“The Pagan Right is a vigorous defender of conservative values and classical liberalism in an arena that few other conservatives have access to. It is time the movements were linked together so that both are strengthened.”
— Rob Taylor, Jan. 22, 2001
In January 2008, I interviewed Roger L. Simon, CEO of PJM, for a feature article in The Washington Times, in which I wrote, “In this Wild West online frontier, Mr. Simon might as well be John Wayne.”
Between the time I interviewed Roger and the time that interview was published, I tendered my resignation at the Times, so that this feature profile was actually my last bylined article for the paper.
Though entirely a coincidence, this was perhaps fitting, as I subsequently have made my career as a gunslinger in that “Wild West online frontier.” And for a while, I was an occasional contributor to PJM, for example reporting on a July 2008 campaign appearance by John McCain in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and reporting from the Democratic National Convention in August.
That friendly relationship continued until Sept. 12, 2009, when my PJM coverage of the 9/12 March on Washington — the biggest rally of the Tea Party movement — proved to be the spark that lit the fuse of Charles Johnson’s final meltdown at Little Green Footballs. Although Roger professed continued friendship toward me, my future offers to contribute at PJM were rebuffed by the editors (not Roger himself) and, with the exception of an April 2010 article specially solicited by my friend Charlie Martin, I ceased to be a contributor.
Certainly this was not the result of any animosity on my part. Many of my friends are associated with PJM and link me in their blogs. However, it gradually became obvious to me that something (most likely my role in the LGF meltdown) had made me persona non grata in the eyes of influential people at PJM. Someone within the organization had decided I could never officially be affiliated with PJM.
“It’s not personal, Sonny. It’s strictly business.”
It’s frustrating, this inability to remedy a problem I understand completely: Being “controversial” makes it impossible for friends to offer me positions for which I am otherwise qualified.
Charles Johnson understood this, too: If he could do nothing else to harm me — and I have continued to succeed despite all his deranged viciousness — Johnson knew that his attacks would attach a permanent taint to my name, forever casting me under a penumbra of suspicion that would damage my career as a professional journalist. So I am sympathetic when my friends at PJM and other organizations profess their personal friendship for me and their admiration for my work and yet, inevitably, pre-emptively strike me from the list of names to be considered when it comes to hiring opportunities or other recognition.
Not a Synonym for ‘Crazy’
No one will ever say this to my face, of course, and I sometimes wonder if perhaps my friends are no longer even consciously aware of why they hold me at arm’s length. Nothing succeeds like success and nothing fails like failure, and there is a sort of momentum to things like this, whereby one snub leads to the next rejection and so on until, before you know it, you find yourself on the receiving end of backhanded insults. And when you attempt to halt this snowball of negativity by calling attention to such contemptuous treatment, the friends who have insulted you will redouble the insult by accusing you of “whining,” and others act as if you have lost your mind.
About a month ago, when I e-mailed friends to express alarm at an apparent increase of negative attitudes toward me, one friend responded by urging me to seek professional help for a “chemical imbalance”!
Well, maybe I get so jacked up on coffee that my e-mails sometimes seem crazy, but there is nothing irrational in my perception of the situation. Nor is there anything insane about my efforts to prevent the problem from snowballing by publicly calling attention to occasional snubs.
My methods may be unusual, but “unusual” is not a synonym for “crazy.”
Keep this in mind: If you find yourself excluded where you expected to be included, one of two explanations is possible:
- You have been considered and rejected; or
- You were merely ignored.
This is applicable to many scenarios in organizational dynamics. If you find yourself passed over or excluded in such a situation, a judgment has been rendered. Your natural sense that you have been unfairly rejected does not justify anger toward the person or persons who have rendered this judgment. Nor is a self-pitying attitude of victimhood helpful. Your emotions, although perfectly understandable, cannot explain or resolve your problem.
In a situation where you have been considered and rejected, the decision may reflect an honest assessments of your shortcomings. More likely, however, you were merely ignored — overlooked, “out of sight, out of mind,” a name that never occurred to the decision-maker when they were compiling the list that did not include you. For some reason, your abilities and achievements have not earned the positive attention you had hoped.
Either way, the best way to remedy your problem — assuming it is not irremediable — is to seek an explanation from the decision-maker. “What am I doing wrong? How may I fix whatever the problem is?” Whether you were rejected because you are a Bad Person, or omitted because you are a Nobody, you’re never going to know the answer if you don’t ask.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
All of this is preamble to an astonishing bit of news: PJM has hired David Swindle as an associate editor. Swindle evidently had been given hiring authority for “PJM Culture,” and has hired Rob Taylor among the contributors to this new project.
Friends contacted me about this, and I was at first tempted to write Roger Simon an e-mail with the subject line, “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot”?
The choice of Swindle is astonishing enough. It took Swindle less than two years to run David Horowitz’s NewsReal blog into the ground. Failed online projects are common enough that one cannot necessarily blame the pilots of the doomed aircraft. However, this particular crash produced complaints from some former NewsReal contributors that suggested poor judgment on Swindle’s part. Most especially, Swindle invited American University student Alex Knepper to contribute at NewsReal and, when Knepper subsequently offended readers, Swindle then mounted an extraordinary (and evidently quite personal) vendetta against Knepper.
Well, Swindle is a young man and young men sometimes do foolish things, being unfamiliar with the Ways Things Should Be Done. As weird as the Knepper episode was, however, I might have dimissed it as a rookie mistake had Swindle not subsequently permitted a NewsReal blogger to personally defame me and refused to rectify the blunder. As I wrote in June:
[L]ast December, [Rob] Taylor used his posting privileges at David Horowitz’s NewsReal blog to compare me to serial killer John Wayne Gacy (!), and when I objected to his malicious defamation, Taylor doubled down, calling my blog a “little LGF like cult of degenerates, ‘Men’s’ movement sissies and neo-nazis,” calling me a “liar” and gay-baiting me (!!) to boot.
Just as he used NewsReal to attack me, Taylor then used his posting privileges at Red State to attack me, which was the occasion of my June post, “Self-Proclaimed Pagan Rob Taylor Lectures Conservatives on Morality?”
At no point has Taylor ever explained to readers that he has been harboring a grudge against me that dates back to September 2009, when he dogpiled me in the wake of the LGF meltdown. Taylor has never apologized for nor recanted his repeated attacks on me. Instead, on each occasion when I’ve called attention to these attacks, Taylor has doubled down, dishonestly denying his personal malice, then adding further insults and accusations.
And now Swindle has brought his friend Taylor within the fold at PJM, where my own friends apparently are unable to do the same for me.
So I find myself confronted with new evidence showing that, however sincere Roger Simon is in expressing personal friendship toward me, this friendship is not sufficient to prevent his company from promoting the work of someone who has repeatedly attacked and insulted me. Not only am I apparently prohibited from further writing for PJM, but those with hiring authority have sought ways of giving new prominence to my implacable enemies, who hate me without cause.
What should I make of this? The only possible conclusion is that, while Roger is my friend, other people associated with PJM — those responsible for bringing the Swindle/Taylor team aboard — are actively hostile toward me. This is a possibility that had long loomed over my dealings with PJM: If the CEO likes me, and yet I remain persona non grata there, someone else in the organization must be exercising influence against me.
Am I Fredo Corleone, to be treated this way?
Am I a useless imbecile, who may be insulted with impunity? Am I powerless to retrieve my fortunes and vindicate my dignity against the secretive whispering malefactors who have conspired to humiliate me in such an ostentatious manner?
It doesn’t matter how this happened. I can’t let it pass unremarked.
“It’s not personal, Sonny. It’s strictly business.”
I am the Ellsworth M. Toohey of the blogosphere. That the right wing nuts even pay me any mind any more is…well amazing. But I do have the ability to influence the weak minded out there.
I think something like this happened to Jeff Goldstein.
It’s a pity. Some of my favorite bloggers are part of PJM these days — but you know what you get when a drop of sewage is added to a fine Napoleon brandy: the world’s most expensive bottle of sewage.
Reynolds, Green and Preston will survive. Not so sure about Roger.
I doubt you are unaware of Roger Simon’s history of backstabbing… But just in case:
http://dennisthepeasant.typepad.com/dennis_the_peasant/ragging_on_roger_simon/index.html
And when you attempt to halt this snowball of negativity by calling
attention to such contemptuous treatment, the friends who have insulted
you will redouble the insult by accusing you of “whining,” and others
act as if you have lost your mind.
You neglected to add quotes around ‘friends.’
…however sincere Roger Simon is in expressing personal friendship toward me…
Oh he may be sincerely expressing friendship, but do not confuse that with what an actual friend would express under a similar set of circumstances.
Forgive me for not reading past the first section, but I cannot see how Stacy can be regarded as responsible for the LGF meltdown. It had been coming for months; the number of mini-melts (including some really bizarre name-calling and atrocious attacks on commenters) had already occurred. The baying pack had been empowered and unleashed at the slightest twitch of dissent from an increasingly obvious hard port turn. Even a squishy sort of conservative like me could see it, and respond with dismay.
Anyone who blames anyone but LGF, its proprietor and its remaining commentariat for the Great Meltdown is committing an injustice.
And just for that, I’m hitting the tip jar. It won’t make Stacy feel any better, but it might ease my irritation.
Two quick points: 1) Dennis the Peasant’s history of PJM, based on my own experiences, is correct, and
2) There is a second force working here: Roger is Hollywood. In Hollywood, you NEVER forgive someone you screwed, especially if they’re crass enough to disrespect your clout by complaining about it publicly.
Secondly, once you’ve screwed someone, it is imperative to see they STAY screwed, so as not to impugn your own judgment or character.
As one who has accused RSM of whining, I’d like to say that this post is a lot better than some of those previous whiny posts.
Also, I don’t see a lot of evidence of cultish behavior around here, but the degenerates thing may hit home a little…
Filed under: BLOGFIGHT
RSM,
There is a 3d possibility: you are The Competition.
You and your blog have plenty of merit: you’ve got your own Smitty, and a professional Wombat on your team. You are a classicly trained journalist.
And you’ve got some demerits as well:
You don’t take yourself seriously and PJM readers want George-freakin’-Will-seriousness; and you elected to declare for Cain instead of staying neutral; and for some of potential readers, you’ve got a regular feature of Rule 5 links to blogs that are NSFW. And yes I go to those blogs, too.
And, your playing with LMA and others regarding male/females roles, reproduction and such are enough to give Republicans a serious case of the vapids, and Democrats the vapours. Of course, a description of the proper mixing of a Tom Collins will do that too.
You are one of several competitors with PJM, just like Heritage, Cato, and similar virtual organizations. Just my opinion.
People like CJ will always APPEAR to have succeeded in their vile and underhanded deconstruction. This is because they carefully cultivate only those that share a like defective character and a willingness to deceive, deny and attack those of better character than themselves.
They may appear to have success but please do not let this eat at you and magnify any self-doubts. (that you have self doubts puts you in a class above them). They HAVE their reward and it is hollow and tastes like ash in their mouth but they can never admit this for to admit error opens them to criticism and pity which they cannot abide.
They know their own worth as they demonstrate their unwillingness to entertain well constructed argument or opinions other than their own. They live in a world of mirrors and their IS NO substance or soul in a mirror.
Live long and prosper for you have already achieved more than they could ever dream of doing.
OK, here’s my two bits, for what it’s worth:
Looking back at Roger Simon’s relationship with “Dennis The Peasant”, there’s another possibility. Specifically, Roger Simon is not your friend. Or, at least, his friendship with you is not as valuable as you hold it.
Admittedly, the Simon/DtP kerfuffle was pretty much “he said, he said”, with Roger not saying much. That makes it circumstantial evidence, at best. But it’s possible that Roger is loyal only unto himself, or (to be kinder) he puts the organization first, above friendship.
Next, factor in Charles Johnson’s original involvement with Pajamas Media, his subsequent meltdown (which, as you note, had been building up well before that) and subsequent hatefest against you. Johnson, no matter that he is a burned out wacko seeking to extend his 15 minutes of fame by throwing his core beliefs under the bus, is still considered a “conservative” blogger by many on the left, who are happy to listen to him (fools that they are). CJ then becomes a quotable mouthpiece for the lefties and MSM (yes, I do repeat myself)……one who has a bone to pick with you.
His meltdown was NOT your fault, but such people seldom blame themselves. As far as CJ was concerned, you were in the wrong place place at the wrong time, saying the wrong thing…..and the cause for his problems. In the eyes of Charles Johnson, it will never be his fault.
This sets the stage for the next item: if you assume that Pajamas Media wishes to avoid negative publicity at all costs, and that Roger Simon views you as a liability, thanks to CJ’s mouth, well, then, you wouldn’t be welcome with open arms. From those assumptions, your treatment by Pajamas Media makes sense, within the framework of some sort of corporate model. Under this scenario, either Roger is a lying cad, or he isn’t gentleman enough to admit the truth. That’s my personal assessment; there are likely other possibilities as well.
One more point: yes, I am also assuming that Roger Simon is not a good judge of people, something that you puzzled over when you wrote about David Swindle above. This is something that DtP pointed out several times on his blog, in regards to Charles Johnson. That’s not enough data to show a trend, but it is…..interesting.
Mr. McCain: as someone who has been the recipient of similar treatment, let me pass one of favorite parts of No Country For Old Men.
Ed Tom Bell: That man that shot you died in prison. Ellis: Angola. Yeah… Ed Tom Bell: What you’d done he had been released? Ellis: Oh, I dunno. Nothing. Wouldn’t be no point in it. Ed Tom Bell: I’m kindly surprised to hear you say that. Ellis: Well all the time ya spend trying to get back what’s been took from ya, more is going out the door. After a while you just have to try to get a tourniquet on it.
Richard, your second point is a great one, and goes far to explain what’s going on with Stacy and PJM.
For some reason, reading this piece brought to mind a slogan I’ve seen on various t-shirts, mostly worn by Marines and bikers: “Heaven doesn’t want me, and Hell’s afraid I’ll take over.”
It seems to me that there’s a third possibility beyond “rejected because you are a Bad Person, or omitted because you are a Nobody.” That alternative would go something like “Stacy’s personality tends to dominate any venue he’s in, and whether we like that personality or not, we definitely don’t want to be overshadowed by it.”
Does anyone really take them seriously? Relax Stacey, it’s all good.
I don’t read PJ anymore but I faithfully read this blog…for what it’s worth.
I think you have a heck of a good product here.
Is frontpage where every article had, minimum, 7 or 8 pages you had to click through? Lists of ten …dingus. Not much else it seems, I really can’t say though, the format was so offensive I didn’t visit often.
I’ve never had any troubles with David, and like him, whatever his shortcomings as a businessman may or may not be. The Taylor stuff, though . . . ugh.
Anyway, I want to assure all reading this post that I earned my demerits quite apart from any association with Stacy, by the sweat of my beetled brow. I’m like an imploded O. Henry hero.
I do enjoy my vile underhanded deconstruction. And yes I carefully cultivate only those who share a like defective character and willingness to deceived, deny and attack those of better character.
Such as when Kilgore Trout placed racist comments at Hot Air and then accused Hot Air of being racist the next day. Then when caught, I didn’t ban Kilgore, I just said “What can you do? Kids!”
Bwwwwaahhhhhhh!
Roger Simon is a useful idiot.
Bwwwwaaaahhh!
I like “case of the vapids.” That’s quite nice.
I think it’s important to remember that a lot of these youngsters very likely work for a lot less than Stacy and I do, so it could be that some feel that a little enemy-making on the side might be all in good fun… if it saves enough money.
The idea of competition might apply, except that the b-sphere doesn’t always work like that: it’s as likely to collaborate with others as compete against them.
Keep in mind, though, that Stacy only got called LGF-ish, and possibly racist (as always). This kid Knepper was labeled a pedophile, which is a good deal worse than what happened to Stace.
Or how about the time I got Patterico to go after RSM. That was just delightful to watch. I made a few accusations and Patterico jumped right into it, just to get back at Protein Wisdom.
Good times. Good times.
So is Patterico.
News Real Blog..
And yes. Many posts had 8-10 pages to click through.
Also, it took it a while to load for me. Admittedly, I have DSL which is like the olden days of dial up anymore but still. It’s all text base pages, why load it down with clunky apps and other widgets to slow down the page load?
I would so enjoy destroying Reynolds, Green, and Preston. Damn them for out thinking me. Damn them to hell!
Roger Simon, however, is already one of my minions. Even if he does not recognize it. He is so easy to manipulate.
I take myself very seriously.
LMA,
Glad you liked the expression! Blogging at RSM and your level has a large commercial component to it. Being accused of racism, sexism, procreationism is enough to send blogvertisers elsewhere.
Roger Simon and personal politics aside, is what we’re seeing a proof of John Hawkins’s theory that conservative blogs must either grow larger or go down the memory-hole? Does your move to The Conservative Commune from LMA also prove his theory?
If RSM goes corporate, how likely is it that we’ll see Instalanches and favorable links from PJM and its contributors go by the wayside?
Target, meet bullet. Well said!
I’d add, without being privy to any of the “insider” history, that partly what makes RSM so interesting to read is his range and versatility.
Sometimes, RSM deligently zeroes-in on a target with sniper-like patience and precision. But he’s also adept in close quarters skirmishes. And, every once in a while, he’ll get drunk (metaphoricall speaking) and shoot from the hip.
RSM has high standards of quality – in that sense, this blog has unusually high verticality. But RSM also places relatively few contraints on his horizontal freedom-of-action (e.g., Rule 5, traditionalist essays on family planning, etc.), which is resented by people who are easily offended and/or run blogs who cater to people who are easily offended.
In other words, this blog and RSM are not PC. And, as we know, the right has its own political correctness enforcement.
He isn’t responsible, but up to that time he became embroiled in the meltdown, Charles still had quite a bit of credibility and sway in the Conservative blogosphere. Charles saw to it that Stacy had just enough taint to his name to be persona-non-grata throughout. Charles did it once before, with Robert Spencer and Pam Geller. Spencer used to “Blog the Koran” every Sunday until Chuck went nuclear. Hotair went defensive, much as PJM is doing with Stacy now.
No matter how discredited the source and specious the charges, those allegations have a life of their own and many don’t want to have to deal with them if it’s easier to ignore them and get someone without that reputation.
“You can have my answer right now, Senator. Nothing. Not even the filing fee for the license, which I would appreciate you paying personally.”
I knew none of this stuff when I clicked through Swindle’s introduction of his new seven-writer lineup yesterday.
I do recall thinking it had been an utter waste of time and none of the writers or their assigned niches held enough of my interest to ever earn another click. If the plan is to clog up their page with more irrelevant junk, I’ll just visit less often. Hanson, Ledeen, and Green are the only ones I read regularly anyway.
My guess is that bringing you on would be a reminder of the CJ stuff, which all of them understandably wish to forget. Mistakes that epic hurt for a long time.
Any perception/accusation that one is anti-gay makes one unacceptable over there. PJ’s reaction to any group that objects to GOProud’s presence at CPAC produces a nuclear reaction.
Heh. In fact, for most of my career as a journalist, I prided myself on seamless transparency of my style, wherein the writer’s hand is invisible and all that is seen is the subject of the article.
My expertise at this sort of invisibility was, of course, something that had to be discarded when I began writing a blog, where being a “personality” is part of the stock in trade.
But I am not “difficult” – except when I am, of course. Basically, I spent two decades subordinating myself to organizational demands, and decided when I struck out on my own that there was no point trying to be accepted for being anything other than as myself. I could always go back to driving a forklift, after all.
This blog is much better than PJM.
Though they occasionally have a good foreign policy piece and that Alfonso guy is pretty good.
The rest is pretty “meh”
Do you still contribute at RWN? I almost never go there anymore but that’s where you were introduced to me, same for Pirates Cove.
Well, Knepper’s a kid. When I became aware of what was happening with him, I told him to restrain his arrogant showoff tendency to make darevil arguments at the far edge of extremely controversial topics. (Obviously, I’ve seen what results from such arrogance.) Taking pride in your argumentative ability can lead to a situation where you’re thinking more of the brilliance of your syllogisms than of the impression you may be creating among people who don’t understand what you’re doing. “Hey, let me try making a controversial argument about pedophilia” is the kind of impulse wise people resist.
As to some of the derogatory things being said by various commenters about Roger Simon: My point here is not to suggest that Roger is a bad person. My point is that I’ve apparently managed to get myself into a situation where my friends are powerless to help me, while my enemies don’t hesitate to do me all the harm they can. This is a problem of my own making, but I had to do something to try to fix it.
Maybe what I’ve done is the wrong thing, but it’s reminds me of something a high-school baseball coach once told me. After a two-out walk and a series of errors had led to the opponent scoring enough runs to tie the game, the coach changed the pitcher. This struck me as foolish because, except for the one walk, the pitcher had not been at fault for the other team’s rally. The coach said, “Well, I had to change something, and I couldn’t replace the whole team.”
So, in attempting to reverse my own decline, I had to change something. Whether I made the proper change is a decision subject to criticism, based on subsequent events.
Considering GOProud gleefully sunk their own battleship with intemperate remarks and being indistinguishable from Progressive GLBT groups when it comes to social and security issues (DOMA, DADTDP), I doubt I’ll be hired by PJM for noting that.
OK, well, y’all have got me on a roll here, so let’s unpack this a bit and look at some possible causes of Stacy’s … exclusion from the country club, so to speak.
At first blush, I’d discount journalistic elitism, seeing how RSM is in fact an experienced journalist, former Washington Times editor, etc.
But, as he points out, when he left that reservation he did so in a big way. So there might be some of that (“tragedy … the old boy went Asiatic on us — can’t let him on the croquet course, he might think he sees a Bengal tiger in the bushes and pull out his rifle”) at play.
And there’s the “conservative PC” angle, which admittedly might have something to do with it. Even worse than being at times un-conservative-PC, he’s even been known to mock conservative PC. And mockery is the unforgivable sin in any PC structure.
But, I’m going to elaborate my own theory a bit.
Most opinionators who start their own blogs, or come on as writer at a bigger, mult-writer blog, quietly envision themselves as not just opinionators, but opinion makers … and even, secretly, when they don’t think anyone is around to hear, they might even whisper the term “opinion leader” to themselves, just to try out how it sounds.
Nothing wrong with that at all — did it myself at one point when I was getting some fairly big-time links (oddly, from the other side of the spectrum — Slate and Salon) and starting to think that just maybe my little thing might become some kind of commentary juggernaut (it’s since degenerated into a catch-all personal blog of no great note, and I’m okay with that).
However, some opinionators who secretly fancy themselves opinion makers or opinion leaders get a bit insecure, and that manifests itself as (ahem) fear and loathing of other opinionators who may not even know a rivalry exists.
The better (IMO) opinionators aren’t like that. Doesn’t bother Reynolds a bit to throw some link love at someone else who hit something first, better, or just interestingly. I’d certainly class RSM in there as well — he goes out of his way to do it as much as humanly possible.
But the envious ones will do as little as that of possible, except perhaps in their own little circles of people who all secretly consider everyone else in said circles so obviously inferior to themselves as to merely be opportunistic baskers in the reflected glory of their own personal suns … and having one of the obviously better opinionators brought on board is something up with which they shall not put, for obvious reasons.
None of this, of course, should be taken to mean that I always agree with RSM — I don’t, and sometimes the disagreements are serious and intense (in which case I try to capitalize on them to my own aggrandizement, and he lets me, which of course is one of the things that makes him one of the better opinionators, even if he is a feral Confederate peckerwood populist chihuahua).
There is definitely a misconception out there that GOProud is in favor of gay marriage. That is unfortunate.
What I would do is play the Proverbs 25:21-22 card. Link their posts until the browser screams. Work out the angst in a good way. But then, I’m contrary like that.
I pity the fool who thinks he can tell the Blogfather what he can and can’t link. Glenn Reynolds was a major-league blogger before PJM came along, and they need him a lot more than he needs them.
Thanks for the compliment.
#^_^#
There were a few reasons that Dan and I started Conservative Commune. One of them is that it was difficult to get my essays on energy and the economy taken seriously at a site with a name like “Little Miss Attila” and a full-on blog-like appearance.
But the irony of running any kind of a business (even a tiny one that isn’t yet profitable–though we run on a shoestring, so that’s okay) is that one never has time to do the thing one is passionate about. Naturally, instead of writing the wonkier articles I wanted to do, I’m as likely on any given day to be editing the ones that others have posted, and art-directing. (Stacy’s background is in newspapers–mine is in monthly magazines, and it’s a very different kind of journalism. We magazine types are more interested in the visuals, and we like the product to look as “finished” as possible. Blogging is raw, but I do try to clean things up a bit. The guys pretend that they simply cannot find good art, or can’t crop it properly, etc. etc., but–you know. Chicks are skeptical about such things; aren’t there men out there who wash dishes badly just so they won’t be asked to do it again?)
I am (politely) snickering. Saying that one is not difficult is rather like sending up flares, renting a couple searchlights, and firing up a neon sign.
Speaking as one who every now and then proclaims that she is not moody, not at all!
I have read Taylor’s stuff with horror. Links that lead to nothing verifiable (unless it’s his own blog); a complete inability to understand literature; an open hatred of the science fiction and fantasy world. I’m not going to bother to comment on his material any more – I did it once, and got treated dismissively, when I was complaining about links.
That’s not a good sign.
Did you mean Roger? He’s the businessman. (You may put quotes around that, if you like.)
“Demerits.” Heh.
Bob Owens coverage of Fast and Furious has been pretty good.
You forgot Richard Fernandez–he’s one of their best.
Well, no one did anything that affected me personally. And on occasion I find that too much drama takes time and attention away from posting actual stories . . . you know how that is.