Sol, I think that the combination of your screen name and your email address together should be unique enough.If another Tracy shows up and wants to post as tracy, that’s fine. The email would tell ya’ who’s who? Ya’ think?

But my last name is rather uncommon. There are only two others with my last name in the phone book. One is my mother the other my younger brother. MY name and number are not listed.

Both my mom AND my brother have recieved harrassing calls because of my posts here and my occasional letter to the editor. Though they do not mind and are all to happy to tell such folks just where to go, I do not want them bothered because I get under some kooks skin.

I use my initials…..some of them anyway.

1) I like to keep this separate from my “real” life. I’ve posted in similarly public forums under my own name in the past. It’s more convenience than fear (though keep in mind Michelle Malkin’s stunt). But I’ll share my real identity with anyone I trust enough to behave like a human being.

2) If someone libels me, and I don’t catch it, they just libeled “Rage.” Big deal.

3) I have been involved with several organizations over the years (including my time here), and I do not want my off-the-cuff views erroneously (and deliberately) attributed to them.

That is where I originaly heard it.

I’ll look for more on Muslims in phil. in a bit. Need to earn a pay check some time today :-)

http://www.snopes.com/rumors/pershing.htm

I coulda went back and found the nic of the poster and shared it above if I thought you were REALLY over the top. You’ll note I did not say WTF? on that thread.

As you posted it, I got that you were more trying to channel Patton than document him. BUT there was enough “sincerity” to get my attention. I know alot about Patton. I had never heard of him being in the Phillipines. TOO, islamic terrorism woulda been really unheard of prior to World War II.

LOL I did A LOT of looking for some proof of that one! I wouldn’t bother looking any further if I were you. The best I found was something said in a chat room!

WOULD Patton have done such a thing? We can speculate. But it should be noted as speculation.

You owned up to it on your own and that speaks well. Mild rap on the knuckles.

Still, we should be careful posting about real people and events. You can damage somones reputation….or your own.

Anyway, the point of that thread was that in most cases, if you are not as vigilant in a fight as your opponent is, you are likely to lose.

Either way, this was not a blatant lie or a lie for a purpose. I prefaced it with “I think” so it lost it’s “This Is A Fact” flavor immediately.

I agree that the occasional insult from a troll is no big deal. However, posting information like addresses, phone numbers crosses the line. I would favor IP blocks on these latter trolls. That would at least make it difficult for them to do their stuff.

Political_mom,I have posted at the meadowlark blog, too. I used ridicule meadowlark to the point that he threatened to delete my postings, but he never did do that. I post there as “just wondering” – Meadowlark kinda of outed me by welcoming me to Salina – but I did not really care.

Interestingly, though I disagree with much of Meadowlark’s positions, I have found myself agreeing with his position of injecting sunshine on campaign financing. I think such can only help politicians be more accountable to their constituents.

However, p-mom, I don’t get this sentiment you express: “I wouldn’t express half of my opinions if I had to sign my name to it.” Can you explain this? I hold the view that I can’t be too attached to an opinion that I wouldn’t sign my name to. Hope that makes sense.

PS: Everyone is invited to the Santiago compound for Guiness and billiards.PPS: Keep the fan mail and hate mail coming.

Viva La Raza Blanco!!

Now that’s not to say people don’t know who I am, but I get to choose who I reveal myself to. There are some real psychos out there I don’t care knowing who I am.

On the salina journal blog, many of us have met face to face. And it still gets JUST as heated in there. I will admit it’s harder to call someone an idiot after you’ve met them in real life though. Then again, sometimes it’s far easier lol.

I do like my free fire! And I take as well as give.

Well…

MY email address has ALWAYS been “live”.

I got some nasty anonymous hate mail VERY early on…..like more than a year ago. But I also get the occasional “fan” or source of information.

The “kansasman” incident is MY fault. I mis-read a letter. Thing is though? Even in THAT mistake I asked kansasSAM why he seemed to be posting out of the ordinary. Rage quickly caught and corrected the mistake.

And that’s the point. The regulars here are SO familiar that they get “nic switch” trolled hyperbolically and with misinformation. This is probably by a reader or infrequent poster with an axe to grind and no reputation to defend. Who can I pick on for an example….?

Ok Tracy

(Since he gets picked on so much lately anyway)

If most of us see “Tracy” post: “I’m just a bitter old woman, don’t listen to me.”

Well we KNOW that it aint the real Tracy. So the offending troll gets jumped on, usually goes away or sometimes provides an “entertaining” sideshow of their own.

Newbies usually learn the ropes pretty quick. I myself try to help them as I can as I am sure many of us do.

BUT

What DOES bother me is the occasional wild assertion of fact. We DO have readers. We should be responsible in posting or work hard as we can to discredit wild assertions.

Again an example…

I saw a new poster post to the effect that “Patton know how to deal with Islamic terrorists. He once had 50 of them dig holes in front of posts. Then he had 50 hogs shot, dipped bullets in the hog blood, shot 49 of the terrorists with the dipped bullets, and let the last terrorist go to tell the tale.”

Anybody else see that one?

I did MULTIPLE searches looking for SOME truth to that post. I found NOTHING.

But with this also, we are pretty good at policing our own. MOST wild assertions, half truths or outright lies can be quickly dispatched. And usually they are.

It aint broke. Don’t “fix” it.

Thanks for the comment, Dave.

We do need to require a unique log-in and a genuine e-mail address. Makes it easier to thwart trolls — and police the posts that are particularly libelous, particularly obscene, or threaten physical violence. (Oh wait, this is the civil and high-minded blog… never mind.)

Unfortunately, the decision to implement this is not mine to make. So for now, this will remain more or less a free-fire zone. Carry on.