Maybe Sarah could reach out and help someone close to home: Steve Menard hits bottom by trashing Sitka hotel room
August 21, 2011
Steven Menard, currently a member of the Wasilla City Council, is the son of Alaska state senator Linda Menard, of Wasilla, one of Sarah Palin’s closest friends.
He is also the brother of the late Curtis Menard, Jr., who many commenters on this blog assert was the father of Sarah Palin’s oldest child, Track.
That Steve’s mother is Linda Menard is a fact.
That Steve’s late brother actually fathered Track Palin before Todd and Sarah married is the sort of scurrilous speculation that makes me feel better about my decision to soon suspend comments on this blog.
Having said that, Steve Menard is a man in desperate need of help.
Alcoholism is a dreadful, and inevitably fatal disease, and you don’t need me to tell you that.
I can no more label someone as suffering from alcoholism than I can diagnose a psychopath.
But in the case of Steve Menard, the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman has done so here.
Granted, this is the same newspaper that last summer advised Sarah and Todd Palin, editorially, that they would be within their legal rights to kill me if I trespassed on their property (although they later sort-of-apologized), so it is not the font of all wisdom, journalistic or otherwise, but what they say about Steve Menard is right and true and brave.
And I hope Steve reads it and does seek help.
In fact, I hope he’s already turned to Alcoholics Anonymous.
He represents one of Wasilla’s first and finest families, and if he can recover from his disease he can offer many years of valuable public service to the people of both the city and the Mat-Su Valley.
But here’s how the Frontiersman said he recently behaved in Sitka:
“Damage to Menard’s room included two mattresses and a chair [that] had been urinated on, vomit on the carpet, removal of a screen from a window, a burned mattress, all bedding was ruined and there had been smoking in the room, which was prohibited. The room was out of service for three days while staff cleaned and made repairs.”
Once again, Wasilla makes an impression on the outside world.
But there’s no way to blame this on Sarah, even if a few of you are sure–on the basis of absolutely no evidence–that Steve is really Track’s uncle.
Once again, I say: please don’t fall into the trap of believing that everything anyone has ever said about Sarah must be true.
Neither Steve Menard’s problems, nor his illness–for which we should all hope he soon receives treatment–are Sarah’s fault.
But as I said in the headline of this post, I hope she’ll have the Christian charity to reach out and help this close family friend, who is so obviously in need.
If Steve needs to be in rehab for however long it will take him to get better, I’m sure that Sarah can help with the cost.
I hope she does.
And I hope she has the good grace to never take credit for having done so.
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279 Responses to “Maybe Sarah could reach out and help someone close to home: Steve Menard hits bottom by trashing Sitka hotel room”
I would not expect Christian charity, or in fact any charity, from the woman who ignores starving villages while she’s governor, and then finally shows up with a missionary and a plate of cookies while ignoring the man who struggled to get her to hear his plea for help. Furthermore, I suspect she’s far too self-centered even to notice his issues.
Does anybody recall any story of Sarah reaching out to help anybody without expectation of a quid pro quo? Ever? Anybody? Bueller?
Time for some tough love for Steve. Hope he gets it.
I hope that he gets help. AA tends to be a christian-based outlet for help. AA is an “outpatient, volunteer” program and some require more assistance than it can provide. I hope that his family can assist him financially in enrolling in a 30-60 day treatment program in a rehabilitation facility. Granted, they cost 30 grand per month, minimum, but sometimes one has to enter a new life, with professional mental and physical counseling, to be able to attempt to leave his or her old life behind.
I bet he feels terrible right now, knowing that he has fallen victim to something that is very hard to control. I’m certain he dreads his appearance at the “special meeting” of the Wasilla City Council on Monday night where he will either resign or face harsh criticism from his peers. I hope that he can get help and move on and finally be rid of this terrible burden that is alcoholism.
I’ve seen many people joke about “taking a drink” because they just can’t get over the state of affairs in our country right now. We all find excuses to fall into the bottle. Falling into that bottle is so much easier than climbing out. Alcohol can be a convenient excuse to not live life. I hope that Steve finds the help he needs and can continue with life, guilt-free and alcohol free.
Well if Menard trashed the room via a drunken whatever… I’d kick his butt out of the house, while highly advising his drunken miss behavin arse, that his first stop best be a rehab facility and I’d email all his friends and relatives to tell them, where they SHOULD hope to find him in the next few months.
It worked for my hubby. He is clean, sober and a lot more happy as I write this. Really.
I hope and pray Mr. Menard understands and lives the sober world. After a while one realizes it’s the only way and it’s rather easy.
Hey there – I’ve been a fan of your site for many months and I think yours is important work. I’ve been eagerly anticipating the release of your book. I check your site almost daily yet I don’t think I have ever read the comments. Your repeated references to the ‘scurrilous speculation’ that Todd is not the father of Track are making me think twice about buying your book. It’s along the lines of ‘I know it can’t be true but that terrible gossip next door said X was parked outside of Y’s house last night’. By repeating the comments of ignorant folks, who by your own admission have no supporting evidence,, you are giving this story legs that it doesn’t deserve. The substantiated truth about SP is enough to discredit her. By repeating such rumors, even w/your caveats, you are discrediting your site and embarrassing those of us who support you and quote you as a source to be checked. In the future when telling folks what I think of Sarah, I won’t recommend your site. I’d be embarrassed if they read your commentary re: Track. You are better than this. I hope you change my mind.
Thanks for listening.
Ok…why are you posting about a “Menard” if it has nothing to do with the Palins? You have harangued people who post about Track being Curtis’s son? So why are you posting this?
Cont: why would Sarah help a Menard when they won’t help Todd’s family: Dianna palin? I’m not getting your post. Why would palin help a Menard when they can’t even help Toads family?
And thanks for speaking. I’m not sure about having made “repeated references” myself, but I’ve had hundreds of people make this accusation.
To acknowledge the fact that an accusation has been made in order to dismiss it is not some seedy scheme to sell books.
You say you’ve never read the comments: if you had–and if you’d read other blogs about Palin–you would have seen how widespread this allegation is.
But your comment is just the sort of thing that has made me decide to soon suspend comments here. I don’t like to censor people, but I also don’t like to give voice to ignorant trash-talkers. It’s been a fine line I’ve tried to walk these past several months and no matter what I do or say I seem to offend. I don’t mind that. I’ve been offending a certain type of person all my life. But what’s the point?
I am sorry if I have embarrassed you, but please find something better to be embarrassed by than this blog.
And by all means, do think twice about buying THE ROGUE. In fact, think three or four times. I wouldn’t want you to be further embarrassed if your friends didn’t like it. Also, by all means, please do not recommend this site: it is definitely not safe for the easily embarrassed.
Ciao,
–Joe
Excuse me, but “harangued?” I have “harangued” people by posting on a blog?
To “harangue” is “to address (a person or crowd) in an angry, vehement, or forcefully persuasive way.”
That definition presumes that the people or crowd on the receiving end have no choice but to listen.
You have a choice: to not read this blog. That way you’ll not be subjected to my harangues.
As for Steve Menard: the story of his trashing the Sitka hotel room is all over the Alaskan press. Sarah persuaded his mother to run for state senate in order to oust Lyda Green, whom she despised. The Heath/Palin families are as closely linked with the Menards as is the Palin family with the Morlocks.
And I do hope Sarah will reach out to help Steve.
Besides, this is my blog and I can post whatever I want to post.
The best way to minimize the stress my posts might cause you is to not read them.
Please try that: you might like it.
–Joe
Do you really think it’s amusing to call Todd “Toad?”
That’s as boring as calling Sarah “$arah,” or saying “Paylin” instead of Palin.
And you want to say that SHE is stuck in a tenth-grade playground?
Incidentally, Todd’s half-sister’s name is “Diana,” not “Dianna.”
And what do you know about how much help the extended Palin family might be giving her?
Most importantly: why do you even care?
I appreciate your prompt and thoughtful response.
I apologize for using the word embarrassed – it was inappropriate. I was in a hurry and didn’t really think my comment through. I rely on your site and I was upset. My very own comment is precisely why I, in general, don’t read website comments (Wonkette is a wonderful exceptions). Instead of embarrassed I should have used the word hesitant, or….damn, I still can’t think of an appropriate word. My intent was to say that I don’t want to direct folks that may be unfamiliar re the horror that is SP to a site that is repeating gossip that in my mind is out in left field. I am daily amazed at the number of folks who have never heard much more of Palin than that she is spunky and a little stupid but in the end, harmless. There are an awful lot of people out there who read the morning paper and watch the evening news and that’s all they know of SP. I’m doing my best to open their eyes. I consider myself educated and informed. I don’t read the comments because I find so many of them to be off the wall – it irritates the hell out of me.
But me, little Ms. Considers herself educated and informed, had never heard the Track rumors. Andrew’s never mentioned it, neither has Laura (that I know of) and I still wish you had never mentioned it.
My threat re buying your book was an empty one. I can’t wait for its release.
Thanks again for listening.
Alleged Palin Stalker’s Mom Speaks :
The wife and mother of Sarah Palin’s accused father-son stalker duo tells Diane Herbst about her family’s financial bind and why she believes one of the Palins was ‘sexting’ her son.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/21/sarah-palin-s-alleged-stalkers-wife-and-mother-of-accused-speaks.html
LydiaClaire–
And I equally appreciate your own response and clarification.
Andrew Sullivan, whom I consider a personal friend, and Laura Novak, whom I consider an online friend, both remain focused on the question of whether Sarah actually gave birth to Trig. I consider this a valid question. I raise it in THE ROGUE and, in fact, devote Chapter 19 to what I hope is a responsible consideration of it.
I have found basis for questioning Sarah’s account of her pregnancy and labor that led to the birth of Trig.
I have found NO basis for questioning Track’s parentage, but the fact that you read selectively and that neither Andrew nor Laura has raised it does not mean it’s not out there: Please see this post from one of Alaska’s most widely-read bloggers:
http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2011/08/what-is-it-about-water-in-wasilla.html
This blogger actually suggests that Steve Menard’s trashing of a hotel room somehow makes it more likely that his late brother was Track’s father.
You have to pay attention, because this post is like a game of three-card monte, with logic well hidden, if not nonexistent. But the blogger’s conclusion is:
“Some of the more egregious behaviors attributed to Track might NOT have been the result of poor parenting on the Palin’s part, but instead due to simple biology.”
Meaning that Track’s father was Curtis Menard, Jr., brother of Steve Menard, and that both brothers came from the same bad seed.
Steve trashes a hotel room: ergo, because Track Palin, as a teenager, had troubles with alcohol and drugs, Steve’s brother, Curtis, Jr., must be Track’s father.
Do you think I exaggerate the nuttiness? This blogger actually wrote:
“Aren’t there rumors that Track is the offspring of Steve Menard’s brother, Curtis Menard? Yes there are. In fact most of the bloggers and authors who write about Palin have decided that the rumor is most likely not a rumor at all, but rather a cold hard fact.”
A huge percentage of commenters on my blog say they’ve also just commented on that other blog, or come to my blog to repeat what they read some commenter saying at that other blog, or others, and others, and others.
So it’s not like if I didn’t mention it, it wouldn’t exist.
Personally, I think the best thing to do with all these rumors about the Palins is to hold them up to the light of day–while there is still summer daylight in Alaska–and see which, if any, prove to have substance.
That’s part of what I’ve tried to do in THE ROGUE.
Thanks again for your response to mine,
–Joe
Sarah is now in a very healthy financial position and with more time on her hands than most. She could do so much to help others and be involved in organizations that provide positive support to so many in need.
As much as I think she is a negative influence on our country’s politics, she is one of the few politicians that does not have (known) personal involvement or support of charitable organizations. The only organization she appears to support is the “Palin” money making machine.
Just think if she were to apply all of the negative energy she expends to a worthy cause helping others, how much good she might be able to do. Let’s face it, she could raise some cash.
I highly recommend the Salvation Army’s Adult Rehabilitation Centers (ARC). It’s a work therapy program and ideally it last six months. It’s humbling and it’s effective. There’s no cost. You work a schedule to pay your way. Your first week you’re paid a gratuity (that’s how it’s described, tax reasons I assume) of $5.00. Each additional week you receive a $1.00 raise. You’re given a roof, a bed and you’re fed. As I wrote, it’s very humbling, but that’s how the process begins. Rehab should be very difficult.
I don’t know if there’s a Salvation Army ARC in Anchorage but I believe there’s one in Seattle.
Providing funds for someone to go to a short term rehab is not a good start, I don’t think. Why add another layer of guilt and shame to a person’s already terribly damaged psyche. Besides, positive behavior and renewed self-esteem aren’t realized in thirty days. It takes time and counsel and it’s hard.
Joe, I read a couple of Hakan Nesser’s Van Veeteren mysteries per your recommendation. They’re good. The humor is dry which is my preference. The one I just finished, ‘Woman with Birthmark’, was very Clint Eastwood-ish, much like ‘The Unforgiven’ and ‘The High Plains Drifter.’ Wrongs are righted. That’s a very appealing theme, if only it were so easy. Have you read the translation of Norwegian Per Petterson’s novel ‘Out Stealing Horses?’ It’s very good and a mystery of a different sort.
Don’t forget to stop in La Veracruzano on S. Pleasant St. They love their futbol there. Hello from me to my buddy, the tall Anglo from Spartanburg (we’re halfway old and need reminders, you, me and the Anglo). Take it easy.
That may be the worst “published” piece I’ve ever read. Shows what happens when online sites sacrifice journalistic standards. What an embarrassment for Daily Beast, a site I’ve written for myself.
Actually, it may be a very clever parody.
Shawn “was a gentle soul who harbored an innate love and dogs and cats” and “brought home injured squirrels and birds?”
Mercy me, Stalker Shawn of McAdoo is really Francis of Assisi!
Maybe the low point is when the writer says that the Christy father and son “are accused of being interested in technology.”
Sorry, but “being interested in technology” is not yet a federal crime.
I’m glad you called this piece to my attention. Because it’s “hidden” on an “inside page” of Daily Beast I wouldn’t have seen it otherwise.
I’ll be speaking on a panel this fall on the subject of “News Reporting in America.” This bilge will be
Exhibit A in my presentation of how it’s never been worse.
–Joe
Really, I’m wondering why the sudden concern that Sarah or any of the Palins will come out an “help” Steve Menard when they let Diana still hang out with Tripp and Trig, but Levi is such a horrible influence, and I don’t see you calling the Palins to “help” Jeremy Morlock, since there is such a close family relationship.
I guess being an uncontrolled and unrepentant drunk man is something to be proudly “saved” in public by the Palins, but a drug addicted burglar half-sister and a murdering soldier who was a BFF of Track and April Morlock STILL is Bristol’s BFF, are something that can be swept under the rug that the Palins don’t have to get out in public and support.
Got it.
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, Joe, the Palins don’t give a crap about anyone other than the immediate family. And Sarah really doesn’t give much of a rat’s ass even for immediate family.
Well damn. Whew. It’s about bloody time.
Maybe I’ll start reading your blog again. The gossip chatroom/troll destroy squad vigilantes ruined the whole dialogue-with-published author-literary nuances-thing.
Joe, please remove the name of the restaurant—stupid of me. Thank you.
If you knew anything about factual details of those things, you’d undoubtedly know that Todd Palin has never made a “half-sister” distinction with his sister Diana. Nor any of the other Palin siblings and extended clan.
Sister, half-sister, what is the difference? Diana is still a drug addict who took her own small child on burglaries and was CONVICTED! And it’s OK for her to have access to Trig … her felonies are just OK with Todd & Sarah, but the Johnstons are just tooooo horrible for words. Give me a freakin break.
At the end of his run for Matsu Bourough mayor, Steve Menard said that he was molested when he was a kid. Unfortunately, he never named the perp.
You go get them girl, what you say in post is true in ever way.
Why the sudden concern for the Palins, Joe???
Obviously, Menard has had a serious drinking problem over the years and is in denial about it:
http://www.adn.com/2008/08/19/499167/2-arrests-haunt-menards-candidacy.html
The problems with “News Reporting in America” started when CNN was born, and channels had to fill a 24 hour news cycle. How does one do that with hard news? You can’t. Then more cable channels were brought on to compete with CNN, and ‘news’ devolved into gossip, entertainment, editorials, commentary, and the line became blurred. Along comes the WWW, and news was buried by the above. Why report news when you will get a hundred responses to a commentary based on a rumor based on what someone said in Wasilla to their neighbor? Remember how much play the Wasilla librarian’s letter got in 2008? Now, every word may have been true, but it was used as bait for the people who had barely seen Sarah, didn’t know her except by a few national speeches, and were determined that she should not be VP. Those people have been proven correct, of course, but at the time, the letter was seen as evidence of her impropriety.
The real problem is ‘what is news?’ What used to be news were facts. An event happened, and a reporter was sent to find out the facts. He then wrote a story for the paper, the radio, or the TV report. Facts. They are as elusive as ever, and made moreso by the availability of the web and false and misleading stories based not on facts, but on innuendo, which generate more comments, thus more advertisers, thus more money for those blogs relying on that income.
So is it christian charity to throw a friend under the bus by linking to his blog, using it as a bad example just to prove your point?
One large problem with the blogs and individuals who breathlessly report every salacious rumor that emerges from the swamp pit is that it allows the Palins to continue to play the victim card i.e. Look how we are being treated by our enemies who would say anything to bring us down… The media response in the face of the rumor swamp is either to stay away entirely for fear of tarnishing their reputations or to simply and publicly dismiss questions about the Palins as a product of the nasty rumor mill that has sprung up around them. I can’t say I blame them entirely. It becomes a nasty cycle with the end result being that established journos vacate the field with the vacuum being filled by blogs who have no qualms about passing along whatever gossip they can cook up.
So, thanks, Joe for stepping into the void, so to speak, and doing some actual reporting and sorting through the morass. FWIW, I hadn’t seen the Menard rumors before reading this post as I limit my Palin reading to the Rogue blog and Andrew Sullivan. I don’t care that much about the personal issues. I’ve seen enough of her own public behavior to already have a negative view of her character. But, I would like to see much more reporting on the political corruption that surrounds her time in office and her operation. The facts should be enough to end her ability to gain elected office.
He posted that to have something to post.
He wants to use all of us to sell his book, but then trashes us.
I am not deranged but I have seen the photos, and we know Todd was away a lot and that earlier she addressed these “rumors” before any of us knew of her in an email we have from Bailey’s book. And Track was acting out as a teen in the way a troubled teen does and now, he distances himself from the circus. And she lies about pretty much everything. So go ahead, call me deranged but you wandered into the Palin mess for your own personal gain and now you can’t control the mess!
Good marketing plan, Joe.
You left out the part of the post where the blogger publishes a letter from Sarah herself, threatening not to run for governor because of the Menard rumor. The blogger’s point, Joe, which you seemed to miss, is why would a serious politician allow a silly rumor to STOP her from running? It’s a valid question.
And honestly, I’m no conspiracy nut, but imo it would be a lot easier for Sarah to have a child by a different father, than to fake a pregnancy, which btw you DO believe. So I’m scratching my head here. Let me share with you a personal brief fact of my own life. I’m in my 40’s. My mother told me just this year that she thinks my father might not be my biological dad. Surprise! So don’t tell me it’s far fetched or ridiculous. It happens a lot in families, and apparently in solid middle class families like mine as well.
Very amusing response!
But I do sort of agree that this is a little like some of the Bill O’Reilly rants against T&A hosted on FOX: “Isn’t this girls-gone-wild behavior offensive? In this next clip, we’ll show you EVEN MORE!”
Something you may not have considered, is that the variations in the names (such as Paylin) are not just snarky references, but are often necessary to get a post submitted. For example, Huffington Post for a long time discouraged posts about Palin and we all know that blogs comments can be filtered with keywords. But I’m wondering since when did snark became such an injurious thing? There’s a difference between snark and abuse. If you want to see the difference, visit a conservative blog.
While susceptibility to alcoholism does have a genetic component, when I read the post to which you’re referring I did think that that was a complete stretch and really unworthy of having been posted.
For one thing, substance abuse problems are widespread in Alaska, but that doesn’t mean everyone is related.
Just some people… 😉
That aside, I still don’t get what the point is of your posting this article about Steve. The Palins know a lot of people and any number of them might be having difficulties in this regard… What makes this important news for your blog, outside of allowing you to—unnecessarily—reference the Track rumors three times?
I am leaning toward agreement. Besides, I feel Joe never answered crystalwolfakacaligrl’s question. Why post a Menard story to begin with? Because Menard is a man in desperate need of help? So is Charlie Sheen.
Sigh….., you know, there are many of us who take the high road. There’s never going to be a shortage of democrats or independents who do that, on any topic, anywhere. But blogs are not the front page of the NYT,… they are blogs. Just about anything can be discussed on most blogs, as long as it’s not abusive or OT.
Sally, you are right! What I think is funny about this post, though, is Joe’s ragging on immoderate commenters while posting his own immoderate images (Rodney King?) and now using poor Steve Menard’s problems to get under Sarah’s skin.
Just because the pathetic story of this man’s weakness and incontinence is “all over the Alaskan press” does not mean that people interested in finding out the truth about Sarah Palin need to hear about it, or are better-informed by it.
While Joe may “hope” that Sarah will “reach out to help Steve”, he knows damn well that she will not.
I cannot recall ever hearing about a single instance of Sarah “reaching out” to help anyone. Joe can protest all he wants, but his cynical use of Steve Menard’s troubles to goad Sarah speaks for itself. This is all a game, and Joe is one of the players.
P.S. I’m all for goading Sarah, btw… I just could do without the pretense of high principles.
Ask Sarah in her Christian-like way to secretly help a man who you couldn’t possibly diagnose as an alcoholic because you are not qualified but you know that the ugly rumors of his relationship to Track Palin are not warranted and here’s an asshole blogger that stretches the truth to make a connection.
Steven Palin is an alcoholic who Sarah should help because he is most likely Track Palin’s uncle, but you didn’t hear it from me (it was that other blogger). Brilliant!
I think that people need to remember where they are when going to different blogs. As a blogger myself, I consider my blog to be MY place, my living room, my front porch. I invite people to enjoy MY take on things, and if they don’t like what I do, they can go elsewhere. I have a ZERO tolerance policy on my comments. If you don’t have something nice to say, or want to change the subject, you don’t get approved. Period. No exceptions. I love Gryphen’s blog because he is funny and snarky and just won’t give up. He throws EVERYTHING into the pot. That’s what he does. That’s HIS porch. Joe’s porch is different. Joe’s focus is different, and he doesn’t engage in speculation. He is a good foil for IM, in my opinion. I like reading Joe’s posts because he examines some of the same things but with a different perspective. I get tired of people pitting one blog against another (Joe, I think you could have left out the info about IM and let your reader find it for herself, but that’s just my opinion on YOUR porch). I also get fed up with the constant crazy stuff that people post in the comments. I’m certainly not above bashing Sarah’s ugly hair and toes, given that she has no ideas, very tired talking points, and is a flippin’ nutball. But the constant comparing of photos to guess who begat who has become tiresome. Dumb stuff like Bristol having surgery to get rid of her Native look is just that. DUMB. Same with Trig looking Native. He looks like every other Down Syndrome kid. Bristol is no more than 1/16th Native. That’s less than me and I certainly don’t look Native.
Anyway, my entire point is that people need to leave their crazy stuff at the blogs that allow or encourage it, and show some restraint at blogs that don’t. You wouldn’t walk into somebody’s house and feed their 2 year old a bunch of candy without asking. So don’t come here and spin conspiracy theories in Joe’s living room. Have a little respect and politeness, and remember whose house you are visiting.
Todd’s Business is Toad’s Fisheries so the Palin’s think it amusing. So sorry to misspell Diana. And I don’t care. I am asking why are you posting this? Since the Menard’s have nothing to do with the Palins? Oh and insulting your readers… is really pathetic.
I emailed your agent for a bookplate but I’m going to email her about how you treat your readers, who have never done any-harm to you.
Exactly Lydia – a classic “do as I say, not as I do”.
I look forward to your book Joe.
I’m finding the whole Palin phenomenon, train wreck with residual unfortunate familial-friend
debacles extremely tiring. For a woman who ties a president to something a man did when he was an eight year old child, Sarah sure does “pal” around with a dysfunctional lot. But as I’m pretty sure there are few things that shame Mrs. Palin, I don’t believe you calling her out to help Mr. Menard will illicit even a squeak. Frankly, why would Sarah Palin ever think it was her business to help Mr. Menard? I’ve never thought of Sarah as someone who comes to the rescue. She seems to be a perpetual victim who chooses to be rescued or alternately bully people. If she does help the poor man, good. If she doesn’t, we’ll never know.
I find the only people who think Sarah Palin is overtly caring and competent—know nothing of her.
Just the factual knowns should make people run screaming away from her. She is not a rescuer, nor does she seem to make many situations better. Mr. Menard would do better to keep her away.
She couldn’t rescue a bankrupt dairy, or Wasilla when she the hired a city manager, or Alaska when she grifted money from the state living at home as governor, didn’t help starving Native Alaskans and built a sports complex on land Wasilla didn’t own. She was not there for her own daughter when she found out she was pregnant. She kicked her out. Bristol went to live with her aunt, remember?
Earth Mother—Sarah isn’t.
Sarah, with her Servant’s Heart, as Governor, said she’s personally call students in Alaska and counsel them not to drop out of school.
Sarah, with her Servant’s Heart, as Governor, said she’d work to create jobs for Alaskans, and while she did grow government and the operating budget to hire and appoint all her H.S. BFF’s and donors, to quit that job to act as a private citizen without a title to ‘progress bold, hard-wrorking’ businesses in the State, we haven’t seen much of that have we? Todd boasted to Greta Van Susteren that he worked to improve Native hire in the Oil Industry, but his emails co-governing the State showed that he worked to thwart appointments and hiring of qualified people and attempt to in one instance, fire the only Alaska Native administrator – the State’s Top Cop, for refusing to fire his ex brother in law.
As a VP running-mate, Sarah said she’d counsel women not to have abortions, to chose life instead, and have more Trig’s in the world. Don’t see that also too. Sarah said she’d be the voice for the Special Needs families in this country, what has she done? About $1,000 worth in PAC donations to date?
Sarah, with her Servant’s Heart, as Governor, didn’t even respond as a Hockey Mom to her son’s friend and teammate Jeremy Morlock’s plea for help in coming back closer to home to help his widowed mother out with the kids (cause we all know nuclear families are superior to any other) and has failed to comment on Morlock’s horrific actions in the Middle East while fighting for her freedoms.
Sarah, with her Servant’s Heart, as Governor, failed her civic duty to provide solutions for her cash strapped villages in dealing with astronomical gas prices (that gave her surplus to make her look like a strong fiscal governor) that had them struggling to pay for food and heat.
So why would Sarah, with her Servant’s Heart without a title, help a family friend through alcoholic antics?
As someone with many friends who are in AA or have completed the program, I can say that it is impossible to MAKE someone change. They must reach that point on their own, and it usually occurs after a horrible incident. The Menards are a decent family whom I am sure pray daily for this man. Think about Diana Palin, who is now loving happily, completely reformed.
Joe-
You are right, the comments are starting to turn into a blood sport. I love all the anti-Palin blogs. Each has it’s own special something. What I think some people are not understanding about you, Joe, is that you are a “fact author”. That’s your thing. There needs to been evidence to back up anything you write about. As compelling as the Mernard/Track photos are–they are just photos. The same with the theories on multiple Trigs and so on. I am not saying that those are not wonderful starting points for an investigation. I am sure one day those theories will be proven correct with facts. I am just saying that you are the kind of author that is fact driven. I also don’t blame you for wanting to keep the dialog on YOUR BLOG beyond reproach. Your blog=your rules.
I just went to Amazon and canceled my order. Also emailed “Rosner, Annsley” and let her know why.
Great marketing plan Joe.
Joe, If I may make a suggestion, just close the comments now. This catfight is disgusting IMO. I couldnt read halfway through them. . . .
To Samantha, and she continued to run for Governor so, by your logic, there must not have been anything to that rumor. It must have stopped spreading, no? Your comment simply doesn’t add up.
Thank you for being a sane voice in a sea of irrationality.
It’s also not accurate. Shawn has said he loves Alaska, wants to be a member of the Palin family and, in other brief moments of clarity (or whatever), he has said he desperately wants to flee his crazy parents and more across the US to start over. Then 2 days later, he’s back to spewing his vitriol. He needs psych help, not that I am a psychiatrist.
The daily beast is beginning to be a joke.
Must be a tough line to walk: book author with a blog for marketing, or just another blogger with a book
Methinks Dairygate a real zinger.
http://palingates.blogspot.com/search/label/Dairygate
Maybe that’s just ‘cuz I was so fond of that Matanuska Maid milk… especially in my lattes.
Jeremy and Steve are 2 different people, going through very different problems. The Palin kids provide emotional support for their Morlock friends. But what exactly could Sarah do for Jeremy? What could she have done? Why is SHE responsible for mending ALL her acquaintances’ fences? (ha) Thats like one of your random Aunts being responsible for the betterment of ALL her relatives and friends. Do you know how insane you sound? Yes, it would be kind to offer help. We’ve seen tragedy strike too often (think Winehouse)
But again, you have no idea what goes on in others’ daily lives, and no one who isn’t beside that person 24/7/365 does either.
but really. Why do you all feel other people’s lives are YOUR business? Isn’t that how the US has accumulated so much debt, trying to play the world’s nurse? It’s one thing to volunteer your time helping a non profit. It’s another to meddle in affairs you know nothing about.
One more thing. You’re saying that all Jeremy’s friends should have turned their backs on him in his time of need, that they should instantly stop associating with his family? Isn’t that contradicting your past statements – that Sarah SHOULD help her friends?
People in dire straits for whatever reason need their friends, the people who know them best. Diana recovered pretty quickly, probably because she had a close family. Jeremy’s family is relatively quickly recovering and healing, continuing to support each other. I almost wish all of you will one day have a friends who experiences something tragic. It would be interesting to know how you deal with it. But- as you’re all NOT public figures, i would never know about it. What makes public figures any different?
I have nothing to say. I came over here this morning because I read that you were disparaging Gryphen in your comments and I could not believe it. Well, I found out. But the rest of this, the post, the comments boggle my mind. Have a nice day.
No offense but you have no idea why Bristol turned on Levi. You have no idea what Sarah’s initial feelings were of the fall out, and prior to Levi’s media blitz. It is understandable that she doesn’t trust his sister, as she sold a picture of her son to a magazine and for various reasons that should not be brought up on a blog thread.
Little of what I read on blogs make much sense. Most is pure conjecture, opinion based and ridiculously hateful.
I concur. I enjoy reading the posts, as different blogs bring different things to the table to ponder. The comment link is becoming too contentious and I’ll be keeping my ‘clicking’ finger from taking me there in the future.
Just thought it necessary to also note that when Palingates wrote the first Track/Menard post, the one that referenced the people article about Cheryl Welch, someone sent that link to a friend and that friend posted it on her facebook in complete shock. 1.) People used names when they said they wouldn’t 2) Cheryl Welch is a liar and was privately called out (and she couldn’t defend herself when questioned either 3) EVERY SINGLE PERSON who commented on the article on facebook hated that A) a good man was being slandered and used for political purposes B) that blog owners were being hurtful to bring a politician down C) were downright disgusted with the blog post. These were ALL people who grew up in Alaska and know both Sarah and Curtis well. This is just one reason why blogs help Sarah. It displays ignorance and hate of the blogger and commenter and paints her as a justified victim who is still standing despite hate spewed at her.
@womanwithsardinecan- well said. Every household has it’s own tempo and rules, and visitors should abide by them. There are blogs where you are allowed wear your shoes and others where you take off your shoes before entering.
No offense, but it’s not a house, it’s a blog. Could we be over-personalizing this?
I suppose the solution could be, we’ll all just get our own blogs, and instead of 5 or so, we’ll have 150. Or…here’s an idea, just have a little tolerance, and moderate sensibly.
Take the analogy of a guy opening a seafood restaurant. He certainly would deride a visitor who expected chicken wings instead of fish. But it it reasonable to get bent out of shape, as the owner, at a customer who asks for Grouper instead of Flounder? Or breaded instead of fried? How fine a line are we drawing here, is my question.
Silly stuff.
Joe, I am so puzzled. Why are you leaving scorched earth behind you? Have we been pissing you off that badly? Are you stressed from prepping for the busy weeks ahead? Did someone give you a bad review, privately? I feel like a fool or groupie for having followed you and then being kicked off the bus. Yeah, I know it’s not personal, but I feel singed.
You certainly have the right to run your blog as you see fit,but might I suggest that if you don’t like Gryphen’s blog,don’t read it and comment on it.
I agree. Looking forward to Joe’s book which I’ve had on pre-order since January.
Excellent post – thanks! I’m stunned over some of the comments here today. I think some of the comments were made by people sent here to do just that. I’m not paranoid but it looks too much like a collective effort. Joe’s got an amazing blog here and has always been very clear about what he will or will not accept and that is totally his right.
I also thing this degeneration of your relationship with your readers is further just more evidence of Palin poison. There’s not a word of vitriol, accusation, rumor, or ugly fact that she does not deserve and has not invited upon herself and her family. She speaks about the Prez in disgusting and treasonous ways. She did it just the other night, like she’s done for the last 3 years. She is without limit in her insults, and the handmaiden press spreads them. She aimed her poison at you last year, and now it’s seeping into the crevices of your life and spreading onto your blog. Blecchh. What affect will The Rogue have? If it’s ambiguous about Palin as I believe you are, no effect at all, and maybe just more fodder for her to turn to her advantage
Sometime I marvel at some of the stuff Gryphen puts up too, but I’ve come to conclusion that what he does and from many reports does very well, is to get under Palin’s skin. And seriously I have no problem with that at all. This woman deserves to have her skin be gotten under, because she has chosen a path of absolutely no accountability for anything she says or does, whether it’s telling a completely unbelievable childbirth delivery story, accusing our President of everything from being a terrorist to a socialist while ridiculing his community service or by putting rifle scopes over the faces of elected members of Congress. This woman is an unconscionable, non-repentant, conniving, manipulative, grifting mercenary who will do or say anything for attention, money and reaction.
Sorry, no false piety from me for her for anything until she decides to act like a real human being with compassion towards ANYONE, a alcoholic Wassilian being the least of them.
I also know that if Joe writes a believable, factual book that contributes substantially to exposing this disgrace of a human being, more power to him and whatever he wants to say or do on his blog I could care less.
But as a little side-not, e what has always interested me is that the ONLY time Gryph ever got served any kind of legal notice by the Palins was when he reported they were divorcing. Of all the ‘scurrilous’ rumors and conjectures he’s put out there with everything from multiple babies, questionable parentage of all sorts of Palins, prostitute relations, etc.etc. etc, that was the only time he was threatened by Palin and her lawyer.
Those are things that make you go hmmmm.
I imagine the blog experience is phenomenally different than writing a book. As an author, you write your manifesto and it’s done. Reviews come out, they’re over and done. Blogs sort of go on and on, and they’re a winding path, not a freeway with an exit ramp. So, perhaps he’s getting frustrated and tired of it, and tired of us. I expect he’ll close the comment section, as he previously announced.
AA is NOT a christian based outlet for help. I am in recovery and a member of AA – as we refer to it: ” A friend of Bill W”. AA is based on a 12 step program that only requires the member to have a sincere desire to stop drinking. I found a “Higher Power” in the rooms of AA and I’ve been in recovery for 22 years. We are not required to believe in “God’ and we don’t have organized religion inside those meetings. We’re only asked to acknowledge a Higher Power so we can stop playing god and ruining our lives. I was in denial for many years and Menard’s behavior sounds to me exactly what Joe suggested. It’s a disease that destroys families and he needs an intervention if he cannot see how far down drinking has taken him. I applaud Joe for his compassionate suggestion. A rehab facility has far less success then what AA has been able to do.
Just want to clarify one of my comments regarding rehab versus AA – I am not dismissing a rehab as an excellent option – I’ve just had many personal experiences with people leaving rehab and picking up a drink – then coming to AA in desperation. Both are very needed and very good options.
congrats Sarah! You’re talking about tough love and sometimes that’s the only thing that will save someone’s life. Many people have a tendency to try and enable and save the alcoholic from themselves but it’s a possible death sentence to do so. I can tell you’ve been thru some tough times just by your comments – you made the right choice and i wish your husband many happy and sober years!!
Thanks for putting out the facts about AA. People seem to paint the term “higher power” with their own brand of mind numbing organized religion. My husband has been a recovering alcoholic for nine years, and will be to the day he dies, even if he never takes one sip of alcohol, and he’s an agnostic who leads a more “Christian” life than most “Christians”. It’s a disease that effects everyone in the family, and support is key.
Keep up the good work on maintaining sobriety and educating people about Alcoholics Anonymous!
Thank you.
Spot on Marie!!
Crystal, I don’t understand why you’re so angry with Joe. I read through the comments and I’m just confused here. I don’t see how he did anything wrong by his post. Yes, he’s called some of us out if we went there with the Track/Mernard rumor and I get that. But his post isn’t reversing his position on that, he acknowledged others who believe the rumor – i’m just wondering why you’re so upset? And I’m not commenting to you to suggest you’re wrong or whatever, I’m just trying to figure out what the issue is and wondering if I missed something?
In typical Republican fashion, Menard’s sense of personal responsibility resulted in him telling the hotel to “bill it to the city, bill it to the city.”
http://www.frontiersman.com/articles/2011/08/19/local_news/doc4e4c4f6fb83f1628450199.txt
His post is relevant in my opinion. The Menard story is newsworthy – they have had close ties to the palins for many, many years. She references that friendship to Curtis in a few brief statements in one of her lame books. However, the story between her and the Menards is far more involved and interesting then those few comments she made. I don’t see what the big issue is that Joe posted it – many of the blogs referenced it. It’s part of the palin story even if the palins have kept it low key and under the radar.
What is up with because you know someone you can’t talk about them. I also read IM but what Mr. McGinniss wrote was a post on the blog of IM. It is his opinion of that post, no where does it say you have to agree with other bloggers. As the commenter a little bit before me said McGinniss deals in facts not speculation or hunches, when you have enough evidence then you try to prove a fact.
That is what is wrong with the blogs now there are so many people toting bones back and forth to other blogs that they have caused this riff. I don’t care if Mr. McGinniss didn’t even like Gryphen(hypothetical) doesn’t mean I can’t read his blog and enjoy it and visa versa. Some of these vary commenter today are the ones that helped cause riffs. No one says you have to pick sides, if you disagree with a post fine, either you come back for other post or you don’t.
I am a fan of Gryphen’s blog too. We are all unique individuals. We should just get along and be respectful. Just pick and choose which ones you like and form comments with respect to the blog host’s tempo. *peace* Have a wonderful day!
ha·rangue
a loud bombastic declamation expressed with strong emotion:
A tirade or rant, whether spoken or written; To give a forceful and lengthy lecture or criticism to someone
to rant, tirade; to lecture
Yes it is your blog Joe. And it is YOUR book and future books that I don’t have to buy 🙂
Oh yes one more thing.
For all of us personally insulted by Joe the (blogger) lets drop a line to arosner (at) randomhouse(dot)com and her name is Annsley Rosner. And let her know why we are SUDDENLY cancelling our Amazon orders.
Nice that you can see alcoholism for a disease, Joe. Too bad you can’t recognize other mental illness, like that probably afflicting Shawn Christy.
As for Palin’s responsibility – she, like every other self-righteous religious bigot, wants to make those suffering from disease to fend for themselves, or depend on charity for help – along with vindicitive, retributive punishment. IOKIYAR, though for her and hers.
what makes public figures different? Well, a whole lotta things for sure! You’re obviously a palin fan and willing to give her the benefit of the doubt on all things in spite of her hypocrisy and lies. When you present yourself and your family on a national scale, when you shove yourself down our throats with reality shows and when you keep yourself in the news on a daily basis….why would you even suggest that she not be held to the standards she accuses others of not meeting?? Are you upset that we don’t buy into the palin facade? She CHOSE this for her family. Of course the public will question her – and for very good reason. She is a hyprocrite and a liar. She doesn’t want us to look at the menards or the morlocks.
You guys are out of line – really. So, don’t buy his book. You’re on the wrong blog for sure.
Sharon,
He is opening insulting us, us who would be buying his books. He must of gotten his book advance so he doesn’t care about who buys his book now.
Read back at the “can’t we just get along post”. He talks about the rumors of Curtis being Tracks father and how he in the Rogue will not have rumors only facts and then posts this dumb post about Curtis brother?
He has openly insulted many of us.
Go back and read and ask yourself why? Why does Joe hate the people who he wants to sell his book to?
Oh my, Joe, how curious. Pray tell, is it “Dairygate” or links to Palingates which be off-limits?
Nobody “completes” an AA program. It is an ongoing process based on a daily reprieve.
good comments tewise – I totally agree with that.
In event it’s a mere glitch, I will try my previous attempted reply for Ed’s interest again:
Methinks Dairygate a real zinger.
Maybe that’s just because I was so terribly fond of that Matanuska Maid milk, especially in my lattes.
OMG-what is going on? C4P people are constantly condemned for blasting anyone who disagrees with them by sending out hateful emails. They don’t like something a reporter says on a news channel and they send emails and make phone calls to complain-in the hopes that they can change the dialog and/or have someone fired.
NOW HERE there are many of you not only stating you are going to email the publisher of The Rogue to “explain why you are not buying the book now” but are also listing the email address you are sending the message to-why? so that others can follow suit???
You laugh at and express outrage about what sp’s followers do to protect her and themselves from anyone who disagrees and then turn around and exhibit similar behaviors.
Okay, feel free to let loose on me.
peace
I’m just perplexed by what’s going on in the comments section. I’ve always felt that everyone brings their own perspective to a subject or issue. Blog commenters seem to go from blog to blog thinking all the bloggers are on the same page or have the same approach. I try my best to respect the wishes of the blog writer, wipe my shoes off after leaving one blog, and starting fresh on the next.
I think Joe’s compassion for this man is genuine, but I doubt Sarah will ever practice what she preeches, her track record shows that.
As an aside, my neighbor retired (old school GOP) after working for the Philadelphia Bulletin and Inquirer when Joe was there, He only met Joe a handful of times. We’ve had long conversations and he remembers and admires Joe’s journalistic style and personal integrity. For someone who voted for McCain to hold Joe in such high esteem is amazing, if you think about it. And if this liberal leaning Democratic female can have civil conversations about Politics with this man, why can’t Democrats treat other Democrats with the same dignity and respect?
I hope people can rise above the pettiness and give Joe’s book a chance, we need all approaches to put this puzzle togehter and set the record straight. I don’t judge an author on one book, but on his body of work.
“McGinniss deals in facts not speculation or hunches.”
I think folks like yourself are confusing books and blogs with something as cut and dried as the obituary page in a newspaper. Or, as Sarah likes to say, the “who,what,where and when.” Books and blogs, do contain opinion and speculation, not just “facts.” Joe’s book, I’m sure, is not seven pages long. It’s filled with his own interpretation of events in Alaska and Sarah’s personal and political life.
And for the record………….those of you who are expressing such disdain over “feeling used” by Joe and accusing him of creating this blog to sell books……….I ask you, do you pay attention to what you read at all?
Joe has said this blog was his publisher’s idea. Why would a publisher suggest his/her author start a blog 5 months prior to the release of the book? uh, let me take a quick stab at the answer here…………….to generate interest in the book maybe?
“feeling used” by Joe because you offer your opinions, thoughts, comments on his posts…………….wow…………that one is certainly way out there. Another comment from a reader actually referred to the fact that Joe is making money off of the book while we are all commenting for free?
Again, WTF????
This blog in the last few days with the comments and back and forth accusations and defenses are seeming very much like a bad breakup!!!! If Joe is goading sp, fine. If he is sincerely expressing his thoughts and opinions, fine. If he is using the blog to find out what people want to know/hear during his press junket, fine.
He didn’t sign up here to be anyone’s bff. He is selling a book. The very reasons that ALL of you stated for being so EXCITED about the release of his book have NOT changed so why wouldn’t you buy the book now?
Because you feel like he broke up with you??
and even more now-
peace
Seriously, Joe? You’ve steamed far beyond Unseemly, passed Rude, and plopped solidly in the mud of Downright Nasty.
You told a recent visitor to your blog that you weren’t here for her entertainment. True; you are here to increase the sales of your book. However, you seem to forget that WE are here for our entertainment as well as edification. We are not here to be insulted.
My mother taught me to be polite to visitors; my editors have made the same gentle suggestion. When your editors suggested you begin a blog, I don’t think they envisioned you insulting potential readers. There are certain people who should not blog; you are obviously one of them. Sneer at Jesse all you want; he’s shown he can take it. You have shown that you cannot.
As for your endless refrain, “Its my blog and I’ll write what I want to.” Now who’s stuck in junior high? You’ve left me with “It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to” running through my head.
Don’t bother to respond. I’ve quit reading.
I don’t think anybody needs to give to charities if they don’t want to. My problem with Sarah is that she poses as a loving Christian with strong family values, and then ignore charities and treats other people like crap. It’s the hypocrisy, not the lack of charitable giving.
I think my analogies are more accurate than yours. A blog is a personal space shared with others, not a profit-making restaurant. Joe doesn’t need this blog to publicize his book, although it doesn’t hurt to reach a wider audience this way. This idea going around that authors are just in it to sell books is cynical at best. Yes, they make their living that way, but they also do it because they love it (like many seafood restaurant owners who make a living doing what they love) and have something to say (I’m talking about real authors, not ghostwritten ones). And I think Joe should go ahead and disable his comments section because this is getting ridiculous.
Oh Tewsie, you are such a hopeless groupie.
I disagree. Ted Turner’s CNN was news excellence. He filled a niche, which at the time was a hunger for hard news, available at expanded hours to fit our schedules. At the time, network news was beginning to be all fluff and sex. CNN brought back real anchors, real reporters, and included a lot of foreign affairs coverage. I remember Peter Arnett, for example, reporting live from the hotel in Baghdad. When Turner didn’t run it anymore, it went downhill. And as far as “facts,” any hard-nosed reporter knows that you have to investigate and report what is going on, beyond just dry facts. Republicans, (not saying you’re one but whatever), tend to have the meme of “facts only” because they want to hide their wheeling and dealing behind the scenes. Sarah is notorious for example, for complaining that reporters speculate on what she’s doing and why she’s doing it. In other words, she complains they are doing their jobs.
msf
Oh yes, show up only to speak disparagingly of tewise. Not sure if there are “trolls” coming to this blog trying to cause dissent or if really all that is being shown is that behavior is the same for all humans-just exhibiting it from opposing sides of a dispute.
“groupie”??? really??? that is the best you can do?
Why do any of you feel the need and the right to speak nastily about anyone else who comments on this blog?
I don’t know any of you but try to show respect and courtesy to everyone here and am completely perplexed by those of you who attack someone else.
I have a feeling that many of these comments are linked to cirrus from yesterday. It really appears to me to be a collective, determined effort to blow up Joe’s blog and it’s interesting that so many showed up to blast him today. I’m not stupid and i think palin is still very much into the “letters to the editor’ plan that Frank Bailey described in his book. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s linked to this obvious attack today. I’m sure she’s got her bots all over the place running campaigns to discredit Joe in every way she can. And hoping his book falls flat while she comes up with diversions so the full impact is somehow neutralized. But it won’t happen.
Thanks Sharon. I have based my knowledge of AA on the one person I know who is in the program and she is a christian woman that is always trying to convert others to her religion and whenever she spoke of a “higher power” I was always assuming that she meant god. I just had a feeling that since AA is an “outpatient” setting where people show up voluntarily, that a residential rehab stay would be more effective in actually changing a person’s behavior. Then again, once a person leaves rehab, he or she would need to have some form of ongoing counseling and support and that most certainly should be an AA or Al-Anon type meeting environment where a person can continue to heal once he or she goes back to “real life”. Thanks for taking the time to reply and shedding some light for me!
Unbelievable! First, you are only proving his point by being irrational.
You have no idea how your own hate filled posts come across. I’ve seen them for quite some time. Try listening and thinking about what he is saying to you and others.
Second, this is HIS blog with his rules. You do not have to read here. Now, like a child, you are threatening to call his publisher AND have the gall on HIS blog to ask others to do so. You sound exactly like the Palinbots at C for P.
Exactly! And you are thin skinned like Sarah.
Let it go! And look at and think about your reaction.
i don’t agree. I think Joe’s book will have a huge impact on her. I don’t think it will end her career – I stand by what i said before. She’s already over – she’s done. She’s become entertainment in a dark and ugly way and she will never win an election for the POTUS. She’s only still around because of the people behind her – she is nothing more then a diversion they created to run a disgraceful campaign of false accusations and racist attacks against the prez. They will NEVER allow her to go any further then being their pitbull.
…”I can no more label someone as suffering from alcoholism than I can diagnose a psychopath.”
Methinks Steve Menard might be a valued source for your up-coming book. I wonder why he drinks.
Carrie, he *could* have put it just as you did: that he didn’t come across any factual evidence to prove Theory X or Y, and left it at that. Or just not said anything.
Instead he chose to mock some perfectly comprehensible theories in a sneering tone when at the same time we are all talking about a woman who Faked. A. Pregnancy! None of us would BE here if Mrs. Palin weren’t completely off-the-rails.
I have never posted on this site,but read it EVERY single day..Thank you JOE!! from reading some of these comments i am now on the way to Amazon to order your book.This one below sent me over the edge..lady/guy you don’t want to read his book don’t..just go away,read the cartoons in the sunday paper..I can’t wait for this book to come out now..once again thanks Joe
.Yes it is your blog Joe. And it is YOUR book and future books that I don’t have to buy 🙂
Oh yes one more thing.
For all of us personally insulted by Joe the (blogger) lets drop a line to arosner (at) randomhouse(dot)com and her name is Annsley Rosner. And let her know why we are SUDDENLY cancelling our Amazon orders.
We couldn’t be farther apart on this. A public blog with public comments is most certainly not a private, personal space. It is not your bedroom, it is not your bathroom, and again, it is not your house. Yes, it is “owned.” And yes, you are in charge of your blog, with permission, of course, from the host. But all blogs do not solicit attention. Some, in fact, are invitation-only, which generally have little traffic other than friends and close associates. (This is obviously not such a blog).
Also, I’m completely floored by your belief that this blog was created by the owner for anything other than publicity for his book.
“Taking a drink” isn’t the same as falling into a bottle. There are millions of people, perhaps the majority, who can enjoy a drink or two without becoming helpless inebriates. There are even people who occasionally get drunk without becoming alcoholics.
Alaska has a serious problem with drug and alcohol abuse, and our country went to “just say no” and imprisoning people who could have been helped and instead had their lives ruined. Bad call.
Sarah won’t help Steve Menard, even if she cared. We’ve seen the pictures of her with a stained jacket that doesn’t match her skirt and shoes three sizes too big. At this point, Sarah has days when she can’t function herself, let alone help others.
Well said.
Oh Lordy! Crystal you are way over the top! This is a blog, the Internet, for goodness sake.
It isn’t worth being so over emotional about. Just don’t read here. But when you try to start a mob protest, you
Only prove his point.
I find it hysterical that Joe posts that we sound as hateful as the C for P crew. And then
Y’all start acting just like him!
Joe, you made the right decision to shut down comments. You may have your faults, but you are braver than all of these armchair critics. I’m sure you are trying to prepare yourself for the coming months and all that will come with it.
To those of you attacking him- cut it out and give the man some slack!
It’s his first blOg and there is a learning curve. Why are you giving the ” other side” the satisfaction?
Stop your childish squabbling and get over yourselves. 98% of you could not handle what Joe is about to go through the next few months. Grow up
“Ask Sarah in her Christian-like way to secretly help a man who you couldn’t possibly diagnose as an alcoholic because you are not qualified “……..I can tell you based on personal experience and knowledge of alcoholics that Menard’s behavior points to a serious problem with drinking and indicates someone that is certainly a problem drinker bordering on becoming an alcoholic if not already one. Please explain to me how anybody could look at that behavior and not call it what it is?? Do you know people that do not have a drinking problem that behave like that? Because an adult that behaves like that is seriously in need of help and to suggest Joe isn’t qualified to call him an alcoholic is suggesting you have doubt that he is? If you have any doubt Menard is an alcoholic, what would you call that behavior? If he doesn’t have a drinking problem that caused it, then he obviously has a mental illness that needs immediate attention.
A public blog is a public space.
And it’s a collaboration among posters and commenters. As with all collaborations there is an inherent level of mess and lack of control.
Speaking for myself, I don’t read blogs without comments, like Sully’s–except when an unruly commenter on other blogs says something’s worth reading.
And again, speaking for myself, I’ve now learned that I’m happier if I don’t have any interaction with a book’s author, LOL.
Finally, for me, once blogs start focusing on commenters actions and not the topic, they become unreadable. So from my point of view it’s a good thing that Joe is going to disable comments.
***** !!!
five stars awarded to Liz I. !!!
“Finally, for me, once blogs start focusing on commenters actions and not the topic, they become unreadable.”
That line is perfect and that is from me, one who today is commenting on commenters!!! Thank you for your clarity.
peace
gypsyrose- “The very reasons that ALL of you stated for being so EXCITED about the release of his book have NOT changed so why wouldn’t you buy the book now?”
Because he personally insulted many of us. That’s why. As a far as the C4p thing, you are off track. SP sets her flying monkey’s on people she thinks are “harming her”….like the time RAM went off on Jay Ramrass.
This is different. In the past few days Joe has personally insulted me and several others.
That and THAT only is why I’ve cancelled my order and writing to Annsley .
MSF – Tewise didn’t say anything to deserve that – and Tewise has made many thoughtful comments here that all of us appreciate. i know you’re a palin fan and your intention is to create hostility here but it won’t work. Just go away. We’re here because we support Joe and we’re looking forward to his book. Nothing any of you try to stir up here will change that. Please close the door behind you …
You’re welcome AK – i know there are many people that assume it’s christian but it’s not. And i hope I didn’t come off sounding like a know it all. 🙂
We all know that Ms. Palin doesn’t provide help to others – we’ve watched her waaay tooo long here in Alaska.
Joe, you have to know that too in researching her to write your book. Why did you put this article up about Menard? Doesn’t make sense to me at all.
Liz I. you do have me laughing at myself now!!! How easy it is to not only fall into the snake pit but to become one of the snakes in the pit!!! Ah, we are all so very human aren’t we?
Thank you for your comment. Today is brilliantly beautiful and my best friends are all headed over for a bbq and games and I am off to enjoy them and today.
peace
Joe, it appears you have shaken a hornet’s nest. There are a few individuals posting comments here who are so heavily invested in the take down of the half-term govenor of Alaska that they’ve lost all perspective. Unable to rely on proven solid facts, they cling to any and all rumors circulating about the Palin clan. Heaven help anyone who dare question the validity of any of those rumors.
Issuing threats of not buying your book, contacting your publisher, etc., show just how desperate they’ve become. In their eyes, it seems that you’ve ceased being an ally in the quest to stop Palin from ever holding public office again to now being their sworn enemy. Extremism is not confined to one side or another.
Jeremy Morlock wrote to Sarah Palin asking for help. Sarah Palin ignored him.
As a counselor, I work with folks who have all sorts of disabilites – physical, mental and even some substance abuse problems. I have found that hoping that a person seeks help, is all good; but the decison ultimately lies with the person. It is a sickness – and like any sickness there are steps a person must take in order for the (prescription) or counseling to have a positive effect. Long term treatment is required and it will be a great first step if this person would admit to having the problem and then seeking help – along with some familial anchors to keep him grounded. I wish him the best and in my opinion, he is close to reaching rock bottom and may experience the reality of his situation very quickly. God bless him and his family.
gypsyrose, you may consider that reaction extreme, but blog traffic is a resource that has value. Of course blogs “use” the content that free commenters provide to draw more commenters and thus eyeballs.
I don’t think anyone had a burning issue with Joe’s take on things (thoughts, opinions, goading) until he turned his focus to chastising his audience here and sneering at some of them, which touched a few nerves.
Crystalwolf, I, and others have asked what the real point of this Menard post is—yes, we *know* the Palins and the Menards have long had overlapping spheres of influence; what does that have to do with this drunkenness situation?—but Joe hasn’t really answered, just shot back his own “why do you care?”, a childish dig at a spelling mistake, and saying that he’s happy certain people won’t buy his book as though his book would be sullied by said purchase.
It’s obvious he’s not really into the nature of blogging, so it’s just as well that he closes the comments.
—
Joe, just like we can ignore your blog, you can ignore the comments that might lead you to say silly things in a fit of pique (like you would even really know or care who purchased each and every copy of your book).
We are all human, so perhaps for this remaining week or so consider giving your commenters the latitude, including the latitude to err, that you yourself would like to have.
If I remember correctly from the Troopergate documents, wasn’t Steve Menard a good friend of Molly McCann (Sarah’s sister)?
He has said several times in other posts that he has no interest in anything that can’t be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt. I believe his blow up yesterday was a result of frustration over time. At the end of the day, I guess I feel that it is his blog and he can insult his readers all he wants. I think I understand his perspective as well as I do some of the readers who are so angry right now.
It comes down to choice. For me anyway. I just don’t want all that drunk stuff around me. So it is a choice for me.
The power of addiction is strong. That I do understand.
If Mr. Menard is caught in that strong addiction, I hope someone around him shows that there is a choice in living and is there, with open arms, willing to share. Once sober of course.
Over the past decade, we have watched our neibor drink himself to death. 15 years ago, he had some great backyard parties. Last summer liver failure set in and he was gone by Christmas. We didn’t know he had a 21 yr old son, till he showed up to pack up his dads belongings.
People have choices and that power of addiction can sure screw up choices one makes in life.
It is best to educate one self on the power of addiction. That includes denial, enabling…
BTW, my neibor died at the age of 43. He was born and raised in Utah. He was a slope worker for 17 years.
He musta spent all his money on booze. We have his cat. The son had a garage sale, then boarded up the house and went back to Montana to finish school.
Sad eh?
crystalwolfakacaligrl-
I appreciate your response to my comment. At the risk of having your ire directed at me though, I must say I am surprised at your comments recently. I have followed your comments on multiple blogs and suppose I expected better from you.
You have never appeared to one to engage in petty arguments nor dramatic comments,etc.
I understand you feel personally insulted. I understand that you and a few others feel we have all been insulted. My question to you is – why don’t we all feel insulted? I have taken no offense by anything that has been said here. I can argue with the best of them. I can charge in with my mouth running before thinking with the same zealousness as the next person. I can even be “too sensitive” as I have been told, and yet, nothing posted on this blog by the author have I considered an insult.
And please, I am in no way trying to insult you or reprimand you. I do not know you at all and am not in judgement of anyone here and try to not judge anyone ever. I commented today with my observations about the behavior of some of the commenters and perhaps in doing so, I have exercised the exact same behavior.
I would not judge a book by it’s cover. That said, my personal thoughts on the subject of buying THE ROGUE is that if there are things to be learned from reading it, why would anyone refuse to gather new information because he/she felt insulted by the author? The author’s feelings about his readers really has nothing to do with whether or not the book is worthy of reading………………
peace out.
PLEASE, fellow posters, don’t use the Daily Beast article, which has ZERO credibility as a “source.” I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more poorly-written piece. Where’s the “Who, What, Where, Why, When and How?” I’ve worked in newsrooms and have seen talk-hosts who can “rip and read” (from the wire) a better article on the fly. This should be a huge embarrassment for, not just the incredibly inept writer, but for the whole Daily Beast crew.
And, those who say the Palins somehow deserved what the Christy’s said, remind me of people who say women “deserved” to be raped because of “how they were dressed.” That they were “asking for it,” by something they “did” or “wore.” Truth is, there’s NO degree a woman can cover up that will stop a rapist. In the Victorian era, when women were forced to cover EVERYTHING, men in bars talked about “a well-turned ankle.” In the mid-1990’s I received two credible death threats from different people and we had to involve detectives. One threat was from a crazy guy I wouldn’t let on the air, and the other was a guy we’d “embarrassed” on the air. One said “You’re dead and your whole family is dead,” and the other promised to meet us in the parking lot to “blow our brains out.” Nobody deserves this treatment, not even Sarah Palin. Jumping on that bandwagon just makes us look like Sarah’s crazies on the far-Right.
For the sake of Truth and Justice, I want to see Sarah exposed as much as anyone, but we need to be the sane ones! Having said that, I want to say how much I enjoy both Joe and Gryphen’s blogs. They’re the hosts and I honor their rules. I don’t agree with everything they say, but I’m happy with the 90% I agree with in both cases. All in all, I think they both provide a valuable service in exposing the woman who, quite easily, if not for President Obama, could have been the POTUS.
PEACE, all.
I hope that Mr. Menard’s own family is doing all that they can to see that he gets help. Frankly other than offering support to that effort, there is not much that Sarah Palin could do. And no one knows, maybe she has.
A better example of where Sarah Palin could have made a difference and deliberately chose not to is in the plight of the native villages two winters ago when, as governor, she remained silent until Alaskan blogs and activists forced her into some kind of action. Her choice of action (cookies in the company of a proselytizing preacher) was pitiful and inappropriate. That merits criticism and should be raised if she decides to run for president. Not the situation with Mr. Menard who might benefit from being charged with disorderly conduct and required to seek rehab and to do community service.
Ok- So which is it ??– You say here, in your own comment, that you are suspending comments on your blog because some of the content offends. Yet in your response to me and others in the “let’s get along post” you claim otherwise– i.e. that you were going to change the format anyway. You made this claim after we objected to being blamed for “hateful comments”— which, in fact, we did not make.
You know what Joe- Here is what happened- YOU HOPED THAT YOU COULD MANIPULATE US– BUT YOU FOUND OUT THAT YOU COULDN’T!!!
I am beginning to think that you and your subject (Mrs. Rogue) have a lot more in common than I realized.
The Menards can afford the best treatment available, unlike the majority of Wasillians who must rely on the not so great MSHS and Nugen’s Ranch for their treatment.
$P didn’t notice Jeremy Morlock, so why would she notice Steve?
I hope your book is a best seller, and that it blows the palin’s “reality show” life out of the water.
Sorry, this did not end up in the right place. It was directed towards gypsyrose’s comments further downthread.
Sharon, sorry, but… so what? What is the Palins’ responsibility for Steve Menard?
The Palins have not “kept” Menard’s condition “under the radar”. How is that their purview? They can’t even handle all of their own crazy shit.
And, be asked to resign due to bringing embarrassment to Wasilla.
Correction to your last sentence. She ‘could’ have been Vice President, not President of the United States. Remember, McCain ran for that office.
Oh dear, sounds like “Brooklyn”…
Oh, trust me, your initial instincts were correct. It is heavily Christian, they just disguise it at first, couching it in terms that are ambiguous and that fool the unsuspecting, the desperately confused. There is a huge PR machine behind AA and has been for years. I have personal experience with it.
The spontaneous recovery rate (quitting on your own) for Alcoholics is roughly 5%. AA’s success rate (by way of their own study is, at best, 3%, and probably less). Thankfully, there are ALTERNATIVES, and healthy ones, based on medical science (not the hoodoo excuses that Bill W. came up with) that DO WORK! I’m just going to recommend googling the “Orange Papers” because there you will not only find an incredible resource database for HELP, but also an incredible resource of medical journal research and statics (I am a “fact” fanatic!).
Look, I am writing this as a person who survived something that defied the odds and should have killed me. It doesn’t make me a big deal or, I don’t think, even give me anything to brag about. I got a miracle, and it made me grow. Maybe someone else can too. Joe, thanks for letting add something different to the discussion 🙂
Joe,
I am a long term follower of all things Palin. This includes reading your blog, Laura’s blog, IM, Sully, etc. I am really fascinated how someone like Palin came so close to presidency (my ADD does not help me much either in my desire to avoid following her). That said, this is my first comment ever on any of the blogs, motivated by a need to quell what seems to be a beginning of an ugly situation between you and your avid readers.
Like anyone else, there are many things I like about these blogs and many that I do not. For example, I do not like Gryphen’s posts about all-things Bristol or (like you) theories about Track. I do not care for Laura’s posts where she put pictures of Trig and Sarah up for investigative discussions, and I was literally shocked when Brad Scharlott pretty much accused Sarah (or her people) for a death by arson simply based on some comment on IM. On your blog, I felt (long before this bickering started) that your interaction with commentators often come across as arrogant. Of course I do not know you personally, and you may be a completely down to earth person in real life, but that is how some of your comments sound like to a passive observer. This is especially true in the exchanges in the last couple of posts where your responses to the commentators have been really disparaging. I believe you could easily make your points without really alienating or insulting your commentators. As an outsider, I can see that both you and your commentators mean well, and that there is no ill-will or evil agenda here at work. Everyone (including you) simply need to take a deep breath and analyze their writings and comments from other person’s perspective, and I am sure all of you will have a better understanding of what happened. If you concur with me, I suggest that you put up another post to clear the air and hopefully things will be better by the time you close the comments for good.
Sorry for a long comment and I apologize in advance if I offended anyone.
I get your point, but the Vice President IS a ‘heartbeat away’ from the Presidency. Too close for me . . . especially given McCain’s health issues.
I don’t agree with anyone who thinks the Palins “deserved” to be stalked by the Christys. But I do know that the Palins lied to the court during the Kernell case to make it seem as though they were inconvenienced to an extraordinary degree, when what they were primarily victims of was Sarah’s own stupidity. I also find it credible that Sarah, Bristol and/or Willow may have egged on folks whose own mental grasp on reality may prove tenuous. The fact that the Palins continued to have ongoing communications with these people once trouble was already in the air is odd in itself.
I’m curious to see what comes out in court, but would prefer to see the case be adjudicated elsewhere than in Alaska. Why not the district where the Christys live?
Yea, but McCain is STILL alive and how many years are we into the presidency?
I see Joe deleted my post. Too much snark eh? Very well. One more book order cancelled. If you can’t stand the heat get out of the business.
Just remember Ms what’s her name has long knives and she will be ready for you.
People who suspect Sarah’s first-born may not be Todd’s = “ignorant trash-talkers”??
Hey, look, I was trained as a scientist… I LOVE evidence. I have seen possible timeline evidence, and possible photo evidence for Track’s origins. Just like I have seen possible evidence that Trig is not Sarah’s natural son. Science moves forward by entertaining hypotheses. When a hypothesis has nothing much more in its way, it becomes an established theory: a generally-accepted explanation for a given state of affairs (which is still always open to new evidence).
If one arbitrarily excludes this or that hypothesis or line of questioning out-of-the-gate as “ignorant”, then one will never get at the truth.
Heh, apart from more sinister scenarios, at the very least she would certainly have given him a heart attack with her shenanigans.
Amen. And it happened very quickly. Once certain well-known commenters arrived for their daily dose of self-publishing, we knew Joe’s patience would have to run out. And it has. Joe, one of the first books I spent my meager work-study money on in college was “The Making of the President”. When you decided to tackle the Palin “phenomenon” (for lack of a better word), I couldn’t have been more pleased. Maybe you’ll inspire some of the younger journalists — here’s to a revival of investigative journalism 🙂 .
Just to precise, I don’t intend to be speaking hyperbolically: recall how stressed McCain had been in his joint interviews with Mrs. Palin? Then recall how relieved he seemed during his concession speech? It was the best speech of his campaign, imo. And this was after -what?- just three months or so of Palinization?
He had the weight of the world lifted off his shoulders that night, and it showed. It showed!
Interesting! Very subtle perception, there.
We Shall See.
uhm, like he was totally clear that people extraneous to Sarah’s direct and immediate issues not be dragged into the affair? What’s Steve doing here?
I for one am glad that Joe started this blog and I look forward to the book. That said, with the advent of the internet everyone can voice their opinions. A problem arises when people who have a difficult time expressing themselves come across in a manner that is not their intent. I was always taught to write like I speak and I try my best to do so but absent body language, voice inflection and the fluidity of face to face contact the lack this skill can be a hinderence.
Most of us are heavily invested in making sure that Palin is exposed for what she is. The main issue for me is the parentage of Trig. There are just too many challenges to common sense to make her story believable and her behavior in this regard only adds to the speculation so yes, I welcome the photographic evidence and Brad’s paper and all the rest of it. Her followers have no substansive difference with any other cult (Jim Jones come to mind) and the rage that they express towards anyone who points out the obvious about her only reinforces my disdain for her and her abject lack of substance, intelligence and character. I think it would be career suicide for her to enter the race. That is, unless her narcissism and self delusion is so overwhelming and impulsive that her ability to make rational decisions is comprimised to the point of self destruction. She will never, ever hold national office.
The guy says, “Sometimes women take things too personally.”
The gal says, “No I don’t!”
And sometimes it’s guys that take things too personally.
I sure hope Joe keeps these comments going for the rest of the month – for those that find this sort of thing entertaining, it’s comedy gold.
UnReal, I think your statement has a lot of truths.
This is the same thing that happened between the commenters at Palingates , that is the reason Politicalgates came into being..also lost a lot of regulars from both sites. It was sad and didn’t need to happen but life goes on in the blogging world.
Sorry Joe, I know it was “selling”. Getting older apparently.
I agree. That is worthy of investigation.
There’s a lot of truth in what you said, but I doubt you’ll see any kind of apology post from Joe. He doesn’t seem like the type of person who would bother with that, and I’ve been reading his blog a long time.
lol…yes, I think we’ve “met” the author and it’s quite more than I bargained for. And I agree with you, I don’t generally read blogs without comments because I find they balance out the blogger, and create a sense of community. Not everyone is up to blogging, however.
Yep, “obviously a Palin fan.” Of course.
> Because she disagrees with you openly?
> Because she’s got a different perspective?
> Because she isn’t outraged at Joe for managing his own blog?
How so, exactly, sharon?
> Or because (s)he dares to comment without first garnering approval from your group? Do you guys have to have EVERY blog as your own private forum? Why? Because you and your cronies make contributions to blog owners, you feel you have administrative authority? Obviously, you must feel that you’ve bought their blogs. And hey, if the blog owner feels like going along with that, that’s their option; more power to ’em.
Yeppers, someone disagreed. Someone else gave as good as they got, with crystalwolfgirl’s legendary on-line verbal battering of complete strangers. TROLL ALERT TIME! BLUE PLANET! GREEN TOMATO! (what was that pre-arranged shunning signal that you use to condemn a poster, that results in a blitzkrieg of inane random comments posted as fast as you can, so that the target comment disappears into the black hole of blog commenting?)
Don’t read McGinniss’ blog. Don’t buy his book.
I first came to this blog because of an appreciation for ‘Going To Extremes’ and literary interest. I was so looking forward to this level of dialogue. I figured it would be interesting, dynamic and fast-paced. For some of us, McGinniss is along the same lines as Jon Krakauer. We read Outside Magazine and National Geographic. I was disappointed when it turned into a carbon copy of some other blog with all the same internet “handles”; yet another tiresome ‘community’ forum posting the same adolescent crap that wasn’t worthy the first time, “Sarah is so ugly, she should wash her hair” and the same crap that’s happening here now, to intentionally and purposefully run off any comment at all that didn’t fit into the group mindset.
A bunch of us went away, disappointed. We work, we recreate; who has time for that nonsense? I spend 70 hours a week getting along and exercising diplomacy with people who may not agree with my opinions. Everything has to have a rationale and be defensible. Face to face. I know who they are; their opinions are meaningful and they are accountable. Real live human interaction. It’s my job. This is my personal free time. I’m not gonna do it in my free time with random strangers with cutesy monikers who offer no explanation, just stingy dismissal simply because I’m not one of them. High school, ladies. Been there, done that.
I’m not afraid of either disagreement or challenge and I love a chance to explain myself; but I really dislike snide stupidity.
Some of us read his writing long before he’d ever heard of Sarah Palin. Disappointing and not representative of the writer I thought he was, but authors can do whatever they want to market and commercialize – I get it. I simply value my leisure time and the pursuit of engaging activities that interest me.
Now what a pleasant surprise, McGinniss! Trust me, whatever readers you lose because you appear to have a voice and an opinion, after all, you’ll gain back triple. Nobody liked Stephen King, either. It’s a very good thing for him there weren’t blogs.
Here’s another thought. Morbid and negative, I felt compelled to see if I could figure out this phenomenon amongst the Sarah Palin bloggery to identify “trolls”, personalize philosophical disagreement, insult and criticize, drive commentors away, etc etc. WHY do they do this, WHY would they do this dramatic exclusionary shit, when concern about Sarah Palin is the universal common thread? So I’ve been silently watching. Tracking what happens. Seeing WHEN it happens.
What I’ve observed leads me to genuinely believe that this is not just a natural dynamic of human personalities and blog behaviour, given the opportunity to anonymously let it all hang out. I’m convinced that it’s contrived – some kind of reverse psychology game. It’s Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing. Those who protesteth too much.
When there’s an analytic posit, a sound question, or a contrary observation, when it looks like a real discourse is about to progress, the blog patrol will implement a fairly immediate smear-the-queer campaign, always identifying the victim as “A TROLL!” regardless of content. After protests and other commentors’ attempts to defend with reasoned argument, it rapidly deteriorates into a personalized general insult free-for-all and the valid content that originally started it, gets dropped. At which point, reasoned persons slink away, stung. Game over.
For the strategically-placed blog commentors masquerading as “Sarah Haters” – mission accomplished.
Why do they do this? To derail. To stop the exchange of ideas and real analysis. To interfere with genuine discussion and consensus. To dumb down any real thoughts that might have legs. To create the appearance of an atmosphere of trash talk and innuendo that undermines credibility. To keep the blog world rooted in bullshit and gossip.
This was exactly the strategy employed during the Murkowski campaign. It worked.
It’s a means of Sarah Palin’s staff having control over the conversation. Obviously, they wouldn’t be writing comments as themselves, now, would they? Sarah’s flying monkeys from all over the country have taken over at least three/four of the most-often viewed, most effective blogs that were once grounded in reasoned discourse and concern.
It looks to me like you’ve chosen to take yours back, Joe. Good for you.
Yes it is. If that works for you – wonderful. Whatever it takes.
Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing Alert!
Life, thank you for your contribution. I’m not sure whether it helps addicts of any kind to assume that “someone else”—some supernatural entity— is in control. That in itself would drive me to drink to begin with.
Better that they come to grips with their own powers, or lack of having grasped them.
That’s funny. He lived next door. Did you?
EXACTLY! 🙂
At the end of the day most of us are just anonymous bloggers. Joe, on the other hand, is a well known author who was probably having a bad day. I would hate this dust up to take away from the importance of his book & for it to be included in his interviews about the book.
To those of you attacking him – it’s HIS fricking blog and he can do whatever he wants! Get over it. Move on.
There’s a whole host of us that will only too pleased to come flooding back when space gets freed up in the comment clutter and we can read some intelligent interesting stuff.
That would be a whole bunch of us who actually frequent bookstores everywhere, spend our layovers in airport bookstores, actually BUY real live volumes of printed ink BOOKS, take children to bookstores, attend authors lectures – you know, bookie stuff.
Gosh. Joe’s book is just about to come out. Hmmm. Is that why you are all here freaking out?
The flying monkeys were poised for drama and moved in for the kill shot…
Shoo…shoo…
I zoned out on this reply when it invoked “literary interest”.
Please, let’s not fool anybody: none of us is here out of “literary interest.” Otherwise we would be spending our time reading Henry James.
Good grief! Take a time out and try to calm yourself down. You’re all over the place.
Absolutely right.
It is deeply Christian and Higher Power DOES mean God. It’s based on the Christian theology and the premise that there is God. You don’t have to be born-again Christian for the program to work, but you have to believe in something greater than yourself that you can give control over to. If the word “God” isn’t comfortable, you’re welcome to substitute whatever word works for you. We are not in control of ourselves; only [fill in the blank] is in charge.
Founded by a Lutheran pastor and an Episcopalian priest, Frank Buchman and Sam Shoemaker.
If it works, it doesn’t matter what its spirituality is.
P.S. the above sounds sooo much like Rebecca Mansour with time on her hands… the mix of the faux erudite and the offended. I think anyone expecting a “Jon Krakauer” experience in approaching an assumedly hard-nosed book about a lying political grifter may have lost his/her way.
Notice the host of people who have come out of the woodwork just in the last several days, in the wake of Joe’s chastising, to trash the commenters here in general. On past threads they were in the minority or non-existent; now that Joe’s seen fit to draw a little bit of blood, the sharks have come out. :-/
Just the words “stubborn” and “gleeful” together are like nails on a chalkboard to me. Where is the “glee” in being stubborn, if it is not a destructive form of glee?
Stubborn Glee is not a normal human trait.
“Sarah won’t help Steve Menard, even if she cared.”
How do you know? Do you know the Palins and the Menards? Your statement sounds like you know this.
You know that Sarah doesn’t care about Steve Menard. And you know that she won’t help him.
Tell us more. Has it been discussed at Sarah’s house? Have she and her husband Todd been talking about Steve Menard? So, why _would_ she help him? The Menards are a pretty tight clannish group and a resource for each other. In our tight clannish family, we’d feel a bit invaded for an outsider to take something over that we considered family duty and loyalty. A bit proprietary and protective, you know.
Wouldn’t it be more reasonable for Charles Heath, Jr., to help him? They are peers and buddies. Or are they? Steve has never been mentioned in any of the Palin books, articles and media. What’s the relationship there?
Please do tell us the inside scoop!
Stubbornand. . .
You nailed it. I have seen the same dynamic at work in chatrooms. I’ve characterized it as “room mothers’ defending “their room” from anyone not in the “in crowd”. I have no idea what this says about anything, but it most certainly does exist in online forums of any sort. I have enjoyed reading Joe’s blog and I seriously hope he can regain control of the comments without closing them completely, but if that’s the solution, so be it. I read Andrew Sullivan and make my comments via e-mail. Perhaps that’s the only way to eliminate the problem.
To those who think Joe “used” them; Why the need to continue to come to his blog and spew your vitriol? It’s not healthy in a very literal sense and it isn’t going to convince anyone of your preceived victimization.
Buh-bye.
If we want to hear more, we know where to find you guys.
Wow, the Flying Monkey Brigade/Troll Squad isn’t going give it up easily, are they, Joe? Steady as she goes.
If you are referring to me, you are barking up the wrong tree…..
It’s just that sometimes a bit of truth can cause a sharp glare.
Mr. McGinniss,
You will have my lasting gratitude for having initiated, deliberately or unwittingly, the remarkable exchange that’s been unfolding here the past couple of days. To my mind, by announcing eventual suspension of comments on your blog, you’ve succeeded in tossing down a gauntlet to anti-Palinites. You’ve hit them where they live, I hope forcing inhabitants of an insular, self-sustaining little world finally to confront some glaring truths about themselves. This conversation has been needed for a long time, and I thank you.
I’ve come to know every nook and cranny of the anti-Palin “community,” as denizens call themselves. Since the creation of their particular realm of the blogosphere three years ago, I’ve been a regular visitor at the array of now-defunct and surviving anti-Palin blogs. You name ’em: any of ’em, all of ’em. The Community has its own mores and traditions, as well as its sacred texts, patron saints, exiled heroes, and ever-shifting hierarchy of leaders and followers. A distinctive characteristic is a keen awareness of potential enemies against whom members of the Community must be constantly on the alert.
The principal enemy, of course, is Sarah Palin, whose grifting, nefarious actions are minutely recorded, cataloged, and archived as ammunition in the mission to bring her down. Yet there’s another kind of enemy, less clearly defined and thus more threatening, which eclipses Palin herself in posing challenges to the Community. This enemy consists of Commenters from Outside, who can be grouped into roughly three categories: Interloper (a reader previously unknown to the army of regular commenters and therefore suspect until loyalty is proven), Troll (a reader who posts a comment that contradicts or subverts the Community mission, instantly earning the “pro-Palin” label), and Lurker (a reader who hangs around and rarely comments but who could morph at any moment into an Interloper or Troll). Mr. McGinniss, you’ve managed to roll these three categories–Interloper, Troll, and Lurker–into one big, overarching threat. An exceptional feat.
You’re witnessing the panoply of weapons the Community usually deploys to counter an enemy incursion: protests about gross betrayal of trust, whines about affronts to personal integrity, and, the ultimate ploy, outraged stalk-off (this happens a lot). The most interesting thing, though, is that the Community apparently doesn’t realize they’ve compromised their mission themselves. For them it’s no longer about Sarah Palin, per se; it’s about the territory they’ve staked out, to the extent that posts by owners of blogs once heralded as leaders in the fight to wipe out Sarah Palin as a scourge upon our nation, are now almost entirely beside the point. Instead the raison d’etre of a reconfigured Community has become a “grand conservation” among commenters, a select few of whom increasingly have held forth over time–installing themselves as gate-keepers, hijacking posts, summoning cohorts to “chat-room” sessions, running other commenters off the blogs–as self-empowered authorities on subjects that are, ahem, beyond their level of expertise.
As you see, the Community can be quite aggressive. So, any blogger worth his/her salt would do exactly what you’ve done: head them off at the pass by closing the comments section.
Thanks for that. I agree.
I don’t think they’re so invested in the “take-down” that they’ve lost perspective.
I think they’re all Flying Monkey Brigade. The Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing among us. Painting the blogs and commentors with the broad sweeping brushes of ridiculous “Sarah Haters” lacking any credibility. People with too much time on their hands.
Clarifying – I’m agree with womaninsardinecan. Thanks.
One of my Alaska sisters asked me on the phone today if I had seen the blog war. I laughed so hard while multi-tasking (phone, step stool, etc.) that I actually fell off my step stool backwards and almost bashed my head on a table. Silly me. Too many reality-challenged anti-Palin zealots leave me giggling and eyerolling. Get a grip. Like Joe would care if you email his publisher and badmouth him. lol. I’m certainly not cancelling MY book order. Joe is a quality author who thoroughly researches his subject. I’ll take that any day over the silliness I’ve seen here and elsewhere the last few days (and in many many comments on other blogs). If you dingbats are so invested in your own truth, why don’t you start your own blogs? It’s free. Really. Start your own blogs, write your own books. More power to ya. I shouldn’t be stoking the fires, but I’m feeling a bit bratty, so there. Joe, I wish I weren’t so poor that I had to bundle my book order with a book that comes out around the 1st of October in order to get supersaver shipping, but so be it. Your quality research and excellent writing skills will engage me regardless. Have a great tour!
Sha-blaam! There it is.
“I know you’re a Palin fan and your intention is to create hostility.”
WTF? There is nothing in that exchange to suggest any such thing. How do you know? You don’t! You’re just posting that as a comment either because someone disagreed and isn’t a member of your social club.
Or you are intentionally and deliberately attempting to stir crap and derail discourse on an author’s blog who has a potentially unflattering book coming out in a few short weeks.
So which is it?
During my time up there over 20 years ago, alcoholism was a tremendous problem in Alaska. Sad to see it still is,but with the added misery that drugs bring to the mix.
Yup. What he said…
Exactly. If it works who cares what the higher power is FOR YOU.
If it’s God, great. If it’s Allah, great. If it’s for your children, great. If it’s a snickers bar in the fridge, great. The point with AA is you are not going through recovery alone; you are “leaning” on the shoulder of “another” – whoever or whatever that higher power may be. And if it’s “God”, whatever God you may or may not worship, fine.
Everybody calm down. It’s like a war in the comment section today and I prefer peace. I have a deal for everyone. No more comments to this particular post.
“United we stand, divided we fall. Let us not split into factions which must destroy that union upon which our existence hangs.” Patrick Henry, March, 1799.
Let us remember the goal of most of us (other than the trolls who are showing up to cause further discord) is to dislodge Sarah from her perch on the national stage and to ensure she never gets even remotely close to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Keep your eyes on the prize commenters; that is all that matters.
It was not unwitting.
–Joe
At this moment there are 178 comments. 27 of them are from 2 people. . . just sayin.
Wow, interesting commentary today to say the least.
I hope Steve Menard gets help, and that he finds what he needs inside himself to make a better life not only for himself but those whose lives he touches and influences. I have personal experience with the family dynamics of alcholism, and the additional emotional baggage one is handed when one is a member of that enviornment. Children especially are collateral damage. It can be debilitating, but we all have are rows to hoe, so you do the work that is necessary to mend, including being able to forgive. For those that overcome their addiction, I greatly respect the personal strength that is required to do so. If Sarah can genuinely help him, I hope she will, and I hope that she will treat it privately and respectfully.
Today’s commentary sadly just reinforces in me how difficult it seems to be for people to listen as well as talk, and to attempt to share intead of control. Forget about understanding and acceptance, empathy and compassion.
I am marking my calendar…I feel like a kid waiting for Santa Claus. September 20th will be a quieter day in America as so many have their noses buried in your book.
Well done sir.
It took me over a year of lurking on the anti-Palin blogs to figure out what you have shown as the true nature of the various commenters in 3 days.
For those of you who’ve not taken the time to visit womaninasardinecan’s remarkable blog, I recommend pouring a glass of your favorite refreshment and dropping on in. Chill pill time. And her blog is the one I nominate for a book contract after this whole sad Sarah saga is hopefully put in perspective ( I think that’s what Joe will attempt to do — situate her in today’s political and journalistic landscape). The Perils of Palin is a true treasure trove — one of a kind indeed.
Take a bow Ms. Sardinecan. Actually several.
http://theperilsofpalins.wordpress.com/
well, I’ve been one of those accused as a “troll” on about 3 or 4 occasions (at least once by crystalwolfakacaligirl) simply because I disagreed or questioned the prevailing and popular sentiment/opinion at an “anti-Palin” blog. I didn’t realize it till just now, reading all of this, but I haven’t been reading or commenting very much lately on those blogs, and I think the troll accusations are why. I’ve been pretty happy to read both Laura Novak’s and Joe’s blogs. I still skim the others, but much prefer these two now. I am glad to see that Joe has no problem calling people out. There’s no reason to get angry that Joe chooses to avoid topics with little to no evidence and/or (in his opinion) relevance such as Track’s parentage. It’s his choice. I don’t think he was insulting, I think he was quite blunt. It seems to be his style. I guess it could be considered or taken as rudeness. I don’t think it’s a good reason to throw a fit and try to boycott his book. But whatever. I think his book will do just fine anyway.
I know you think you’re being very clever but I see right thru you. You’re a very hostile person and you’re not here for Joe’s blog or his book. You’ve taken a few shots at me which doesn’t bother me a bit but I know exactly what you’re doing. So, no matter what you respond or what you say or how convincing you think you are…..just know this. We’re not stupid here. You are so pathetically transparent. Really?? Trying a little reverse psychology? RAM? lol……
As with the Princess Di crash, which sent the media on the most insane feeding frenzy. From the moment of the crash, the pornography of sentiment never let up.
~Barbara Kruger
Give me a break…
@stubbornandgleefulanonymous, “bookie” stuff; is that like “political junkie” stuff?
Please, Millie,
Joe must not be questioned…
Lets see thats 21 (or have I missed a couple?) comments from you today. YOU are the room mother I was talking about. You don’t own this blog. Why don’t you get a l;ife huh?
Thank you and I agree. Personally i think the Disqus system played something of a role in all of this contamination, with 20-times-a-day commenters for the “community” unable to control their need to earn “likes” and “favorite of the week” commendations. At that point wit turned to snark with all of its easy “you go gal” stuff. The territorial and snarky people had a great time and they are sniffing about these threads as I write. And yes, the troll charge has been tossed off far too quickly. I dismantled my Disqus account at least three times in order to wipe out my lengthy commenting history ( I think Disqus assumes far too much about my privacy desires). I thus have “earned” the concern troll charge even though my commenting history goes back to Palin’s Deceptions.
Unfortunately, these folks dragged those habits over here. And here we sit. Charges flying left and right. Yech. So really, as I suggested upthread — go read “The Perils of Palins” –it will end the day with a smile.
http://theperilsofpalins.wordpress.com/
And Joe — maybe there’s at least a long essay about your experiences with blogworld.
Good to know. Cheers!
“MANY of you”??? I count one or two.
Face it, everyone here will buy Joe’s book OR get it from the library OR acquire it by loan somehow.
Some of what’s been exhibited is bluffing. But why do you care what the C4P people do, gypsyrose? I certainly don’t. Let them give their last rice ration to SarahPAC.
I’m reminded of how the far-left has become so arrogant and so sure that Obama is either a naive doofus that is trying to “be friends” with the evil Republicans or that he is some kind “wolf in sheep clothing” and is really the enemy now! Just as they have completely underestimated and misunderstood him, the extreme “anti-Palin” commenters have similarly underestimated and misunderstood you. You are a smart guy. I knew that. I knew Obama was a smart guy too. But you are both a lot smarter than I realized. Cannot WAIT for your book!
Excellent. Thank you for this, beandubh! I read a lot, but only post on a couple of blogs, since leaving HuffPo last year, so it was really enlightening to learn about the politics of it all. The possible pregnancy hoax is what intrigues me about Sarah. I mean, who fakes a pregnancy? The first I’d heard of it was when Andrew Sullivan was on Joy Behar. As a mother of two who had a three-hour labor with my second, I was stunned and amazed by the “wild ride” Sarah took from Texas to Alaska. I only care about Sarah at all, because her incendiary rhetoric and outright lies can be, and are (Death Panels, Crosshairs), harmful.
I love the saying, “There is no religion higher than Truth.” I’m looking forward to the highest Truth in THE ROGUE. From what Joe has written this week, I’m confident he wouldn’t settle for less.
@ woman with…….And you have a great time at “Burning Man”. 🙂 Are you taking sardines? Maybe too hot, huh?
Sha-blaam! There it is. Again!
Lidia17: “the above sounds sooo much like Rebecca Mansour with time on her hands… the mix of the faux erudite and the offended. I think anyone expecting a “Jon Krakauer” experience in approaching an assumedly hard-nosed book about a lying political grifter may have lost his/her way.”
Hmm. The ‘you must be a Palin staffer/family member’ meme – check. Personal insult about intelligence – check. No “Palinbot” accusation and no use of the word “troll,” though.
“Notice the host of people who have come out of the woodwork…” Yep, that’s one. Interpretation – “…beat it, this is OUR blog, we staked it months ago…”
“…to trash the commenters here in general.” Ooop, wait, there’s the now-unspoken “Palinbot” accusation. Nicely done. Very courteous; appreciate that.
“On past threads they were in the minority or non-existent” Meaning – “…you’re not one of us and you have no right to speak…we thought we got rid of you a long time ago…what does it take to get it, idiot…”
“…the sharks have come out…” Bingo. Shark = “troll”.
Yep, the four-point attack of the flying monkeys. So sorry to inform you, Joe, diagnostics conclude that your blog is infected with the SarahPalin 2.0.2012 virus. It’s an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ version – up is down and down is up; nothing is as it appears. The only remedy is to f-disc, reload and reboot to get rid of it.
But don’t feel bad. You’re not the first or the only blog that this has happened to. See, the way it works is that we all think we’ve got a common ground and mission. Except that some of us are double-crossers playin’ for the other team. Like Cypher in “The Matrix.”
They stir up crap and disrupt dialogue. They flood blogs with ridiculous gossip unproven and unsubstantiated innuendo with a trashy Desperate Housewives spin, to render it all suspect and reduced to nothing more than tabloidish provocative speculation. Real issues and real information gets lost. Intentionally. THEY control the blogs.
Not coincidental at all that your book is coming out. Don’t forget, as one of them said: your blog is here for their “entertainment and edification.” Ouch.
“Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise then what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.” – Lewis Carroll
I’m only a “room mother” if you perceive me so.
I don’t care about censoring who comments or why, here or anywhere else; I am in favor of an open dialogue.
That notwithstanding, it’s clear that many pro-Palin commenters doing the concern-troll thing have come out of the woodwork now that they have smelled blood, the blood let by Joe’s aggression towards his own readers. The same thing happened during the Palingates/Politicalgates separation: Palinbots tried to play up and exacerbate any and all manner of differences between the anti-Palin bloggers. They (you) are very transparent.
As to why I have been commenting frequently, I feel I have something to defend: which is the quest for the ultimate truth (not necessarily the most convenient or the most easily-proven truth) about the Palins.
They don’t start their own blogs because blogging isn’t their mission. Their mission is two-part:
1. Disrupt Sarah Palin opponents and any reasoned discourse. Scatter and disperse.
2. Undermine credibility with the appearance of rampant unmitigated personal-attack gossip.
I say we move on, but of course someone will probably be all over me for that too. This is getting silly & mean.
Thanks, Rebecca, your lengthy, thin-skinned, and elaborate reaction serves only to confirm my suspicions.
“Don’t forget, as one of them said: your blog is here for their “entertainment and edification.” Ouch.”
Yes, it damn well is. If Joe ceases to entertain and edify he goes hungry. He knows that… Is that NOT the wingnut way, or something?
Now I’m a troll. Your paranoia drips from your every comment. Anyone who DARES to questiopn you is a Palin-bot. I am hereby declaring you the first (of many) anti-Palin bots.
I tend to look at all the different blogs as a smorgasbord: each serves up its specialty. When you’re “in line sampling”, you KNOW what you’re getting. Sometimes, something different or unique gets presented for consumption; you can choose to partake – or not. And sometimes, you’ve chosen to consume something that doesn’t settle properly. You can choose to return, letting it pass but promising yourself to be watchful of what’s served in the future. Or, you can tell the proprietor about your experience, and your level of discomfort felt after partaking. Some have very colorful ways to describe their upset; a few had fairly allergic reactions that gave them great discomfort.
I think everyone needs to take a deep freaking breath, and remember (yeah, for those who know me, I’m gonna say IT again): When Palin bloggers begin turning on each other, the only one that wins is Sarah. Pull it together people. She’s a threat to this COUNTRY. Isn’t that why you sought more information about her in the first place?
I also happen to believe Sarah didn’t give birth to Trig; that she poorly, very poorly faked her pregnancy with him, and that the Palins have a whole lot more to hide than has been discussed on ANY BLOG. The time line for $arah’s (and yes, I use the dollar sign for her name – its my idiosyncrasy!) pregnancy with Track DOES look shady, to be generous, and he does look a lot like Curtis Menard, and lots of other things, but – bottom line, it IS JOE’S BLOG. And I KNOW he doesn’t wanna “go there”, the same way Jeanne Devon & Shannyn Moore didn’t wanna go there. And yet I see many people here from those blogs…
Back to my rant: Joe has decided to tweak the menu a bit; if you don’t care for the new menu, dine elsewhere. I can say that I’m not entirely happy with the tweaks, but it IS his joint – and he has so many other fine items to sample…
Now, you can choose to imbibe elsewhere, but – there are certain food groups that are ONLY available here. You can partake, or you can leave, but do NOT hold-up the line waiting for your off-menu entree to be brought in – it ain’t gonna happen.
One more time: when bloggers begin infighting, Palin wins. There are a lot of talented people loosing sight of the finish line beyond the dining hall. Regroup and refocus. And get on with it. We need to stop Palin from ever holding public office or participating in the political area ever again.
sorry, this ended up in the wrong place.
lol…very funny Lidia! I second that. Something very familiar in how stubbornandglee writes. Sounds so much like ram to me. If so, ram – I sincerely hope you get a copy of Joe’s bestseller when you have another one of those layovers between flights. You’ll have the truth and nothing but the truth…..Joe is not an anti palin crazy person. So there you go. Intelligently written with an objective first hand experience with the mightly sarah palin. Enjoy!
@ Lidia17–Oh for heaven’s sake. Take your meds.
Also too, I find it interesting that you and Crystal. . . run in tandem. Coincidence?
LOL! You must be a troll to even suggest that!!
Thanks, Rebecca, your lengthy, thin-skinned, and elaborate reaction serves only to confirm my suspicions.
“Don’t forget, as one of them said: your blog is here for their “entertainment and edification.” Ouch.”
Yes, it damn well is. If Joe ceases to entertain and edify he goes hungry. He knows that… Is that NOT the wingnut way, or something?
Thanks, by the way, “stubbornandgleeful” for telling us that you are a double-crosser, playing for the “other team”, as if we didn’t know that…
Thank you, GB, I am honored to be nominated as anti-Palin, but would refrain from claiming to be first among that group.
Stubbornand. . .
I think I just coined a new term up-thread for these “room mothers”–Anti-Palin Bots. I don’t think they’re palinistas but people consumed with their hatred of SP. I may be wrong, but whatever the motivation you’re correct in your analysis. And if I am right in thinking they are truly Palin haters, they play the same role as you suggest, casting doubt by the general public on all of the theories of the various Palin “gates”.
(In any case keep your head down the attacks will start in minutes.)
Oh I was late to the firing squad i see.
…and WE are all cancelling our Amazon book orders! So there. Nya-nya.
…sigh…
You win.
Joe, books are books and internet is something different. A whole bunch of us that won’t play with these guys, will be buying your book. Not because of anything you think, not because of personal philosophies. But because your stuff is good writing. You’re good at what you do. That’s why.
I’ll be buying The Rogue at Metro Music in Anchorage, one of the last if not the only, remaining locally-owned bookstores. If they don’t stock a book, they’ll get it.
We’ll look forward to an author’s evening there this winter, maybe?
Lidia, I have no beef with you or any other anti-Palin commenter. But to claim that anyone who has doubts about one of the theories is RAM or a troll isn’t helping to get the REAL story out. This catfighting is accomplishing nothing of value. NOTHING. I happen to believe the Track theory is likely true based on the weight of the circumstantial evidence. Others may disagree. I am not going to call them names or question their loyalty to our cause. I am going to try and find more evidence to change their minds. Anyway, I am done with this little dispute we’ve had here tonight.
And Joe I appologize for making more comments on this one thread than I have ever made on the rest of your blog.
I hope so. Can’t wait to get back to Alaska.
Unfortunately–or, fortunately–it looks like I’ll be doing so much in Lower 48 this fall that my publisher
won’t interrupt the schedule by sending me to Anchorage.
If there’s an Alaskan entity that could pay expenses, plus pay me for my time and energy, I’d love to come back.
Please keep supporting local bookstores.
–Joe
Oh, also too. Get your books at your local independent bookstore. I know I am. Gotta keep the bookstore owners in business. Orders all around. (They take orders too, you know). I’m just looking for good writing, which Joe has done over a very long career. As in, can one stop turning the page? Uh, no.
Joe, do your plans take you to Illinois? I live downstate (Peoria area) but I’d make the trip to Chicago to get a signed copy of The Rogue.
Oh no, GB, now you’ve done it!
Quick…grab my hand!
GB:
Looks like I’ll be in Chicago during the second week of October.
I’m sorry that I can’t yet share details, but I’d be happy to meet you and sign your books.
Please watch this blog for further details next month.
–Joe
Amen.
Joe, I will be there. And if you need a guide to my hometown, the greatest city on earth, I would be honored to show you around.
Joe, that is FANTASTIC!! Hope to see you when you’re in Chicago!
I’ll mention that to the owners.
…IINNNN-COOOMMMIIINNNGG!!!!
Whew…that’s gonna raise some welts. Are my eyebrows still there?
You may be right, but I just can’t make it make sense.
Speaking generally, why would want your strength divided? Why create adversarial relationships with like-minded individuals and efforts with common purpose and goals?
Specific to Sarah Palin and disclosure, which is all we need or want, why scatter the standard-bearers and the information? Why water down the goods? What kind of truth-seeking strategy is that?
You wouldn’t.
I took a few minutes to think about this. It would be a pretty devious scheme to pose as the most virulent of Palin haters while working to disrupt the anti-Palin investigations wouldn’t it? Now that I’ve consider that possibility I have to admit you may very well be right. Nothing would/should surprise us when it comes to Sarah and her followers.
I really did lurk on the anti-Palin blogs for a long time while trying to figure out where the regular commenters were coming from. I saw the obvious trolls, and learned to recognize many of the anonymous posters (most of who also use handles btw) from their writing styles. But, I never considered that some of those I thought were the true haters might be posers. Now I’m going to have to reevaluate some of my conclusions.
Also, too, your eyebroews look fine. -:)
Then, why, for the love of all that is holy……ARE YOU STILL READING HERE!?????!
A couple of good reads. Since this IS a literary blog, after all.
Under The Banner of Heaven, Krakauer. A hard-nosed book about a lying religious grifter. And murder.
Where Men Win Glory, Krakauer. A hard-nosed book about lying political and military grifters. And the cover-up of a soldier’s friendly-fire death.
The Idiot, Dostoevsky. The saintly Prince Myshkin is thrust into the heart of a society more concerned with wealth, power and sexual conquest than with the ideals of Christianity. Myshkin becomes entangled in a violent love triangle in which a notorious woman and a beautiful girl are rivals for his affections. Extortion, scandal and murder test morality.
Your welcome.
It’s absolutely ridiculous and why I rarely post anymore on the ” anti-Palin” blogs anymore.
I once wrote something under anonymous and was called a troll, a traitor and then some.
The frustration of Americans everywhere is being played out onInternet blogs everywhere.
It’s very very sad. Just fo look at the HP article about social security disability where all the disabled are
considered thiefs and liars. Our society/culture are in very bad shape and the Internet is not always a positive place.
Joe, you probably never realized what a can of worms this was. It’s everywhere on the Internet no matter what the topic.
I keep hoping for a sane discussion but it’s not there. Good luck with all that’s coming in the next few months.
This is just a distraction. Come on everyone, can you all move on?
Well said. Thank you.
My head is spinning slightly. I think for reasons unknown to me Mr.McG. is tossing a few dead cats into the ring; his blog, his perogative. It doesn’t follow that I’m obliged to rise to the bait. 🙂
Love, aka Palin fairy troll, keep telling yourself that and keep sending your tiny much needed dollars to sarah who is sooo poor.
Levi’s media blitz? Let’s talk about Sarah and Bristol’s media blitz and Bristol using Tripp every opportunity to make money.
Oh, and let’s not forget Joe’s media blitz to pimp his book while crapping on those in this blog who supported him.
Yep, that’s the rill ‘murikan way these days.
Wow. Just wow. After tonight, I’m taking a break from comments too. As interesting as many are, this was a beating. Especially on the heels of the drama on IM’s blog. Here, Joe gets bloodied for his opinions, on IM, anyone who politely disagrees with Gryphen is given the beat-down. I can’t believe I missed watching the first episode of Rosemary & Thyme just to read this.
Looking forward to your book, Joe. Hope you do keep up the blog, even without the comments. I enjoy what you choose to write about and I’m shocked anyone has the gall to tell you that your post isn’t relevant enough.
Comments section is like an all out war. Good grief, Charlie Brown!
Mercury is in retrograde; look it up. I’ve seen this type of thing before.
Darling, you are so transparent in your raw need to exchange and interact.
Sarah is not very fulfilling as an interlocutor, I understand.
How about these?:
The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture; by Darrel W. Ray, Ed.D
The Omnivore’s Dilemma; by Michael Pollan
The Entropy Law and the Economic Process; by Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen
Oh my heavens, this is the same group that freaked when Regina came back to her blog. It was orchestrated drama then, it’s even more so now. Yep, sure – I’m a troll. Everyone’s a troll who doesn’t pay dues to the little click. I am sorry to share the left side of the political spectrum with those who act as though the world will end if they don’t get their way. I’m sure the foot stomping and hall monitoring will go on til the blog comments end, so I wish Joe the very best with his book and future endeavors as I have no interest in wading through any more of this junk.
Yeah, they’ll grow back : )
Cognitive dissonance. When what we know empirically doesn’t match what we believe academically and emotionally. Inconsistency between what we know and what we’ve been told. That funny feeling of wrongness, gut intuition that something’s out of place. Humans do everything they can, stretch to all limits to make it line up with rationalization and justification. Struggle to make it make sense. Avoiding the obvious, eliminating the solution of sticking a round peg in a round hole and matching up the square ones. Remaining committed to the task of making that round hole take the square peg.
Occam’s Razor. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. The most obvious, most rational answer is probably correct. Even when it’s not the tidiest or fits with our expectation.
When systems get complicated and multi-layered, when clarity is lost and transparency obscured; when in doubt – go home to Momma. Start from the beginning, go back to the most basic, and work it one more time.
I’m open to explanation. What I cannot accept is that it’s mere chance that random internet strangers gravitated to a single blog, took it over as their exclusive domain, practice deliberate and targeted callous rudeness and exclusionary to other random internet strangers, move between specifically Sarah Palin opposition blogs and follow the same pattern with the “locals” until regular readers stop engaging. I also don’t believe that it’s a matter of communication style.
I’ve been reading Regina since the day of her very first post. This wasn’t how it was. I regularly followed Palin Deceptions and Bree Palin. Interesting reads, good credible information, thoughtful analysis by both host and readers. Plenty of civil disagreement based on content, not personality. Some heated commentary. Never this.
It actually sounds like you agree with me, that Sarah wouldn’t help even if she cared. Of course, in order to offer help, one has to care about something: if not the person being helped, then possibly one’s own image or self-respect, or out of fairness, or bargaining with the gods- but without caring, there is not going to be help offered.
The woman who waited to the last day of the year to make a small donation to a foundation for special needs kids, when she is a millionaire and claims a special needs child of her own, is not going to care about the brother of a former boyfriend. The woman who ignored pleas for help from Alaskan villages until she was able to hitch along with Franklin Graham, and then didn’t even go to a village that had asked for help, and then walked away from the man who had begged for help and done everything possible to let the world know that Alaskan villages were in dire straits and having to choose between heat and food- that is not a woman who is going to care whether an old boyfriend’s brother needs help. The woman who heard about nineteen people being shot, six of them fatally, and one a child, and then whined on television about being a victim, that is not a woman who cares about the brother of an old boyfriend.
I’m surprised you have to be reminded of these events. Sarah has made herself notorious.
And on April 6, you yourself posted:
“Todd’s Love Child?
April 6, 2011
National Enquirer out with a story about Todd’s “love child.” http://bit.ly/e1j9km
I heard the story from a number of people last summer. Basic version is that it’s a boy now in his late teens and that the mother is an old flame of Todd’s from his hometown of Dillingham. I haven’t yet been able to confirm this, but I won’t be delivering my final chapter until June.”
Speculation or belief that Sarah’s oldest child was not fathered by her husband- scurrilous .
Speculation that Todd has a child not from an old flame- acceptable.
Got it.
Having a well-known author write a book on a subject is pretty much guaranteed to raise people’s overall awareness level, and where SP is concerned, the more people who know about her, the better.
That, of course, is a separate issue from reading something in a book that we didn’t already know about. I’m sure there are details we don’t know, but I doubt if many of us would be actually surprised at anything in Mr. McGinniss’ upcoming book. It’s not like we’ve not been reading about her for three years.
Amen!
P.S. Not that devious. Standard operating strategies for campaigns last fall, on blogs and news comment sections. Fairly effective, too.
A strategy employed throughout the centuries. Think Julius Caesar, Cardinal-Duc de Richelieu, Machiavelli’s “criminal virtue”, colonists dressing up as Indians in the Boston Tea Party, Benedict Arnold.
It works.
I’ll check them out when I have a chance. Haven’t read any of ’em.
And now you’ll have a chance to educate yourself and read something by Krakauer.
My, oh my! I think EVERYONE needs to take a chill pill and quickly. 😉
Melly – what ambiguous-ness (sp) are you talking about? I haven’t seen that. In fact, just the opposite. Go back to the beginning of Mr. McGinnis’s blog and read forward. My personal question to you : did you ever read “Fatal Vision”? There will be no “fodder for palin to turn to her advantage”. She won’t be encountering “Joe McGinnis the blogger”. She will be encountering Joe McGinnis, American author renowned. Of the non-fiction genre. I don’t read National Geographic nor “Outside magazine” and I’m not anybody’s “groupie”. I have read that book. sarah palin should be chewing her nails into the skin and pulling her hair out. If she already isn’t. (she might be stupider than imagined (known) and not be chewing and pulling…)
nancydrewed….thanks for the invite, but not interested. I wouldn’t have any interest in going to the website of a person who has such a white-knuckled grip on her blog. She’s also posting further down that we should all get our own blogs, anyway, so she doesn’t need me to read hers. Really, are we in the 3rd grade?
Oh my! I hate that I had to work so much over the weekend. I haven’t managed to read a third of all of the comments, but it appears that I missed a real blood-letting. I’ve been part of the collateral damage before in these things by trying to be a voice of reason among “teammates” with differing ideas, and I’ve found it to be similar to the Cop’s experience in trying to break up a domestic fight and getting the worse end of the deal.
I hope the persons with new monikers that are here are just trying to add a little levity to calm some frayed nerves, as opposed to reveling in stirring up sh*t.
I’ve been around long enough to see several varieties (of the type of obstructionist commenter that Lydia referred to ) of the Palinbot trolls infiltrate, hijack or or try to blow up a board in order to create chaos— anything to hinder orderly discussion and analysis of a topic. Yes, after awhile, one does recognize the same pattern of writing, spelling and grammatical mistakes, and vocabulary limitations of some of the “star” trolls. Then again, when their “messiah” is such a weak writer herself, what can one expect?
Joe, I’m looking forward to The Rogue. Good luck with the promotion of the book, and I hope to see you at one of your stops along the way.
Ginny11 says, addressing Joe McGinniss : “I’m reminded of how the far-left has become so arrogant and so sure that Obama is either a naive doofus that is trying to ‘be friends’ with the evil Republicans or that he is some kind of ‘wolf in sheep clothing’ and is really the enemy now! Just as they have completely underestimated and misunderstood him, the extreme “anti-Palin” commenters have similarly underestimated and misunderstood you.”
As someone who has been hotly denounced as a “firebagger” in the Palinocentric blogosphere, including these pages in particular, I’d like to respond. I have been condemned for pointing out that Obama, like Bush before him, is a central cog in the profit-making, mass-murdering war machine. It is also clear, to those who look at his behavior regarding health insurance, economic and financial policy, and Social Security, that Obama is implementing the “shock doctrine” so clearly described by Naomi Klein. In my view, it is the anti-firebaggers who have completely misunderstood, and underestimated, Obama and those whose interests he serves.
As to who “is really the enemy now!”, let me remind you of the age-old question embodying the subtle wisdom of Eastern philosopy: Compared to what?
Ahh, Katie, thanks for your comment, as you “said it all” for me!
See you on twitter!
Jeanabella
Here are a couple of books I want to read:
Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella H. Meadows
The Wealth of Nature: Economics as if Survival Mattered by John Michael Greer
Too much fuss being made re Mr. McG and the blog’s follower’s. Too much labeling of each other – Unless someone knows the other person up front and personal, the accusations are not factual nor, to me, believable. EVERYONE is more than just a paragraph of words. EVERYONE has opinions. One dimensional human’s are not the norm.
I hate the terms “left”, “right”, “anti” “bots”, “trolls”, etc, etc. People are more than LABELS. I don’t let anyone or anything change my thinking unless that thinking is off track or not factual – as far as facts may be there to prove or disprove. Many things that require evidence may or may not be revealed at points in time or not at all. That doesn’t mean we can or cannot deduce Truth’s. It certainly DOES mean that if we have beliefs, are aware of our world around us and even have compassion and empathy for that, we WILL have opinions. Opinions will be there even if we don’t care about anything around us.
If I despise palin, I refuse any label of “anti” or anything else someone dreams up. I have my reasons and as long as I am a societal member of this nation who has someone hoisted upon me who is so far from being kind, impartial, intelligent with objectivity, and race tolerant/religion tolerant – just for starters – I WILL protest verbally and in writing if these are my only options to refuse the unacceptable. I try to be fair and respectful. I don’t host a blog so if comments are allowed, I try to be aware of what the owner requires and follow that. I don’t like labels and name calling. I want to be more precise and describe in words that fit. I’ve tried to do that with sarah palin. Being an Alaskan and an Alaskan Native, she hasn’t given me any words that I could use to describe her nicely. She did that herself.
I have gotten the most angry with those people who are her kool-aid followers and those who refuse to see what we know of her personally in Alaska. I have my own opinions and observations about Menard issues, Trig issues and all her amoral, unethical and lying ways – and no one will be able to change my opinions and thinking on that. When ALL the truth’s are revealed about her, either proving or disproving what I have known or observed, then I will rejoice or adjust my opinions/beliefs/thinking.
I read through every single comment on this blog. I think I saw only one that came close to stating what is the obvious to me: anything to do with sarah palin is divisive. Corrosive. Chaotic. Negative. Demeaning and Dehumanizing. Everything to do with her is toxic and infective – as in contaminated. Everything becomes overly dramatic. We could just say its the nature of the beast. I don’t have any advice. I just think we need to be aware of how easy it is to get sucked into angry emotions that upset an equilibrium of fair exchange of opinions. Yeah, there is always those who disrupt. These personalities (you know who you are) are deficient in getting the attention they want (need). That’s not earth shattering information enough to support the dramatics of certain poster’s and those who would mock. Those who mock are particularly despicable to me. But no worries. You also will get your own comeuppance.
I disagree that you, Mr. McG, should close the comments section. Underneath it all, I believe comments from poster’s are rich in information, entertainment and sharing – as in “meeting and greeting” . I have this file I keep for “blogs”. I put the most intelligent, observant, and sane and real ones I come across – from all over the world. I subscribe to only one and it is one that few few few people in this country could stand. It is from one of the most brilliant (my opinion) writer’s I have come across in many years. It wouldn’t have mattered whether male or female, but it is from a woman whose country that george w. bush & co. completely destroyed. She told her feelings about this fact and what she thought of the American people. Her blog was open to comments. The comments were so hideous, racist, violent and abusive that she finally shut down the comments section. The comment section most resoundingly proved her observations of what she saw of American people. Like any cross section polling would do. While it is true her blog still retains all of her brilliant writing, prose, eclectic musical choices, personal observations and deep feelings, the part that was lost was that interaction of sharing THAT COULD HAVE BEEN SUCH A LEARNING EXPERIENCE OF IMMENSE IMPORTANCE – for both sides – but the majority of commenter’s couldn’t handle her truth’s, facts, feelings, observations. When tolerance for the other is unthinkingly ended, hostility comes in. It seems to be the operative but negative force.
I was not offended by any of your poster’s. They each had/have their own perspectives coming from their own experiences. I could never call anyone a fake. How would I know that? If I could discern (and its pretty easy to discern those) someone who was a palin lover, and I could dispute what they were saying, I certainly would and did. I had descriptions of them and said it. They could protest that. I don’t think they ever did though. I didn’t use the term “bot”, but I used the term “robot”. I don’t like to follow the crowd in word descriptions or categorization, but so many of the words to describe the palin’s fit. I never used the buzz words like “scarah”, or “$arah, etc. simply because I think it diminishes the actuality of her ugliness. I think she should be described just as precisely as possible. Its that important. I don’t go for the humor effect for her. Let the cartoonists do that. She needs to be revealed in all seriousness. Just as serious as the villages she neglected who suffered the lack of food and heat in our unforgiving cold and even more unforgiving disparity in dealing with our Native issues in Alaska.
In the end of this whole story, I will only say that I hope your blog remains with its comment section intact. I still think your comments are straight forward (even with your teasing everyone here and there) and they reveal a part of your personage, which is a rich exchange and we need to know each other better in a world that is becoming so down in diplomacy, tact, truth and caring for “the other”. Whether high or low. If we can’t get along, what is any point of “society or community”? We’ll just all be more suspicious/paranoid of each other and then isolated from each other as well. I don’t envision that as anything but conflict. Haven’t we had enough of conflict in our time?
This internet technology is so awesome. We still don’t know its dimensions. We are (some of us) are beginning to see its power. So far, I don’t think enough respect has been given to its awesomeness – and at the same time – its power to be destructive. If it has the power to stop a rabid and dangerous person like sarah palin from obtaining great power, then lets all get to the job at hand and keep it together for that particular purpose at hand. Like most everyone here, I am so so looking forward to a short 29 days from now. (not counting today!) P.S. Mr. McG: I don’t know how big your ego is. I don’t think it matters. I have an intuition you have more humility than ego. I think I got it that facts will always be your priority. I want to know your DETAILED and EXCELLENT presentation in The Rogue. “Fatal Vision” showed me that. I am also sure that when I finish reading all the rest of your books, your force as a gifted, honest writer will be reinforced even more.
Deena,
I was compsing an e-mail to Joe, thinking I wanted to express my last comment to this flame war off screen, when I came here to see what new posts had appeared. You have said everything I wanted to say with a level of decency and respect I myself may have found hard to reach.
Morlock wrote an email to the public address of the Governor of Alaska. Palin didn’t even get those emails. Most likely it was forwarded to the DMVA.
While Palingates and Politicalgates are now two separate blogs, a LOT of collaboration / cooperation is taking place.
They complement each other; they are NOT COMPETITORS. People on both blogs go back & forth seamlessly. Some people must have Wheaties in the morning; some people demand Shredded Wheat. Depends on your mood. That’s the difference between the two blogs now. Regina and Kathleen stay in touch.
While the “breakup” at the time was difficult, make no mistake: the task IS still at hand, and that is a UNITED FRONT to stop Palin. When anti-Palin bloggers squabble, the only one that wins is Team Palin.
There are a couple of books out now which cover Palin’s lies, ethics problems, vindictiveness, speech problems, insincerity, religious leanings, family history, etc. Yet, these books have barely made a blip on the screen with respect to the main stream media and negatively denting her popularity.
I will be interested to see what impact Joe’s book has in this regard upon release.
I would think that his book will be better received and discussed if for no other reason than Joe has been a successful and well known writer.
Looking very much forward to seeing it hit the bookstores!
Dear poster: You badly misrepresent what I wrote at Laura Novak’s blog. Here’e the quote:
“There’s no evidence linking the Palins to those fires. But several Alaskans have told me that Wasilla residents fear they may suffer similar fates if they cross the Palins.”
I have in fact been contacted directly by Alaskans who told me what I quote them as saying. In no way does what I wrote suggest guilt on the part of the Palins; rather it suggests fear of the Palins, a fear that I consider reasonable under the circumstances.
As to the Palins followers, whom you suggest I may also impugn, I made a deliberate decision NOT to discuss them in the article – in particular, members of the Alaska Independence Party, which Todd used to belong to. And my reason for not doing so was to be sure NOT to unfairly tar them. (I talked Gryphen ahead of time by phone, and he convinced me not to write about them in the article, as a matter of fairness.)
I’ll be glad to discuss this further with you privately if you like – brad.scharlott@gmail.
Joe,
I am a long time, regular reader (though not commenter) of all the Blogs and would just like to add my voice and my support to you.
I wasn’t offended by anything you said. I suspect that neither was 98% of your readership. I even went back and read your post again and completely understood it. Now that I’ve read all of the comments here and at IM (fascinating!) I have really learned something I guess I didn’t notice before.
First off, you didn’t draw first blood, Joe. The commenters that you dared to question did. IMO, they responded emotionally and irrationally to your Post and when you took apart their statements of indignation and questioned them on what they were actually saying, they became enraged. And that is who attacked your Board. Not any outsiders or double agents. Quite frankly, I am tired of a few of the same people acting as if they speak for everyone who visits or comments on this or any other blog. You called them on it. And then quite a few astute commenters nailed the pattern perfectly (beandubh, stubbornandglee, GB, etc.). I would call them blog hogs, but it’s more like an attack patrol. Reading comments at other blogs has become less enjoyable and as nm pointed out above, I have also seen a big increase at this over at IM. And I rarely, if ever, bother to comment. It’s not only disheartening, but incredibly counterproductive. I wish everyone would think about that.
I haven’t read any books on politics or political figures since Game Change. But I will be ordering The Rogue. Joe, thanks for having the cojones to set the bar higher for intelligent and civil discourse. Doing so isn’t an insult to your readers. It’s a statement of your confidence that they are capable of such.
Blah blah blah…
Sharon, I went back and read the post from Cirrus. Troll? Hardly. Someone talking to Joe (yes, Joe – not you) who expressed his/her opinion and experience like everyone else. You didn’t like it one bit, so you inserted yourself, called him/her nasty when you were the nasty one. I am also an Alaskan who has been on the blogs since day one of the Twit’s arrival – and believe me, Alaskans have their own experiences and views which you know nothing about. Funny thing is, by inserting yourself so rudely and refusing to even read what the poster actually wrote – you instantly identified yourself as one of those types the poster was referring to in only a broad form. I couldn’t have done it better if I’d planned it out for a week.
You are not the one to decide who blogs, who doesn’t, who visits the blogs, who doesn’t, where they visit and what they say. If you are uncomfortable around posters and discourse which you don’t recognize as fitting into your little tiny scope of a non troll, that speaks entirely for itself. And yes, if you call one more poster a troll I will do the very same thing – reply to your comment by inserting myself and my opinion just like you do. I’ve had it with the troll calling – not only is it completely immature behaviour which lowers all discourse, it’s lazy and you embarrass the whole Internet community which has serious / humorous / or real things to talk about.
I am sorry but I have to say that Lydia17 is one of the offenders!
After re-reading this today, I wanted to add my perspective: Yes, I was offended and yes I do think Joe puts down his commenters fairly often, both in blog posts and in the comments. Sorry.
I think the Menard post was playing both sides of the fence, and needlessly using IM as a foil: “Oh, this other blogger says these outrageous things about this guy who is just this sad sack alcoholic who Sarah should quietly in a Christian manner provide support to and I know she won’t but he isn’t really the uncle of her son even though some unscrupulous bloggers say he is.” (On the other hand, I think the post that Gryphen did was over the top.)
I think of Joe as the crusty old editor a la Jimmy Breslin, whom I know a little bit about from when my brother worked with him, so I just chalk it up to that. I will buy the book, think Joe is an upstanding citizen and highly respected author and appreciate the blog and the forum. I’m sure it has been a learning experience.
Oh, and StubbornandGleeful, I think you’re full of it and if you’re not RAM I would be amazed. LoveandCherish, quick question—if you know so much about the family, can you just answer this one question: Where is Trig? Thanks!
I do think there is an effort on several blogs to turn like-minded commenters against each other to change the focus but don’t believe Lidia is one. As Gypsyrose says – Peace.
There ya go again – you tell ’em! You are right, you are a number one, a plus plus troll identifier. I’m sure a badge is in order! And a license for it, you might as well get paid since you excel at this.
Don’t quit the day job quite yet though. It’s really only one troll who is posting under all these monikers from all over the country and world, in this blog and all the others, on all of these different posts, so if you are getting paid by each troll head, that’s not very much for the bank. And then, once you bag that one troll, what’s left? The world will forever changed, sigh…
I am a troll hunter in training, but I’ll never be as good as you! How did you possibly read between the lines that this humorous poster is really a hostile poster? I looked everywhere – up and down and all around, and I can’t find it in any of their posts – arrrrggghhh! Help!
“if you’re not RAM I would be amazed.”
Interesting. There were other anonymous commentors in this Lord of the Flies episode that made the same remark.
[Yes, you are all anonymous. An alias is just an alias. It doesn’t identify you. If you posted your full name and address, the likelihood is you would be a complete stranger anyway. This medium is internet-based blogging. I couldn’t care less how anyone identifies themselves. It’s meaningless. I read what individuals write – content, in other words – and ignore the moniker. I have no idea which aliases are used on other blogs, where, when, and don’t care. I don’t have the time for that, and even if I did, it doesn’t tickle my interest one iota.]
So – based on what, exactly?
Writing style? I did a quick internet search and couldn’t find anything written by “RAM.” There’s tons of reference to Twittering, but no writing samples of any kind.
There’s suggestion that she may be writing Palin’s Facebook editorials for her. I don’t read that crap, but where it’s referenced in a serious editorial (like her Obama spankings), I do. _IF_ Palin aide Rebecca Mansour wrote the couple of pieces that I read, all I can say is – OUCH!
Not intending to sound arrogant, but I would consider my technical skill and wordcraft abilities far superior. The badly-written stuff reads like Sarah Palin probably wrote it herself.
In order to have a basis for such a comparison and writing evaluation, I have to assume that you and a number of others on this thread have some kind of personal relationship with “RAM” and hence, the opportunity to evaluate and compare her writing to mine. But I’ve gotta assume that you read something of at least a little better quality than what Sarah Palin may or may not have written. ‘Cause that’s not how I write. lol.
I don’t have a personal relationship with her. I live in Louisiana.
You sound like a poser and the way you engage other supporters of your comments in your overly dramatic responses and back and forths–…IINNNN-COOOMMMIIINNNGG!!!!– reminds me of the “confidential” twitter relationship that RAM supposedly had with a reporter. I also think you are pretending to be a supporter of Joe and anti-Palin so that you can stir up discord here.
This was my only comment on the “Lord of the Flies” post (ha, clever!) though I typed and deleted several. I always post here as Anon. Not sure it’s any less anonymous than a moniker.
GB: I’ve had my own tug of war with decency and respect at certain times with certain people. I took the low road and regretted it. When it denigrates into a war of words – accusatory and mean words – I think the battle is lost – a lost opportunity for, at the very least, consensus. Our way was ingrained in us: peace and progress came through consensus. I fall down many times, but my aim is always for the lofty high road.
I think there is a consensus on this blog that sarah palin needs to be exposed for the fraud she is. I would hope that there could be less impunity from each to each in how that is expressed. I am glad that the blog will be continued no matter what – with or without the comment section. Still, I would like to see the comment format continued. I think it will feel kinda like half empty without all the differing voices. We all feel (I’m guessing from evident posting’s and my own personal feeling) a need to see our own importance as well. Nothing wrong with that as long as we recognize the importance of ALL. Am I right?
I meant “punative” instead of “impunity”. As in ” a less punative attitude” I get my punative’s and impunity’s criss crossed!
I appreciate your comment.
I have a feeling that he’s not going to close the comments. I think what he intended on doing was slash and burn – get rid of the posters he didn’t like and keep the groupies he does. You’ll notice that on the most recent post, there’s mostly fans. That’s what he wants, and he wants the rest to shut up. Mark my words, his deadline to close comments will come and go without fanfare. Kind of an underhanded thing if you ask me, but whatever. It’s not going to ruin my week or anything.
I’d like to leave my final comments.
I’m a thinking, reasonable person, with common sense and decency. I’ve hoped a lot of the stuff about Palin can eventually be proven, because I believe a lot of it. However, I’ve maintained on all the Palin blogs that things such as babygate are unfortunately unproven. I’ve supported all the Palin bloggers, and have been polite with everyone, and liked a great deal of the posters, who are tireless and inquisitive. I’ve also been more than fair to Sarah and Bristol, and if there are any borderline abusive comments in a thread, I’ve been known to request the blogger to remove them.
Now that I’ve prefixed my remarks with the above I want to say what I came here to say: I think the author has been absolutely insulting to his readership, and unfairly targeted another blogger by name. This was incredulous to me. And when posters who were fans of the author joined in on the attack, and was rewarded with positive posts from the author, I was appalled. Many good posters have left, and rightly so. I myself have not posted beyond the dustup threads, and will not at any time in the future.
I was actually thinking today that Joe’s decision to “close” the comment section is a big ruse and will not happen, because I’ve looked at the result of the fight, and the result is exactly what he wanted – to drive away critical posters and keep the “fans.” Fans are controllable, agree with everything, and take instruction like a trooper. Honestly, I think a good mirror can accomplish the same thing, but I suppose that would be a bit boring.
hmmmm…………possibly there are some people here who don’t keep up with contemporary slang but “groupie” really isn’t used much anymore. When it is used it means someone (generally female) who follows and/or travels with a band and makes herself available for sex with the members of the band. It is almost always a one sided infatuation that borders upon obsession and even stalking.
If you wish to learn more about the term “groupie” in it’s historical definition and how it has expanded to include terms like “band ho” and “band bitch” (to use the milder of slang used now) and other such colorful verbiage, there is a site for urban slang online.
Several people have posted comments in the last few days and used the word “groupie” so am not only responding to what you wrote.
peace.
Nope, not a bit more or less anonymous than a moniker. Don’t care what your name is or what you do for a living or where you live. Gives me nothing extra nor adds clarity to content. Doesn’t take anything away either. Makes no difference whatsoever.
I asked what writing you compared me to. Twitter? REALLY? I sound like ideas summarized in 140 characters or less? Nope, I don’t. That’s it?
So you don’t know “RAM”, you’ve never read her writing, but my writing and expression is so strikingly similar that you “would be amazed if I wasn’t.” If you’ve never read “RAM,” then you have nothing to compare to. Which makes no sense at all for you and your clique to say that you’re pretty damn sure I must be Rebecca Mansour. I don’t know what to make of that; something’s not honest.
Now I sound like a “poser.” What does that mean?
You think I’m “pretending” to be a “supporter of Joe” and “anti-Palin.” I’m under no obligation to get a clearance, show my passport, or state a reason, to comment on this or any other public forum. Am I?
In fact, I am NOT “a supporter of Joe.” I’m a reader. I like books. This is a credentialed author’s blog. Why are YOU here?
Neither am I “anti-Palin.” Got it? You never asked what my politics are and you know nothing about me and my opinions. How could you possibly? I’m certainly not inclined to justify myself now, to a complete stranger who has been insufferably rude. Awk-waaarrrd….
I’ve enjoyed many a robust dialogue and dynamic exchange on Regina and Audrey’s blogs and others. Informative, engaging and absent the present generation of bizarre run-offs. Not your business, but I’m very proud to have voted for Tony Knowles, Fran Ulmer, Ernie Hall, Diane Benson, Andrew Halcro, Mark Begich, Scott McAdams. That’ll tell ya far more about me than any cheesy alias would, and give you all kinds of background information, should you have any critical thinking skills.
I think you are right Samantha! It’s all a ruse, I just knew it. Joe has nothing better to do anyway, he’s such a non serious person and he just makes stuff up. Like you, I can tell instantly what the difference is between a “critical poster” and a “fan”. Those fickle critical posters – they just up and leave in a huff when you least expect it!
And then the fans, oh please don’t get me started! From what I can gather, they are all just one big fat troll with several computers with a brain and keyboard going a mile a minute. So, now I guess we are just left with that one fan who is really all the trolls rolled into one. Hopefully for Joe, that one big troll who poses as all these fans will actually buy a book or he’s toast I’m sure. Who knew that Sarah Palin would be the end of him, too? Poor guy.
I find your whole diatribe on the definition of the word groupie to be extremely bizarre, at a minimum. I also find some of your other posts here a bit histrionic. Your comment to me has absolutely no effect other than shrugging of my shoulders.
oh you find some of my posts “histrionic” …………………..this from the very same person who left her “final thoughts” several hours prior to leaving a reply to my comment. Is this comment your FINAL final comment?
Histrionics anyone?
peace
excellent reply – very well put and to the point!!
lol….are you for real???
well, you obviously havent’ read all of the posts. Your comments regarding my response to cirrus – if you read that post and didn’t find anything offensive in those comments from cirrus to Joe, – please don’t bother trying to “enlighten” me about how wrong I am or how I’m an embarrassment to the blogging community or whatever else you threw at me. And your suggestion that I “inserted’ myself in her comments directed to Joe is kind of silly coming from you since you “inserted’ yourself in my comments to cirrus. Isn’t that a little bit of the pot calling the kettle black? Or do you fail to see the irony here? Cirrus was sarcastic and offensive in my opinion and if you don’t agree, I don’t really care one way or the other. But you have the right to express your opinion regarding any of my comments just as I do with others. You don’t get a free pass by directing your comments to a specific person – that’s just silly.
” I am also an Alaskan who has been on the blogs since day one of the Twit’s arrival – and believe me, Alaskans have their own experiences and views which you know nothing about. “…………..well, isn’t that an interesting comment? I totally agree with you on this one…because we certainly don’t know anything about your experiences and views because we cannot find any possible justification for alaskans to have voted this twit into office. Amazing how you alaskans gave her over 80% approval rating before she was tapped for vp and then all hell broke loose with the rest of the country. It didn’t take us very long to figure out what a mess this “governor” was but you alaskans never had an issue with her, did you? So, don’t be so smug about being an alaskan and using that card with me. If I were you, I wouldn’t be bragging about the fact that you’re an alaskan and you have some secret, inside track on the palin mess. It’s interesting how many times “alaska” had the opportunity to bring her down and your state officials have continually protected her as well as lied for her. No glory in being an alaskan in my opinion. We’re cleaning up your mess even though most of your state has an incredible fear of her. We do not.
Hey this is kind of of off topic but I was wondering if
blogs use WYSIWYG editors or if you have to manually code with HTML.
I’m starting a blog soon but have no coding knowledge so I wanted to get guidance from someone with experience. Any help would be enormously appreciated!
When I initially commented I appear to have clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now whenever a
comment is added I recieve 4 emails with the same comment.
Is there an easy method you are able to remove me from that
service? Cheers!