Yet another member of the Wizbang audience has been promoted to Commenter Emeritus. BarneyG2000 decided to challenge Cassy on the veracity of one of her pieces. Then, when she didn’t respond by his 2-hour deadline (which he didn’t even bother to announce ahead of time), he called her a liar and suggested that I could help her “lie her way out of this.”
I felt kind of mellow, so I gave Barney a chance to back away from the cliff. I said he could have 24 hours to back up his accusations, withdraw them, or go elsewhere. He chose to instead add more personal insults.
He chose poorly.
Oh, well. His loss is our gain. I’m trying to remember the last time BarneyG2000 offered a single thing of substance or worth, but none comes to mind.
Remember: Wizbang is probably the most tolerant of dissenting comments of any big blog, but our patience is not infinite and commenting is a privilege, not a right. And that privilege can be revoked at any time, for any reason, or for no reason.
I like to think that we are exceptionally fair in using that club. (As the guy whose job it is to most frequently take up Olaf The Troll God’s Hammer, I’m pretty proud that it spends so much time on the shelf of The Magic Box.) But there are a few sure-fire ways to get pounded with it. Making accusations such as lying against the authors, and refusing to back them up, is one way pretty much guaranteed to work. Offering nothing but personal insults against the authors is another.
Barney scored a double, and got squashed.
Olaf’s Hammer is back on the shelf. Please let me leave it there for a while. My back ain’t what it used to be.
