No Rules in a Knife Fight?

On the coming-to-a-major-courtroom-near-you-soon thread over at the Daily News website, anonymous coward "Guest" writes:

First, your husband is not a nice guy, he is a bit of a beast.

Your damn right I am and don't forget it. I'm not some undergrad or senior citizen you can bully around. Somebody messes with me, I'm gonna mess with him. Somebody calls me names, I'm gonna say you called me a name. Not talk to him for spitting on the sidewalk.

Another cowardly "Guest" posted:

Mr. Forbes' defensiveness is interesting given the extent he has drug others through the mud the past couple of years. He has not hesitated to name individuals, comment on their character, call them scumbags, communists and elitists. His blog is offensive, a poor representation of the Pullman community, and an embarrassment. There are a handful of people who post on his site and they are not the voice of Pullman. If you haven't read through his writing, I'd encourage you to do so. He is not a simple libertarian with a bone against PARD.

No, what's interesting to me is that PARD is sanctimoniously trying to condemn me at the same time they are viciously and anonymously attacking my wife and children, not to mention calling me every name imaginable in the last two weeks. Let's get something straight. I didn't start this fight. I began writing letters to the editor back about Wal-Mart back in February 2005. The PARDners went negative as soon as people started questioning their views. After my second letter appeared, they began referring to me as being "far-right" and that "no one shares his extremist views."

Take a look at this screenshot from PARD's "prototype" website from September 2005:


The word "Boob" linked to this blog.

For a brief time in early 2005, PARD had a message board on their website. I posted on there as "Felis Concolor." I was subjected to massive namecalling, to which I responded in kind. April can attest to all this. Shortly after PARD closed down their message board, I started Palousitics as "Felis Concolor."

Then in July 2005, I received this e-mail from "Tim Reed"

Dear Mr. Forbes,

How come you don't have the guts to identify yourself on your blog? Seems like you have no trouble calling various people out by name on your site, but do so from the cowardly position of anonymity. Is it because you already blather on so much in the paper and want to pretend that there is a second person in Pullman who shares your extremist views? Judging by the lack of comments on your blog site, maybe you should invent a third persona to comment on the other one(s),

Best wishes,

Another anonymously latin observer

Well, I do appreciate Reed for one thing. I have gone under my own name since then. Of course, the craven PARDners cannot take their own advice.

For example, take the letter to the editor that Laura Zeller wrote yesterday . She didn't call anyone names. She just politely asked PARD to stop, which is her right. Look what has been posted already:

December 6, 2007, 3:16 pm Guest says:

If Laura Zeller thinks Walmart is "free market," I guess she hasn't heard about the Walmart PAC stuffing big bucks up the b u t t s of Washington DC fat cats. I guess some of us are freer than others.

December 6, 2007, 10:06 pm Guest 2 says:

And by the way, I wonder if Ms. Zeller knows that the Walton Family Foundation gives millions of dollars a year to opponents of public school education. Wal-Mart's version of education would almost certainly make a decent schooling too expensive for huge numbers of families. Maybe their idea is to keep education levels low so there will be more minimum wage Wal-Mart workers.

December 7, 2007, 5:16 am Guest says:

Wow, Guest 2! I feel better about buy stuff made by slaves in a communist country knowing that money is going to my kid's school! Exploitation with a bonus!

December 7, 2007, 8:19 am Avowed Walmart Hater says:

Walmart is not the answer to affordable housing. Walmart is going to come in and destroy decent paying jobs that already exist and replace them with jobs that don't pay crap. Then it will be even more difficult for people to afford to buy a house.

But I doubt Laura Zeller sincerely cares about that anyway. If she is a true libertarian, as she seems to suggest, then she probably thinks that affordable housing will be determined purely by market principles and that any attempt to ameliorate the situation will smack of a government handout to those that don't deserve it.

Is this "civility?" And this didn't just start with the anonymous coments; the comments have just made it worse. In the past, Janet Damm or some other PARDner would have fired off a similar letter to the editor attacking Ms. Zeller. Now, in all likelihood, Ms. Zeller will not fire back or start a blog. But I did, and that's what really chaps the PARDners. Since I have had the temerity to fight back, they are going to try and beat me down. And thanks for attributing all this power to me. It's flattering. Now as the evil Lord Waldemart, I will use my power to soon demolish a pristine weed-covered field and erect a temple to the nameless gods of consumerism.

Listen, I know you are trying to use me as a scapegoat for your upcoming legal defeat and hope to take me down with you. I realize you need a distraction. But I talked with a high-ranking Pullman city offical last night, and the attorneys fees you are going to be responsible for are a much, much greater problem than me calling you an "elitist." I'm going to have a shovel in my hand breaking ground on Bishop Blvd. while you are having a lien taking out on your homes. I highly recommend that you drop your appeal before December 19. You have sown the wind, prepare to reap the whirlwind.

Lastly, even tough guy Chuck "Mr. Civil Discourse" Pezeshki is crying in his Cheerios

I'm a big boy. But when I read constant, inciteful comments against my person, with little or no substance, I wonder about the consequences. You might think about how you might feel if one of Tom's followers commits an act of violence against myself or my family. Regardless of your intent, that's what that kind of constant ad-hominem attack leads to.

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!! This is the guy who boasted on a blog that, "We were just hauling ourselves out of bed every day, determined to fuck with the machine."

By the way, Chuck take a look at my blog. The first time I mentioned you here, I merely questioned statements you made about the College Republicans pro-fence demonstration last year. Then you wrote this about me in your column of January 2, 2007:

Tom Forbes (Opinion, Nov. 15), avid Wal-Mart groupie, says that all this will be “bad for business” — his ultimate “kiss of death” for cleaning up the South Fork of the Palouse River.

So have I been harsh on you since then? Yeah. IF YOU CAN'T STAND THE HEAT, GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN. You can't write strident left-wing political columns and make comments like "I've pretty much lost sympathy for the working people of the Palouse" and not expect a little pushback. By the way, how's Vienna this time of year?

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