Tuesday, September 19, 2006

The Anonymous Virus

For those of you who don't follow the "Comments" - I've been infiltrated by an "anonymous" virus. Seems someone without the chutzpah to use their own name - or an identifiable pseudonym – has chosen to take issue with what I have to say on MY blog.

Now, in general I don’t really mind “anonymous” comments. I can usually winkle out who they really are (gradeschool bud, Melissa, Mike the drunk, etc). What annoys me is that someone will hide behind their anonymity and make accusations or snotty-snide comments about me or my postings, without giving a clue as to their own “identity”. Witness to this the ‘Anonymous Virus” that attacked my blog a few days ago.

Now, this “Anonymous” chooses to attack my suggestion that George Walker Bush is not a particularly moral, upright, or honest individual by indicating that he/she/it is more of an authority on morality than myself. Anonymous doesn’t tell us what his/her/its qualifications for Morality Policeindividual are, but I’ll tell you mine.

I spent the first 16 years of my life in a highly sheltered, exceptionally religious and suffocatingly Missouri Synod Lutheran existence. Church every Sunday. Sunday School every Sunday. Vacation Bible School in the summer – Parochial School. Don’t tell me to read my bible – I’ve read it cover-to-cover numerous times in several translations.

Anonymous said:
“Let me see...in other words, you are the ultimate authority on what is moral and what is not. Christians, by your definition, are supposed to be moral. Therefore, any Christian who takes a stand that is not in agreement with yours is hypocritical and decidedly immoral. Ok, I get it now!”

But see – Anonymous really does NOT get it. I know what Christians are SUPPOSED to be like. Love one another. Turn the other cheek. Forgive not 7 times, but 70 times 7. Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Judge not, lest ye be judged, condemn not, lest ye be condemned. Take the log out of your own eye before you try to take the speck out of your brother’s. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Do not kill. Do not steal. Do not covet. Do not lie. Do not do the horizontal bop with your neighbor lady. Let the one among you who has never sinned cast the first stone.

Stuff like that.

So when someone who CLAIMS to be a Christian starts to tell lies about others (Swiftboat Vets, anyone?) or starts a war to obtain revenge for a personal issue, I’m gonna call a digging implement a digging implement and call him/her/it a hypocrite.

Now, Anonymous also seems to have a problem with the way I’ve responded to someone named “Gayle” in my blog. Gayle is a relative. She’s the daughter of one of my Mom’s cousins – a woman somewhat older than myself. Not entirely sure how that works out in terms of relationships because I really don’t give a rats ass about that kind of stuff.

She’s not my daughter, Anonymous. If you want to see how I deal with my daughter, you might could want to go back to the blog entries from March and April of this year – when my Mom was dying. My daughter is Amanda.

Obviously, I don’t know for certain who you are – perhaps you are just another random lurking body in the vast world of blogdom. I’ve had visitors from there before, and welcome their visitations. I don’t mind someone disagreeing with me. I won’t just let a “challenge” to my position sit there unanswered, however.

I also give a lot more credibility and respect to someone with the cahones to post their name or nick, or their link to their own blog – than someone who hides their identity for fear of being seen for who/what they really are. I post comments on other people’s blogs. People from all over the world. However, I always use my nick (Sewmouse) and for anyone on Blogger, that means that they also automatically get a way to link back to MY blog here. That’s how BBC and Jules and Croila found me – to name a very few.

Please understand, “Anonymous” – this is MY home. You’re more than welcome to visit. You’re more than welcome to leave a comment, but it’s really much more polite to leave one with your “signature” rather than a generic white calling card. I never delete comments with which I do not agree. I only delete advertisements, or strings of useless obscenities from unidentified individuals.

2 comments:

pissed off patricia said...

If you want to drive a troll away, ignore them. They live for attention and when they get none, they move on.

Anonymous said...

Ach, trolls ... I'd agree with Patricia. I'd recommend not deleting the comments but just completely 100% ignoring them. They're like spoilt brat children thriving on attention for bad behaviour!