Saving the Children….One Chicken at a Time

If you have read The Takedown’s newest post this week, this post may seem a little repetitive to you. In fact, if I were lazy enough, I’d just direct you to The Takedown’s post and say ditto. It would suffice. Unfortunately, it’s never enough to say ditto for me.

 I, too, received an e-mail from someone I believe to be Chicken Liver, the owner of Poop on Peeps.  It’s being alleged that my publishing copies of her previous diaries, and her personal information, has resulted in threatening phone calls and comments to her and her family. Apparently, she’s received  e-mails and comments saying I am distributing copies of her copyrighted works. And she would like me to stop immediately. Or she’ll have no option other than to prosecute me.

WTF??

No, really, WTF?

Um, OK. Where do I start? Chicken Liver’s private diaries were never published on this site. I wasted plenty of time I’ll never get back  reading said diaries, but  never published them here. Nor did I ever publish her phone number. Or e-mail address.  Or home address.  

I don’t believe for a second that any harassing e-mails Chicken Liver is receiving, if, in fact, there are any whatsoever, are because of this blog.  I don’t believe I’ve broken any laws, and I have no fear of legal threats, but the one mention of Chicken Liver’s/Shellybean’s/JetPass’s proper name has been removed from this site.  Any future comment that reference her real name, or address, will not be published. This does NOT mean that Chick, and her minions, can’t be discussed here. A full on bitch session is always welcome here.

This e-mail, though, is simply further proof, to me, of the raging ball of hypocrisy that is Chicken Liver. Chick must have known that both Lilith and myself would write about receiving this e-mail. She gets to inform her  ass kissing Chicklets that she’s been harassed and threatened because of us, without ever having to say so on her own blog. She gets to paint a picture of a rabid anti-Chick brigade, foaming at the mouth, waiting to pounce on her, while still being able to distance herself from the reality that she herself is responsible for the way people view her.

As Lilith referenced on her site, Chick’s raison d’etre is to save those poor, helpless children who are put at risk through their mommyblogger mommy’s quest for internet fame.  Bloggers who are so addicted to the virtual ass kissing from their sycophantic minions they will ignore the warnings and continue to put their child at risk. Hmmm. Wait, that sounds a little familiar. Actually, doesn’t it sound like Chick? I’ll be gosh darned if it doesn’t sound just like her. An attention seeking blogger, reportedly receiving threats to herself and her family, but unwilling to take the necessary steps to protect her family, like, oh, I don’t know. Maybe like removing the vicious hate blog that is likely the cause of any threats she may possibly have received????

It’s interesting, really, that mere days after it became public that someone had copies of the old blog she thought was gone, WHAM! here come the legal threats. She must be terrified too many people will get to read her words, and judge her as harshly as she judges others.

Karma really is a bitch.

 

Keeping it Real, Vol. 2

After the little kerfluffle involving one of my oh-so-favourite bloggers, I was doing a little reading online. I came across an interesting link and when I checked it out, I recalled a post Chick had written last year. Remember her “Gift Guides of the Loaded and Mean“?

Chick had her panties all in a bunch over Dooce’s  holiday gift guide. Insulted, apparently, at the very idea of “a fucking teapot for $165!” It was her suggestion that perhaps you could find a very nice teapot at Pier One for way less. And I’m sure you could. I’m pretty sure they must carry coffee pots there, too, but I’m not so sure Chick is as interested in cheap coffee pots.

It would seem as if Chick’s idea of a great gift might run a little higher than a teapot for $165.00. Take the coffee pot she registered for at Macy’s for her wedding. This little number ca-chings in for a sweet $304.00, catch it on sale for $165.00.  Geez whiz, with that kind of savings, you could almost afford to get the $150 sugar bowl she likes, or the $129.00 creamer. If you got a few extra bucks to throw in, perhaps you’d like the serving platter for $314.00.

Too rich for your blood? Mine, too. Maybe I could swing the $50.00 mug she was looking for, but those $80.00 soup bowls are sooo out of my league.  Who knows, maybe Chick was hoping Ree Drummond would send a gift.  Cause, you know, like you gotta be Ree Drummond and her $14,000 floors to afford even a $165.00 teapot.

When “Keeping it Real” doesn’t extend to real life…

When I first decided to start up this blog, Ree Drummond and her Pioneer Woman  cowpoopy goodness weren’t so much on my radar. I’d read the site before, and have even tried a couple of her recipes, but she’s not the kind of blogger I read often. Way too much down home goodness for my liking. I generally prefer a bit of substance to whatever I’m reading, and cows and horses just don’t cut it for me.

Ms. Drummond and her Pioneer Woman persona have quite a following, however, and many readers seem to have an insatiable appetite for all things Drummond. I think I’ve mentioned her twice on this blog, but yet, I receive dozens of hits every week for The Pioneer Woman,  for Ree or her husband, Ladd Drummond.  I still have no idea what the hell people are searching for, but search they do. As I looked over my stats page yesterday, a new PW related search caught my eye, and I had to go to her site and check it out for myself.

It would seem that Ms. Drummond’s server had been hacked early this month, and a form of malware installed to her server subsequently infected an unknown number of her readers computers. Shitty luck, huh? Glad I wasn’t one of those readers, many have posted about the problems they’ve encountered trying to clean their systems, and have been open about the fact this has cost moulah, baby. Mucho moulah.

Ree’s response to this crisis? Nearly zip. Nearly zilch. Nearly freakin’ inexcusably ignorant. Ms. Pioneer Woman herself has nearly ignored the fact that her server has caused some MAJOR inconveniences to her readers, not to mention cold, hard cash. Her explanations about what went wrong on her server are laughable in their vagueness. Aliens? Planet Hackatron? Really, Ree? Is this really the best explanation?

There’s not one real mention of what actually happened on her site. She doesn’t say, in plain fucking English, what happened, other than her Aliens from Planet Hackatron bullshit. She calls the infection a “bug”. She calls her server being hacked a “server meltdown”. She says a “handful” of visitors may have been affected. She says she doesn’t want to go into “the gory details”.

Seriously? Is this really the best she can do? She’s running what’s arguably one of the top earning blogs, with huge traffic. And clearly, she doesn’t have enough respect for her readers to be honest and truthful about something that, initially, was not her fault. And it wasn’t. She can’t help being hacked, I don’t suppose. But she can help being too full of herself to explain, in plain English, on the front page of her blog, what the hell happened, what the infection really was, and what her readers should check for. She doesn’t even have the decency to name the files you should check for. Understandably, she doesn’t want to associate her website with any unpleasantness. But when it spills over and affects her readers, you’d think she’d stand up, take it on the chin and be honest with her readers.  

Not being honest, in my opinion, is worse for her reputation than avoiding the issue. Because she’s avoiding the issues, people are talking elsewhere. I looked in on Poop on Peeps earlier, and Chick’s readers are talking about it, too. Including some batshit crazy commentor who thinks Ree has deliberately infected her readers to gather marketing info. Is that the image she wants? I’d hardly think so. Avoiding the issue never makes it go away.

How’s that for keeping it real?

Keeping it real…

Say a certain blogger with a very hateful blog wrote a nasty piece about an unsuspecting mommy blogger. Nothing noteworthy about that, is there?

Say that self-same hate blogger goes ahead and writes her shitty little attack piece. Say that blogger’s fans joined her in mocking said mommy blogger. Mommy blogger is flayed, and burnt at the stake. Nothing noteworthy there, either, right?

But, wait, maybe there’s more. Maybe the hateful one might have known the mommy one. Maybe read her for years. Maybe, just maybe, the hateful one actually had the mommy one on her blogroll! Gasp! Say it ain’t true, Queen B. Say it ain’t true.

Oh, but hold your little toes, my friend. This story doesn’t end there. Say this hateful one and the mommy one were blogging buddies. Say they actually served on a mommy blogger panel together. GASP!!

But, no, you say. It can’t be. The hateful one eats mommy bloggers for breakfast, you say. Chews ’em up, spits ’em out.

Oh, but it is true, my peeps. That’s right, the hateful one only masquerades as a hateful one. Or only masquerades as a mommy blogger. Or masquerades as a lying, mean spirited bitch who turns on her friends to promote clicks. Whatever.

Oh, well, just keeping it real, people.

 

EDITED TO ADD: Ok, so I jumped the gun a little with the blogging panel. After reading more from the site in question, which is http://www.misszoot.com BTW, I realized the blogging panel was almost more of a meme  thing. Miss Zoot had referred to it as a BlogHer 2006 mommy blogging panel, and I clearly should have read more.