Saturday, August 9, 2008

Anonymouses

Something I discovered by writing this blog is -- it's hard to say anything of consequence without risking offending someone.

There are plenty of inoffensive blogs out there, nicey nicey blogs, flower blogs, blogs about dogs and cats and gardening and kids and food and babies and sewing and the weather.

I pass them by, mostly. I read a lot of local blogs for the news and mood. But only locally.

I like the rants, the riled up folk.

Well, except the political and religiously riled up folk. They get on my nerves.

But, you know, a good soul cleansing beef about traffic or getting a ticket for your unleashed dog? Hey, it's better to put your angst on the web than take it out on the street.

I started this blog with my own name without even thinking. I wasn't even aware that most bloggers were anonymous. But in hindsight, I couldn't have written this blog about a bookstore owner in Bend without outing myself.

There have been times when I haven't quite been able to say what I think. Or at least say it in the tone that first emerged from my fingers.

But overall, that's a good thing. It's made me think, reflect, and finding a less vile way of saying it. I have a tendency to get all verbally riled up, and spout, especially at the store. I'm sure I've had customers who thought I was off my rocker.

So it's not a bad thing for me to take the time to think about what I'm saying. I'm usually able to get the point across.

I've tried not to take this too seriously. My words are not golden. They aren't going to change the world.

I try to treat other blogs with the same distance. If I don't like something, I don't have to read it. But I'm not going to try and tell other people what they can read and not read.

At the same time that local blogs can be completely over the top, they've also been willing to tackle subjects that the local mainstream media either won't or can't deal with. There is a certain amount of truth in even the wildest, most offensive rants that simply isn't being talked about elsewhere.

And I don't think that aspect could exist without anonymity. Political correctness is an extremely strong force in our culture. Even 'negativity' is incorrect; which is pretty crazy if you ever want to solve any problems.

I've sidestepped the whole moral dilemma of being anonymous. It's as I've always said about lying -- if you tell the truth, you don't have to constantly try to remember what you said the last time. Besides, it just feels good and strong to be forthright and honest.

But sometimes I wish I could yet let it rip with a nice anonymous post.

6 comments:

Mrs Sally Heatherton Esq said...

My own feeling has always been that one day or another you always will be outed. So why not just step up to the plate in the first place?

***

"It's better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt."

Anonymity insures that the whole town doesn't know your a fool in public.

Whether it be Louis Carrol, or Mark Twain, they didn't use their real name, and its long been this way.

When you do parody, and comedy, for entertainment value, many people don't get it.

Calling yourself 'IHTBYB' is nice cover, anyone that wants to do the home-work, whether it be the FED's or lawyers ( same ), can find Samuel Clemmons ( real mark twain ) whenever they wish.

I think that the 'anonymity' just makes it a little harder for stupid idiots to find you. I have no doubt that the BossHogg's know who is who. That is what money is for. All they have to do is have their law firm request google for logs.

There is NO anonymity. For 30 years I have been saying, anyone who types into a computer is writing their own dossier for the government, and its agents.

***
But, you know, a good soul cleansing beef about traffic or getting a ticket for your unleashed dog? Hey, it's better to put your angst on the web than take it out on the street

***

A wise man one of my mentors once said "There comes an age where getting hit by a cops club doesn't heal anymore".

When your young you can go to the street, and get beaten, or run. Been there did that. When you get old and get hit by a club, the concussion is generally permanent, and you spend your remaining years slobbering. The cops just say it was a pre-existing condition, and always get away with it, its the system.

Writing anonymously is/was a fine tradition in America, especially for the old, too old to get hit in the head by police billy clubs.

*

Lastly, there are billions and billions of dollars riding on Bend, and the outcome of the bubble. There have been many suicides, and they'll be many more. A man/woman taking their own life, will think nothing of taking others, who are to blame.

A good story in this weeks "Economist", about the principal problem today in the great FAILURE in the US system, is the blaming others for their failure and stupidity.

Bend is ran by stupidity, its everyone for themselves, and city-hall caters only to Real Estate & Development interests. Simply being near city-halls means riches in the form of HOA service fee's.

The great majority of Bend, especially those that arrived in the last 20 years, are here for easy-money and quick riches, anything and anybody that gets in their way will be a target.

Never been a better time to be anonymous in Bend.

The Natives Are Restless said...

For some reason, this particular line really got me to chuckling.
Bend is ran by stupidity...

Anonymous said...

Regarding the 'outing' of HOMER, if it be true!

1.) I told him for years to stay off BENDBB, that the dog-shit-eater was collecting IP's.

2.) ALL the Jay Audia shit came from Marge, our realtor, and nobody ever proved otherwise all the rumors weren't true. ( That Audia blew his brains out )

3.) No where specially did homer say any Bend-Bank was taking out out builders, what he says is 'bank ordered mob hit', my reading of that could be a kids piggy bank. Personal money, personal vendetta, any loaned money is a bank.

It's not about HOMER, its about the freedom to exchange ideas.

All along I have said that BENDBB was a trojan horse site, that they log IP's, and now they have outed HOMER ( so they say ).

So what does homer do? I told him to shut down this site a long time ago.

I told him to stay off BENDBB, where his IP was being logged.

The powers that be have had these sites black-listed, and this week they were un-black-listed, in retaliation the powers 'outed homer', so fucking what, he must of knew this was coming.

The issue at this point is who is 'marge' and is the information correct, many have said she's a man. Been around as long as the pussy (BP), newbies we know nothing about.

What is clear is that this week this site has taken the debate to new levels, and NOBODY is discussing the SDC deferral issue, I think that all the powers in BEND want to shut down free debate.

We need other people to start new sites, like this where many people can post and move on. There needs to be free speech in Bend. Generally 'rumors' are proved to be true/un-true within hours. Given that the Audia story is almost a month old, and never proven un-true, it must at this point assumed to be correct, thus homer has done nothing wrong to report. It's suspicious that only 'marge' has provided info, that said nobody disputed her(his) facts.

Homer should shut down this site and lie low for awhile, people will forget quickly, in the future homer should stay off sites like BENDBB.

There will be other sites, we need sites like this, folks will drift to other places, people need to share rumors.

The SORE is slowly coming around, and reporting. The BULL will soon be sold, or Chandler will move HQ to Walla-Walla, your seeing the end days of the Bend power structure. The BendBubble is over, desperation and panic amongst the ruling class of Bend has begun.

The fact is Audia did pass away, and the fact is none of Marges assertions to date have ever been proved wrong. The inference of BENDBB was that HOMER mean spirited the Audia event, the fact is all the information we have came from Marge. A well connected Realtor of Bend.

***

Jay Joseph Audia
Published: July 27. 2008 4:00AM PST
Jay Joseph Audia

Jay Joseph Audia

October 15, 1959 - July 19, 2008

Jay Audia, the "Banty Rooster", died in his home in Bend, on July 19, 2008. Jay graduated from Enterprise High School in Redding, CA in 1978 and played golf for San Diego State University. He was a prominent businessman in Bend and Sunriver, and an avid supporter of his community.

Jay had many passions including auto racing, golf, fly-fishing, riding his Harley, and playing craps. He had recently found a passion for Christ through friends and church. Jay will forever be remembered for his amazing sense of humor and generous heart.

Survivors include: father, Joseph Audia, of Bend and Redding, CA; sons, Travis and Brandon, of Bend; brothers, Paul of Menifee, CA, and John, of Bend, Sister, Ann of Bend. He was preceded in death by his mother, Sonja Audia.

A Celebration of Life service will take place at Westside Church on Tuesday, July 29th at 12:00 p.m.

Donations may be sent in honor of Jay to Westside Church, 2051 Shevlin Park Road, Bend, OR 97701.

Niswonger-Reynolds Funeral Home is handling arrangements.

Anonymous said...

"* Real journalism would have a field day on BEND-OR, #1 over-priced RE in the USA, #1 RE-Developer per-capita 'suicide' rate, or death in unusual circumstance's. Well what do you expect the town is RAN by the BOSS-HOGG, the BULL&SORE are RAN by the BOSS-HOGG."

Someone needs to RAN out and get an Elements of Style.

*

Some are obsessed with 'style', other's obsessed with idea's. It's a free world outside of Bend, Oregon.

"Real Journalism" is outside of Bend.

In a virtual world of Bend, where all ideas are shared, and there are no 'guard-rails' of politically correct Bend Thinking, why not do away with the rule's of grammar, punctuation, and such,...?

Why are so many of Bends grammar nanny's obsessed with hyphenation?

You would think that hyphenation and use of capitalization is more worrisome than Bend's suicide crisis.

Anonymous said...

For some reason, this particular line really got me to chuckling.
Bend is ran by stupidity...

*

Don't you remember 'forest gump', he didn't run, he ran.

Run forest, Run; hell no he ran.

Bend is run by stupidity, does this make it less true or more true?

Given that a few boss hoggs in Bend control 90% of the jobs, and these hoggs are going down, how long will the loyalty last?

This town is desperate, and the smart folk left a long time ago.

The last to stay on the behalf of the hogg's are those empowered by the law that says people rise to their level of incompetence, and are now stuck in Bend, until it implodes. ( Peter Principal rules in Bend, all the HOGG REHO's have risen to their level of incompetence, ergo STOOPID )

Whether you call it Brooks Resources, SmithOldMill, or Jen-Weld, this town is going down. The glue that has held the town together to one common drummer since 1998 is now intellectually, and financially bankrupt. Nobody is going to bail-out Bend.

The bosshoggs have city-hall & city-staff loaded, but the smart folks started looking for a job outside of Bend long ago.

When the money dry's to the bone, and the HOA ( friedman/clinton ) fee's gig dry's up, and there's no meat on the bone, this whole town post 1998 will back its bags and go find a new gold-rush town to hustle.

Anybody still in Bend, and working or the HOGG's this late in the came is STOOOPID.

Anybody been into any of the jen-weld title offices here in town lately? They're scary empty.

My point is the HOGG's have had 'forest gump' types running this town for ten years. Once Forest figured out he had been had, he was gone.

Bend is broken, Humpty-Dumpty and has fell off the wall and all the SDC deferral ain't going to put Bend back together again.

The Natives Are Restless said...

Bilbobend, you're wrong. This town ain't goin down, and the Hoggs ain't goin nowhere.

You look at things way too short term. Kinda like a lot of the newcomers to this area. They just want to know where their next buck is coming from and how they can screw someone to get it. They just want to know when Sonic is moving into town so Bend can be more like Huntington Beach.

The "Hoggs" don't work that way. They're in it for the long haul. They go back in this area for generations and know the history here. Lots of them have up to 5 or 6 generations that are vested in Central Oregon.

Names like Miller, Taylor, Coats, Carlson, McCool, Thomas, Robberson, Baney, Leageld, and yes...Hollern and Smith. These folks are going to be around for a loooong time. They've seen the cycles and know how to ride them out.

Go to the library, the museum, the Tower Theater, St. Charles, COCC, etc. and look up at the donor boards. You'll see those names plastered all over the place. They have a stake here.

No my friend, those folks will be around longer than you or I. They care too deeply for this area, and have too damned much invested here. And besides, if they need something done, they just have to pick up the phone. They all know each other, REAL WELL.

The smart folks didn't leave this town a long time ago. They're just sitting back and watching the world go by. Waiting for the next wave, if you will.