This afternoon, the blog passed 12,000,000 all-time hits. While still smaller than some of other sites in the top ten legal blogs, we just passed 11,000,000 not long ago and we have continued to grow. I am very proud of our community and our attempt to offer a place for civil and responsible conversation. I encourage our regulars and visitors to continue to avoid the personal attacks and name calling common elsewhere on the Internet.
The continued growth of the site shows that our approach to blogging resonates with a good number of people. I continue to be concerned in reading comments that take personal shots and use insulting language. I hope that the recent debate over civility in legal blogging will reaffirm the need of our regulars to avoid insults and personal jabs. If you do not like a person’s take on a story, there is no need to characterize the writer or the writer’s motivations. Let’s deal with the ideas and leave the ad hominem attacks to other sites.
Thanks again for making the site such a great success.
Here are the list of countries represented by viewers and commentators on the blog with the first being obviously the most prevalent:
Country Views
United States
Canada
United Kingdom
Germany
Sweden
France
Australia
India
Philippines
Ireland
Singapore
Jonathan Turley
This is not the thread for this conversation Dr. Kesseler, but we only have your word that your unashamed unauthorized unsupervised unaccounted unacceptable unbelievable unaddressed unadjudicated unadvised unambiguous unanswerable unappreciated unbalanced unchecked uncivil underexposed unethical unfathomable underhanded uninspired unlicensed unmitigated unobserved unreasonable unrepentant unreserved unwitnessed unworthy use of this information was not used misused.
And I for one, don’t believe the word of an unrepentant privacy violator still boasting of his actions.
And as you well know, I’ve never written a single (or multiple) lie about you at this forum.
It is amusing how you now lurk in the background here, in the dark, like a common cockroach, wings but unable to fly, afraid of the light, flipping upside down underneath a ledge the instant a light is shown.
http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/npr/154501312/the-great-cockroach-escape-how-those-dirty-bugs-make-tricky-tracks
Again, my advice to you is to take the high road, admit what you’ve done, discuss it, and become part of the group that lobbies WordPress to fix this privacy leak.
anon,
Nice to see you sticking to your strengths–false allegations and baseless smears (and prejudice against the guest bloggers). You have yet to explain who’s privacy was violated and how–or why it is a problem for me to make use of freely available information but just fine for WordPress to make use of the information they openly distribute as well as the proprietary information which they collect (a combination which does have privacy implications).
As for sock puppets–using different identities is a tool, and like any tool its morality (or lack thereof) is in how it is used. I’ve used obvious sock puppets to make fun of someone who thought their own sock puppets weren’t obvious, I’ve used a different handle when “Slartibartfast” was being stalked across the blog and I wanted to comment without getting in a pointless argument, and (in the incident to which you refer) I used a sock puppet to demonstrate that you react as predictably to a stimulus as Pavlov’s dogs. You know about every handle and gravatar I’ve used on this site only because I’ve told you. Can you explain how what I’ve done is dishonest? Or what I’ve done to merit your false smears? Can you explain why it is okay for you to lie about me, but somehow my complete disclosure is dishonest?
That’s interesting, I believe I had a comment deleted in this thread.
I don’t think that comment said anything defamatory, libelous, inciting violence, privacy invading, or spamming, or blogwhoring, or anything. I believe it was relatively polite even though it was a response to an egregious personal attack on me from Gene Howington.
The gist was that the great lawyer Gene Howington was wrong as usual, and especially in this instance where he was attacking me personally and attributing Muppet’s comment to me.
My rebuttal was that it wasn’t me and since Gene has access to IP addresses he check them to confirm.
I also pointed out that in times past, contrary to Gene’s assertion I am trying to have him ousted, I have defended his being ousted and defended his being a guest blogger, even though I believe he constantly shames himself and the blog.
I am not sure why the comment was deleted, though I do think that when comments are deleted, they should be noted deleted, perhaps with some explanation as to why.
Anyway, it is nice to see Slartibartfast, Dr. Kevin Kesseler, Ph.D show up, he hasn’t appeared here for a few weeks when he was last sockpuppeting the blog, and before then, since it was determined he was attacking the privacy of the people at this blog by exploiting a WordPress privacy leak. Nasty, Nasty, Nasty, Dr. Kesseler! Let’s all here tonight give a round of applause to Slarti.
Now with all respect to Mike, his honest error does bring home Hanlon’s Razor: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”
That concludes tonight’s errata, now Dolores from the Sisterhood will say a few words.
JT had a right to be concerned about a possible hacking of the system. His posts looking for an explanation were very reasonable and not over the top. He found the problem, indicated it was a mistake by a trusted person, unnamed, rightly so. Problem solved.
Mike ‘fessed up including the reason for his error. Another good move that allowed all other possible suspects off the hook.
Well done.
Wow. I have never been in any company that wasn’t mixed.
I’d never be able to talk politics — hey wait a minute, that’s GOOD!
Here goes!
ID707
I have no pull here so my reassurance no doubt has little value, but I don’t think you are “that guy”. I confess I’m often puzzled by your postings and sometimes feel I have wandered into the middle of the telling of a rather complicated story, but you are always damned interesting with what I guess is a very unconventional history. When they decide to have a Turley convention, you should be sure to attend..
Mike, it has looked to me like your last nerve has done been got on lately. LOL.
MS: “I think that this blog is exceptional due to the overall quality of the discussions, quirky humor and yes even its’ civility.”
Agree.
I have noticed on this and other blawgs that as it gets closer to an election the likelihood of argument (in the classic sense) to become personal and ugly increases. That’s why people are admonished to never talk politics or religion in mixed company no doubt. 🙂
“That’s why people are admonished to never talk politics or religion in mixed company no doubt. :-)”
LK,
My wife keeps telling me that all the time, but sometimes I get sucked in. There are certain types of people into politics on both Right and Left that enjoy ensnaring people in social situations, into debate. At times I think it’s
a conscious game they play and at others times I think it is just stupidity. There is no point socially to debate politics because it never gets resolved. The only exception to that is if someone insists on making bigoted diatribes, then they should not be given social license to defame.
I read an article recently that said that an unprotected computer freshly booted would be infected with malware (at the least) within 20 to 40 minutes of its first Internet connect. Be careful out there. In here, actually. ~Lottakatz
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that does not surprse me 1 bit…..this is the real ‘star wars’ satellite interceptions and deconstruction of inputs etc. …. not nice, not nice at all!
LottaKatz,
Did you see my request to you?
Mike,
An honorable admission…… If in fact it twas you…… I still think your loyalty is honorable….. Maybe sometimes misplaced, nonetheless still honorable….
Woosty, The missing picture on some of the postings is a new wrinkle. Your statement about your anti-virus response is interesting though. We are now living in William Gibson’s world: a shadow shrouded battlefield of professional/paid hackers and berserker hobbyists with digital mayhem as their mission. National warfare, generally unacknowledged but occasionally surfacing as the weapons break out beyond their intended boundaries, is practiced by China and the US (at least). Turleyblawg could have been the target of some bad code.
I read an article recently that said that an unprotected computer freshly booted would be infected with malware (at the least) within 20 to 40 minutes of its first Internet connect. Be careful out there. In here, actually. 🙂
MikeS,
Both your tech notices are very relevant in calling attention to what I regard as a general internet problem (in my eyes).
We say yes to accepting the conditons, but don’t know or understand what they mean—-and frankly not even a lawyer can foresee the technical consequences.
Thereafter, the auto update facility, or our ignorance of the device or system we are using leads to unscionable (if we know) invasions of privacy and other undesireable consequences IMHO—-such as the one you have encountered now.
Some visitor here exposed that GMAIL maintains on your or its system a list of ALL sites visited via Microsoft’s Explorer browser. This list is alphabetically searchable etc by you and is a feature for your use—but is not announce anywhere.
Instruction were given on now to disable it—which I did. I have since restore it.
The point being, this is certainly only one of many
such violations without notice or request for approval of the feature added at a later date, nor making clearly visible its inclusion that it mines data from another program.
This could be reason for a suit. I don’t have the money.
Just so you and others know.
Mike,
Another mystery solved!! 🙂
The Professor was very kind in not revealing that I was the guest blogger responsible for the glitch. In it I learned two valuable lessons:
1. IPhones retain addresses and passwords that you have no desire for them to maintain.
2. Don’t use your IPhone to post comments if you don’t have the technical knowledge to use an IPhone in the first place.
I apologize for the “fooferaw”.
Lottakatz
1, June 28, 2012 at 12:11 am
Computer problems: I posted a comment this morning regarding Althouse’s postings, on a different thread. It was there briefly then disappeared. I didn’t break any rules but it was not a complimentary posting. Was it not civil enough?
I have ongoing trouble posting on Turleyblawg for a few months now. It may be an incompatibility with my system. Sometimes I can post easily though and comment a lot, and other times posting won’t “take”, I hit “submit” and the posting disappears.
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You are not alone Lottakatz, I have had a suspicious ‘thingy’ picked up by my anti-virus after posting here for the last 3 days. it gets removed and then is back…after posting here. btw, your picture is gone…
“Attackers generally are looking for attention. “~bettykath
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or to divert it….
That should conclude the mystery guest host blogger…. Glad you were able to narrow it down…..
Good luck commenting…..
Lotta,
I have the same problem with requests for login when clicking for post. What works best for me (in order to get it posted) is to login in after clicking the WP icon, and then wait passively while it thinks for some seconds. Don’t ough the keyboard, this will make it diassppear if you do. You will be tranferred back to the thread showing the post in place. Good luck.
PS It will even show a info form with my corect data filled in, so they know it is me there linked to the written comment—-so why do they do this? Just anybody could confirm under those conditions. Presumably there is a cookie in my PC that tells them but does not satisfy the need of control. ????????
“I am off for the Court coverage.”
Good luck and happy hunting. May all stains avoid your tie today.
“This should be interesting!”
Yep. In so many ways. The decisions today will do a lot to either dismiss or exacerbate many of the recent criticisms of SCOTUS both in regards to partisanship and the legal reasoning of the individual justices.
LottaKatz,
You said:
“Generally I ignore ‘that guy’. ‘That guy’ in the blawg variation of the humorous internet meme context- the guy that just doesn’t get it; the guy that is ignorant and aggressive about it; the guy that just looks for a sore spot and picks at it, the guy that is passive aggressive and directs it at various targets then says he’s being picked on; the guy that will write a generally well spoken and reasoned comment then throw in a sentence that is grossly and plainly insulting to the blawg in general and shockingly uncivil; that guy.”
If you feel that I am “that guy”, then would appreciate a confirmation of this. As a courtesy, of course.
My suspiciaon is raised by the workds “passive aggressive” which some have accused me of repeatedly.
So therefore my asking for this.
No recriminations to be expected from me for the info.