Susan,

I have not attempted to "troll" your blog, and I apologize if I appeared to be doing so. As I understand it, a troll is one who posts controversially, and frequently, primarily for the sake of provoking heated discussions.

I am not trolling here. You are a good writer, and I enjoy many of the posts on your blog. I found the snake-shooting one disturbing, and expressed myself about it. That's all. It's true, I don't respond "great post" to the ones I do like; maybe I should once in a while, just to avoid appearing like someone who only criticizes.

Other than this post, I have posted a total of three comments on your blog over the past five-odd days. Each of them was an honest reaction to comments you'd made either on the blog itself, or in response to my comments.

The first was out of shock at what I thought was a gruesome and disturbing account of you brutally and slowly killing an animal that was not attacking you.

The next two were simply response, elaborating on why I thought you had acted in a cruel and brutal manner, and drawing comparisons between your brutal treatment of the animal and conservatism's attitudes toward other human beings. I think a key division-point between conservatives and liberals is how much suffering by others, caused or preventable by us, is acceptable in society, and in nature, for our own convenience. I addressed that, in as well-reasoned a manner as I could muster. The worst name I called you was "mean" and I don't think I was excessively or outrageously over-the-top in my tone.

Further, I had no indication that such a tone on this blog was in appropriate. On this blog you call other bloggers names, and vehemently disagreed with them. I don't think that any of my comments have been more "trollish" in tone toward you than is the tone you often take when you speak of liberals on this blog.

For example, in the post right below this one, you point to a post that:

"embodies everything I hate about the libertine libertoids. I read through some of the comments, but I had to stop, lest I lose every meal I've eaten over the past week or so. There are so many things wrong with the worldview of these people...I don't even know where to start."

I don't see how my three comments are any more "trollish" than the above statement. The only difference is I happen to be using that tone toward you. Colloquially, this is known as being able to "dish it out, but not take it." It's disappointing that you decided to ban me, and close comments on the snake thread for using toward you a tone you are perfectly willing to use against others.

Best of luck on your blog. I hope you keep writing.

Aaron

Aaron,

The first was out of shock at what I thought was a gruesome and disturbing account of you brutally and slowly killing an animal that was not attacking you.

One more time -- this was a VENOMOUS and AGGRESSIVE snake that WAS RIGHT OUTSIDE MY SISTER'S BACK DOOR. If this thing bit her SHE COULD HAVE DIED! You care about living things, right? Well, my sister is a living thing. What is so hard about this to understand? My sister was AFRAID TO GO OUTSIDE ON HER PATIO. She asked me to help her and I did. I said in my post that I regretted if the snake suffered and I wished I could have got him in one shot. You are the one who rudely made assumptions about me as a human being over this, and that is why I think you are a troll. (If I had smilies, I would insert the one of a smiley banging his head against a brick wall right here.)

As for the previous post, did you read the link at all. Maybe you didn't find it thoroughly disgusting, but I did. I expressed my thoughts on my blog. (Because, you know, that's the purpose of my blog, to express myself.) I also linked another blog post that illustrated the errors in that kind of thinking perfectly. But I did not go over to the other blog and insult them. I did not make myself a troll on their blog. Please don't accuse me of being able to dish it out but not take it, because I have been taking your crap for days now and, fool that I am, I keep responding to it. What I should have done from the get-go was ignore you completely and delete your comments.

Let me put it more bluntly. This blog is my domain. It is my home on the web. I pay for it. I spend time maintaining it. I will use any tone I please when I post here. When you comment, you are a guest and you may not swagger in and act any way you please in my home. If you don't like it, there's a little "X" in the upper right-hand corner of your browser that you can hit.

I'm glad you like my blog, but forgive me if I'm a little skeptical of your intentions now.

Further comments by you that argue with me about this matter will not be approved or responded to. You are not banned at this time, but I will not continue with this argument. It has become tiresome beyond words.

Mention a troll and they pop out from under their bridges. The troll you linked to was truly pathetic. Why is it that people leaving those types of messages so often know nothing about grammar or punctuation, too? It sickens me to see such viciousness torwards who don't deserve it.
Frankly, I admired you in your snake story! I haven't even learned to use a gun yet, although I feel I should to protect my home and family if I have to do so. I'm sure I'd be attacked for that too. Heck, I could never even live in Florida with all those bugs and snakes. You go girl!

Hi Barb,

That was just awful. I can't believe someone would be so horrible to a woman who just lost her husband.

Re. the snake story, thank you! :-) I didn't learn how to shoot a gun until after my Dad died. My sister is the one who taught me to shoot. (While she may be a liberal, she is very pro-gun and pro-2nd-Amendment.) When he had cancer, my Dad had said to me that he wanted to teach me how to shoot when he was feeling up to it, but he never got a chance to. He knew a lot about guns and he even built a rifle that he won a shooting contest with. I have the rifle hanging on my living room wall. It hasn't been shot in years (probably decades). I doubt if I could ever shoot anything like that -- too heavy and powerful.

Yes, we do have a lot of bugs and stuff here. I hate, hate, HATE waterbugs (which are huge roaches that fly), spiders and snakes. I have a bit of a spider problem at my house (although it's not as bad as last year). I kill any spider I see, because I knew a lady at a place I used to work who had to be hospitalized for two weeks after getting bit by a Brown Recluse spider. And my Mom was bit by a Black Widow spider when she was a little girl and almost died. I've only seen little garden snakes around my house, and while they creep me out, I have no problem with them, since they're not poisonous.

God, that Aaron is an idiot. And what's even worse, a whiner. "I am" (sniff) "so not a troll! I was just pointing out to you the errors of your ways from my exalted position as God of the Internet! And now here's an insincere and patronizing compliment on your writing that I'm sure you'll suck right up!" Yuck.

As for that calli person... lemme get this straight: her husband's breath smells of paint and furniture stain and she's worried about his health but all she does is cry about it? Why do I think that hubby is maybe doing something else with the paint and stain than applying it to wood surfaces? I work for a homebuilding company and come into contact with painters and none of them "burp" the smell of paint. I can see it now: "Oh honey, I am so worried about your health!" (Sobsobsob.) I'd drink paint too if that were what I had to come home to every night.

Hi Andrea,

I'd drink paint too if that were what I had to come home to every night.

Same here. I kind of doubt that "Calli" actually has a "Mike" who burps paint or anything else. Some other blogs have speculated that "Calli" is actually a male troll that AAH has had trouble with in the past.

hi Susan,
I have not been here for a while. I know what it is like to get these stupid trolls who make abusive comments. Well, I deal with their comments by deleting them. It is the only way to not given them any form of satisfaction in thinking that they have stirred up emotions. One troll called me a hard hearted bitch because I wrote about my feelings concerning my sister's death, the fact that we did not get on all that well, and trying to figure out why I felt the way that I did, and at the same time experiencing the stress of learning that the temporary job assignment that I had was going to finish a lot sooner than I expected. In fact the assignment finished even sooner than I expected. In other words I was feeling very stressed over these events and I was called selfish.

In this case the troll lacked total sensitivity to what I was expressing in my post, and the only way to deal with such an insensitive "pword" was to delete his insensitive comments.

To add insult to injury, with regards to stress, I have had a blood test result that has an elevated rheumatoid factor. My doctor wants to do a re-test in three months before accepting this result. I have thought for a long time that RA is a possibility. It is not surprising that under the circumstances that this has turned up, if it is not a false positive. If it is correct then it is a welcome relief to finally have the problem identified.

Keep up the good work. BTW the Guardians Association in Florida has honoured the rat with an award for his tenacity in murdering his wife.

Hi Maggie,

It's nice to hear from you again! It's funny how trolls have the nerve to judge you as a human being based on such a small amount of information. It's really arrogant, but that's what makes them trolls, I guess.

I'm sorry about your health problems. I will pray that if it is RA, that you will get treatment that will alleviate your pain.

I hadn't heard that about Michael Schiavo, but it doesn't surprise me. My understanding is that many guardians are actually euthanasia activists.