Especially since I've been getting help from the "other side," which has been much appreciated.
To recap:
- Someone purchased the "old dominion blog alliance" -dot- com domain last week on the 16th, and set it up to redirect to a vile site which promotes pedophilia. Ben Tribbet (or is it "Tribbit"? I forget...), of Not Larry Sabato (not linking to him, because you already know I don't think much of his character), tipped Whackette to this, and she posted it over at the Daily Whackjob. Ben then posted his little snippet, with the obligatory-but-flip "I'm shocked! Shocked, I tell you!!" with a hat tip back to Whackette.
- The identity of the domain owner is not on the public record - in other words, we don't know who did this. Yet.
- I e-mailed Whackjob yesterday morning when the ODBA found out about this. I asked him if he knew who was responsible to please tell them to lay off: I would be less upset if the redirect were to an ADULT pr0n site which didn't attempt to take advantage of children. He very kindly e-mailed me back right away with the information in the first point, above, and offered several suggestions as to how I could find out who was responsible for this vile "prank." He was extremely helpful and supportive, and I'm not surprised at his irritation at some of the attacks on the crew at DWJ.
- The ODBA has sent in a letter to GoDaddy/Domains By Proxy, and we are waiting for their reply.
Those are the FACTS as we know them, and Riley and Ward probably have the most neutral write-ups (for which I thank them). Greg at Black Velvet Bruce Li also posted; he had some incorrect information, but immediately updated when I corrected him. Leslie Carbone only posted a gracious biblical reminder... And I think I will add another, to pass on to Kilo:
Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:29-32, NKJV)
I understand his disgust and anger with this situation - I share it! - but I think he's being hasty and unnecessarily combative. I've told him that. I also think he - and others - are going to call me an apologist for "the lying low-down liberals." OK, that's fine: however, just because I try not to use the same tactics, and prefer to remain cordial with people on the "other side," does not make me a patsy.
Whackjob has posted that he thinks the ODBA has a grudge against Ben, and I would concede the point to a certain extent. I would hope, however, that my Virginian blog-siblings would not let that drive them to descend to half-truths and innuendo. Whackette posted this morning, stating categorically that she had nothing to do with setting up the domain. While I don't think she was as wise as she could have been in her original post, I have no reason to believe that her involvement - or that of her husband - goes any further. Perhaps, as Whackjob amended his post to reflect, we will all be far more wary of any "tips" Ben hands out in the future.
I freely confess that I *DO* want to find out that one certain person is behind this, but I'm not going to sacrifice the truth to my petty desire for "revenge." Frankly, it's not worth the huge helping of crow I'd have to eat if I'm wrong. Therefore, I'm going to wait until we get solid information from GoDaddy, to start making accusations and demanding retractions and apologies.
On a side note, I purchased the olddominionblogalliance.net and olddominionblogalliance.org domains yesterday, and pointed them to the ODBA Tumblr aggregator (I would be willing to take over the -dot- com which is currently the center of the issue and point it to Tumblr as well). It was not difficult to do, and as I stated at BVBL, "lacks the technical skills necessary” is a pretty weak defense.
So, we will see what we will see - and remember: the Truth always prevails, even when it takes some time, and even when we don't see it.
