Dear Readers please allow me this personal thought.
Today, I was Banned From Little Green Footballs. My Crime, I am friends with Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs and I link to both Pamela and Robert Spencer.
Pamela and Charles Johnson of LGF had a now famous falling out about a year and a half ago. On this site and especially on LGF, I have stayed out of it. Although I have discussed with Pamela privately as friends do.
To be honest, Charles is a legend in the blog world, he has done so much to legitimize the "blogisphere" as a news source, he has outed false reporting from the mainstream media more times than I can name. I will not bad mouth Charles on this site. I have learned much from him.
But I have been saddened by the way Charles has distanced himself from Pamela and others in this small world of blogging, Robert Spencer for example whose work I link to on my site Charles also mentioned in his email to me explaining the ban. This blogging world which Charles helped to created is too small and faces too many challenges for us to fight amongst ourselves. Even the words we use with each other are a signal to how we should be dealing with one another words like link, pick-up and hat tip.
Unfortunately while I am respectful of Charles and all that he has done for me, there is one thing I value more than anything, that is loyalty and friendship. It was three years ago, in June 2006, when I decided to post regularly on these pages. In those newbie days, Pamela Geller (even then one of the biggest names in the blog world) was always there to answer my questions, give me advice, tell me that the hard work was making a difference.
It is three years later and she is has become a close friend, and I don't give up friends for anybody.
Charles I feel bad that I am on the banned list, you cut the path that I now take, and The Lid is better off because of being associated with you.
Additionally the ban I will hurt traffic, LGF regularly contributes up to 20% of my readership. But more important is one of the things I learned from LGF, don't abandon what is right. That traffic will be hard to make up, and my growth as a blogger will be stunted a bit, but friends you can trust are amongst the hardest thing in the world to make. I will not sell out my friends for traffic.
I thank you for the learning and wish you nothing but success.
35 comments:
I still link ya!! :)
Welcome to the club, Yid - put your name on the list ay The list of the banned... and stop in at LGF2 and meet up with friends.
YidWithLid!
Welcome to the world of the banned.
We have our own chat as well. It's linked up at about 15 blogs now. We'd love to chat with you there. On my blog, www.kirls.blogspot.com, click on the duststorm, enter a username of your choice, and jump in!
Yid - You are a class act!
As a fellow LGF refuge I will support your blog and I know my friends at the Table 9 Lounge will also
You are a Mensch!
I'll add Yid to my blogroll. I'm no LGF but maybe if enough of us "little guys" do it we can make up for some of your lost traffic.
Excellent post - the sincerity rings true and the class you show as an individual is refreshing.
Don't worry about your traffic, it will come back. Severing your ties to LGF, even if not by your choice, just may find you newfound readership.
Best of luck.
You raised and discussed the issue like a real mensch - that says volumes about you.
Classy Sammy. Just my opinion, but you just keep outdoing yourself on your blog, I suspect it will do just fine. Bless you.
You're too kind. He may have helped you, and I'm sure that was a valuable, but Charles is now on the other side, as far as I'm concerned.
When folks like Andrew Sullivan start using LGF as source material you know something is badly wrong in the conservative blog world.
Send me your links. Get on my e-mail list. Join my community. Traffic is great. Comaraderie is great. Support for what is right is great. We don't miss Charles ...
Hi, I'll put you on my blogroll. That will increase your traffic by at least one person - me, and hopefully others, too.
I begged Charles to quit this family feud as well as Robert & Pamela. I feel like a mother trying to get the kinder to quit fighting. Sometimes you have to agree to disagree. But I have to say Charles relevancy has been diminishing while you, Pamela & Robert have been on top of everything. Thanks as always for your tireless work.
Sammy, heard at Table 9 tonight that you had been banned from LGF, too!
I got the boot this week from there as well. (http://is.gd/MRfC)
Must be Charles' time of the month. Or something. Maybe he's just getting too big for his bike pants.
He started showing his true colors with his falling out with Ms. Geller and Mr Spencer. Since then he has gotten increasingly wack.
I did like his link thingy - it allowed for a lot of stories that wouldn't see the light of day in the MSM to get some exposure.
Oh well. It's a big blogosphere out there.
Mazel Tov-
D
I don't get it. You get banned for what's on your blogroll and you're still heaping on the praise.
That's pretty weak.
Good Evening, and Welcome to your Banning. Only the finest thinkers and minds have been banned by Charles 'Cankles' Johnson.
I am sure the sting of being banned feels deep, but really, Mr. Yid, you should be feeling relief. Relief to not have to kowtow to the prevailing moods that are Chuckles. Not to have to worry about his entourage of lickspittle lackies and yeslemmings. Embrace your new found freedom, and saunter over to Ferkakta to the Diner and tell us all about it.
We congregate at http://discardedlies.com
We promise to be riveted.
There's also cheese, if you're interested.
Think of it this way. When you shave every morning, you won't loath the face that stares back at you.
Never was involved with LGF so don't know much about the situation.
In the end you will be better off.
I find when it seems G-D is taking a blessing away its just to kick us in the butt to better things & out of our ruts.
I guess this means your in for a growth spurt & more work. I like Pamela Geller's Blog myself. A very sincere Women with a work ethic that is staggering. I bet she's a hugger as well. She sure stands by her friends.
JMO
Congratulation on getting banned from LGF's. I was banned not once, but three times before CJ banned me for good. Why? I defended Robert Spencer and his blog Jihad Watch. I have no regrets about what I said and did and that I was terminally banned from LGF's. Sammy, enjoy the freedom and I do not think your readership will suffer 20%. You just gained a new follower and I will post your link to my blog from time to time.
Welcome to the club. I was banned there months ago after posting my first post. I find it a privilege to be banned.
You are in some very good company.
"Welcome to the Banned List, pal!"
Charles banned me and deleted my comment in record time a year ago when I made a comment defending Pam and questioning one of his anti-creationist tantrums. I was off the board in less than 45 seconds without so much as a note.
But you're quite correct; friends are important. I've been remiss in linking to you, and I will remedy that immediately.
You also might wan to get on Twitter and then join TCOT, so I can link from their main page there to you also (I'm the overnight Editor there.)
Faith!
~~ACP~~
Don't worry about it. Today, LGF is linking to an interview with Bill Ayers. Charles needs to get his own s**t together before he lectures other people about associations. Yes, I have a screenshot.
Little Green Footballs, has dropped to rock bottom. Charles has no tolerance for people that believe in God or creation. He lives in his own narcissistic world.Do not dare dis agree with Charles lest you be banished from his Kingdom.
Really it is his loss, a dialog with differing opinions is how adults discuss and learn from one another.
Lid,
I was introduced to your blog by Pamela, (Atlas Shrugs,) some time back, if I remember correctly it was during your "boyish look" and have been reading ever since. You have a wise unique , easy to understand take on things, an example, I enjoyed very much your take on Exodus 1: 8-10 the other day. With this post, you have displayed the class and respect, I realize now, that you have always showed others, whether it be in chat, twitter, Ed show etc.
Chad
abinitioadinfinitum
Welcome to the Sinai Desert.
First things to remember, now that you *have* been banned, is this:
1. Charles is not your friend.
2. Charles is not your friend.
3. Charles is not and has *never* been your friend.
4. Charles is a whiny hypocrite, and is beneath contempt.
...
5. Just because Charles banned someone doesn't mean that they're cool. 'Rodan' over at LGF2 for instance, apparently got banned from LGF for advocating the nuking of Mecca. Well, guess what. He still is. Read his posts of the last couple of weeks and take note. Stay away.
Let me say in the end: Welcome to the land of the free. LGF1.0land is suffering from the invasion of the body snatchers. Being out of there is a *good* thing.
Best.
Richard L. Kent, Esq.
infinitemonkeyatthekeyboard.blogspot.com
Mr. Lid --
You have joined an ever-enlarging club.
Time to go over to Natalie's blog and pick up your "I've been banned at LGF -- Have YOU?" logo. Every discerning right-wing blogger should have one. :)
being banned by CJ is something to be celebrated, funny how that is working out.
I found and read your blog from the LGF linkviewer, all that's changed is now you're listed in my favorites, blogs.
blogs, like people, grow, and change,
I wish you all the success, but then, you're already there, and in good company.
Hi Yid...I found you through Pamela's site. I used to read LGF, back when it seemed he was doing important work and original research. But then about the time I was "lucky enough" to register for an account there, the site had recently banned Spencer and was devolving into an anti-creationist rant site. I think I posted once, decided I didn't like him anymore, and never went back. So I banned Chuckie before he had a chance to ban me LOL.
I'll link to ya, but then I don't have any readers and rarely post anyway, but you have picked up a reader in me. So add a +1 from here.
I wonder what this Charles Johnson would do in person to all of those he has banned? Push them down...punch them in the face...cut them with a knife? A school yard bully doesn't want to see you gone because there would be no one to dominate and (delusion) elevate his cool factor.
What benefit does CJ have in constantly paring down those allowed on the school yard for recess? Perhaps he knows when he endorses Barack Hussein Obama those kids wouldn't have wanted to play anymore. You drove me into the arms of another!!!111!!! How very girly-man. Or maybe it is time for the spy to come in from the cold.
I respect you, unlike Charles Johnson, who deserves no respect and is a classless clown.
That being said, I hope you don't take Pamela Geller too seriously, even if she has helped you in your blogging. Constant ranting about Obama the Secret Muslim and the Nirth Certifikit is not the province of a stable mind.
As for Spencer, he dresses up his islamohatred in a thin intellectual veneer. Anyone who seriously thinks about the "reconquista" of Anatolia either isn't to be taken seriously, or, if taken seriously, is to be shunned.
Hi Sammy! Just wanted to tell you that you are an awesome correspondent - and it's LGF's loss. I support you and I DONT GIVE A DAYYUM WHAT ANYBODY THINKS!
Congrats! And continue to fight for free speech, even if Charles won't.
Oh good grief, Spencer doesn't hate anyone. He just serves up some piping hot Islamic hypocrisy, when enable the mockers like myself to demonstrate our disdain for the current crisis that is going on with regards to telling the truth in the press...who are islamophobiaphobic.
I guess I joined the ranks of the banned, and I'm not even entirely sure why. In the May 15th posting about "Glenn Beck fears assassins", Charles posted a video of Glenn doing an article on Acorn. I thought the piece was pretty interesting, but the only thing Charles latched onto was a semi-humerous comment to the extent that if he (Glenn Beck) was involved in a car accident or 'committed suicide', to check into it. In other words, he was insinuating that foul play would be involved.
To Charles, this meant he was slightly suicidal. I commented that it was ridiculous to sieze one off-the-cuff remark from that entire video and ignore everything else. I also stated that posts like that made me not want to come to LGF anymore.
I thought I was within the rules, and kept things reasonable and respectful, just honest and straightforward. Next thing I know, Charles accuses me of posting a "flounce-off" post, deletes my post and bans my account. An e-mail sent to Charles asking why I was banned was ignored.
The only reason I can see for it, is that I've openly opposed his postings against creationism, where he claims that all creationists hate science (which is not true). I guess I got on his bad side. Why he waited until that moment to ban my account, and not sooner, is anyone's guess. I hadn't even logged into the website in months (to read or to post), except in sporadic points here and there.
I'm not really upset about losing my account at LGF. As I said, I hadn't been there in months, and it seems that LGF is leaning more and more to the left all the time. I'm just frustrated with the way it happened, I suppose. To be dismissed so simply, and my post ignored (and then deleted), just got a tad under my skin. Obviously not too much, as it took me a month to decide to post about it, but it did irk me a bit.
Anyway, after all that, I guess I just wanted to vent a little. Thanks for giving me the chance to do so.
Sammy
Banned by LGF. Pshaw. Think of it as a badge of honor. You are in good company. Kiddie games should be left behind in the playground of our child hood days. Certainly not appropriate for a grown man to be acting out like a spoiled brat.
Being a God father of blogging does not give one the right to spit on those who should be viewed as fellow soldiers in arms. We are in the fight of our lifetimes. To much to do to wallow in a petty squabble that I thought was long forgotten.
People disagree --human nature. We are not all clones. Agree to disagree and move on for God's sake.
I think you are wonderful. It is his loss. Class over crass. ;-)
Milton wrote in his critically important work "Areopagitica" on freedom of speech that truth and falsehood must be permitted to grapple, should we wish truth be found.
I adored LGF until the paranoid weirdness really began to creep in. To LFG's dismay, I actually learned of Pamela and Atlas Shrugged through the falling out, and have come to find her opinions more open and receptive to grappling, even if I don't always agree with them. LFG increasingly strikes me as a place where he's so desiring of the acceptance of the media elites he once criticized. "Please like me - I will hate my friends!" seems to resonate underneath.
I guess what drives this policy debate coach and professional risk manager to blog sites is where open discussion is encouraged and ideas from various perspectives are put to the test. Sites that force a particular view and ban those opposed to it are so nonunique as we have an entire mainstream media to tune into if we want monolithic, uncontested thought.
LOL - You can see by all these comments that you are well loved. And deeply deserving.
Having recently been banned myself I thought I'd check out a few others who have suffered the same fate. I explain why I got banned here:
http://dunellanoestachato.blogspot.com/2009/10/i-got-bounced-at-little-green-footballs.html
I hold no animosity towards Charles and I'm glad you don't either, many banned bloggers have gone feral towards LGF.
Post a Comment