Apart from what I do for a living (let's just say there's a whole lot of newborn baby pathology in Eastern N.C.), I've got one elderly relative with a shattered leg in a local ICU - after having had an MI at the wheel of his car . . . and one toddler in our extended family at Duke - having just been diagnosed with leukemia (we are waiting on the definitive diagnosis).
The child, an adorable little girl, had actually been seen for her two-year-old check-up within the last week or so - but the doctor did not notice anything amiss (I must add the caveat here to parents that physicians are not psychic . . . if you're worried about something at a check-up, SPEAK UP!). My sister-in-law called me the night before last with a list of symptoms, and asked me what I thought and what to do. As she rattled off the list, an ominous chill ran down my spine. I did not tell her exactly what I thought (it's best not to instill terror if one does not have to), but I told her what to do and to do it very fast.
When I hung up, I felt sick at the other end of the phone. I still feel sick.
Yesterday, the "baby" went back to the doctor. They put her in an ambulance and sent her straight to Duke. As I type this, she is been introduced to the world of bone marrow biopsies and permanent central lines and blood & platelet transfusions and all manner of exotic chemicals being pumped into her tiny body. It's all to save her life . . . a life that hasn't even started yet.
And now, I am crying.
It's very frustrating, because I am working several hours from home (for all of the reasons I blog about) . . . "on-call" for Thanksgiving . . . and cannot be there to support/advise people I love.
The only reason I mention these things before continuing on with this post is to emphasize the point that those of us that sit at these keyboards have private lives and families and stuff going on.
We fordamnedsure don't need cyber-stalkers . . . one of our supposed own . . . dishing out their ugly/mean/sick/warped CRAP on top of all that.
So the reader is going to have to forgive me if I'm just not in the mood to spend what little spare time I do have pounding away at a computer screen for the "entertainment" of others.
But hey, for the moment, I'm going to indulge some of you. Let's move on along to the "spectacle"!
Having made the (inaccurate) assessment that "nobody else" was talking about it online, the GSO blogosphere's resident lawyer, Sam Spagnola, with whom I've had differences before, put up a post entitled "The Fec and Mary Show".
In the interest of the "civil discourse" that everyone in the GSO blogopshere says they care so much about, it was very important for our Sam to offer up his opinion on "the spectacle" (as opposed to maybe waiting for the facts and submitting a legal opinion on the case). By God, it was his Constitutional right! The "participants" did not need to comment but everyone else could. It was also his contention that both "participants" should be banned from commenting on any of the local blogs . . . never mind that one of the "participants" will shortly be taking the Fifth or pleading insanity . . . and the other is just DONE being run-over by this bait-and-switch garbage.
Sometimes Sam is so full of it that I just want to scream.
You can read the post/thread for yourself. Sam is being Sam. He's a lawyer, trained in the "art" of being adversarial, and he doesn't know how to beat a clean retreat when his argument has been shot full of holes.
Today, in particular, I am very tired of Sam. This is my last comment on that post (and it will be my last one there - I could care less about whatever comeback he offers):
Sam, in terms of "annoying characteristics", pots and kettles. You're putting on quite the show here.
Since YOU brought it up (I so do not want to re-hash this with you either): Legal opinions that one does not pay for are usually not worth a whole lot. Most of us cannot afford the learned opinions of the really big guns in your profession (especially after we've already been raped by turkey-buzzards-disguised-as-eagles).
And OBTW, yes, it is my opinion (you can have one - so can I) that you ARE a part of the problem if (like apparently a huge chunk of the legal world), you think that not prosecuting perjury (which has NO statute of limitations) is okay . . . unless it's done to boost the career of some political wannabe in Raleigh or Washington.
I think and hope that the Medical Board & NCAG's office are waking up on this case and will begin work to fix some of the important issues it raises (if you don't mind too terribly much, I'll wait until they're fixed to "move on") . . . but I honestly don't have my hopes up. Legal action will likely be necessary to get the agencies involved to "move".
Unfortunately, as our current economy bears out, we cannot expect oversight agencies to oversee.
As for what happened last week, I know that I'm supposed to just sit around and "just watch" (Hi Ed!, Hi Roch!) when "that SMELL" has one of his manic meltdowns at the computer keyboard. But this time I simply could not do it. Mike Baron, suffering from terminal cancer and just out of the hospital, did NOT, in ANY way, deserve what Jeff Martin dished out on Vie de Malchance. Neither did any of the other "evil booger-eating morons and lunatics" at which Martin spewed his bile.
And, in the wake of that despicable post, spare me the scolding for "baiting" the-character-known-as-Fecund-Stench. I was playing by his rules. "The show" could have stayed over at Vie de Malchance had "that SMELL" not started deleting the comments of those who objected to what he was doing.
As I said in my original post at Housecalls, I was not interested in - or trying to start - a "blog-war". But I am not going to stand by and "just watch" while a good-man-already-down is stomped for sick/warped sport. Some things don't get to float in the ether unchallenged or unanswered.
(UNLESS, OF COURSE, YOU'RE A TWO-FACED, GREEDY, LYING EXECUTIVE AND/OR RUBBER-STAMPING BOARD MEMBER OF "NON-PROFIT" RANDOLPH HOSPITAL . . . OR ONE OF THE LAWYERS IN THIS CASE . . . AND YOU'RE GUILTY AS CHARGED!)
When I'm called out, I'm gonna come out. When "that SMELL" does it . . . or when you do.So. Don't call me out. STOP. It's a simple word.
And yes, it WAS a spectacle. But we've have a lot of spectacles here in this blogosphere and as far as I know, NONE of them have escalated into one of the participants sending threatening e-mails to other bloggers (more than one person - I'm told you know about this) . . . e-mails that threaten the other bloggers' personal safety and/or livelihood . . . e-mails that play nasty head games.
And that wasn't the end of it. As far as I am concerned, every horrible/LIBELOUS post referring to me that was put up at VdM since Jeff Martin made his threats is an extension of the crime . . . Jeff actually carrying through on his threats . . . trying to do me harm.
You're still determined to rationalize the notion that I somehow "deserved" this. I don't know what planet you live on to equate what ALL of us do in our blogging (at one time or another) with cyber-stalking.
I really don't.
I agree with you. This IS a milestone AND newsworthy (for all that the standard-bearers of "citizen-journalism" at the GSO News & Record are masking their desire to keep the lid on this UGLY can-of-worms under the guise of the story being "too complicated"). And that's mostly because I had the presence of mind to blog what was happening as it happened . . . which led to Jeff Martin CONFESSING to the crime online.
You've been fishing, so here you go: I am informed that warrants were issued last Thursday in the case (the jurisdiction is the home address typed into "that SMELL's" e-mail header . . . an address in Randolph County). I did not have to "swear out" anything - a magistrate found probable cause.
But Jeff Martin, apparently knowing full well what was coming, left town. So the warrants will be sent to Greensboro for the GPD to handle.
I'm not wild about the jurisdiction being Randolph County. Tell me, Spag, do you think I will get a fair shake there?
The other blogger involved is in a different jurisdiction and I cannot/will not speak to what will happen there.
I know you're very happy now. You've got "the scoop".
Maybe you can run with it in a fashion different than you have been.
Wednesday Morning Update: The head-games continue . . . in comments posted to this blog. The information I have on "123 . . . 123" has been forwarded to the Randolph County Sheriff's Department.
It's not a dance, Jeff.
More Wednesday Morning Sam: I really wasn't planning on going back, but Sam is still trying to make the case that I somehow deserved what happened two Friday nights ago (and what is still going on) . . . that "baiting" our poor "SMELL" in the blogs somehow justifies threats and sick head games.
And I'm sorry, at this point, it's like telling a girl who was wearing a short skirt that she deserved to be raped. Sam's bloviating ain't playing with Dr. Mary.
My retort:
I really didn't plan to come back, but like I said, some things don't get to just stand in the ether.You are not so hard to predict either Sam.
And now you're just being a sexist pig. How many times have I watched you and Roch or Ed or Bubba or any of the rest of our lot lay the bait in these blogs and say horrible/nasty things to one another?
Let me ask you this, when any of YOU boys did it, would "Give it your best shot" mean that any of you could start threatening one another's personal safety or livelihoods in e-mails?
YOU are the one who keeps rehashing our differences over my case. You keep trying to justify what Jeff Martin did (by referrring back to the way I've defended my positions - often after "a great many other people" laid the bait) and you just can't make that connection.
But you have a God-given right to have an opinion on the spectacle!
You cannot have it both ways. Perjury is a crime or it isn't. If someone victimized by the act (especially when it's done by people who work for public or "non-profit" institutions) wants to prosecute, they should have avenues to do so. That's been my argument all along - a fairly simple one. All the doors have been slammed in my face and it has been your position that it's okay - that I need to accept the injustice and move on. I'm sorry it tires you so much. But then again, you did not take the hit.
Perhaps I do need to take a course on English as a second language - because a lot of people in this blogosphere seem to be talking out of both sides of their mouth.
Comments on this post are closed.
Sorry folks. This part of the show is over. I've bled enough.
