At Grouchy Conservative Pundits, on Ace's post from yesterday:
So, you guys know something I don't, like maybe the nature of the threats that Ace has received? Because unless you do, and you've ever received any similar well-wishes from thugs, I don't want to hear your macho crap.
I don't think that I'm pulling rank by proxy when I say that, it's likely in my view, just perhaps, that Ace may already have accomplished more on this issue than you ever will.
Valor doesn't consist in being insensible to evident danger; it consists in carrying on despite it.
Here's some unsolicited advice: first, don't be douchebags.
Starless on June 9, 2012 at 8:16 am said:
You could probably call Ace a lot of things–perverted Ewok comes first to mind–but "coward" isn't one of them. AFA keeping his mouth shut is concerned, sometimes I wish he'd do a little more of that (his rants can get a bit long for my minimal patience).
Anyway, I don't think these rocket surgeon keyboard tough guys quite know who they're talking about.
Meep on June 10, 2012 at 7:42 am said:
hey, I love when he gets into long form, especially his movie reviews.
Starless on June 10, 2012 at 8:02 am said:
I'm sure the problem is with me and my increasingly acute ADD.
I started reading through his post about anger and comments and all of that and about half way through I lost interest.
Darrell on June 9, 2012 at 8:22 am said:
If they don't comment at AOS, they're not worth considering anyway.
Ace's comments were up everytime I went there, so I don't know what they are talking about in the first place. Giving them traffic? Now that a fine Christian thing to do. You are a better man than I.
Darrell on June 9, 2012 at 8:37 am said:
OK. I quick visit to AOS shows that he did stop comments at some point. And that point was obviously after I left for the day. He was starting to get more Mobys than usual before I left, though. If you judge success by targeting–taking fire– I guess it was a success!
DangerGirl on June 9, 2012 at 8:57 am said:
I don't blame him for shutting down comments and I don't think it's cowardly at all. That post of his that I read yesterday scared the shit out of me. He is way more brave than I, just by posting all of that information. I give him and other bloggers a ton of credit for stepping up in the face of an unrepentant terrorist.
Scottye_fl on June 9, 2012 at 9:03 am said:
Thats what BK did, he prints out blogs that threaten him then take it to court. If you doubt that BK is after Ace, make no mistake, he has said so implicitly. That he wants Ace's real identity. The last thing you want is one of his accomplices pulling what Killgore Trout did for CJ. Go to HotAir at 2AM and post crap then point to it as proof that HotAir is a racist site. I don't blame Ace for a second.
jefferson101 on June 9, 2012 at 10:14 am said:
I've expressed elsewhere that I have my doubts that the whole "silence" thing was the way to go, but be that as it may. The fact that I don't think it's the best way of approaching it doesn't mean that I don't think it's a way to do so.
There are a whole lot of folks making a whole lot of effort on the issue, and they are doing what they think will do the most good. I can't fault them for that one bit.
Ace might just be getting to the point where it seems that he's being just a tad bit oversensitive about the idiots. There are always going to be idiots, and some of them are not actually idiots, they are just not looking at things from the same angle that someone else does. (Then again, some of them are just idiots. They do exist, and they seem to breed in comment threads sometimes, now don't they?)
Starless on June 9, 2012 at 2:16 pm said:
Ace might just be getting to the point where it seems that he's being just a tad bit oversensitive about the idiots.
The distinction Ace is making, as I read it, is that this isn't just some flamewar–people are being dragged into court, getting arrested and being SWATted sometimes for things others write in comment sections/Tweet/whatever. I take his approach as an attempt to meticulously dot "i"s and cross "t"s while still expressing his opinion and trying to get those who can to take action.
jefferson101 on June 10, 2012 at 4:06 pm said:
FWIW, I don't differ that Ace has done yoeman's work on this issue. I won't quite rate his efforts as Prometheian just yet, but he's done great, and gone beyond expectations.
Having said that, I do have to note that he apparently did get off on the wrong foot and get a bit overly butthurt over things that would normally have gotten blown off as the normal "There are idiots everywhere" internet comment thread thing.
His peeps seemed to be handling it just fine, to me (Although I just skimmed through the comments) and he perhaps should have just kept on keeping on and noted those folks as members of the group who's ear wouldn't get watered, even if….
If you don't feel the need for a mechanism to remove fools, you are going to get to deal with them regularly. I think that one is necessary, but should only be used in extreme cases. Most days, they are just entertainment, and an excuse to write refutations of their stupidisms.
But we all have off days. He's apparently gotten over it. Which is good.
Starless on June 10, 2012 at 4:35 pm said:
I don't know the details of what caused him to shut down his comments section. Maybe he was "butthurt" but I do recall he mentioned many, many times that he wasn't going to tolerate any intemperate comments about BK.
Meep on June 10, 2012 at 5:15 pm said:
I've seen him do a similar scorched earth tactic before, but as I've been reading AoS for almost ten years now, I cannot say when I last saw that happen.
I am very happy for what Ace has done, and I'm not about to get into a pissing contest over which bloggers are more courageous, cowardly, or indifferent.
Meep on June 10, 2012 at 5:21 pm said:
and to clarify, I'm indifferent as to Ace closing his comments. I barely read those (yes, I know Breitbart loved it, but I don't have time for it),
What I'm happy is his articulating the sort of legal action that was necessary. It made it easier for me to craft my communications to legislators. I found this helpful.
Starless on June 11, 2012 at 6:39 am said:
which bloggers are more courageous, cowardly, or indifferent
No kidding.
Are RSM and Malkin more courageous/virtuous because they use their established offline journalist brands to sell their products? How about Zombie? He/she/it's been monomaniacal about privacy for a decade(?). Is that cowardice?
And this "hiding" business…apparently some people have forgotten that this whole episode escalated when bad actors decided that the way to attack their "enemies" was to violate their privacy to try to ruin their lives.
Despite all the scary blackbox Intarwebs stories the MSM vomits out every day there still is a right to privacy in this country, even for people like Ace, and activiely maintaining that privacy isn't cowardly.
Towerclimber on June 9, 2012 at 11:16 am said:
Are you sure that person was even a conservative? perhaps a liberal troll in stealth mode? I'm all for the constitutional route of taking care of this, but if the guy threatened my family by swatting them? yeah, I'd probably go to jail for doing uncivilized things to him.
Ace has more faith in our system of laws and our courts. I don't have much truck with them save for Jury duty.
That being said, he's also smarter than I am.
that also probably helps. As for a conservative giving him crap, dismiss him. when a fella tells you what you will or will not do because of his perception of courage, instead of looking at what has already been done and thinking carefully about it, you know he's a fool and not worth the time to type out a reply.
I will also now shamelessly plug the @NatlBloggers twitter account. Donate to Ali and ALL the bloggers to protect the 1st Amendment!!!
EBL on June 9, 2012 at 11:23 am said:
Ace's post yesterday was on fire. It was great. Anyone saying otherwise is siding with the Brett Kimberlin's of the world.
It is perfectly okay to question tactics (which some did) but questioning motives is something entirely different. There was nothing cowardly about yesterday's post.
Patrick B on June 9, 2012 at 11:48 am said:
Its all about who's controling who… If we do things that play into this asshat then we lose. Tactics can always change but the iron or lack of it in people seldom does. My hat is off to all who stand up for what you belive in. Even when we disagree. The world would be really boring if we all agreed about everything.
Scottye_fl on June 9, 2012 at 12:10 pm said:
FYI, Ace has put up a quasi site at wordpress for commenting. Also "Jimmah" who Ace said was the reason for the action has come on and apologized and said when he gets drunk he gets that way.
Meep on June 10, 2012 at 7:46 am said:
That's nice, but if I find a friend comes over to my party and shits on my rug, I don't really care that they were drunk at the time. They shit on my rug.
Ace has reacted to stuff like this before, on different topics. I don't have the time to read through AoS comments that often, so I generally miss whatever idiocy it was. His house, his rug, his rules. I have no issue with him banning commenters, moderating comments, or whatever.
In this case, he definitely has an interest in precluding any half-assed threats showing up on his site, if that gives someone pretext for discovery. It shouldn't be that way, but that's the legal landscape we're in currently.
Sgt. York on June 10, 2012 at 12:46 pm said:
Ace gets bipolar when it comes to issues that potentially effect his blog. He clings to it like a child to his blanket; understandab;e to a point, but he certainly does contradict himself – openly – when it comes to issues that might actually effect him personally. A couple of weeks ago he began posting about Bret Kimberlin saying, among other things, that "cowards die a thousand deaths" and he was going to be silent no more. Then, when commenters begin to chim in expressing their displeasure, he panics, has a serious public freakout and demands silence about Kimberlin, finally closing comments because, as quoted above, he's "terrified".
Well, yeah, he's terrified. He's an anonymous blogger who actively works to keep his identity a secret. He's a right to do that, but his cowardice does come poking through when he blogs angrily and self-rightously about Bret Kimberlin from the safety of his anonymity…then demands his anonymous commenters shut up in regards to their opinions about Kimberlin.
Unfortunately for Ace, he's died a few deaths over the past couple of weeks.
Meep on June 10, 2012 at 2:27 pm said:
I can think of all sorts of reasons Ace wants to keep his identity hidden. Though if he still looks like an Ewok, he's pretty hard to miss. He could always shave, of course, and then we'd have no clue.
I have no issue with keeping my identity hidden as the stuff that makes me unemployable in my own profession is not my blogging. I've created enough enemies in my profession just based on professional issues alone. My saving grace thus far is that all my professional enemies are substantially older than I am, and some have retired already. But it created some amusing situations the last time I sought a job.
Sgt. York on June 10, 2012 at 2:43 pm said:
As I said, he has a right to conduct himself as he sees fit. If he wants to be anonymous, then he can be anonymous. I just dont put him on a level – especially in the Kimberlin situation – with Robert McCain or Srth Allen or Aaron Walker or Michele Malkin who all openly blog about Kimberlin and genuinely put their buts on the line.
Ace hides in anonymity, and (which I think is genuinely pathetic) STILL gets terrified if he percieves a threat to his precious blog. Mond you, it's not an actual threat, but a the possibilty of a remote potential for a percieved threat…as though one wrong comment by a commenter and his world implodes. Yes, he can take a "my house my rules" approach to it, and he has every right to, but he needs commenters…commnters=viewership=sellable ad space. It's a two way street.
But he can do as he wishes…other blogs have gone in a similar direction, though they kind of faded into obscurity.
Sgt. York on June 11, 2012 at 12:31 pm said:
there still is a right to privacy in this country, even for people like Ace, and actively maintaining that privacy isn't cowardly.
Of course it isn't.
However, actively attacking a real person from the safety of anonymity and then talking about how you're "terrified" because of what might happen as a result of your actions…yeah, there's a bit of cowardice to that.
Starless on June 12, 2012 at 6:28 am said:
Either you're a moby or you really, really don't get it.
Sgt. York on June 12, 2012 at 10:57 am said:
Nice non-argument. Either I'm a jerk or an asshole because those are the only two options, blah blah blah… Seriously, what's not to get? Most bloggers do so openly with their real names. A vast majority of those who blogged about Kimberlin did so openly, using their real names and identities. And I haven't seen any other blogger openly say "I'm terrified", including RSM who had to move his family.
Sorry if your precious idol has clay feet. I like Ace's writing style and generally agree with his politics (I post over there under the same name). But I don't respect him on the same level I do other bloggers who don't hide in their anonymity and get pissy because of the inevitible angry comments directed at Kimberlin.
Dude is like two steps away from Charles Johnson…though at least Johnson uses his real name as well.
W. C. Taqiyya on June 12, 2012 at 12:39 am said:
Late to the party y'all. But, isn't that backhoe fella kinda scary? Is he gonna do some pole dancing? Never mind, I just won't watch. No disrespect to backhoe, of course. And, there's nothing wrong with pole dancing either. Jeepers.