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IP Banned

So, any of you who have read the comments from the last entry know that one of my pathetic little stalkers decided to bring his socially-retarded act to my blog. I foolishly assumed that leaving RPGnet would’ve left that problem behind me. The individual in question is the same individual who sent me some emails a couple of months ago, which had made some very disturbing comments, revealing knowledge of the location of my oldest daughter’s school, etc. The local cops told me that they couldn’t do anything without a clear ID on the guy, and unfortunately, the abuse department of the fucktard’s ISP has a corporate policy not to reveal any information without a warrant…and the police won’t issue the warrant without a clear ID, so welcome to Catch-22-land.

It’s pretty obvious that this stunted little troll is harmless, and probably doesn’t even know that by crossing the line into the info about my children, those emails ARE actionable. He’s just getting his sad little jollies by yanking the chain of his betters. So, now that he’s been stupid enough to post repeatedly to the comments of this blog, I have an extensive amount of IP information about him. I’m still pursuing the legal option. This fucker brought my kids into this…I’m not letting it go.

In the meantime, I’ve banned his IP from the comments software. If he pops up under a different IP, I’ll zot that, too. If you’ve accidentally been caught in the IP ban, I apologize–email me and I’ll see what I can do.

English Lesson For the Bush Administration

The following is a letter from Erica Verillo, which appeared yesterday’s Boston Globe. It’s well worth sharing:

THE BUSH administration seems to have a serious problem with reality. The most recent reality challenge is the policy of torture in both Iraq and Afghanistan, which the administration is frantically redefining as “abuse,” “excesses,” and “humiliation.” We even have Secretary Rumsfeld describing footage of several American soldiers “having sex” with a female Iraqi prisoner.

Let’s have a little plain English here. “Having sex” with a prisoner is known as “rape.” Systematic beatings are called “torture.” Excesses that lead to death are called “murder.” The hundreds of women and children in mass graves in Fallujah are the product of a “massacre.” Taken together, all of these add up to “atrocities.”

The dissemination of “incomplete information” from “imperfect intelligence” is called “lies.” The billions of dollars that Halliburton and Bechtel have reaped in profits are called “war profiteering.” The invasion of Iraq is called “illegal.” The destruction of America’s international standing is called “permanent.” And Texaco/Phillips’s high bid for Iraqi oil is called “why we are in Iraq.”

Amen.

Let’s make no mistakes here. Islamist fundamentalists are bat-shit crazy, and as close to true evil as we’ve seen in a very long time…however, Iraq had NOTHING AT ALL TO DO with the Islamists (who hated the Hussein regime for being too secular) UNTIL Dubya and his cronies decided to hand them a jihad on a silver platter. Think of that the next time we see a video of an American being slowly decapitated….oh, and maybe give some thought as to why we didn’t hear a drop of outrage from any media outlet or grandstanding politician in this country when the same thing happened to Fabrizio Quattrocchi, an Italian, on April 14th.

Origins Award Nomination

I just found out that Skull & Bones has been nominated for an Origins Award, in the category of Best Roleplaying Supplement. This is only my second nomination (the first was a Best Adventure nomination in 1997 for HKAT! FILM FESTIVAL #1)–and the category is really, really strong this year, so I’m pretty nervous about the whole thing.

…and of course, money is so tight this year that I will be unable to attend the ceremony at Origins. Ah, well.