Disqus - Latest Comments for Questionable_Ethics

Re: The Casey Anthony Verdict: The Jury Did the Right Thing - TIME

Ideas, not names, matter most — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 23:19:15 -0000

There was also circumstantial evidence that Casey Anthony was a good mother. All of the prosecution witnesses testified that she was a doting, caring mother.

I think that the author captured it when he wrote that the prosecution was asking jurors to believe that Casey killed Caylee because she wanted to party. Most people could not fathom anyone killing her daughter for that reason.

Re: Scott Brown to come calling on Driscoll's home turf

Ideas, not names, matter most — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 19:16:08 -0000

Last comment on SalemNews.com. Good bye everyone. There's no hard feelings here. I wish Salem News and everyone who chooses to remain with the SalemNews.com community all the best. It's been a fun ride. I originally came here to provide my insight into the Hamilton police scandal, and all of the pretentiousness and hypocrisy running amok in the town's schools, churches, and town government.

I was just some guy in the ether tossing out ideas, trying to make the town a better place. I am happy to say that I have met many good people along the way. And while I may only be a blogger of little consequence, these folks have changed the Town for the better.

Here, we have another community of sorts. You may not often be in complete agreement with each other here, but always remember that a little friction generates both heat and light. Strive for the latter -- that is always what I have tried to do here and on my blog. I hope that's the way that I will be remembered, too. And, by all means, keep building community!

Peace out.

Re: Suspect claims ice, not scuffle with cop, led to fall

Ideas, not names, matter most — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 09:39:55 -0000

Well, you learn the fancy legal terms that are real words, such as 'discombobulated,' in the 2nd year of law school, and fancy legal terms that are made up, such as 'matutolypea,', in the third year of law school.

Re: Editor's View: Want to comment on salemnews.com stories? Use your name

Ideas, not names, matter most — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 22:47:18 -0000

Start with a Vice President at a bank that ultimately paid off its clients with $350 million dollars to end their lawsuits. Add some yahoo who is the son of a former Selectmen from the Town of Lynnfield breaking into some computer which then led to someone responding by surreptitiously recording him bragging about it -- and inadvertently uncovering an Evangelical sex scandal in the process. Four search warrants, 11 administrative subpoenas, two arrests, nine months of incarceration, a police and town government scandal that made national news later and ... viola!

Re: Editor's View: Want to comment on salemnews.com stories? Use your name

Ideas, not names, matter most — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 22:34:24 -0000

Or like the Trappist monks in "Of Gods and Men." Sticking to our principles, refusing to leave, refusing to compromise ... and making one hell of a concord grape jelly.

Re: Editor's View: Want to comment on salemnews.com stories? Use your name

Ideas, not names, matter most — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 18:57:08 -0000

Breaking news: David Olson has extended the real-names policy at Salem News to include writers and authors of literary works. "Salem News believes that using pseudonyms such as 'Mark Twain' and 'O. Henry' sends the wrong message about our desire to bring civility and accountability to our fine newspaper. Effective April 1st, Salem News will begin referring to Mr. Samuel Clemens and Mr. William Sydney Porter by their real names."

Olson served notice that artists and entertainers are also skating on thin ice: "For too long, actors like Carlos Irwin Estevez have hidden behind fake names in order to avoid accountability for their reckless actions. Should they continue to do this, we will extend the real-names policy to entertainers. Quite frankly, I praise Lindsay Lohan for setting an industry example by being accountable and keeping her real name throughout her long trainwreck -- er, I mean career."

Olsen would not comment on the recent controversy over requiring Salem News employees to sign their real names when writing graffiti on bathroom walls. An employee, who wished only to be identified as "Our View," said that he supported the decision. "If you are going to slander men from Nantucket and women from Cape Cod, at least you should have the courage to sign your name." That is a sentiment that the staunch anti-tergiversationist Olson likely agrees with.

Re: Editor's View: Want to comment on salemnews.com stories? Use your name

Ideas, not names, matter most — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 15:29:13 -0000

Cape Ann online had a story about this. Warning: the story references my blog. I know that some of you are troubled when my blog gets cited, so I'm giving you the heads up now.

http://capeannonline.yuku.c...

Re: Editor's View: Want to comment on salemnews.com stories? Use your name

Ideas, not names, matter most — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 14:11:14 -0000

The better part of wisdom is knowing how much information to give out and to whom. Indeed, speakers and writers are taught to know their audience. Providing your real name is unnecessary and inappropriate in an online setting, and it might cause some real life trouble for some posters.

The analogy to a letter to the editor does not hold much water. A letter to the editor requires a real name because the medium does not allow for the back-and-forth that an online forum provides. But here, other commenters can question and even challenge statements made by a commenter, and discredit his or her arguments. And SalemNews.com always has the option of blocking IP addresses. Disclosing one's real name is entirely unnecessary, and I assume requiring one to do so comes with an ulterior motive.

Re: Our View: Maintain air of transparency

Ideas, not names, matter most — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 07:44:54 -0000

That thought came to mind as I read this. We reformers need to hold our own nights out.

Re: Editor's View: Want to comment on salemnews.com stories? Use your name

Ideas, not names, matter most — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 20:18:53 -0000

I think that that will be the lasting impression that I will have about the loyalists that we leave behind here -- the theory of mind that has been nearly absent throughout this discussion over the past few days. They cannot seem to contemplate that the bravery they praise in themselves appears as buffoonery to others. They cannot seem to fathom nuance -- that there is a difference even between calling someone a 'coward' and calling an act 'cowardice.' They are rude and arrogant and ignorant in the name of condemning rudeness and arrogance and ignorance. A people deserving of the times that they live in and of each other.

Re: Editor's View: Want to comment on salemnews.com stories? Use your name

Ideas, not names, matter most — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 13:26:31 -0000

Ever the class act, David. Good luck.

Re: Editor's View: Want to comment on salemnews.com stories? Use your name

Ideas, not names, matter most — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 13:13:00 -0000

>sigh<

After much consideration, I have decided, on principle, to no longer post at SalemNews.com. I will be joining the Salem News diaspora on Salem Web, where I will continue to post using my chosen pseudonym. Dialog on the internet should be civil, and online commenters should argue their viewpoints through the use of verifiable facts and sound reasoning -- not through the use of name-calling, the ad hominem argument, nor personal abuse.

But anonymity and pseudonymity must also be maintained and protected on the web, and I cannot and will not support an online site that does not recognize this.

I have no hard feelings towards SalemNews.com nor anyone here. Rather, I send kind regards to all, and encourage you to keep building community!

Re: Editor's View: Want to comment on salemnews.com stories? Use your name

Ideas, not names, matter most — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 09:17:19 -0000

{scratches head}

Ummmm ... you do know that if you click on my name it redirects you to my blog?? And you do know that this is a feature of DISQUS, which encourages you to list your blog in your profile??

I also missed the part where commenters are profiting from their blogs as a business. I don't make any money from my blog, and, indeed, received no recognition until recently because I chose to remain ... anonymous. The reason I cite my blog is to limit the space I take up here whenever I can.

Sidenote to everyone else: this comment is endemic of what I am afraid will happen to this online community. It will be dominated by those who are simply ignorant of the way that things work online.

Re: Editor's View: Want to comment on salemnews.com stories? Use your name

Ideas, not names, matter most — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 00:05:39 -0000

Why would you ban those who cite their own blogs as a source?

Re: Thieves sentenced for taking copper gutters from Salem mansion

Ideas, not names, matter most — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 14:32:33 -0000

Now there's an idea.

Re: Thieves sentenced for taking copper gutters from Salem mansion

Ideas, not names, matter most — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 14:31:52 -0000

As long as thieves can get $3-$4 per pound of copper (which can result in up to $1,000 per heist) and copper is used to make crack cocaine, there will be an underground market and the temptation to steal copper gutters.

Re: Editor's View: Want to comment on salemnews.com stories? Use your name

Ideas, not names, matter most — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 12:37:49 -0000

Another fine piece on anonymity/pseudonymity and online discourse.

http://geekfeminism.org/201...

Re: Editor's View: Want to comment on salemnews.com stories? Use your name

Ideas, not names, matter most — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 12:31:19 -0000

I think that a website host has the right to control content published on its site, and that includes knowing the IP addresses of those who are posting.

And I think that most of us realize that we are here as guests and as a courtesy of the site's owners. There are few things that personally bother me more than one commenter posting under multiple pseudonyms. It's intellectually dishonest. I'm all for using pseudonyms -- just about every great writer did. But it is important to keep an online identity that is unique. It may be completely separated from your real identity, but it is important for your pseudonym, essentially your intellectual identity and social capital, to be held accountable, too.

Re: Editor's View: Want to comment on salemnews.com stories? Use your name

Ideas, not names, matter most — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 11:50:16 -0000

I do miss Bob Seamans/ReMaven/BeeSea...

Re: Editor's View: Want to comment on salemnews.com stories? Use your name

Ideas, not names, matter most — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 11:31:44 -0000

Just remember that you are unique ... just like everyone else.

Re: Editor's View: Want to comment on salemnews.com stories? Use your name

Ideas, not names, matter most — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 11:31:26 -0000

In my experience here in this online community, I have been less than impressed with those who post using their real names. The comments, for the most part, have been insipid and self-promoting. There are exceptions -- Barbara Anderson and Jay Burnham -- but for the most part I have stopped reading commenters who use their real names.

I believe that Salem News is doing this because it cares about its branding, and would just as soon lose commenters it believes make its readership look benighted and backwards. And Salem News is willing to lose intelligent contributors like you and others as it tries to brand itself as a paper with a smart and savvy readership.

But I believe that it misses the point. Not only will this community lose a lot of intellectual capital when members leave, but this community is precisely the place where those who blather on in ignorance can be reached and changed. Hateful, ugly, bigoted views won't just go away. People will simply learn how to hide those views and express them in increasingly more sophisticated and subtle ways.

It is the anonymous commenters who have added the most value to this community, perhaps because of and not in spite of our flaws. It will be sad to lose so many great contributors.

Re: Editor's View: Want to comment on salemnews.com stories? Use your name

Ideas, not names, matter most — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 00:52:49 -0000

For those of you planning on leaving the Salem News online community, may I suggest Salem Web? It's a vintage message board (yes, they still exist!) that has been around since the mid 90s. You have to register with a real name and email address, but you can use an online screenname -- the way all message boards use to operate. I will create a screenname there just so that I can keep in touch.

http://www.salemweb.com/cgi...

Re: Editor's View: Want to comment on salemnews.com stories? Use your name

Ideas, not names, matter most — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 16:48:48 -0000

I know that my shark has officially jumped when I no longer make melbrooksfan's A-list of farewells.

Re: Editor's View: Want to comment on salemnews.com stories? Use your name

Ideas, not names, matter most — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 16:13:44 -0000

Wow, Peter White. Did you even bother to read what I wrote, or were you just waiting to lob your next talking point? Why don't you go back and read what I wrote, this time carefully, and respond to it?

I made five specific points that were backed up with facts, and you ignored every single one, instead raising the strawman argument.

Also, please note that I am not one of the posters ridiculing your clothing, style of dress, religion, political leanings, etc. And neither do I condone that behavior.

Re: Editor's View: Want to comment on salemnews.com stories? Use your name

Ideas, not names, matter most — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 13:51:30 -0000

That was Haverhill City Councilor James Donahue, and the Lawrence Eagle tribune rightly called him out for it. He used 38 different pseudonyms to make it appear that many people supported either him or his views, when in fact it was just him. He was eventually censured for this activity:
http://webcache.googleuserc...

There are three kinds of anonymous behaviors that I believe should not be tolerated: 1) swamping the board by posting the same content over and over without adding any intellectual value, 2) scurrilous attacks on people and other posters that cannot be backed up by facts, and 3) people who post under multiple pseudonyms. As you mention, the web host can identify these by their unique IP addresses. There is nothing preventing SalemNews from blocking these commenters from posting on the site.