Yah, man, my peeps is living in Delaware. Or at least, I’m digging
the Supreme Court there.

In a defamation case involving an anonymous blogger and a thin-skinned
Smyrna Town Councilman, it was decided that what with free speech and
all, the ISP didn’t have to expose who the blogger is. Come on,
Councilman Patrick Cahill, how do you figure mental defective and
“Gahill” (as in he’s so gay) was defamation and not just fucking goofy
name-calling?

I particularly love the Gahill thing, because it kind of begs the
question when is being called a homo going to cease being defamatory?
Plus it’s so wicked junior high.

My favorite part of the story, though, is this quote from one of the judges:

“Blogs and chat rooms tend to be vehicles for the expression of
opinions; by their very nature, they are not a source of facts or data
upon which a reasonable person would rely,” wrote Chief Justice
Steele.

I only wish he had said that before I had the circular Human Resources
conversation involving my repetition of “I’m a writer; It’s not real;
It’s comedy; I’m a writer…” ad nauseam (well at least my nauseam).

The other notable point was the thing about the fun, fun, fun part of
publishing on the web is the do-it-yourself element. Someone slagging
off on you in his weblog, publish one of your own and call him a
cock-sucking liar, if you must.

Which reminds me, my buddy at hbeeinc.com wrote something about the
Fuck Bush T-shirt crowd. It hit close to home, because I weep and
lament for the fact I lost my very own Berkeley-purchased “Fuck Bush”
T-shirt in the big move west. (Sadly, I haven’t seen that vendor
again on Telegraph Hill.)

Basically, Hbee is stating why he doesn’t like that kind of shirt
himself as a parent and a liberal who fantasizes about a free and just
society. If my current IP address wasn’t blocked on his weblog I
would be commenting back:

Hey, I wear it to piss off people just like you. That’s the fun part.
Seriously, though, when I wore it I realized the language was
offensive, and to me that’s part of the activism of it. I also fully
accepted that some people would be completely turned off by it.

I think the more interesting point is now people have T-shirts (or
whatever) that say offensive or strong or political or whatever things
(or, I dunno, carry placards with oozing aborted embryos) and get all
shocked and surprised when someone finds them offensive. If you do
something intentionally to piss people off, you have to suck up the
consequences of pissing somebody off. That’s not about free speech,
it’s about your right to be an asshole and having to hear about it.

Some of us revel in our assholic behavior. I think if I were tossed
off a plane for wearing a “Fuck Bush” T-shirt, assuming I’d be that
fucktarded to wear it in that setting, I’d have to embrace the story.

By the way, after buying that T-shirt here and then going to the
Folsom Street Fair, I gotta report that the Bay Area is magnificently
and crazily more liberal than even the imagination of the wildest
Massachusetts liberal. Nothing, nothing, nothing in Boston comes
close to Nancy Pelosi’s city.

Also, by the way, if ever you want to boost traffic to your website,
publish pictures from the Folsom Street Fair. Them fetish and leather
loving rascals do love the photos, I have found. The hit rate of a
leather-clad ass grab is off the charts.