leaf has been replaced by one of a city in a fishbowl. This image has been on the old hard drive for a while, I don’t know whom to give credit. The style of the original has been reproduced to keep the theme’s design intact. The “Illustration Gallery” page is not functional, but I could place some of my Bryce digital artwork there…
“The third time pays them all,” as my father used to say.
Again: let me know what you think. Thanks.
I’ve always liked earthtones. Besides, my nickname sort of demands I use them. While browsing Wordpress’ plethora of excellent theme offerings, I’ve settled on this one for a test run. I’ll be looking next for a suitably wolfish image to replace the masthead in appropriate colors. I’ll settle for approximate hues and tweak the template if necessary. A modicum of customization is needed for a uniqueness to the look…
Drop me a line: Tell me what you think.