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Monday August 13, 2007
Categories: Housekeeping
If you followed the "Faith as ideology" blog thread over the weekend, you might have seen the posts of one Maria Harrington. When one of her postings failed to appear, she wrote me privately to accuse me of silencing her,...
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About Crunchy Con
Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
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Quoting Mr. Ronald Weasley: "Are you mental?" Maria. Thorazine. For the children.
At least she didn't say she would pray for you.
How do you solve a problem like Maria?
How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?
How do you find a word that means Maria?
A flibbertijibbet! A will-o'-the wisp! A clown!
Many a thing you know you'd like to tell her
Many a thing she ought to understand
But how do you make her stay
And listen to all you say
How do you keep a wave upon the sand
Oh, how do you solve a problem like Maria?
How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?
When I'm with her I'm confused
Out of focus and bemused
And I never know exactly where I am
Unpredictable as weather
She's as flighty as a feather
She's a darling! She's a demon! She's a lamb!
She'd outpester any pest
Drive a hornet from its nest
She could throw a whirling dervish out of whirl
She is gentle! She is wild!
She's a riddle! She's a child!
She's a headache! She's an angel!
She's a girl!
How do you solve a problem like Maria?
How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?
How do you find a word that means Maria?
A flibbertijibbet! A will-o'-the wisp! A clown!
Many a thing you know you'd like to tell her
Many a thing she ought to understand
But how do you make her stay
And listen to all you say
How do you keep a wave upon the sand
Oh, how do you solve a problem like Maria?
How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?
You "repent", Rod? That's a laff and a half. You DO, ahem, "disrupt the posting process". You DO announce that you will, and then you DO do it.
You seem to take pride in it at times. That you chose to file this under "Nuts" speaks volumes about you and your values. You seem to love to put people down - because you CAN. It is your blog, after all. But it is hardly befitting of you to constantly blame the messenger. Perhaps you should consider changing your "message".
Now, to be fair, she said "lol." Surely she was joking...no one could be that deranged.
God bless. :-)
You "repent", Rod? That's a laff and a half.
Dear child, I'm trying to make you laff. And a half.
"I saw that for some inexplicable reason the software flagged her comment."
That software! It appears to have inexplicably flagged untold dozens of comments. God sure works in mysterious ways.
I would speculate that Beliefnet uses Askinet or whatever it is to filter spam. If you have a link in your post, the odds are very good that you will get a false postive for spam. If I were a betting man Rod, the email address she supplied for her comment was probably fake or not entered.
R ex-P: Yes, that's right. Rod censors the comments so no one will read the ones he doesn't like, and then when he gets an email about it he publishes the comment and the email, despite the fact he could have just hidden both and none of us would ever know. That is his sinister plan.
Please. Oh, and excessive use of capslock and scare quotes is just going to make people skip over your own comments, FYI.
I too have been censored by the ebbil, Rovian Rod!
All I did was try to post some links for my great new male enhancement product and he had the temerity to delete my post.
First they came for the elderly....
; )
MZF: I would speculate that Beliefnet uses Askinet or whatever it is to filter spam. If you have a link in your post, the odds are very good that you will get a false postive for spam.
That's interesting -- I have noticed that at least some of these that get flagged as needing prior approval do have links in them.
That software! It appears to have inexplicably flagged untold dozens of comments.
"Untold dozens"? Really? Comrade, when a comment gets deleted for violating Rules of Conduct, the commenter knows why his or her comment has disappeared. Or ought to.
"Comrade, when a comment gets deleted for violating Rules of Conduct, the commenter knows why his or her comment has disappeared. Or ought to."
Yes, we ought to. It's those dozens of comments that disappear for simply disagreeing with the blogger that cloud the issue.
Face it, Rod... she's just not that into you. ;)
This exchange is really disturbing. At first I thought that the tone of the commenter's email was supposed to be joking. Why else, I thought, would Rod be posting it? But "your own creepy, bloated vanity, you empty, hollow little worm of a man," seems a little, um, not funny. But if it wasn't a joke, why is Rod posting this? Does he really feel the need to lash out publicly about someone who was rude to him in private, including publicizing her name? That's exceedingly petty. So maybe it really is a joke, and I'm just not getting it. But then I go back and read the excerpt. If that's a joke, I don't want to be funny. Ugh.
There are times when the best way to deal with someone is to simply post with they have written you and let their own words do them in.
Rod has almost always approved my comments which speaks well for his patience if nothing else.
If you were trying to make me laff, you failed miserably, Rod.
"Nuts"
"child"
"comrade"
"lavender jackboots"
Rod, you prove my point. You love to make fun of (and then censor) people who disagree with you. It's in your "nature".
"Rod, you prove my point. You love to make fun of (and then censor) people who disagree with you. It's in your "nature"."
Bingo.
Yikes! How sad must her life be?
Do you ever get nervous for your safety?
Ah, yes. Another individual who confuses the right of free speech with the non-existent right to be heard.
I suppose any individual has the right to see dark forces at work, because as we all know, software NEVER malfunctions...right???
But seriously, if software gremlins were not there issue, there are rules of conduct, and as I'm posting to someone elses blog, I would suppose that if I were advocating child cannibalism or sex with small animals then I would have to expect that the owner of that page would probably not post my comment. If this individual is really that intent on being heard, she needs her own page.
As one Christian, I don't really see the need for Rod to apologize.
Cheers...-Phil-
If you were trying to make me laff, you failed miserably, Rod.
Somehow, I suspect that is not an uncommon event. But hey, your comment is one of the dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens still remaining on this site. For I little worm, I am a lousy sniveler, q.e.d.
"It's YOU who owe all the good Christian people who post there an apology"
It's 'good Christian people' like this that make me glad I'm not one of them!
I don't know what's more disturbing here: the fact that Rod has obviously been secretly taking lessons at the Mark Shea school of Random Combox Poster Intimidation (TM) or that I've been so blinded by the dynamic and engaging personalities of both men that I've utterly failed to notice how MEAN (sniff!) they are!
[Note to the humor-impaired: the above paragraph is a joke, intended to point out in a gentle, teasing manner how silly (and unChristian) it is to decide on the basis of no evidence at all that Rod is engaging in mean or petty behavior. The name for this particular sin is "rash judgment" and you can read more about it here:
http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a8.htm
assuming, of course, that Beliefnet won't flag *this* post for having a link in it.]
"...if I were advocating child cannibalism or sex with small animals then I would have to expect that the owner of that page would probably not post my comment."
Like Rod, hyperbole is your undoing. Last I looked, the "Faith as Ideology" post claimed 55 comments, yet only 5 are visible to be read. Now I confess I don't read every blog entry, and certainly I can't read every comment before it evaporates into cyberspace. But I have yet to read a comment here that veered off into the tawdry topics you list above. Perhaps there has been a 'surge' in bestiality that missed my attention. I have seen and written comments taking Rod to task for the gulf between what Jesus taought and what Rod advocates here and in the DMN. None remains on this site for more than a few hours.
Maybe it's the software.
M.Z. Forest is right!
I just attempted to post a comment with a link in it, and got the "held for approval" message.
Tempting as it is to rush headlong to the completely unjustifiable conclusion that Rod secretly hates me, I think I'll go with M.Z. Forest's theory. :)
THE SOUND of MUSIC LYRICS: "MARIA"
"How do you solve a problem like Maria?
How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?
How do you find a word that means Maria?
A flibbertijibbet! A will-o'-the wisp! A clown!"
"Many a thing you know you'd like to tell her
Many a thing she ought to understand
But how do you make her stay
And listen to all you say
How do you keep a wave upon the sand"
"Oh, how do you solve a problem like Maria?
How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand"
"Last I looked, the "Faith as Ideology" post claimed 55 comments, yet only 5 are visible to be read."
Will, click on the "Read All Comment" link at the bottom o' those five posts you see. You may be surprised to find many of your missing comments.
I'm trying to figure out if I'm related to Maria. Don't think so. In any event I must keep telling myself that one cannot choose one's relatives.
On a somewhat related note:
Rod,
How can you even look yourself in the mirror, ye paragon of oppression?
Charles Cosimano, you write: "Rod has almost always approved my comments which speaks well for his patience if nothing else."
Very gracious and funny. I'll remember that the next time I read one your comments that otherwise would make my head explode. :) Grace and peace.
Everybody, join me and Eric in song! Your lyric sheets are posted above.
1,2,3, hit it!
"How do you solve a problem like Maria?"
Erin: I just attempted to post a comment with a link in it, and got the "held for approval" message.
And looking at the comments page visible to me as this blog's administrator, I don't see anything telling me that your blog needs my approval. I'm really sorry for this -- I hope they figure out what the deal is.
Will:
Like Rod, hyperbole is your undoing. Last I looked, the "Faith as Ideology" post claimed 55 comments, yet only 5 are visible to be read. Now I confess I don't read every blog entry, and certainly I can't read every comment before it evaporates into cyberspace. But I have yet to read a comment here that veered off into the tawdry topics you list above. Perhaps there has been a 'surge' in bestiality that missed my attention. I have seen and written comments taking Rod to task for the gulf between what Jesus taought and what Rod advocates here and in the DMN. None remains on this site for more than a few hours.
:::::trying not to laugh:::::::::::::
Hey guy, click on the "View all comments" link at the bottom of the thread. You'll see dozens and dozens of comments that were posted; the software only displays the most recent four at any given time.
I'll sit here snivelling wormishly and gazing at the vast, tranquil gulf between what Jesus stood for and what I advocate here and in the DMN, as I await your mea culpa. Oh look, there goes a sailboat!
Do try not to laugh, Rod. For someone who can "dish it out", you certainly can't seem to "take it". Get a thicker skin.
Actually, now that I think about it, I tried to post a comment about a year ago...and it NEVER showed up!
Mr. Dreher, you'll be hearing from my attorney :)
Will, click on the "Read All Comment" link at the bottom o' those five posts you see. You may be surprised to find many of your missing comments.
Norris! That was a secret.
Let's not ruin it for everyone else. Heck, I wanna relive that wonderful moment of awe when, for a brief instant, I thought someone actually cared enough about what I wrote to delete it.
The glory! The power! The love! I felt like a liberal taking pictures of book-burning fundies. Raw, pure ecstasy.
And then...I saw that tiny "Read All Comments" tag...and knew the awful truth. Nobody cares. :-(.
I think back to that wonderful day...it was like the summer of love all over again. For one brief moment - they cared. Sigh.
Rawlins:
There's also this one: {;^{D}
The most beautiful sound I ever heard:
Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria.
All the beautiful sounds of the world in a single word:
Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria.
Maria, I've just met a girl named Maria,
and suddenly the name will never be the same to me.
Maria! I've just kissed a girl named Maria.
And suddenly I've found how wonderful a sound can be.
Maria, say it loud and there's music playing.
Say it soft and it's almost like praying,
Maria, I never stop saying: "Maria!"
"I'll sit here snivelling wormishly and gazing at the vast, tranquil gulf between what Jesus stood for and what I advocate here and in the DMN, as I await your mea culpa."
How nice to know. You have my apology for not knowing about the "read all comments" feature.
Now, I would like a sincere, non-equivocal mea culpa from you for advocating all that killing in the Middle East.
M_David, that was priceless!
Anonymous from 2:20 vividly demonstrates what a tragedy it is to be born without the gene that allows us to perceive humor; s/he also seems unaware of the irony of calling for Rod to have a thicker skin from behind his/her safe wall of anonymity.
I'll have to remember that evil spirits in the software excuse.
Dear,Mongoloid
For passing yourself off as a journalist you deserve death or at least the lash.Pray to Saint Catherine of Alexandria (patron of scribes)her cause,a noble one, has led many to see the light.Pray to her you sandalclad worm!
ZORRO
You gonna' sit there and take that, Talc?
"sandalclad worm" Quite creative.
I know everybody's probably seen this a thousand times already, but "sandalclad worm" reminded me of the Biblical Curse Generator: http://ship-of-fools.com/Features/Curses/Curses_body.html Enjoy!
Erin I agree, this is brilliant!
I just found this place and this is great! I never knew you Christian folks could be this much fun, like watching a pack of dogs tear a rat apart in a pit, but in your own special way. Like Rod says, delicious!
Thanks for saving me from another endless dull Monday. I'll definitely be back. Hope I don't miss any of this good stuff in between.
Sorry, Maria, but Rod didn't remove your post. We are trying to fine-tune our spam filters and a number of posts over the weekend were flagged. I went through and approved all I found last night and will be keeping an eye out for any further problems.
Thanks!
BeliefnetPat
Asst Community Manager
Beliefnet.com
You think we're going to buy that, 'BeliefnetPat'? We didn't just disembark from the proverbial banana boat! Besides, what the hell kind of user name is 'BeliefNet Pat?' Sounds like a character from 'The Tick!' Next time you attempt this ploy, Rod, use a believable moniker, for gosh sakes!
....and here I thought I was being quite the wit by emphasizing my point with some really ....really....really ridiculous post examples. The whole point was that if an individual fundamentally disagrees with a particular op-ed site, go find one more to your liking.
Seems to me that Rod advocates vigilance towards a Muslim community that seems intent on our downfall, among other things. If that bothers folks I'm sure the posts on the "Your Black Muslim Bakery" might be more to their liking....
-Phil-
Sorry, Rob, but I do exist and I'm not Rod. :-)
Staff members who deal with the discussion/blog areas all have names that begin with Beliefnet. Pat is my real name (and my dad's name was Arthur - go figure!)
BeliefnetPat - for real
Asst Community Manager - yep, that's my title
Beliefnet.com
:-D
Now, I would like a sincere, non-equivocal mea culpa from you for advocating all that killing in the Middle East.
Oh look, dolphins! And I declare, is that Taki's yacht in the distance? Oh, foo, Lovey, I've spilled my g&t on my new topsiders.
Brad, your comment is just too cute.
Let me guess: the only Christians you know about are the phony nicey-nice parody regularly presented by Hollywood.
Just keep in mind something I saw quoted on a blog recently: "When someone asks you 'think about what Jesus would do', remember that a valid option is to freak out and turn over tables."
Hi there Pat, may I suggest that personal attacks of the kind Rod cites are inappropriate regardless of who you are?
Because we may disagree with one another does not justify personal attack.
Please re-read the gospels.
"Sorry, Rob, but I do exist and I'm not Rod."
I know, Pat. Twas a joke!
Just keep in mind something I saw quoted on a blog recently: "When someone asks you 'think about what Jesus would do', remember that a valid option is to freak out and turn over tables."
Right! I'll remember that.
Note to self: no Jäger shots for Erin!
;-)
ERIC, can you set my original lyrics to music?
MARIA GONE MAD: (Everybody sing!)
Maria, the tirelessly futile attack,
Despite every effort to win her heart back,
Her squealing demeanor,
Had Rod writing cleaner
Than this accusational hack.
or perhaps a children's song:
MORE BULL FROM MARIA: (everybody sing!)
"A bull named Maria attacked me tonight.
She said she had posted with nothing in sight.
Her hooves seemed ungrateful
While calling me hateful.
Deny any blogger is right.
Her horns were imposing,
When others were dozing,
Disturbing our rest-haven night!"
Be nice to BeliefnetPat!
Hi, Susan,
Sorry, not my call.
Rob,
I figured you were, hence my addition to "The Tick" comment. Though it's true, my dad's name really was Arthur ;-)
Rod,
Aw shucks!
BeliefnetPat
Asst Community Manager
Beliefnet.com
And I declare, is that Taki's yacht in the distance?
Dude. That's good.
"Just keep in mind something I saw quoted on a blog recently: "When someone asks you 'think about what Jesus would do', remember that a valid option is to freak out and turn over tables."
That's so cute, Erin. This is exactly the lesson Jesus had in mind when he was turning over tables in the temple --- and during his fit of anger, I'm sure he threw in a dose of gratuitous, personal humiliation of the "how stupid can you be" variety. Christianity: when you can feel unassailably confident that you are God's side, even when mocking people for laughs. i mean laffs.
So where is Maria?
Rowlins composed such nice poems to her that all girls should envy :)
Sorry, yesterday i posted comments in 'Combox troubles' and in other one anonymously (i didn't notice that my name was not typed in, it used to appear automatically)
Oh good grief, "yeah baby" (may I call you YB?).
Someone tears into Rod for deleting her comments with malice aforethought, he points out quite truthfully that it's not his doing, she comes back with enough vituperation to power a good-sized office building for a month or so--and because Rod chose to share her words and some of us chose to comment on them, we're guilty of--what did you call it?--"gratuitous, personal humiliation?"
I've never met Maria Harrington, and have no intention to judge her. We've all had a bad day. But what's wrong with an object lesson of the "think before you hit the 'send' button" variety? Unlike the unfortunate tendency we might all have experienced of saying words in the heat of an argument that we later regretted, electronic communication affords one the opportunity for reflection and moderation, so there's really little excuse for sending someone such an ugly bit of hatefulness, is there?
I understand that the writer may not have expected her email to be made public. In that, though, she was acting a bit like a schoolgirl bully who regularly punches or slaps the boys in her class knowing they're not allowed to hit back, and I can't feel sorry that her ill-judged missive was brought into the light, so to speak. If charity doesn't bid her to mend her speech in the future, prudence certainly will.
I think I could accept this as a little harmless fun being poked at an overreacting, non-tech-savvy commenter, if Rod hadn't posted her name along with it. Publishing someone's name along with private correspondence from them, especially in such a way as to make them look bad, is unethical in my opinion. Consider what happens next time Maria goes to apply for a job and her prospective employer googles her and finds this post. You might argue that she would only be getting what she deserved, for being so clueless and saying something silly. I counter: "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone."
Rod, this post is beneath you.
Greg don't be such a killjoy!
Someone at another blog reminded me that we have less evidence for this supposed exchange with Maria Rod posted than we had for the weapons of mass destruction that sent us to war in Iraq but I say so what? She probably deserved it anyway.
"But what's wrong with an object lesson of the "think before you hit the 'send' button" variety? "
oh, not a thing, so long as we agree that the Christian virtues are Faith, Hope, and Object Lessons. (and I guess the greatest of these is object lessons?)
"Publishing someone's name along with private correspondence from them, especially in such a way as to make them look bad, is unethical in my opinion."
Yes it is. Which is why I refused to give Rod my name - at his request. And then the combox managers let Erin REPEAT her name.
I think I could accept this as a little harmless fun being poked at an overreacting, non-tech-savvy commenter, if Rod hadn't posted her name along with it.
If "Maria Harrington" hadn't used her name on this thread, I wouldn't have published it online. If she had called herself Joan Jacob Jingleheimer Smith, I would have used that. If she had asked me not to post those comments, I wouldn't have posted them. I didn't publish her e-mail address, though I certainly have that. You don't even know that her name is really Maria Harrington. If you write me privately and don't want me to post what you write, say so. Otherwise, I follow the Welborn Protocol: anything you send me in connection with this blog is fair game for republication, unless you explicitly state otherwise. Normally as a courtesy I'll ask you before publishing something that could identify you. But some people don't deserve that courtesy.
Anon from 10:16, please consider the context. I repeated [the correspondent's] name in order to say that I don't know [the correspondent] and am not judging [the correspondent] who might conceivably have had a bad day. (Yes, I wrote "the correspondent" so Beliefnet isn't jumping in here to censor anything.) If repeating [the correspondent's] name in this manner and for this purpose at the end of a lengthy thread in which it had already been repeated several times offends anyone, I apologize. Next time, I'll identify the correspondent this way: "The lady who chose to call Rod an 'empty, hollow little worm of a man' and to attack him personally." That's lengthy, but probably more to the purpose than repeating her mere name.
And YB, think for a moment. If [The lady who chose to call Rod an 'empty, hollow little worm of a man' and to attack him personally] had sent an email like this to a co-worker she probably would have lost her job for unprofessional conduct. It can be a charitable thing to keep someone from repeating such an act of unthinking rage in the future, in my opinion, especially since in the future [The lady who chose to call Rod an 'empty, hollow little worm of a man' and to attack him personally] might have chosen a target who would do far more harm to her than merely laughing at her uncalled-for rage.
"It can be a charitable thing to keep someone from repeating such an act of unthinking rage in the future, [especially since she] might have chosen a target who would do far more harm to her than merely laughing at her uncalled-for rage."
"EM": now I get it! it can be downright charitable to laugh at people. Thank you Baby Jesus.
this blog is so edifying. alas, not intentionally.
"In a time such as this, when we have been seriously and most cruelly hurt by those who hate us, and when we must consider ourselves to be gravely threatened by those same people, it is hard to speak of the ways of peace and to remember that Christ enjoined us to love our enemies, but this is no less necessary for being difficult."
Wendell Berry
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