Spam, Spam, Eggs and Ham

Twitter is a wild and dangerous place.  I fell into one particular rabbit hole called #WeDemandAVote several days ago.  The seeds of this hashtag were sown in the State of the Union Address:

Next came a follow-up call-to-arms:  We Demand A Vote (but not a vote on actually amending the Constitution properly, mind you).

After that, I was alerted to the apparent use of spamming by gun control advocates using fake accounts to tweet on the WeDemandAVote hashtag.  I’ve been scanning and responding to these tweets ever since.

Many of the #WeDemandAVote tweets are clearly from real people; these folks may be Obamabots but they are not spambots.  Still, the excess of egg-avatar spam was too obvious to be ignored:

Twitter ‘eggs’ scramble to push Obama’s “We Demand A Vote” Gun Control Effort

Hey, Nice Try With The #DemandAVote Spambots

GOP lawmaker: Obama using fake Twitter messages in fight over gun control

I have tweeted an “are you real or spam” message to dozens of suspicious #WeDemandAVote tweeters, and so far exactly zero have responded to my inquiries.  A few real Twitter users have noticed my inquiries and vehemently denied the existence of spam, using that special unicorn logic: “well I’m real therefore all accounts are real.”

Uh-huh.  One of the “spam deniers” actually deleted his tweet after I sent a couple of examples his way and asked if he had verified them as authentic.  (I guess that meant no.)

After a few days, the egg avatars became less prominent on the #WeDemandAVote string, but the spam didn’t go away.  The spammers just got more elaborate, using older accounts and/or actual photographs.  Here is a likely candidate:

And another:

The good news is, as of today this spamming appears to have mercifully ended.  The only folks left on #WeDemandAVote are die-hard Keepers of the Faith, as well as some #TCOT patriots itching for argument.

Oh, bonus:  My diligent responses to the suspected spam tweets in the #WeDemandAVote string really really really annoyed one of those die-hards.  You know, every time a leftist is annoyed an angel gets his wings.

The bad news is, the agitators responsible for this astroturfing fakery have probably not quit.  The spam isn’t really gone.  It has just been redirected to new hashtags.

Like the hashtags promoting MSNBC shows.

Finding Post-Election Peace

I’ve been needing to find peace in the aftermath of the election.  I’ve written countless posts in my head, usually while driving to the myriad classes and activities in which the boys currently participate.  That’s as far as the writing gets, however.

The reelection of President Obama has so fundamentally transformed (nice reference huh?) my view of this nation and my role within it, that I hardly know what’s worth posting anymore.  “What’s the point?” is the basic question, now that I realize that a few Davidian foot soldiers like me might not be enough to quickly influence the American culture, after all.

This fact will not stop me from blogging, though.  Writing is pretty much the awesomest.  I’m so grateful for every single reader, and I hope that my words have substantively helped or maybe even inspired a person or two.

At this juncture of our political history, Freedom By The Way has the right idea:  it’s time to prepare.  Our culture didn’t turn stupid overnight, and it won’t experience a period of enlightenment overnight, either.  I don’t pretend to know whether things will go into total crisis mode, as in dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria.  Maybe the likelihood is overstated.

Seriously, though:  QE3?  More bubbles on the horizon?  The possibility of hyperinflation?  Unfunded liabilities of 86.8 trillion dollars?  The examples could go on forever.

What do the Boy Scouts advocate?  Being always prepared?  And anyway, better safe than sorry.  Also, a bit of Murphy’s Law:  what can go wrong, will.

So, I’m focusing on more concrete changes.  The funny thing is, most of this preparation is already complete.  We have gone as far Galt as possible:  becoming a single income household, getting out of debt, homeschooling our children, and getting rid of cable TV.

Pretty much the only thing left is getting trained and comfortable with firearms.  My basic safety class is on Sunday.  Owning some land of our own would be helpful, too, but that will just have to wait.

If you can take some of these steps, please do so.  Also, give yourself some peace by shutting out as much liberal noise as you can.  I can only imagine how hard it was for conservatives to return to work and school amongst the gloating socialists and general know-nothings after November 6th.  For me, being surrounded by like-minded, supportive peers after the election was worth more than money could ever buy.

Totally Quotable

I keep running into some great statements on the intertubz this morning. 

Here they are, in no particular order (that would require critical thought and I don’t have a square to spare today):

1.  Via Questioning With Boldness:

Xtra Normal lady:  “Courts keep ruling Obamacare unconstitutional.  Why would the best and brightest liberals spend so long on a law that’s going to be overturned anyway?”

Xtra Normal guy:  “Remember when Nancy Pelosi said they would have to pass Obamacare before we find out what’s in it?”

Xtra Normal lady:  “Yes.”

Xtra Normal guy:  “Surprise!”

2.  Over at Down Under, MK asks why anti-gun lefties don’t want women and homosexuals to be able to defend themselves effectively.  Don’t ponder that too long; let commenter Chuck answer:

“You are trying to apply logic to liberalism. Please stop before you hurt yourself.”

3.  A worm’s advice to the President:

“If you’re going to be an idiot, at least be an ambitious idiot.”

Hmm.  I may take that advice myself . . .

4.  Fleecy cuts right to the chase in a must-read post about the Senate’s repeal of that onerous 1099 requirement:

“Aww, poor Senate, we are forcing them to rob their slush fund.  Poor guys.  I really hate my government.”

5.  Mr. Saddleburr’s latest post title says it all:

 ”It’s official.  Obama thinks he’s King.”

6.  I miss the good old days when the left was all about freedom of speech, so they could burn flags and junk.  Well, let Professor Althouse explain why those days are gone:

“Remember when lefties were all about free speech? When did that change? Why did that change? Perhaps the answer is: Free speech was only ever a means to an end. When they got their free speech, made their arguments, and failed to win over the American people, and when in fact the speech from their opponents seemed too successful, they switched to the repression of speech, because the end was never freedom.”

I admit to a previous belief that some lefty principles were, you know, more principled.  My bad.

I Am TJIC, Part Two

My last post is about an unknown-to-me-until-now blogger named Travis Corcoran, whose site is TJIC.com.  His website is down, his license to carry firearms suspended, and his firearms were confiscated because of a perceived threat in his post on the Tuscon shooting. 

A commenter to my last post, Ed Flinn, kindly provided a link to the cached post at issue, entitled, “1 Down, 534 To Go.” 

Much like Mark Alger at the fine site Eternity Road, I find this post to be a joke along the same lines as “What do you call 100 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?  A good start.”  I wonder, have any lawyers who heard that joke complained to the authorities that they have been threatened?

In “1 Down, 534 To Go,” Mr. Corcoran is calloused in his treatment of Mrs. Giffords’ plight.  So the worst that you could say is, well, that he is calloused.  That hardly translates into a real threat.

There is a long comment thread with protests of outrage interspersed throughout, but Mr. Corcoran is clearly not the type who is going to dial it down just because somebody gets the vapors. 

His responses to commenters included a bit of minor defense of McVeigh (who beat himself up for killing innocents, says TJIC ), discussions of legitimate uses of force, and a lot of insults (anti-American boot-licking slave, anonymous coward, anonymous statist puke).

His responses were acerbic and unequivocal in defense of the right to take up arms and use them against unconstitutional abuses of governmental authority.  Yet–this is important–the discussions are completely theoretical.  No imminent plans are made, no government officials named.  He states a preference for nonviolent means of regaining civil rights.  He also clearly states that, under the Catholic Just War doctrine, “I do not think that it is wise or just to start shooting politicians. Yet.”  (emphasis mine.)

It is clearly the intellectual argument of a well-spoken and knowledgeable, but hard and unflinching, man.

I think I like him.

Mr. Corcoran maintained a sense of humor throughout the comment thread.  (I also loved the Star Trek “evil Spock” reference, by the way.)  Here’s my favorite:  “Oh noz! Government employees in robes disagree with me about the legitimate extent of government power!  Who could have seen that one coming!?!?”

It appears that Mr. Corcoran has blocked his own website until all legal matters are resolved.  Beyond the obvious 2nd Amendment infringement, I still think this has First Amendment implications too.  State action basically shut him up, after all.  I can also imagine a chilling effect for all weapon-owning bloggers in Massachusetts.  No, I haven’t looked up the relevant case-law interpreting the First Amendment.  Like Mr. Corcoran, I’m not real impressed with a lot of the government employees-in-robes, either.

If you want more information, please visit Mr. Porretto’s site, Eternity Road, and see Mr. Corcoran’s comment, #11.

In that comment, Mr. Corcoran said he is not currently seeking donations for his legal costs, but that could change if the costs escalate.  Please let me know if you start such a legal fund, Mr. C.  Hopefully, that won’t be necessary because this will get resolved quickly.  Then you can get your site back online.

Something tells me I’m going to be a regular reader.

I Am TJIC

Have ya’ll heard about this yet?  I don’t have the full scoop, but caught wind of this story over at Wraith’s and at Dustbury.  Go see ‘em for more info.

Apparently, this Travis J. I. Corcoran is a naughty blogger.  Apparently, he used a very dark sense of humor when posting on the Tuscon shooting:

“It is absolutely, absolutely unacceptable to shoot indiscriminately. Target only politicians and their staff and leave regular citizens alone.”

Now his website is inaccessible.  (For how long?)  Not only that, but his license to carry a firearm has been suspended.

Is it just me, or are things getting just a little creepy lately?

UPDATE:  I just want to add how frustrating it is that I cannot access this allegedly dangerous man’s blog to assess his words for myself.  I had not yet encountered the TJIC blog, so I have no past experience to rely on.  Did Mr. Corcoran take it down himself?  Is it just overwhelmed with traffic?  If not, then a block of his website not only infringes his freedom of speech, but it also impedes our access to information.

It doesn’t feel right.