Please STOP SENDING EMAIL TO THESE INDIVIDUALS. There are too many of you, the over-reaction is excessive, and you are not doing our reputation any favor. See this message for more.

Some of you may have noticed the little promise over in the left sidebar.

I’m posting without comment the worst of today’s crop of email threats. Formatting will be little wacky since it is just a raw dump of the mail with headers.

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By their actions you will know them. We have had a number of raving angry Catholics in various threads here…or have we? I’ve had a moment to clean up a few threads and post some of the stuff that was held in comment moderation, and discovered that Naz, k8, promo, baker, PZ is a fool, Burns, rumrunner, Dobbs, NYTs, KKKAthiest, Andy, CDV, BradJ, Brett, b7, PCD, NVFU, Your daddy, facebock, baker and several other loud-mouthed asses who have been braying here are all one and the same person.

This is called sock puppetry. It is trying to generate the illusion of a consensus on one side of an issue by pretending to be a multitude. It is cowardly, contemptible, and stupid — not just because a blog owner can look at the stats and detect it, but because it suddenly diminishes your point of view. It makes you look so weak that you have to lie to put up a pretense of popular support, and it makes your side, in this case the fundamentalist Catholics, look like a troop of posturing frauds.

Thanks!

Aaargh, you keep filling up threads! I’m closing this one, you can continue the discussion here, if necessary.

Because performance all over scienceblogs starts to suffer when a comment thread gets too long, I’m closing the thread in which I grievously insult a cracker…but if you must, you can continue here.

This month, we have two new people who can append an OM to their names: windy and Bride of Shrek.

Remember to salute when they walk by!

Like the title says, this is your thread to tell me who deserves the Molly award for June. I’ll aim to announce the winner on 1 July.

Having reviewed the extensive evidence of obstreperous obtuse obnoxiousness, I have made a decision in the case of Pharyngulistas v. Kenny: summary termination without appeal.

And there was much rejoicing.

Man, I’m away on vacation and you rowdies get all raucus and rude in the comments. The powers-that-be at Seed have received a complaint about your heinous behavior, and have asked me (politely, and with assurances that I have full control over how to handle this situation) to address it. Here is the complaint:

Dear Sir/Madam

I wish to complain about offensive sexual language directed towards me on one of your blogs. I have included the full quote below and a link to the offensive comment. I would appreciate your attention on this matter as I consider this deeply offensive.

Thank you
Brenda von Ahsen

Here is the offensive comment. It contains quotes from other comments by Brenda herself on that thread.

Re: #79

You all can’t be so willfully stupid that you take him literally can you? Oh, I see that you can be that stupid. This is why I repeatedly wonder if it is possible for there to be any discussion at all. It seems futile, especially given the juvenile behavior here.

Re: #224

You’re spoiled, arrogant asshats who cannot treat anyone who disagrees with you with even a modicum of respect.

Brenda, you ignorant slut.

You are a pompous liar, front to back. You have been soundly spanked.

Posted by: CortxVortx | June 3, 2008 10:04 PM

Oh, dear. What am I to do?

Hmmm. Brenda accuses everyone else of being “willfully stupid,” “juvenile,” and of being “spoiled, arrogant asshats,” yet she is the one who is offended because someone dared to recite a well-known humorous line from an old Saturday Night Live skit.

I have done an extensive review of all 58 of Mr CortxVortx’s comments to Pharyngula, and have found a general absence of misogynist malice, but he does seem to have a sense of humor.

Likewise, I have reviewed all 24 of Ms von Ahsen’s comments, and have found a consistent prickliness and the complete absence of a sense of humor.

My judgment: Mr CortxVortx is guilty of a deficiency of vowels in his pseudonym and of doing an almost unrecognizable Dan Ackroyd imitation. As punishment, he is henceforth required to shun all use of lines popularized by the inestimable Mr Ackroyd unless he is also wearing a hat and sunglasses in the style of Jake and/or Elwood Blues.

Ms von Ahsen is guilty of insufferable pretentious self-centeredness. No penalty will be imposed by this blog, as it is punishment enough.

The court is recessed. The next case on the docket may be some clown named Kenny.

It was commencement weekend here in lovely Morris, Minnesota, and I spent yesterday in a funny outfit posing for parents and going to commencement parties, and this morning was spent ferrying #2 Son to the Twin Cities for his long bus ride back to Madison. It’s time to buckle down and finish my grading now.

But on a happy note, I think we can safely close the nominations for this month’s Molly already: it’s a landslide, and I don’t think Kenny has a chance of catching up, and also we should celebrate the winner’s birthday somehow. The Molly for May 2008 goes to Etha Williams.

We’re all caught up on the new Molly inductees: for March, it’s Glen Davidson, and for April, brokenSoldier. Give them your attention when they comment!

Of course, now we have to gather nominations for May. Who are the commenters who make you perk up and think? Name them in the comments to this post.