I understand why a lot of sites require registration before readers can comment, but it’s lame to turn off comments altogether. I’m an adversarial guy, and I like to swing back when people swing at me. In the example cited above, Tim Merritt cited a sentence from my last post, which read:
So, bravo to the Republicans for once again out-thinking the Democrats.
Tim responded:
How did they out-think them, and on what issue? They made it harder for folks to vote in runoff elections.
That was just about the whole post, minus a “follow this link” sentence. Since comments are closed on his site, I’ll respond here, only in a less tactful and respectful way than I would have otherwise: try reading the next sentence in that post. It went like this:
While Dems were all hopping up and down, mad as hell about the bill’s potential to affect a small percentage of voter rights (as it may or may not have), the real point of the bill passes through virtually unabated.
I was complimenting their strategy, not their policy. Do I need to start breaking posts down into two-syllable words? Fourteen word per sentence limits? Three sentences or less per paragraph? Flowcharts? Bar graphs? Is this better?

Maybe I’ll start a new blog where I don’t even use words, just pictures. Then the chance of me being quoted out of context and not being allowed to respond would be eliminated entirely. That graph would have been more accurate if I’d put question marks by the two donkeys, since the Dems have added a whole lot of jackshit to the debate besides “this bill sucks!” Christ, I suppose the graph needs a footnote somewhere to tell people elephant means Republican and donkey means Democrat.






People who disable comments on particular posts are jackasses.
That being said, you should definately include more pie graphs and flowcharts in your posts. Some of us iz dum.
Looks like Tim explains his comment situation here.
Dozens of comment spams? That’s it? And he’s not even getting porn spam? And he thinks that’s enough to turn off comments completely? BACK TO THE SANDBOX, NOOOOOOB! Endure 24 solid hours of 10+ Schoolgirl Anal Rape spams a minute and then come talk to me.
But if you scroll down the page, you’ll notice he has the comments turned on for posts made AFTER that explanation.
The real question is: Why doesn’t Tony have a fuckin gravatar?
Sounds to me like someone could use some good ‘ol fasioned high-quality porn spam.
If you’ll read my post from tonight, you’ll see that my computing resources are somewhat limited, but I think I got an image over from flickr. Let’s see if it works.
It’s now 4:40 pm and my gravatar is still pending. How long does it take the 80×80 police to approve a fucking picture?!?!
I hate the internet.
It’s showing up for me now. Ha!
Only on the gmail address, not at the spam address though.
You know, I don’t think someone can make fun of me for looking for saudi porn when there’s a dog sucking their dick.
I think it’s always appropriate to make fun of you for looking at Saudi porn.
Wow, I really feel like an outsider now. I better get me a gravatar, and quick.
Sucking my dick nothing. That pooch is tossing my salad.
Interesting angle, then.
I guess they haven’t approved my Gravatar yet (yes, I signed up for one). It’s not nearly as offensive as Tony’s, so I don’t know what’s taking so long. -Actually, it’s not offensive at all, which kind of bothers me. I need to work on that.
Don’t worry, I’ve been waiting on my new saudi porn gravatar to go through.
Rusty, Rusty, Rusty, remain calm… I like your blog, a lot, and I like your politics. I guess it wasn’t clear from my too-short post. I wrote so little when linked to you because you said it better than I thought I could. As for no comments, Tony, yep, I’m a noob’s noob. I don’t have time right now to blog and tweak every day, but sure wish I did. My RSI got painful deleting porn and poker spam, so no comments til I can fight the flood. Havent’t had time to research and implement the spam blocking capabilities for WordPress. I need to upgrade to 1.5, then set the spam blockades, then turn comments on.
In the meantime, thanks for checking me out, and Rusty, keep keeping the heat on the elephants. I’m with you on this, my friend.
Hahaha! Wow, Jen. Your Saudi porn gravatar is great. But this could be a slippery slope… yours, plus the dog doing unmentionable things to Tony, not to mention Lush whose gravatar I recall has a bottle up its ass… a few more of these, and Rusty might have to put up an “18 or older” disclaimer.
Tim,
Misunderstandings happen. I appreciate you being a good sport about it. If you need help with the technical end of your blog, drop me an email. I’ll be pretty busy the next couple of days, but should have some time next week, and would be happy to help you out with it then.
Me busy too, Kemosabe. About misunderstanding - it’s so easy to do. I try to imagine friends from church, or my teenagers, or my mother, reading what I post. It keeps me from some - ahem - hasty statements sometimes. Google, and therefore most of us, has a lo-o-o-o-ong memory.
Thanks very much for the offer of help. When time allows, within a week or two, I may take you up on it. And again, keep up the good work of being a publicly raging Georgia moderate.
[...] After being directed by Rusty to an article in yesterday’s AJC, I’ve sent a couple of emails this afternoon. One went to Georgia State Rep (and House Speaker) Glenn Richardson. The other went to Georgia State Rep Tommy Benton, a sponsor of House Bill 941. The contents were a mostly de-snarked variant of a post I made back in November. [...]