Wednesday, January 01, 2003

I haven't made Mr. Kinsella's Enemies List yet

I see that John, operator of the Fatblueman weblog, also noticed the disappearing Kinsella post that offered the work e-mail and phone number of someone who wrote a newspaper letter critiquing a Kinsella piece. I happily concede that although I commented on it, it was his comments that struck home.

Apparently, John drew a response from Mr. Kinsella or someone who helps with his weblog. Although, Fatblueman's operator credits me in a weblog entry...I am not the person that Mr. Kinsella is angry with, because I just commented on its disappearance without saying I was responsible for it, as Mr. Kinsella's new enemy is alleged to have done. Also, as you'll see below, they sent the "offender" an e-mail, and I haven't fielded any e-mails from Mr. Kinsella or his employees...yet.

Mr. Kinsella now has a post on his website commenting on it. I'm posting it before it disappears too:

[Kinsella begins]

December 30, 2002 - A blogger somewhere out West noted that the Elliott Anderson entry disappeared, which was true. He suggested that he had something to do with that, which wasn't. Here's what was sent to him:

We took it down because Elliott Anderson's hatred didn't deserve any further exposure. After Bourque linked to it, 60,000+ folks got to see Elliott attempt to take partisan advantage of a man's death. That said all that needed to be said about Elliott.

Here at www.warrenkinsella.com, we subscribe to the Kennedy clan maxim: forgive your enemies. But never, ever forget. Ever.

Google is a big help, in that regard.


There goes my HRDC grant. :)

Seriously though. Mr. Kinsella, if Anderson's hatred "deserved no further response", why not just make your point in a private e-mail to him, instead of blogging about it? I wouldn't have known anything about it if Mr. Kinsella hadn't discussed it in his weblog.

I think it unwise to say that anyone should be dissuaded from writing on a subject because they are the wrong sex or have the wrong political background. I agree with Mr. Kinsella on that. But, I would respectfully suggest that he overreacted by posting Anderson's office phone and e-mail. Mr. Kinsella must admit--he brags on his website about his days as a punk rocker--that it is ironic that he has grown and matured so much from his Joe Strummer-emulating punk days. Pointing that out, politely, shouldn't add you to an Enemies List.