Oh dear.
I’ve been on the sidelines throughout the disengagement, watching with interest and sadness the nightly TV broadcasts but leaving out the politics from this blog. Ha, not that I’ve been blogging that much, it has to be said. She has been doing the dirty work for the past few weeks and doing it very well, I think.
However, after one or two bloggers out there, and one in particular, you can probably guess who, have been sending bullying, self-righteous emails to She because she happened to have a strong opinion on something…it’s time for me to throw my ha’penny in.
We don’t pretend to be the BBC or CNN, we are but a simple blog with a few readers. We write about what we want to write about, without any intention to incite or hurt anybody. It is just our opinions, straight-forward, sock-it-to-ya opinions. We don’t dress it up with all kinds of sugary gunge for a band of worshipping readers to fawn over. We certainly don’t claim any moral high-ground. Our original aim was to post interesting articles that would interest some, most probably not all. We also wanted to shake up the Israeli blogging scene a little, because there seems to be this annoying ‘clique’ of writers who really need to get out more.
If some blogger decides that he wants to throw his toys out of the pram and delist us from his “preciousssss” blogroll, what can I say? Maybe “get a life”? Possibly “grow up”? How about “go back to your worshipping readers and stay there”? I know what, let’s be equally mature and delist him from our blogroll. Voila. Sad bastard.
Really, one or two of you bloggers need to get a fucking life. Stop analysing every single word printed, stop trying to find the wrong in everything, and above all, if you don’t like what we write, don’t bother coming back.
As for the rest of you, we really love you. Honest!
It’s funny… ‘She’ and I were eventually able to work out most of our issues privately /semi-privately late yesterday afternoon. Yet now you feel the need to score points off me publicly???
You say that you aren’t trying to be the BBC or CNN… that not every word counts. Fine. I don’t agree… but that’s your opinion and you are entitled to it.
But when you choose to use the word ‘bastard’ to refer to me (or anyone), I think it speaks volumes about who you are, and your poor command of your intellect. It also makes it clear that you were sorta kidding about intention to write “without any intention to incite or hurt anybody”.
The difference between us is that I take issue (or agree) with words, and the ideas behind them… while you feel the need to press an attack against the person behind the words and ideas.
As I said to your blog partner, I have been keeping up my site for almost 2 years, and any readers who follow along do so because they find value in some of what I write(including many who don’t agree with much of what I have to say).
You with your history of two months and two-score posts say that your goal in starting this blog was to ‘shake up the Israeli blogging scene a little, because there seems to be this annoying ‘clique’ of writers who really need to get out more”.
Interesting mission statement.
If you had said that you wanted to introduce fresh ideas or new perspectives I could respect that. I know better than anyone that many of my own ideas and viewpoints are as stale as yesterday’s pita. But to include childish personal insults as part of your site’s entire reason for being makes you sound petty indeed. I doubt ‘She’ would agree with your unfortunate choice of words.
I was extremely impressed with the way ‘She’ comported herself in our final email exchange (I still owe her a reply). She was able to ‘climb down out of the tree’ before I was. She did the classy thing and took it upon herself to change the tone of our entire exchange.
But your history here of interjecting smug ‘rah rahs’ from the sidelines anytime someone scored a verbal point from the left demonstrates the worst sort of gamesmanship that exists in Israeli politics today.
For some it is all about scoring points. If you need to score your points by calling me a bastard and insulting a group of bloggers who have been at this game much longer than you… feel free.
Well, there you go Mr T, you’ve gone and done it again. You’ve chosen to take one word (bastard), admittedly a slightly uptempo word for some, and, I’m guessing here, assumed that I’m calling you a child of questionable origin.
Well, as I said before, you need to chill out a little and stop targeting single words and then blowing things out of all proportion. From where I come from, bastard is used freely as a slang term for someone a bit pathetic or disagreeable. That was the context used, if you choose to see it as a personal insult questioning your mother’s honor, I’m sorry.
I guess my intellect and blogging pedigree are no match for yours, but then you might be surprised, because once again you have assumed way too much…
Oh, I stand by the “mission statement”. If that initiates a flurry of caustic emails between you and your fans, then so be it.
We also wanted to shake up the Israeli blogging scene a little, because there seems to be this annoying ‘clique’ of writers who really need to get out more.
What does that mean? That is the kind of statement people make when they try and protect a lack of substance.
If you really don’t care about any of this why do you even bother to respond or try to justify your actions.
He… To exactly what “flurry of caustic emails” between me an my ‘fans’ are you referring? I can honestly say that every word on the subjects that bothered me here have been exchanged exclusively with the author(s) of those words. Even my wife tried to engage me in a discussion of the topic and I told her that I wasn’t interested in talking about it outside of the frame of reference where the original terms had been written.
Also, you seem to be strangely fixated on the cordial relationship that exists between me an the readership over at treppenwitz, as if it were some mark of shame that I have a good report with the people who read my journal. Please enlighten me as to what exactly am I doing wrong in this respect? Should I be more offensive? should I insult a few of them?
You deliberately insulted me no matter how acceptable a slang term you now claim it might be. If you had called someone such a ‘slang term’ in a pub, I venture to say you would now be holding a bunch of your teeth in your pint glass. Such is the penalty in some circles for the careless use of insulting words.
So I suppose we can count ourselves lucky that you chose to insult me from the relative safety of anonymity. Suffice it to say that you won’t be wearing that cloak for too much longer.
Well done He! My sentiments exactly (or should that be sediments?) Some people really do need to get a life. Some of us not only have a life, we have to work for a living.
BTW bullying and intimidation have no place in a civilised society regardless of whether face-to-face, in the blogosphere or elsewhere.
Bless your little cotton socks Cathy!
Dear “he” and “she”,
I also suffer from this kind of blogging patrol. And I simply don’t answer. I just HATE it. People forget that blogging is something personal. Don’t worry, try to ignore and just say “she ielchu leazael”.
Keep up the good job!
Rinat
I apologize for any personal offence regarding any offensive vocabulary in my post, none was actually intended. Please note, any references questioning my intellect do not require an apology. I’m man enough, if a bit of a cheeky bastard. Now please, let us get back to blogging about the things that interest us all. We don’t intend to trade insults here, really, let’s just get on with it.
At the end of the day each of us controls our own agenda on our own blogs.To be intimidated into silence by self-appointed (annointed) vigilantes is unthinkable…sounds a bit like a nascient dictatorship…or is there an even bigger ‘stop that or I’ll send the boyz around’ problem in Israel than I thought…
Betach cotton socks: 100% organic, farmed sustainably, tended by workers paid a minimum wage singing all the day: stand up sit down pick a bale of cootna stand up sit down throw the shit away…
What is wrong with you Cathy? Are you so in need of a fight that you can’t stand to see one end?
‘He’ offered an apology (and quite a good one at that) without anyone having “sent the boyz around”. Everyone here in Israel is a bit more on edge than usual these days because of recent events. For you to sit there comfortably in England and try to fan the embers back into flame is in very bad taste… even if I happen to agree with your choice of socks from a union shop.
He… Not only do I accept your apology, but I am embarrassed that I didn’t offer you one sooner for my own behavior… especially for questioning your intellect. I’d like to think that recent events in the region might have contributed to my less-than-gentle tone with both you and ‘she’, but even that is no excuse. Please accept my apology for having succumbed to exactly the sort of behavior I was criticizing in others.
She… Although you and I have said our bit privately, I want to also apologize to you publicly. I insulted you publicly so the apology should be delivered here as well. I’m sorry.
Hopefully we can all take a deep breath now and go back to doing things we enjoy.
Thank you He and She.
He and She,
your not peter pan and unbroken glass are you?
your fan,
BTW
who have been at this game much longer than you…ha SHE has been doing this since before all of us.her org. blog went up years ago,before the term blog was used.just type unbroken glass into google, and see.
Amshinover,
I’m not sure who it is that you think I am, but I don’t think I am who you think I am, as frankly, I’ve got no idea what you’re referring to in your comments. Interesting blog you’ve got there, BTW.
you and he are not he and she from here?
you sure do sound like ’em
http://www.unbrokenglass.com/
Nope. Definitely not. Sorry.
A common mistake I suppose, as He and She are rather common names…
For avoidance of doubt,I am using common in the sense of usual or many and not in the trailer-trash sense…
={:-)
well either way
if you have nothing nice to say, come say it here
http://amshinover.blogspot.com/