Tom McMahon has a fun blog, but he has this bad habit of going to blogs and getting banned. First it was Electrolite. OK, he wasn’t banned, he just had all the vowels removed from comments the Haydens didn’t care for. Then it was Cynical-C blog where the proprietor banned him from commenting. But that was just the warm up, because when he was banned at NoodleFood, he wasn’t just banned, he was condemned to hell along with it. I kid you not. The craziest thing about it is that Tom is such a mild commenter – calm, patient, insult free – which seems to drive wackos nuts. I mean, what set off Diana at NoodleFood off was that he, brace yourself, quoted a line from Amazing Grace which caused huge foaming at the mouth, and when she discovered that he had a link, a link mind you, to National Review, which periodically runs a negative review of Atlas Shrugged, that’s when she fell over backwards, and not only banned Tom from her site, but in full atheist majesty flung him straight into the pit of hell with Whittaker Chambers. As Dave Berry would say, you can’t make this stuff up.
It sounded like so much fun, I linked to my negative review of Atlas Shrugged (which the online version of National Review ran seven years ago – my how time flies) in his comments. So Tom graciously has reprinted my review of Atlas Shrugged so that I too can go straight to hell with him and Whittaker. Since I knew it was coming, I made pitcher of ice water to take with me for Tom and Whittaker. And if you want to join us there, you can let Tom know of your negative review of Atlas Shrugged.
Tolerence For Me, But Not For Thee
Sep 3
Posted by Kevin Murphy in Inside Blogging | No Comments
Funmurphys reader and blog proprietor in his own right Tom McMahon was banned from commenting at Daily Kos because of a comment he made about Ted Kennedy and Chappaquiddick in response to a post about Rep. Janklow. Maybe it was over the top (I couldn’t find it); and blogs can ban whoever they want for any reason they want. But it does seem out of character for the tolerant, loving left to ban commentators who they simply disagree with, or worse, provide uncomfortable and inconvient facts. Oh Well. One fact that has been brought home to me repeatedly while reading blogs is that there are a lot of crazy people out there – left, right, and center – who comment on blogs. Another fact is that there are lot of smart people out there – left, right, and center – who comment on blogs.
In another time and place, I once proposed a Gresham’s Law of Forums: namely, that bad posters/commentors drive out good ones. I haven’t seen anything in the years since to change my mind.
Tags: commenting, Daily Kos, Tom McMahon