The Brett Kimberlin Saga:

Follow this link to my BLOCKBUSTER STORY of how Brett Kimberlin, a convicted terrorist and perjurer, attempted to frame me for a crime, and then got me arrested for blogging when I exposed that misconduct to the world. That sounds like an incredible claim, but I provide primary documents and video evidence proving that he did this. And if you are moved by this story to provide a little help to myself and other victims of Mr. Kimberlin’s intimidation, such as Robert Stacy McCain, you can donate at the PayPal buttons on the right. And I thank everyone who has done so, and will do so.

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Happy New Year

Truthfully in my family it had never been a big deal.  In my wife’s family, on the other hand, a very big deal.  I think it is the Chinese influence.

Oh well, the world is ending this year anyway, right?

(No, it’s not.  The Mayans didn’t think so, either.  It was just the year that the odometer rolled over.)

Still, here is hoping you take this opportunity for a new beginning.

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Follow me at Twitter @aaronworthing, mostly for snark and site updates.

Friday, December 30, 2011

The Exhibits (Almost Complete)

Update: This is almost complete, except for figuring out how to reproduce that scribd document that, hilariously, disappeared.

So yesterday I provided you a copy of the filing I made in the Kimberlin case, opposing his attempt to obtain my true identity by legal process.  And I promised a second post, containing most of the exhibits.  So this is that post.

Now it will take some time to put it all together, so as of right now the post has the phrase (A Work in Progress).  I will change the title when it is complete.  But there are a lot that are in fact relatively easy to put in.  I mean the first pass will mainly linking to blog posts and articles I printed out.  And in a few cases it was quoting emails that I put at my blog, or something like that.  So in that case, I will give you links.  So in one form or another, I will give you most of them below the break.  In some cases, however, I might not

Also, please let me know if any links go bad.  I have caught them at least once trying to disappear the evidence down the memory hole.  But of course I kept copies—I delivered them to the court, after all.

The Playstation Move/Sharpshooter/Resistance 3—A Review in Progress

Well, we can’t just talk about my litigation all the time and I like to put up something frivolous on a Friday, so... how about a game controller and game review?  After all, let’s face it, I did have a need for stress relief...  And after I post this, I will get to work on the exhibits post. 

Now first, let me get out of the way that this is not the case of anyone sending me anything for free to review.  I had to spend my hard earned money on this, just like anyone else.

As you saw in a prior post, I got the Playstation Move Mayhem Bundle, which came with two first person shooters, a full kit for the Playstation Move (more or less their version of Wii controls), and the sharpshooter.  The sharpshooter was what got me excited.  I had tried a number of gun-shaped toys for the Wii, but bluntly none of them worked right.  All they typically did was pull the trigger, forcing you to reach up to the top of the “gun” in order to do anything else.  So when playing Metriod Prime Trilogy I was stuck using the normal Wii set up.

But the sharpshooter is a little more bad-@$$ed than that.  Watch this video to get an idea of it:


So I got the bundle and I am a one-game at a time kinda guy, so I settled into Resistance 3.  I had followed this series from the beginning, considering the original to be the best of the series, with the second being a bit of a stumble as they tried to be too much like Halo and other shooters.  For instance, in one of the most criminal acts of the series, Insomniac, which is known for creating awesome and insane weapons, limited you to two weapons at a time.  Yes, I guess that is more realistic (like as if any first person shooter was realistic), but what is the fun of creating about 20 awesome weapons if you only can carry two at a time?

A Note to Users of Google Reader

Yesterday I filed my response in the Kimberlin saga, as in the actual legal pleading/motion I filed and posted it at my blog. But for some reason, I am not finding it in Google reader. So if you would like to read what I filed in court, go here.

This post was created using email on the go, so I apologize in advance for any formatting weirdness.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

“There’s a Hole in the Bucket...” My Bureaucratic Hell Filing My Response

Update: Now it can be told...  Ken at Popehat has more on this case.

As you saw when you (hopefully) read my response two of the leading cases in Maryland on point is Lubin v. Agora, 882 A.2d 833 (2005) and Independent Newspapers v. Brodie, 966 A.2d 432 (Maryland 2009).  Lubin is actually the better precedent to apply because like the present case, it concerned the subpoena of persons who was not a party to the instant case, but might have useful information.  Still, Brodie provides important guidance on many points.

One thing that Brodie makes clear is that when a subpoena is aimed at identifying an anonymous writer, that anonymous person has a right to be heard before he or she loses their anonymity:

Thus, when a trial court is confronted with a defamation action in which anonymous speakers or pseudonyms are involved, it should ... require the plaintiff to undertake efforts to notify the anonymous posters that they are the subject of a subpoena or application for an order of disclosure, including posting a message of notification of the identity discovery request on the message board... withhold action to afford the anonymous posters a reasonable opportunity to file and serve opposition to the application;

And anonymous filings are not unheard of.  For instance, when I sued the LSAC a while back, I did so anonymously.  And when we discuss whether there is a constitutional right to abortion, we are likely to mention a case featuring an anonymous Plaintiff; indeed not only was Jane Roe a pseudonym, but there was also a married couple challenging the law known only as John and Mary Doe.  So what I was asking for was not actually very unusual.

But there is one difficulty.  Maryland Rule §1-311 requires that every pleading be signed, either by the lawyer or if the individual is proceeding pro se (that is, when you represent yourself).  And while it doesn’t say it in so many words, obviously they mean that you have to sign your real name.

It’s worth noting that the signature requirement is actually an important safeguard against frivolous suits and filings.  There appears to be a version of this rule in virtually every American jurisdiction, where they declare that every paper you file with the court must be signed and by signing it, you are assuring that to the best of your “knowledge, information, and belief there is good ground to support it; and that it is not interposed for improper purpose or delay.”  The language will change, but the thrust of the thing is the same: you are assuring that you have factual and legal support for your claims and you are not using this filing as a sham for some improper purpose.  And if it turns out that the court later finds that a pleading was filed in violation of this promise significant sanctions are available.  For instance, in the movie A Civil Action, based on a real case, the judge eventually finds that Travolta’s character violated this the Federal version of this rule, called Rule 11, and dismisses the entire case as a sanction for violating that rule (this happened in reality pretty much just as it did in the movie).  So the signature requirement is not a small technicality, but in fact part of an important procedural requirement that provides some protection against lawsuit abuse, at least in theory.  It wasn’t a requirement to just blow off.

But there had to be some way to file, and preserve my anonymity.  I suggested in my filing two ways around this problem, writing:

I Respond to Brett Kimberlin’s Motion and Subpoenas (Part 4 of a 4 PartSeries) (Update: Instalink and Other Links! Sweet!)

Update: Thanks for the Instalink and the link from The Crying Wolfe, and all the people who have been tweeting about it.

Update (II): Thanks for links from long time blogging ally Blazing Cat Fur, and from um...  since I am trying to keep the cursing to a minimum, I will just link to this second blog without naming it, and give you a language warning about the link.  Also we have “donkeytale” at myFDL who has covered this dustup before..  And the kindest link was from Gabriel Malor at Ace of Spades who writes: “Aaron is a great legal blogger and that brief is an awesome legal take-down.”  Sweet and back atcha.  Gabriel is great for following the legal geek stuff.


Update (III): Thanks to Legal Insurrection for designating this the post of the day.

Parts one through three are here, here and here.  The short version is that Bret Kimberlin, a convicted terrorist (bomber, specifically) and perjurer is attempting to obtain my real name by the use of legal process, by claiming I am a witness in an unrelated matter.  This post contains the responsive pleading I have filed today.

Hopefully by the time you read this I will have written a post explaining the procedural hoops I had to jump through to file this.  [Update: That post was written afterward, here.] Frankly it was a nightmare, and I am going to suggest that the Maryland Courts clarify the rules so that a lay person has a reasonable chance of navigating this process.  But I wanted to put the post in the can and schedule it to appear right away, so that even if something goes wrong on the other post, it will definitely go out.

But let me preface a few things.  First, there are a lot of exhibits attached to this.  I will try to create a post sharing most of the exhibits in one way or another, but that is a secondary task.  I will update this post with a link to the exhibits post when it exists.  [Update: Here's that link.]

Second, I mention a Comcast subpoena.  Since writing my response, local counsel did verify that the Comcast subpoena is indeed about obtaining my identity just as I thought.

Third, yes, I did ultimately need local counsel to file the motion to file anonymously or file under seal.  It’s a long story, but literally the courts forced me to do this.  And hopefully by the time 10 p.m. rolls around, I will have told you that story.

Fourth, you will notice very quickly I shift to talking about myself in the third person.  This is not a sign of an inflated ego, so much as the fact it sounded weird to say "I" 300 times in this kind of pleading.  Its a matter of style and that is the stylistic choice I made.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s my response:

Tune In, Tonight, At Ten O’Clock (Eastern)

 Anyone who has been following the saga of Kimberlin’s attempt to out me by subpoena has probably been wondering something like this, “where is Aaron’s (or whatever his name is) responsive pleading?”  Well, that’s the answer.  Tonight, at 10:00 p.m. Eastern time, it will go out.  It was filed today, and it has been mailed and will probably arrive tomorrow.

Okay, barring like lightning strikes or something crazy like that.  But barring anything crazy like that, the post will be up.

And it’s should be pretty big both in size and what it is saying.  Let me give you a small sample from the text of what we filed.  After making a number of recommendations to the court I say this: “Finally, this court should consider referring Mr. Kimberlin’s conduct in this case to the appropriate state authorities in order to determine if he has committed perjury.”

Oh yeah, I go there.

So grab your popcorn and get ready.  Hopefully this will be fun.


And in the meantime I will straighten out the record about what has been going on.  That will be a separate post and it will be interesting I think, at least to us legal geeks.  But the short version is that I had to deal with some bureaucratic hell to get it filed and in the meantime I was engaging in a lot of misdirection.  Hey, guess what?  When I am being stalked, I am not going to be truthful about where I am going to be and when.  Imagine that.

Gee, now my stalkers can report me to the bar for lying to you, too.  *Rolls eyes*  You know, because the bar won’t tolerate any liars, nope not at all. (For a similar, but more detailed response to this silliness, see here.)

(By the way, if you haven’t been following, read here, here and here to get caught up). 

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Follow me at Twitter @aaronworthing, mostly for snark and site updates.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

I’m Sorry Guys

But I have had an extremely long day, dealing with some work, some court issues, being sick and...  remember that problem in our plumbing?  Yeah, that’s happening again.  Ugh.

Putting my responsive pleading on the web is not just a matter of cutting and pasting.  There are some details that I am not going to splash all over the web, so some of it needs to be redacted and I just don’t have the energy for it right now.

I am sorry if that makes you feel a little jerked off, really.  I would completely understand that feeling and I am sorry for that.  But I am just out of energy for today.

Also because of a certain spammer, I have changed the comment rules to only allow registered users, including by openID.  Of course one might find it ironic that a man who wears his supposed opposition to sock puppetry on his sleeve would appear anonymously on this blog, but the man who did that is beyond enough shame to make anything ironic.

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Follow me at Twitter @aaronworthing, mostly for snark and site updates.

Monday, December 26, 2011

Update On My Kimberlin Pleading

I spent a surprisingly massive part of the afternoon printing it.  It is around 200 pages, with about 150 pages of exhibits, going from Exhibit A, to Exhibit JJ.  But I was able to get it together in plenty of time for UPS to pick it up. I will mail copies to the remaining parties by first class mail tomorrow.

And if everything goes well, the entire world will be able to read it tomorrow night.  And the screaming, crying and gnashing of teeth will begin.

Tune in.

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Follow me at Twitter @aaronworthing, mostly for snark and site updates.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

It’s Almost Christmas

There are some people who say that the way we celebrate Christmas doesn’t have much to do with the birth of Jesus and so on.

And if you look at people who push people down at a store to get a toy for their children, or you see people who care only about what they get, you might get that impression.  For instance, this video from about a week ago is funny, but the behavior of these children is very often rotten:


But then they are children and then don’t get it, yet.  I hope their parents do straighten them out soon, however.

Because you can focus on “what do I get?”  Or you can focus on “what do I give?”  You can take genuine joy out of finding just the right gift for that person to bring a smile to their face, or at least to find something that they come to be glad you gave to them.  Now of course the first example—the person who goes too far when trying to obtain a gift for their children—they are people who want to give to their children so badly, too, but have lost all sight of reason.  Children shouldn’t get every single thing they want.  And one line that should never be crossed is to be nasty or cruel to your fellow man, because you want to give so badly to someone else.

So make this a season of charity and love, both for your families and strangers you encounter every day.  Yes, as you give cool gifts to your friends and family, you will surely get gifts in return.  But if you make it about the giving and not the getting (and you keep it within sane limits), you will do honor to the man whose birthday we are celebrating.

So pull up to the fire and enjoy the company of friends and family.  Wait, you have no fireplace?  Let me give you a virtual one, then...


...and have a Merry Christmas.

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Follow me at Twitter @aaronworthing, mostly for snark and site updates.

Friday, December 23, 2011

Friday Frivolity: The "Linked Timelines" Edition!

So I have always liked the Legend of Zelda games, but I always thought the series never made sense as a series.  They kept pretending that, hey, this is a guy who never had an adventure before, who then suddenly goes on an adventure and saves the world, or something.  So if there was any continuity, it totally escaped me.


(So off I am to save the world again, for the first time...)

But apparently in Japan, they have released a Legend of Zelda encyclopedia and art book, and if IGN is to be believed (and even they are not sure...), there is a method to all the madness:

Keep in mind this is based on reports from Japan that have then been translated. We have not seen direct scans or pictures of this information in the book (so far). There is some room for error. 

With that in mind... 

The Zelda series starts with a simple progression. The first four games in the timeline, from earliest to latest are: 

3. The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords 

Here's where things get complicated, because Ocarina deals with a leap in time and technically only spells out one of those timelines with its ending. However, if these reports are to be believed, Nintendo has generated three scenarios based on Ocarina of Time. 

The first, which we'll call Timeline A, assumes Link actually fails to stop Ganon. How or why this is a logical storyline path is a bit lost on us, because the game resolves that battle, but regardless, here are the games that follow Timeline A: 

6-A. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons/Oracle of Ages 

So there's that - many games based on an odd presumption. Regardless, the next path, Timeline B, works from the presented ending of Ocarina of Time, featuring Link returning to live through his childhood. As we all know, Majora's Mask picks up shortly after Ocarina's ending, leading to these games: 

6-B. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess 

One more timeline for you. This one starts with Ganon's defeat in the Ocarina of Time era, and progresses from there - from the time that Link advanced and eventually left so he could be a child once again. Here are the games in Timeline C: 


So there you go.

Indeed.  Honestly, if this is the official word on the subject, it sounds like ex post facto bull,   But it’s an interesting attempt to make a senseless series make sense.

And it doesn’t stop the games from being great games.

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Follow me at Twitter @aaronworthing, mostly for snark and site updates.

Kimberlin Update: Christmas Is Coming Late

So yesterday I promised that I would file my response to Kimberlin’s Subpoena/Motion to Compel today and then I would post it, as well as of course serving it on co-counsel.

But here’s the thing.  I discovered that the courthouse is closed today and naturally Saturday, too.  So it won’t be possible to file it until Tuesday.

Yeah, you read that right.  They are closed both Friday before Christmas, and the following Monday.  Which strikes me as excessive.

And here’s the thing.  If I release it today, then I am not just telling my friends about it; I am giving Kimberlin the whole weekend to try to figure out how he is going to respond.  And it would be malpractice for me to do that.

And unlike Brett, I won’t perjure myself, here.  I will be polishing it some more in that time, making it better.  And yes, that means you will have to wait until Tuesday night to see it.  Hey, if I could share it with my friends without sharing it with my enemies, I would.  But that's not how them internets work.

So you are going to have to wait to open your new toy.  But I promise, it will be worth the wait.


And in the meantime, I will try to find something to put up that will whet your appetite.  And something not-Kimberlin for a change.

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Follow me at Twitter @aaronworthing, mostly for snark and site updates.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Tweet of the Day: My Secret Is Out

Bad news folks:



And I guess I shouldn’t put off the inevitable.  He is linking to this page.  Go and look for yourself.  I guess Ron and the boys can call off their attack dogs, now... they got me.

Damn you Breibart with only one T!

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Follow me at Twitter @aaronworthing, mostly for snark and site updates.

Neal Rauhauser Offers Some “Help” (Part 3 of a Planned 4 Part Series)

To review, in Part 1 we saw where after Ron Brynaert tried, and (hilariously) failed for two days to try to obtain my real name, Brett Kimberlin decided to make a go of it on the third day, by asking me to voluntarily reveal my real name, threatening to use legal process to accomplish these goals.  Then in Part 2 you see where he put forth a motion to compel and promised that a subpoena is coming.  And I said I hoped to have finished my response by today, for Part 3.

Well, it’s not quite ready yet.  I am having to wrangle around 30 separate exhibits, and at the same time I was looking for some local counsel to help me with some of the local quirks in Maryland law.  Still, I have resolved one way or the other to push something out the door by the end of tomorrow, and it is close enough that this can be accomplished.

But in the meantime, let’s give you all something juicy to chew on (and expand the series to four parts), as you wait for me to show how badly Brett Kimberlin has miscalculated the situation.  You see, the other day I got an email from someone who wanted to reach out and help me: Neal Rauhauser.

from    neal rauhauser nrauhauser@gmail.com
to         aaronjw72@gmail.com
cc         Mark Rasch [email omitted]
date     Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 12:08 AM
subject Aaron Worthing protection requirements

Aaron (or whatever your name is)

I would normally point and laugh at someone associated with Breitbart's operation getting outed, but this situation is a little different. I think you knew at the outset that your [redacted] site was offensive to Muslims, but there are some other things happening in the world that will likely make for an even more dangerous situation when your name comes out.

You are going to need someone that does the sort of things I do, someone you can trust completely with your name and other details of your life, and you've got a window of opportunity to clean things up before your name turns up in civil or criminal documents, and then on jihadi web sites not long after that.

The cc: on this message is Mark Rasch, the man who headed the DoJ Cybercrimes division during the Bush years. He is also here in the Metro D.C. area and I hope including him will make the gravity of the situation clear. I am willing, at this time, to get on the phone with Mark and explain the nature of the potential threat - he'll have someone who can help you. I get the slightest hint that anyone knows I sent this email and my schedule will be immediately full and stay that way until after the election.

Regards,

Neal Rauhauser

Oh, sure!  I could just give you my real name and you would protect me.

And I suppose you are a Nigerian prince, too, and that if I only give you $5,000 then I will get $5 million in return.

Apparently Mr. Rauhauser thinks I haven’t paid attention to Patrick’s website even back when I was a guest blogger, there.  And he also doesn’t think I am capable of googling.  For instance, if you google around looking for the various kooky conspiracy theories surrounding the mysterious Mr. Worthing, you get this Scribd document by Rauhauser.  Don’t bother making it disappear, Neal, because I have already preserved it.  But it includes lovely bits like this:

Who was paying cyberstalker Seth Allen? The pool of suspects seems limited to Aaron Worthing, Mandy Nagy, John Patrick Frey, and Andrew Breitbart. While not mentioned in this email Los Angeles County Deputy D.A.  John Patrick Frey is known to have cut Seth Allen lose from any support 48 hours before this was sent.

Yes, that is right.  These brain surgeons think Seth is a paid agent.  Or maybe it’s what they want you to think.  It doesn’t matter because creepy behavior like this doesn’t help one's cause.

And seriously, does he really think I am stupid enough to trust him with my information?  Even if I didn’t know who you were, did you think I would just give it out to a stranger?

And dear readers, consider this a bleg, too.  Does anyone know who this Mark Rasch is?  I could easily imagine it being the case that Mr. Rasch is just an innocent bystander, but who knows?

Anyway, I plan to kick my response to Kimberlin out the door by tomorrow, and then see what happens.  And then you will get to see what I wrote.  And hopefully you will enjoy it.

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Follow me at Twitter @aaronworthing, mostly for snark and site updates.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Brett Kimberlin, Convicted Terrorist and Perjurer, Attempts to Compel Google and Blogger to Out Me (Part 2 of a Planned 3 Part Series)

So in Part 1 we saw where after Ron Brynaert tried, and (hilariously) failed for two days to try to obtain my real name.  On the third day Brett Kimberlin decided to make a go of it, by asking me to voluntarily reveal my real name, threatening to use legal process to accomplish these goals.  You see Brett had sued Seth Allen a.k.a. Socrates and/or Prepostericity, for different statements that were allegedly defamation and won a momentous victory last month of an entire $100 worth of damages, which Patterico roundly mocked at the link. While Mr. Allen was being sued Mr. Allen reached out to me for help and I entered into an attorney-client relationship with Mr. Allen, offering him legal advice, for free, although there was a sharp limit to what I could do given that I was not a Maryland lawyer.  And remarkably Kimberlin wanted me to ask Mr. Allen to waive attorney-client privilege and then testify against Mr. Allen.

Now the email Mr. Kimberlin sent was delivered on December 15 at 12:15 a.m. and it was ostensibly giving a chance to voluntarily comply before he resorted to the legal process.  Given that by his own admission I was very likely to need to ask Mr. Allen’s permission to even contemplate such compliance, how long should he give me before dropping the hammer?  A week?  Two weeks?  A month?

No, how about two entire business days and the weekend before Christmas?  Does that sound reasonable to you?

So last Monday morning I got this email from Mr. Kimberlin (all spelling and grammatical errors are his):

from    Justice Through Music justicejtmp@comcast.net
to         edmd5.20.10@gmail.com, AaronJW72@gmail.com
date     Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 9:34 AM
subject Motion To Compel Re Kimberlin v Allen
mailed-by        comcast.net

Dear Mr. Worthing,

My name is Brett Kimberlin and I am writing you regarding a legal matter in which you are a potential witness.  This correspondence is strictly for legal purposes and you do not have my permission to republish this email or its contents in any public venue. 

Attached please find a MOTION TO COMPEL GOOGLE.COM AND/OR ITS SUBSIDIARY BLOGGER.COM TO DISCLOSE THE IDENTITY AND ADDRESS OF A BLOGGER WHO USES THE FALSE NAME AARON WORTHING AND WHO HAS BEEN ASSISTING AND CONSPIRING WITH DEFENDANT SETH ALLEN TO DEFAME, HARASS, STALK AND HARM PLAINTIFF filed today in Montgomery County Circuit Court. 

Under INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS, INC.v. Zebulon J. BRODIE. 966 A.2d 432 (2009), I am required to provide you notice that I seek your identity, which I did in last Thursday’s email to you, a copy of which is attached to the Motion as Exhibit A, and to which you did not respond.   Under Brodie, you also have a right to respond to this Motion to Compel. 

In addition, I have also served Google with a subpoena to produce all records related to your two blogs and your two email accounts. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me, either directly or through your attorneys.

Sincerely,

Brett Kimberlin [phone number omitted]

Now, he attached a copy of that motion to compel and I’ll show you that in a moment, but Mr. Kimberlin needs to understand something.  Here, I think I will let Admiral Akbar explain:

 

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Brett Kimberlin, Convicted Terrorist and Perjurer, Writes Me a Note (Part 1 of a Planned 3 Part Series)

So for two days last week Ron Brynaert and I tangled.  It started when he wrote a silly and unhinged post attacking me and I responded with a post, here, exposing his poor logic and serial factual inaccuracies, most of which appeared to be intentional.  Now a grown up man would admit his errors, and move on with his life, perhaps a little humbler.  But we aren’t talking about a mature man, we are talking about Ron Brynaert.

So later that evening he wrote to various officials at Yale University in an attempt to out me, as an act of crude thuggery and I published a post about this attempt, roundly mocking Mr. Brynaert’s serial factual inaccuracies and generally pathetic attempt at outing me.

Later that evening I saw where Ron Brynaert had attempted to contact a long-time internet rival trying to obtain my real identity and being hilariously and humiliatingly rebuffed in his attempt, which became the subject of a new post the next day.

So two days in a row, Ron Brynaert tried and apparently failed to obtain my true identity and you might have reasonably wondered: did he try a third time?

He did not.  His associate Brett Kimberlin did.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Light Blogging Tonight...

...but something big is coming.  You might even say it is a bit of a bombshell.

And you might even be tempted to break into a Barbra Streisand tune.  Is that an obtuse enough hint for you?

So keep an eye on this space and hopefully I will be able to put something up by the end of the evening tomorrow.  I am confident I put something up by Wednesday, at the very least.

And hopefully it will be interesting enough to justify this schmucking around and atrocious puns.

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Follow me at Twitter @aaronworthing, mostly for snark and site updates.

Frank J. Flemming Exposes the Increased Sissification of Our Society

Great satire usually makes a meta point, and Flemming, of IMAO fame, does exactly that in his most recent New York Post column talking about the NTSB’s propose ban on all cell phones—and indeed a ban on all electronic devices, such as radios and iPods:

The National Transportation Safety Board wants a complete ban on cell phone use while driving, even on hands-free calls. Some will protest this as yet another government encroachment on freedom, but we should think twice before rocking the boat here.

After all, have you considered how lucky we are that the government lets us drive cars at all?

Imagine if cars hadn’t been around for a century, but instead were just invented today. Is there any way they’d be approved for individual use? It’s an era of bans on incandescent bulbs; if you suggested putting millions of internal-combustion engines out there, you’d get looks like you were Hitler proposing the Final Solution.

Even aside from pollution, the government wouldn’t allow the risks to safety.

“So you’re proposing that people speed around in tons of metal? You must mean only really smart, well-trained people?”

“No. Everyone. Even stupid people.”

“Won’t millions be killed?”

“Oh, no. Not that many. Just a little more than 40,000 a year.”

“And injuries?”

“Oh . . . millions.”

There’s no way that would get approved today.

Seriously, read the whole thing and marvel at how much a bunch of wimps we have become.

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We Have the Crying Korean State TV Announcer on Video... (Update: Mad TV Video)

...with alleged translation in the subtitles.  I found it works better if you go to full screen.


Oy.

Update: An intentionally funny video about the late dear leader:


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Follow me at Twitter @aaronworthing, mostly for snark and site updates.

Screencap of the Day

It’s good to know that the White House practices equal opportunity for dyslexics:



Source (until they fix it, naturally).

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Follow me at Twitter @aaronworthing, mostly for snark and site updates.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Breaking: Kim Jong Il is Dead (Update: a Musical Tribute!)

We don't do breaking news here too often, but this is a big one.  According to a Cnn breaking email, that means his son, Kim Il Song, is now in charge.

Let’s hope in some way that this leads to a free North Korea, perhaps unified with the South, either by voluntary reform or overthrow.

And as for Kim Jong Il, may you roast in flames you evil son of a bitch.

(Pardon my language, but it has to be said.)

Update: Let's have a musical tribute to the softer side of Kim Jong Il:


That's from Team America, an under-appreciated pro-Bush classic from the creators of South Park.


Update (II): This BBC report has the official explanation:

The announcement came in an emotional statement read out on national television.

The announcer, wearing black, said he had died of physical and mental over-work.

Which is almost certainly bull. I wonder what he really died of?

I am guessing heart attack while engaged with a prostitute.  Just throwing it out, ya’ll.


Update (III): BBC has video of the State TV news announcer crying on air.  Heh.

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Follow me at Twitter @aaronworthing, mostly for snark and site updates.

Gift Ideas

This ain’t meant to be anything deep, just some finds I have made in the last few days.  And, hey, many of these things can be found on Amazon.  So if you were inclined, you might visit some of your favorite sites, like Patterico’s, Althouse or Instapundit and look for the Amazon search widget, which then helps them keep the lights on.  But that won’t work for everything.

For instance, first up we have the Playstation Move Mayhem Bundle:

3991358 Angle

I snagged this one at Best Buy yesterday, and then came home and asked my wife to let me keep it.  (Other married gamers will understand.)  This includes the Move Controller, which ordinarily costs about $50, the navigation controller which costs about $30, the Camera which ordinarily costs $40, the Sharpshooter attachment (the most bad-assed “light gun” attachment for the Wii or PS3) which costs $40, and then two first person shooters, which cost about $40 each.  So if you do the math, that is $240 worth of stuff, for the price right now of about $100, but only at Best Buy.  Although you might be able to convince others to match the price.

Friday, December 16, 2011

Peter Hitchens Says Goodbye to His Brother

Here’s the quote that leapt out at me:

Much of civilisation rests on the proper response to death, simple unalloyed kindness, the desire to show sympathy for irrecoverable loss, the understanding that a unique and irreplaceable something has been lost to us. If we ceased to care, we wouldn’t be properly human.


And isn’t that what I have been talking about in the last twenty four hours, how our civilization—and various uncivilized barbarians—respond to life and death? Whether it was mourning the loss of a healer in Afghanistan, or contemplating the funeral oration quality of Schindler’s List, it has all been about how we respond to death.

Anyway, I won’t quote extensively from Peter Hitchen’s first stab at a eulogy for his brother. I will just suggest that you read the whole thing. And I will say this. I am convinced that he is in a better place today. I have always said that funerals were not really for the dead. They were for the living. And in that sense, I hope the friends and loved ones left behind will find peace.

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Follow me at Twitter @aaronworthing, mostly for snark and site updates.

Friday Frivolity: The “Bad Jewish Film” Edition!

Over at PJ Media, Ed Driscoll introduces us to the debate with Tablet magazine over whether or not Schindler’s List is the worst Jewish movie of all time. Tablet magazine makes the case as follows:

Last week, Tablet Magazine published our list of the 100 greatest Jewish films of all time. At the very bottom was Schindler’s List. In a brief blurb, I called it an “astoundingly stupid” movie, which, in turn, inspired some of our readers to call me a “piece of shit” and a “neo-Nazi”—all for casting an aspersion on what, if they are to be believed, is everyone’s favorite Holocaust movie.

Which makes perfect sense: More than just a regrettable film, Schindler’s List neatly reflects the Manichean mindset of many American Jews, for whom mythology trumps memory and nothing lies beyond good and evil. Those who howled at me weren’t expressing a mere aesthetic judgment; they were defending a worldview.

To understand this worldview, we need only look at Schindler’s List. The film’s two main characters are Liam Neeson’s Oskar Schindler and Ralph Fiennes’ Nazi officer, Amon Goeth. The first is a philandering and greedy German who sees a little girl in a red coat and has a nearly instantaneous epiphany, realizing that life is precious and that Jews should be saved. The other is a monster; it’s no coincidence that the American Film Institute ranked Goeth at number 15 in its list of the 100 greatest villains of all time, just one spot below the slimy creature who terrorized Sigourney Weaver in Ridley Scott’s Alien. Goeth, too, is an otherworldly sort. He is not, like the real-life murderer on whom he is based, merely a hateful, opportunistic, and cruel young man who relished the chance to play god. He is impenetrable, predatory, inhuman. We have little reason to fear him more than we fear, say, the Nazis in Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark or the shark from Jaws; all are terrifying, but all are the sort of baddies we’ll only ever see on-screen, not the kind of ordinary and crooked and all-too-human scum living quietly next door and waiting for a stab at power.


Well, first, I always find these discussions of supposedly the worst film/song/album cover to be odd anyway. It’s more like the worst among the stuff anyone remembers. I am sure there is a more than a few clearly worse “Jewish” movies around somewhere (being a little unclear on how you decide whether a movie is “Jewish” or not). Like maybe a 90 minute film about a guy farting on a yarmulke to the tune of the Dradle Song.

And in the end I guess I just didn’t see the same movie. For one, I never thought that Schindler was okay with Jew-killing in the beginning, just that the enormity of what had been happening had not occurred to him, until that scene where he watches it on horseback. I think humans have a strong capacity for denial and that was what was in play up until that point. He found ways to ignore just how awful it was until that point. We sometimes need something to shock us out of complacency.

Double Bleg

First, I see that Ron Paul’s newsletters have come into the news with him being accused of being a racist.  Does anyone know of anywhere I can read them in the raw, outside of a paywall?  Please let me know in the comments

Second, a few people have complained about how these posts show up in Google Reader.  I have been using the service myself just to see how it appears and in my system it seems fine.  Let me know if this or any of the last two posts have the same problems we have been talking about.

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Follow me at Twitter @aaronworthing, mostly for snark and site updates.

Christopher Hitchens 1949-2011

He has finally succumbed to cancer.  Vanity Fair has the news.

I think it would be crass to comment overly much about his atheism, but he will be missed.

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Follow me at Twitter @aaronworthing, mostly for snark and site updates.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Karen Woo and the Dead End of Islamofascism

I think there could be no more potent symbol of the sheer nihilism of Islamofascism than the recent death of Karen Woo.  Here’s a picture of her:

Dr Karen Woo specialised in providing maternal and neonatal care on the expedition

The picture suggests that she was more than just a pretty face and indeed she was:

A British doctor shot dead  by the Taliban was part of a humanitarian mission that had helped 2,000 Afghans, an inquest heard yesterday.

Dr Karen Woo was executed alongside nine other aid workers after they tried to cross a mountain river in August last year.

The 36-year-old, who was due to get married a fortnight later, suffered  ‘catastrophic’ injuries from two gunshot wounds in the attack.

Shortly before her death she had helped to save the life of a baby boy who was struggling to breathe.

Her team had been halfway through a 120-mile, three-week expedition in the northern Nuristan Province when they were ambushed.

But I am sure they had a real good reason for the attack, right?

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

I Have No Justification...


...or rather, I have removed the justified formatting from most of the substantive posts going back about five days and I won’t be using that any longer.  I preferred that look, but I was getting a few complaints that if you read this site in Google Reader it looked absolutely awful.  I’m not sure why, but then again I never use that program.

Also I have disabled the site’s default use of the mobile version of the site.  I have found that when I read my own site on iPhone, the mobile version can get very messed up

So, do you like the changes?  Hate them?  Let me know.  And feel free to sound off on any other issues related to presentation.  I tweaked the look recently and even got a logo for the site (the lighthouse above).  A few people liked it, but I want to hear from the rest of you.

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Follow me at Twitter @aaronworthing, mostly for snark and site updates.

The NTSB’s Proposed Ban on Cell Phones Is Even More Ridiculous Than You Think (Because It’s Not Just a Ban on Cell Phones)



Update: Glenn Reynolds, of Instapundit fame, writes in Popular Mechanics about why this recommendation is wrong.  He also notes importantly that this is just a recommendation—they are not going to coerce states into this as I wonder below.  You would tend to think that if they were just making recommendations, they would make sure that the recommendations were not so completely idiotic that they would be rejected out of hand.  And at Instapundit, he has more.


So the news comes out today that the NTSB wants the states to ban all of the use of cell phones, except in emergencies.  From Cnn’s article:

A federal safety board called Tuesday for a nationwide ban on the use of cell phones and text messaging devices while driving.

The recommendation is the most far-reaching yet by the National Transportation Safety Board, which in the past 10 years has increasingly sought to limit the use of portable electronic devices -- recommending bans for novice drivers, school bus drivers and commercial truckers. Tuesday's recommendation, if adopted by states, would outlaw non-emergency phone calls and texting by operators of every vehicle on the road.

But there was one line in that Cnn report that puzzled me:

It would apply to hands-free as well as hand-held devices, but devices installed in the vehicle by the manufacturer would be allowed, the NTSB said.

When I read that, I wondered what the hell they were talking about.  I mean I hadn’t seen a cell phone that was permanently installed in a car since Bill Clinton was President.  I considered several interpretations, but rather than speculate, I went and found the NTSU’s official releases, to see if it might shed some light on the matter.

The truth of the matter is that they are talking about something much more radical.  Take this language from the main index page for this “Gray Summit” providing recommendations:

To the 50 states and the District of Columbia:
1.      (1) Ban the nonemergency use of portable electronic devices (other than those designed to support the driving task) for all drivers; (2) use the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration model of high visibility enforcement to support these bans; and (3) implement targeted communication campaigns to inform motorists of the new law and enforcement, and to warn them of the dangers associated with the nonemergency use of portable electronic devices while driving. (H-11-XX)

Folks, they are not talking about cell phones only.  They are talking all electronic devices.  And if you were uncertain just how radical their intentions are in this, take this screencap of a slide from the Power Point style presentation they gave:

Obama Campaign Gathering Republican Email Addresses?


The Obama presidential campaign is launching an effort to collect Republican email addresses by inviting its supporters to submit information about their Republican associates to the Obama 2012 website.

The effort could help the Obama campaign build a database that would enable it to target Republican voters during the general election campaign. But, more perniciously, it could also become part of an Democratic effort to influence Republican primary voters to select a candidate Democrats think Obama could most easily defeat....

The Obama information collection effort is cast under the mischievous guise of asking Obama supporters to "have a little fun at the expense of a Republican in your life" by signing them up to get an email from the Obama campaign ribbing them for having "inspired" the Obama supporter to donate.

The result, however, is that the Obama campaign gets a new trove of Republican email addresses that it could never have collected through voluntary submissions.

Now as of this moment if you go to the linked Obama donation website, you see this phrase included: "(Don't worry—we won't hold on to any of their information.)" First, this is apparently a recent addition to the page, as this doesn't appear in google's cache of the same page, although to be strictly fair, this might be simply clarifying what they intended all along. Second, this amounts to a matter of trust; do you trust them to do what they say they will? And more importantly, should you be risking someone else's privacy by doing so?

And of course this all fits a pattern. Previously, it was "Fight the Smears" and "Attack Watch," urging liberals to snitch out any person criticizing the President. Why exactly shouldn't we believe this is more of the same?

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Follow me on Twitter at @AaronWorthing, mostly for snark and site updates.