A couple of days ago, I would have never dreamed I would be writing this diary.  Several years ago, I worked for Duramed Pharmaceuticals, now Barr Pharma.  I was a women's health sales representative.  I sold, among other things, Plan B, an emergency oral contraceptive used to prevent pregnancy after unprotected sex or contraceptive failure.  It's also known as "the morning after pill."  

There was quite a big of publicity and controversy about Plan B around the time of the launch.  Some confused Plan B with Mifeprex (or RU-486), the "abortion pill."  Others were just conception purists.  My company, anticipating problems for its reps, took steps to protect us from any potential danger that may result from the controversy including issuing new business cards without home addresses and personal phone numbers as well as creating promotional material that did not scream Plan B on the front covers.  I thought this would be sufficient.  I was wrong.

Everyone here probably already knows the story of Michael Reagan making statements on the air to the effect that he offered to pay for the killing of Mark Dice, an anti-war activist, and that all mothers and babies of Arab descent in the West Bank and Gaza territories be killed; in the case of some, have hand grenades put up the babies butts and "lit" (an inappropriate reference, which he would know, had Reagan served in the military – perhaps he meant "pull the pin").

But the real story is that main stream media has totally ignored the story. The son of a US president and spokesperson for the conservative movement makes death threats on the air, and not one newspaper, network radio station, or TV station thinks it's news.

Well, as reported yesterday, Dutch politician Geert Wilders released his long-awaited anti-Islam movie Fitna.  During the run-up to the movie, his website for it was preemptively suspended based on the idea that the movie "might" be against the hosting services Terms of Service.  

Ultimately, the movie was hosted by Liveleak.  Today, Liveleak pulled it, due to very specific, detailed death threats against it's staff members.  

Fear-mongering at its worst.
The only thing you have to fear is...
Obama following in the tragic footsteps of Kennedy and King.
Now don't you see why we must vote for Anyone Else?
Excuse me while I adjust my snarkometer.

Calls for a "blogger code of conduct" are stupid, as is one of the chief justifications of it:

The draft voluntary code follows incidents where a U.S. blogger and author received death threats by anonymous posters on her site.

I'm in and out of commission, so I hadn't heard of this so-called "death threat" thing. So I looked it up.

Prominent blogger Kathy Sierra has called on the blogosphere to combat the culture of abuse online.

It follows a series of death threats which have forced her to cancel a public appearance and suspend her blog.

Ms Sierra described on her blog how she had been subject to a campaign of threats, including a post that featured a picture of her next to a noose.

Look, if you blog, and blog about controversial shit, you'll get idiotic emails. Most of the time, said "death threats" don't even exist -- evidenced by the fact that the crying bloggers and journalists always fail to produce said "death threats". I suspect many are like this gem I recently received:

AIDS will be killing more amd more of you liberals every year. We conservatives have all the money, and you will be shining our shoes. You will stay in your minimum wage jobs. You are poor. We are rich. We get to travel. You don't. You have to scrape for tips. How about that 2000 election? Nigger Cochran couldn't save you. Is it true that "liberal" means "small penis" in Esperanto? Republicans will hold the Presidency until 2029 at least. You think you have power with Dago Pelosi, but you work for us. We let you "win" an election here and there just to fool you. Pretty cool how the Taliban would let stone walls fall on homosexuals. That is what will happen to liberals. God does not love liberals. That is why he gave you AIDS. Let's hope more  gays and liberals get beaten up. From your genetic superior.

Some might say that the line "AIDS will be killing more amd more of you liberals every year" and the "stone wall" thing are "death threats". They are not. They're just the rantings of a lunatic. For my part, I've gotten my fair share of such vile emails. Some of them have threatened my children. One or two actually crossed the line into "death threat" territory. But so what? It's not as if those cowards will actually act on their threats. For better or for worse, this isn't a country in which media figures -- even hugely controversial ones -- are routinely attacked by anything more dangerous than a cream pie.

Email makes it easy for stupid people to send stupid emails to public figures. If they can't handle a little heat in their email inbox, then really, they should try another line of work. Because no "blogger code of conduct" will scare away psycho losers with access to email.

The Lab Gallery in midtown Manhattan, New York shut down an exhibition planned for Holy Week because of outrage hailed upon the Roger Smith Hotel, which houses the gallery, by Catholics, specifically Bill Donahue and Cardinal Edward Egan et. al. and some other "Christians".

Please excuse the profane language, but it's necessary to show the point.

A recent death threat against Kathy Sierra cought my eye and made me feel that all bloggers should support her cause. As a result of battling a few anti-women trolls, Sierra was subjected to horrible death threats the eventually involved the local police department. Not only did she have to cancel a speaking engagement in order to deal with the threats, but she saw a horrible picture of her with a noose around her neck.

This is going to be a short diary, I just caught this before as I was starting to shut down my computer to get into bed.

I found this via crooks and liars:

Saintly Pat Robertson has threated to kill the guy he was there to take a deposition against in a lawsuit he had with the same the person.

From The Virginian-Pilot:

One of Hampton Roads' highest-profile Christians stands accused of a not-so-Christian act.

A plaintiff in a federal lawsuit against Pat Robertson says the televangelist threatened his life and that of his family at a legal proceeding Wednesday in the Norfolk federal courthouse.

A tiny news item found - of all places - at Redstate - shows us how brave this men and women were to defy Bush in front of his army of braindead zombies.

wcbstv.com - Threatening Letters Sent To Letterman, Stewart

AP) LOS ANGELES A man was arrested and accused of mailing threatening letters laced with white powder to Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, David Letterman and other high-profile figures, the FBI announced Sunday.

Authorities claim he mailed threatening letters to Pelosi, Letterman, New York Sen. Charles Schumer, Jon Stewart of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" and MSNBC host Keith Olbermann.

Some letters included phrases like "Death to Demagogues" ...

While the FBI is still trying to identify the white powder, preliminary tests revealed it does not pose a biological hazard.