No sirree, the hnn Liberty & Power blog sure won’t.
I got this email today from HNN:
—–Original Message—–
From: Jonathan Dresner [mailto:dresner@hawaii.edu]
Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2005 5:24 PM
To: Stephan Kinsella; Stephan Kinsella
Cc: editor@historynewsnetwork.org
Subject: HNN Comments PolicyMr. Kinsella,
Your repeated violations of HNN standards of civility (http://hnn.us/articles/1885.html), compounded with the disrespect again displayed by your display name choices, has finally resulted in your exclusion from these discussions. Your accounts are blocked.
Jonathan Dresner
HNN Assistant Editor
Not only did they block me from posting, they also erased all my previous HNN comments from all threads. Wow. How …. Orwellian. I wonder if it’s run by Randians? Hmm. Now, as these are the same techno-illiterates who recently wiped out two entire comment threads when trying merely to block further commenting, it is possible they in blocking my account they did not mean to erase all my previous comments, but that is what they have done.
I was not surprised to be banned. I’m a little disappointed they deleted my previous posts, as there was some good stuff in there. Oh well. And it was predictable they would ban me, not the instigagor, Tom Palmer. Libertarians have been strangely silent on the maniacal Mr. Palmer’s repeated character smears of certain other libertarians–reminiscent of the time those people in New York walked by as that woman was beaten to death–so I am not surprised they take Palmer’s calumny and smear campaign in stride, while banning me for not lying down and taking it. I think they are too cowardly to attack a prominent Cato-ite. Hmm, could it be that a desire for internships (for the younger) or invitations to conferences and Cato publications of their writing, etc. (for the older) makes them a mite shy at criticizing Palmer, whom they must think silently to themselves, is off his rocker? Anyway, thank God I’m not part of movement libertarianism, and am free to say what I think.
On the very thread that was the last straw, I was abiding by the rules of the forum. Palmer posted two identical, extensive attacks on me after we had both been warned to stop. I refused to take the bait, and merely changed my handle to “Stephan (K-dog) Kinsella.” The hnn editor even gives as a reason for banning me: the “disrespect again displayed by your display name choices”. Ha! K-dog is disrespectful! I believe what happened was the editors wanted to ban me but realized Palmer was far worse; so they latched onto a ridiculous distinction to justify treating us differently–banning me, not banning Palmer. Sure, Palmer is snide and insinuates other libertarians are not “real” libertarians and are, in fact, racists and anti-semites… but this is okay. At least he didn’t call himself P-dog. What a transgression that would have been! Ha ha ha ha!
But HNN does not need a justification. It is their private property. They may do with it as they wish.
