A little back story on this, as it started out on my Facebook page...
I posted a link to the article I wrote on my blog about PZ's accusation of Shermer being a serial rapist. It garnered a lot of comments. Sarah Jones was one of those commenters and had expressed her opinion that I was victim-blaming the subject of PZ's grenade blog, in spite of the
actual words that I wrote, which included several disclaimers, explanations and plain-language details about the purpose of what I wrote and why I wrote it.
Go figure...
Anyhow, one particular commenter issued death threats to Sarah Jones, so that part of the story is true. There
were comments in that thread that included a threat on the life of Sarah Jones. Who is Sarah Jones? She is someone that I had previously interviewed on a radio show I co-host called 'The God Discussion,' where she was a guest.
You can read more about her and the show where we met
here.
So, yes, she did receive death threats. Now, here is where it goes off the rails...
If anyone has the time or inclination to copy and paste the timeline of this particular twitter orgy, they will see it involved me, EllenBeth Wachs and several others. There were constant references to the death threats, righteous indignation about nobody coming to her aid, contacting the authorities, getting Facebook involved, etc.
What is not included in the twitter orgy (which is why I hate having conversations on twitter) are a few of facts (those pesky facts) that are pertinent to the situation.
1) The fact that when the threats were issued I was out of town for the day and that is why they were not immediately deleted or even addressed.
2) The fact that when I saw the threats I immediately deleted them, sent a private message to Sarah about the person who made the threats, posted a disclaimer on my wall about not tolerating death threats, re-blocked the individual and included a public apology to Sarah for being the recipient of said threats.
3) The individual who issued those threats is mentally ill.
Seriously and legitimately mentally ill. Anyone who would have bothered to read the comments on that thread (my Facebook account is public) would have immediately understood this. But just in case there is any doubt, the young man who issued the threats is a paranoid schizophrenic that suffers from delusions and hallucinations when he is not on his medication. I've known this kid for a while, and when he goes off his meds he gets very unpredictable, and thus I have had to block him a time or two over the years.
His comments leading up to the threats included his claims that:
* He is genetically engineered
* He has super powers
* He is an agent for Interpol
* He has killed thousands as a paid assassin for various governments
* He is a walking sovereign state who is above the law
Additionally, If anyone bothered to visit his Facebook page they would have read even more outlandish claims about himself being a real-life Iron Man (other super heroes have been invoked in the past) and other delusions and similar posts alluding to his being a genetically engineered soldier who works for Interpol as a paid assassin and is above the law and has agents working under him who he sends on various missions that include anything from killing heads of state to threats of assigning people to blow up government buildings. You would also find a lot about the government spying on him and various other paranoid delusions.
They would have immediately dismissed the threats for what they were, and moved on.
But Sarah Jones did not include these facts in her twitter meltdown. She decided to milk the living fuck out of it for reasons which are glaringly obvious and quite predictable.
After I had enough of being tagged in a war between her and EllenBeth, Kim Rippere, from Secular Woman (who supports PZ and you all know who she is and what Secular Woman is) chimed in, and then came the Melody Hensley tweet.
So, there you have it. Another Seinfeld incident.