Friday, November 30, 2007

UPDATE / CORRECTIONS ON LAST POST

Charles Johnson has asked that I "update your post to correct those distortions about me, I'd appreciate it. Without correcting them, the falsehoods will continue to spread...." He writes:
Please note that there are numerous lies about me in the emails from Dymphna.
* I do not have the stealth comment deletion system she alleges -- I created a proof of concept for such a system, to demonstrate how the SF Chronicle was doing it, and disabled the concept a day later. And I announced it all publicly with front page posts at LGF.
* When the article about Bat Ye'or appeared in the Times, I was contacted by someone from Bat Ye'or and told about it, and I offered to delete my post. They said it did not matter because it was already out in the New York Times. Yet now, here comes the story, slanted to make me look bad.
* Dymphna and Baron Bodissey have never been banned at LGF.
There's more too, but it's too irritating and depressing to read her demented emails. She is engaged in a campaign of deliberate, dishonest character assassination against me.
He also notes:
You should know that the assertion that Dymphna and Baron Bodissey are banned from LGF is NOT TRUE. They were never banned. Fjordman is banned, but only after he pulled two dramatic exits, announcing he wouldn't be back -- then came back, spewing insults....

Another lie in her email: I never accused vigilantfreedom.org of "mounting a DOS attack." That's completely ridiculous.

Even Baron Bodissey insists on correcting some errors in Dymphna's first email. He writes:
The first concerns what she wrote that Bat Ye'or had written in a private email, an insulting reference to Charles Johnson. In fact it was not Bat who said it; it was Andrew Bostom. It was below Bat's text, in the "Original Message" section of the email. I had misread it originally - I went back and checked, and hence this correction.We try hard to correct errors immediately, even in private communications. I know you are meticulous about this yourself.

If LGF had the same policy it would benefit their readers and resolve much of the ongoing debate. Also, Dymphna said Filip Dewinter was a member of the "Belgian parliament", when he is in fact a member of the Flemish parliament. This mistake is understandable, since I was the one who went to Belgium for the conference, and not her. There are actually *three* parliaments in Belgium -- the Flemish, the Wallonian, and the European Union parliament. It can be confusing.


Indeed. Additionally, Siggy writes:
It is ironic that posting corrections seems to be the topic du jour.

In three different exchanges, I noted my heartfelt mea culpa after I referred to Vlaams Belang in the third person singular. Why my errors are continually referenced remains a mystery, especially after I admitted to them and corrected them.

Prior to the podcast I had been doing some research on Belien and Dewinter and absentmindedly referred to the political party in that way.

Further, let's be clear. In the private conversation in question, you gently asked me if Vlaams Belang was also a person (knowing I was in err!). I said that I realized I had misspoke. How your reference was twisted is curious, given that only one side of the conversation was recorded.

I would only hope that the requests for accuracy be applied to myself and my remarks as well.

Lastly, while I have never claimed to be an expert on the maze that is Belgian politics, I do have sightly more than 6 months experience in the European theatre.



Frankly, this is all so ridiculous, I hardly know what to say--and that's definitely a rare occurance, believe me.

Sheesh, we must be dealing with imperfect human beings here....imagine that.