I created this blog for trolls. It's a place where they can feel at home, knowing that no matter how badly they flame someone, nothing will be deleted.
I created this blog for the rest of us, too. I spotlight the people who hijack blogs, start flame wars, misappropriate other people's identities and comment using sock puppets. It's a place to set the record straight when trolls distort the truth, and in a setting where it does not distract from other, more interesting, topics.
Bill Villa is this blog's first inductee. He hasn't let me down.
Villa's wife published a blog last week about the importance of teaching social studies and history and stuff like that. Sounds innocuous, right? Not when the bloggers are trolls.
First, there's those comments. Ninety percent of them are obviously posted by Villa himself, a tactic he admits. He lavishes praise on his wife.
"Mrs. Dottie, you always WOW me with the thoughtfulness of the things you choose to write about. You are a first-rate writer and thinker. Keep it coming! I love your blog.""mrs. dottie, do you ever think about returning to teaching? it's obvious you are passionate and knowledgeable and good teachers are worth their weight in gold as paul carpenter always says."
Nothing wrong with sucking up to the Missus, but why deceive your readers? Don't you have enough respect for them to be honest with them, even in a frickin' post about social studies??
Then Allentown city council member Michael Donovan makes the mistake of assuming they are sincere and posts a comment about the value of a "liberal arts" education. Donovan apparently knows "how to suspend judgment and sit in the middle of competing interests and take the time to understand both parties." Pretty amazing, huh? But can he pull a rabbit out of his hat?
For making the mistake of being nice, Donovan is eviscerated in a series of increasingly vicious attacks. For one thing, he's slammed because he used to be a "moderate Republican," back in '93. Horrors! I don't know how that got him past the velvet rope that Lehigh Valley Somebody, Villa's blog, uses to screen incoming comments. "[L]ike "Studio 54," we don't let just anybody in, but give it a try, and hopefully you'll see your comment beyond the velvet rope after we approve of you."Then, Villa reveals the real source of his outrage - Donovan has failed to stop this blog. "[T]here should have been a groundswell of local blogger outrage--led by you--against The Troll Parade' blog."
Villa's grant-seeking Stepford wife takes a break from her private arts lessons to add, "How would you feel if someone created an entire blog with the sole purpose of humiliating you and your family, even your deceased daughter, with false claims and vicious hateful lies?" She warns, "The Troll Parade must be taken down. Ditto Bernie O'Hare O'McCall."She points out that she's pretty remarkable. "I am a teacher, a dedicated wife and mother, and a community activist and volunteer." I, on the other hand, am a "cruel and evil man."
Oh yeah, the Villas are suing me, too. "[W]e're starting litigation against Bernie O'Hare O'Mcall and his loyal dunce allies." You see, Villa is miffed not just at me, but at every person who has not led the CHARGE against this blog.
His list of Defendants grows larger every day. He's even gunning for Chris Casey. "i can't help but notice that chris casey has already buried your claim in his 'older posts' from um 3 days ago........a glenn kranzley suggestion possibly? Or do these blogger tuesday sellouts do these things intuitively?"Villa wants this blog to disappear. It will stay put. For two years, he and his wife have been filling Blogistan with outright lies and defamation concerning his daughter's tragic death. For two years, he has been attacking perceived enemies anonymously. Guess what? What we have accepted as truth is actually the fabrication of a tormented mind.
I have several posts on the subject, but the most relevant one is here. This blog sets the record straight. Contrary to what Villa and his enabling wife have claimed, DA Jim Martin did vigorously and fairly prosecute the person responsible for the death of Villa's daughter. The Morning Call did cover the story fairly and with sensitivity. Villa is wrong, and everywhere he has gone, that's what he's been told.
Like a bully, Villa threatens and menaces anyone who does not do as he says. He wasted Thanksgiving day pathetically trying to spam one local blogger while simultaneously taunting a college student around the same age as his daughter when she passed on. It's time for Villa to accept reality. After two years of baloney, a little truth won't hurt anybody, not even Villa. What he really needs is help. Lots of it.
