First of all..I have said it before..although I wish to remain nameless, most if not all the blog writers either know me personally or know of me.
I do not write this blog because I crave attention. I am a published author and spent in excess of 25 years in the news and entertainment media. I have continued in an offhand way in the media eye in one way or the other for over 50 years. I blog for fun. I have no political aspirations what-so-ever. I feel that there is an inherent stupidity in politics that has prevailed in this area for decades. It has not been a progressive attitude and during my life time I doubt it will get any better, just decay more.
A few comments have been made about a blog that surfaced during the last Mayor’s election. It was a sick, self-serving absolute pice of crap that was about as racist as it was pure trash. Like the saying go’s shit happens..I will not give this blog any more publicity. The other blogs have done so. Lamar’s comments pretty well put it completely in prospective. Do not get me wrong..Lamar is just as guilty of making mistakes, like the rest of us…We all have our blatant faults…
Why do blog authors attack and try to discredit any one person or a group of people? Sometimes it is for a noble cause..to correct a real dysfunction in government or in social life. These people sometimes achieve a miracle of sorts..But this happens very seldom.
I am seeing a trend more and more in the local Alexandria blogs. They seem to get some sort of perverted pleasure in attacking each other.. I want to be the last to judge, but the whole thing is getting away from being constructive and is on a downhill destructive nosedive.
In reality..very few people are affected by the learned writings of bloggers.
You achieve a following for a while, of sorts..nothing more.
I understand that fact of life. If I get 50 to 100 viewers a day it is a wonder. I could get more by being obnoxious and degrade people in the community.
That is the lazy and easy way….The path of most attention in some cases.
Why do we write blogs? It is mostly an ego thing… They could serve a good purpose.. Around Alexandria..not so much. Give’s a nice impression to those who read them who are interested in this area though, don’t it?
I spent the better part of over an hour with a local news media representative Thursday. He came to me to actually check his facts. They still do that you know..I will get no mention in his project and really do not want to.
I was taken back at his interest in getting facts right. That is seldom strived for in today’s world…
Funny though..I changed my mind on a request and decided to favorably help a blog out. sent them a message on their,” Contact us” section actually three times..even gave my phone nuimber…I think that was in total more than three days ago.. No response….
Like I said..I am no better than the rest and do not pretend to be…….
I could single people out and give ryme and reason..but why bother?
Alex
Alex, very well put. I believe that you are right, we blog out of ego and out of believing that we might possibly make a difference. I have been fortunate to develop some very loyal readers and commenters on my blog.
There must be something in the water in Alexandria, it is pretty amazing. As you know, I follow all of the Cenla blogs rather closely. I don’t know of any other area of the state where such acrimony exists among the bloggers. You are a shining exception to this.
I did a blog post a couple of years ago on the ‘Alexandria blog wars’, and have been thinking for a couple of days that I need to update it.
Keep up the good work!
Alex, I am an attorney for over 25 years. Besides my law degree, I have a minor in political science. I have always considered myself somewhat of a political activist.
I began blogging in 2005 to speak out against the, in my opinion, the illegal acts of Ball Mayor Roy Hebron, who is now in the federal pen.
In 2008, I had a stroke and pretty much stopped practising law. I have contiunued to blog because, due to my disability, it is a way to speak my mind on politics. I blog because I like it, not out of ego, because I have little else to do now.
I am know to be against Gov. Jindal and Alexandria Mayor Jacques Roy, but I consider myself to be issue oriented and give them both credit where credit is due. I do, however, feel that both men are not working for our benefits.
I try to be truthful with my blog, whether one disgrees with me or not, and I utilize audio and video, documents and links to newspapers, magazines and other blogs to back up what I write.
What I have against Freddy White, Danny Slayter and crew, and Ed Hooper is that they tell what is in my opinion lies. Freddy will write anything to make his former boss, Mayor Roy look good, Slayter is a paralegal who hates most of us lawyers, and Hooper is an uneducated fool who I successfully sued a few months ago for defamation and being untruthful on his blog.
I would much rather just blog about political issues, but I feel compelled to expose the lies written by others. But I will agree with Alex that no matter how much I try, I may not always be correct. But at least I think that I am truthful.
Greg, this is the only quasi-direct contact I have ever had with you. No one in my group have ever posted comments on your blog except for ONE (unless they have lied to me). I noticed someone made a comment on your blog awhile back and proclaimed to be me…that’s was not me.
Don’t call me a liar again. I have recorded polygraph tests into the court records to prove my integrity(and yes, I was ready for a daubert challenge). I may be a lot of things, but a liar is not one of them.
I guess Alex is kinda like Switzerland right now.
and p.s. Greg, since we are in neutral territory, if you use any of my genuine and sincere comments on your blog in a negative way, I will slam you on CBP. I am not Lamar and I am not Ed.
Let me know if you want a cease fire.
Thanks to both Jim and Greg. Your input is well taken!
Alex
Alex,
What you have written is why I love your blog. Yes, there are others out there but I am not interested in the mudslinging. The cropped pictures. It is in my opinion immature and cowardly. I say state the facts and leave it like that. Don’t name call and get ugly. Your blog is very well written. I am proud to read your blog. The other ones pale in comparison. One in particular out there I would be ashamed to say I ever read it.
Mr. Aymond,
Just so you know it is not your blog I mentioned. True you post some pictures. Other than that I would have to say I agree with a lot of your politics. I would say 75-80%. But I would consider that good because the only person’s blog that I agree with 100% of the time is this one.
Alex, thank you for your level-headedness and for putting things in the proper context. I do not believe Mr. Aymond is fair or accurate, however, and I sometimes feel obligated to defend both myself and others from some of the things he posts. He has repeatedly called me a “gimp,” for example, and has mined my personal Facebook account in order to alter photographs of me, making me appear as a Klansman, a Nazi, and Mao Tse Tung, among others. He has publicly suggested that I do not believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ, and he has repeatedly misrepresented my education, my employment background, and my experience.
If these things were said about you or someone you love by a stranger — a man you’ve never even met once in your life– on an Internet website that claims to be the most popular blog in Central Louisiana, would you simply sit idly by or would you defend yourself? I know it is easy enough to say, “Just ignore it, and this person will eventually ignore you.” But I tried that approach– for months, actually– and Mr. Aymond never relented. If I posted a positive story on my website about Alexandria, Mr. Aymond would, like clockwork, respond with a personal attack against me.
It is fair, I think, to point out that Mr. Aymond, who fashions himself as a “political activist,” actually began his activism as a member of the Ku Klux Klan, particularly when he accuses others of being racists or alters photographs of others to make it appear as if they were actually Klansmen. During the last Mayor’s race, Mr. Aymond posted an untrue and completely unsubstantiated claim that Mayor Roy once appeared in blackface. Ironically, the same accusation had only recently been leveled against John Georges, then a candidate for Mayor of New Orleans. The difference, of course, is that there was actually a photograph of John Georges. But because Mr. Aymond’s story about Mayor Roy was a ridiculous lie– and despite his pleas for readers to submit an incriminating photograph, Mr. Aymond, instead, created his own photograph. More recently, I reminded readers of the tactics employed by the pro-Von Jennings website JacquesBarack and the way in which this person used a photograph of the Mayor’s four-year-old daughter as a part of an attack piece. Incredibly, Mr. Aymond responded by suggesting that Mayor Roy was actually at fault because his campaign brochures contained a picture of his family. Of course, family photographs are a standard part of nearly every political campaign, and it is absurd, almost deranged, to suggest that a four-year-old child is “fair game” because she appeared in a candidate’s family photograph.
A few other things: I have never denied the fact that I am an unabashed supporter of Mayor Roy. I know him, personally and professionally, to be a man of the utmost integrity. Having worked alongside him for five years, I saw this every single day. So yes, maybe I am biased: I’ll fully concede that. But, throughout the last few years, reading the ways in which Mr. Aymond attacks and criticizes Mayor Roy, it seems to me that he is not really interested in raising political awareness or offering legitimate or substantive policy criticisms, he’s interested in waging a one-man smear campaign.
I don’t respond to him or engage in discussions like this one with the hope of receiving more hits on my website. My responses to Greg Aymond aren’t intended to promote myself or stroke my own ego or ingratiate myself to anyone else. I was reared to stand up to bullies; for me, this entire back-and-forth isn’t about promoting myself or others; it has always been about defending myself and others from attacks I know to be wrong, hurtful, and painful.
And you’re absolutely right: I am just as guilty as others of making mistakes. I have my own obvious faults. Sometimes, I can be hot-headed and quick to the punch, and when that happens, when cooler heads prevail, I have no problem admitting my mistakes and apologizing. But what I will never do is merely roll over and allow someone that I don’t even know, a man who has never even met me personally, to continually lie about me and spread vicious lies– sometimes carefully couched as “rumors”– about people I know to be good, decent, and compassionate.
I absolutely support Mr. Aymond’s fundamental right to free speech, but the First Amendment works both ways. This is not some game we’re all playing; it’s not a competition to see who can say the worst and most hateful things about one another without actually committing defamation, as if readers or the public award style points for the person who can press as far up against the line between free speech and defamation.
And it’s a lesson I have had to learn the hard way– that when I criticize someone publicly, I am criticizing a real human being, with a family for whom he or she loves. Sometimes, it’s difficult to know how to criticize someone’s political opinions or professional judgment without calling into question their basic and fundamental humanity. This, however, does not mean that we should simply ignore bullies or smear artists.
In my opinion, more often than not, Mr. Aymond– however earnest he may be about his political opinions– fails to appreciate or, perhaps, fails to even care for this distinction.
I am not interested in a blog war. I’m interested in a robust and respectful conversation. Several months ago, when you posted an item about the Great Wall of Alexandria, as you may recall, I completely disagreed with your analysis. But I didn’t call you names. I tried, to the best of my ability, to respond passionately but respectfully with my criticism. And I think that is the way the conversation should always be.
But it’s difficult, if not impossible, when you’re dealing with a man whose style of political activism is “yelling in (your) face,” someone who recently wrote that, “ethics among blacks is usually a lacking character trait,” someone who paints anyone who disagrees with him or with whom he disagrees in the most vile and contemptible language– all while championing himself as an activist and a watchdog. Mr. Aymond may like to present himself as a defender of the First Amendment. He can call me a “gimp;” that’s protected, of course. But ironically, when the blogger Ed Hooper called Mr. Aymond “an unethical attorney,” Mr. Aymond took Mr. Hooper to court– a process, by the way, that we all had to pay for, at least in part, as taxpayers– to sue Mr. Hooper for defamation, submitting his medical records as evidence (one can only presume) of the physical trauma he experienced as a result of Mr. Hooper’s blogposts. And throughout this whole process, Mr. Aymond taunted Mr. Hooper repeatedly on his website. Ultimately, an out-of-town judge awarded Mr. Aymond nominal damages– $500, a hollow and meaningless victory for a case that, I believe, should have been thrown out from the very beginning.
My point, in bringing this up, is that, for Mr. Aymond, what is good for the goose is not good for the gander. The local blogosphere should not be considered one man’s bully pulpit– particularly a man who attacks others on a daily basis but who holds up his law degree and his willingness to sue anyone who dares to criticize his professionalism and his ethics.
Instead of being a place for robust and honest discussion, the local blogosphere has become a caricature of everything wrong with the American political discourse; it’s like a junior high school rumor mill, except instead of passing notes, people threaten lawsuits against one another for the VERY behavior they are engaging in themselves.
I know this website is titled Alex’s Rants and Ravings, so Alex, please forgive my rant. It seemed like the most appropriate venue. Thank you again for your level-headedness and for sharing your obvious love for the people and the history of Alexandria.
I am a guest here and I will be respectful and cordial.
Alex, you blasted CBP the other day. You proclaimed CBP lacked credibility because I used some pictures off your website. You also stated that you sent CBP three emails about the pictures. Alex, CBP got an email on Dec. 28th about the DVD deal and the last one was on January 11th with your phone number. I am logged in right now looking at it. The Jan 11th was forwarded to my personal email address on the 13th.
What is my point? Alex, you let us “have it” over what is tantamount to a miscommunication.
Within this context, it is not reasonable for you to scold the bloggers for responding to each over the back and forth vicious assaults. Greg Aymond was blogging about me on his site long before I joined CBP. He calls me a liar, a criminal, a “dead beat” dad, etc. etc. etc. I am going to retaliate.
You anonymous posters have the luxury of sitting back and calling for peace but you are not the ones being slammed on a daily basis. Walk a mile in my shoes and then tell me what you think.
Oh, and to ‘proud parent’, your post is completely disingenuous. Aymond and CBP utilize almost the same tactics. How can you agree/disagree with one and not the other? You are biased and lack objectivity…sorry.
Anyone who knows me well knows that my skin is “thick”. I am not bothered by strife or discourse nor am I bothered by criticism. The only thing I ask in return is that you understand that I expect the same in return.
I look forward to talking to you Alex. I’ll give you a call probably tomorrow. You will quickly discover that CBP is a very, very small part of my life. I did see a message from you on my personal email, I have not read it yet on purpose. I wanted to respond to your post in a untainted fashion.
D. Slayer,
I never once said your blogs name. You just assumed it was yours.But since you asked for my opinion I will tell you. Both you and Mr. Aymond need to stop with the pictures. You both remind me of the National Enquirer and the other trash mags. Aside from that if you take the pictures off Aymond’s site and ignore the war with Lamar and your site. Aymond has a reasonable opinion of politics. I can honestly say I agree with 60% of what he says which is good.
Mr. Slayer,
There is a reason why politics do not make good conversation. No one agrees most of the time. It causes discord.
Now, My opinion on your site is the only reason it was started was to mock,
ridicule, and otherwise cause harm to people. There is nothing on your site that has anything but vile things to say. It is my opinion of the perfect example of why we need laws in this country against such things on the web.
Very close; CBP was primarily started to mock, ridicule and cause harm to those who attack innocent people. You almost nailed it. I make no apologies whatsoever in attacking those who deserve it. It is social justice at its finest. You disagree but perhaps you wouldn’t if we were bashing someone who attacked you and posted false pictures of you or your family. In fact, I am willing to bet that if Aymond attacked you then perhaps you would feel a great deal of satisfaction knowing guys like us are out there ready to hit right back in your defense. Aymond has gone unchecked for too long….I guess we are the “A-Team”.
D. Slayter,
As you can tell I am not on the web much. Please do not try to play the hero part in my book. I certainly do not see you as a defender of anyone but yourself. I looked at your blog once. I found it disgusting. Your pictures are absurd. You were attacking a persons family. I do not agree with that. Your blog is pointless. You had nothing constructive to say. It was all comments done in the most vile, disgusting manner I have seen.
Mr. Lamar White,
I did read your blog from time to time. I quit when I saw that you supported Mr. Slayter’s blog. I have to admit I was shocked. As a disabled person I would have assumed you would not put your name on a site that is know for making fun of people with disabilities.
I think CBP knows my position now. I have communicated with all of the Blogs. I will not single out any one of them. I think most of them would better serve the area with less discord toward each other, Each one has their purpose. I will remain neutral.
Alex