When the Watergate plumbers committed their "third rate burglary" it was a blip on the radar scene of the political world. A few low level minions of the President decided they knew what they needed to do to protect the President. This lead to his resignation. Because you see it is usually not the crime that is the problem but the cover-up.
I think what happened was that the EBL had given her man the keys to the kingdom. He has the password and the ability to delete at his whim. A contrempts had developed between several commenter's. I was the worst offender. I am very sorry it happened. I was totally wrong in the way I attacked Allie and have since apologized and she has graciously accepted. My only excuse was that the subject of people falsely claiming that they were veterans is something that is very important to me as I have direct personal experience of someone doing that with disastrous results. In any event we managed to act like adults and find it in our hearts to forgive each other. But forgiveness and generosity are just two of the many things in short supply at Meadhouse.
In short order, Meade deleted a whole string of comments. His wife stood up for him and took the rap even though he had said he had deleted the comments. Now Meade is a smart guy who is underemployed. It is winter so there is no yard stuff to do and all of the coeds with no bras are not out protesting so there is no one to videotape protesting at the Capitol. You can only make so many pancakes and Hobbit feet really only need to be shaved once a week. So he needs something to do and his wife decided to let him help around the blog. Those of us who are house husbands understand how that works. You help around the house but you know you will never do it right. The wife will always tell you how to do it and boss you around. So you take you shots when you can. And at the people who bugged you and spin it the way that will get the wife on board.
The EBL has to be careful in her blogging. She has a position and a reputation that she has to maintain. She is not free to attack and berate people like me or ndspinelli. She can't bust balls the way we can so I can see that she could get fustrated. She is often attacked and people make trouble for her because of that position so that people who don't like what she has to say want to silence her. The way Meadehouse wants to silence those who say things they don't want to hear. It is of course their blog and they have the perfect right to do that. But they have to stop talking about free speech because it is becoming a sad joke to those of us lucid enough to tell the forest from the trees.
What originally attracted me to that blog was the freewheeling discussions and creative atmosphere where commenter's fed off of each others enthusiasm. Ruth Anne's puns. Sippican's essays. The ghostly musing of Sir Archy. The boyish legal enthusiasm of Simon. The futile flirting of Mortimer Brenzy.The savage erudition of Cyrus Pinkerton. The crusty liberalism of hdhouse. The vinegary hard earned wisdom of Sixty Grit and AllenS. And so many more. Especially the good natured fellowship of Meade. But all those people and all of those things are gone now. Now the operative word is that they have to squash the viewpoints they don't like. So innocuous posts will be deleted because of who is posting them. Some words and people are too dangerous to their self-regard. An enemies list seems to have developed. Just like Nixon. The idea that creativity and a different voice will be not only allowed but celebrated is gone. Now the sycophantic lickspittles will be valued. Not the independent thinker or the strong contentious voices. They must be deleted so that they will not infect the rest of the new developing Borg collective.
AJ Lynch said we are like the bums he threw out of his bar who talk about how much they hate the bar but want to come back in. I don't think we hate that bar. We just like the way it used to be. But they have a new bartender. The owner is too lazy or distracted and gave power over to a bartender who is deep sixing everyone and everything that pisses him off. He was probably seething over things people said or did and now is his opportunity to run thing his way. Just the way Haldeman and Ehrlichman did. How did that work out?
When such intelligent voices as RogerJ and Dust Bunny Queen and even the irrepressible Titus say it is time to give it up and get over it they sort of have a point. They have sowed the seeds of their own destruction. It won't happen in a day and some people will still think that place is a good place to be. But before you know a disgruntled and disgraced paranoid professor will be traversing the sands of Lake Mendota in her wing tipped shoes muttering to herself about who stole her strawberries. I can see it as clear as day.
Richard Nixon has some great advice for us. He famously said: Always remember: others may hate you. But those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.
As RogerJ has said let us indulge in the spirit of the season and forget about our differences. They will still be there after the new year. Let us have fun and enjoy the holiday season. We can talk about a lot of other stuff that is frankly more fun. That place and those people are the past. Let us go into the future and have some yuks. We can just let it go and talk about other stuff. Life is too short.
Merry Christmas to all you knuckleheads.
