(06:35 pm) re: An Interesting Development

     Several items...

     Tomeboy is much more generous than me in his response. Though somebody needs to get this man some Sugar Smacks.

     An emailer:

I really admire your site. That was very cool of you to post who you are and where you are...unlike McCook. I got my degree from USF but before she was there. I met her a few times at FLA conventions but was not aware of her radical stance then. Well I wrote her a short note letting her know she did not in any way represent all librarians, and was glad I was not there when she was teaching. That is probably one of the letters she is referring to. So, typical of liberals, rather than address any issues you may have brought up she and her fellow idiots seek to smear you and that Tomeboy guy. No wonder I hate liberals. Good luck,

Michael Schau

     I doubt you hate them, I don't. Their more of a nuisance. Its only in organizations like this that they can 'shine'. Lucky us.

     To Ex Libris in Feedback: nice try but no go. My standard response to Rory is based on something very real and not just a throwaway insult. Those who believe that war is never an option, that to appease is better then to fight, are the reason such hate groups gain power to begin with.

     One last thing. Apparently word is spreading about this particular issue. Nothing serious, basic gossip, we won't be on the evening news or anything, but this is the first time an issue has filtered back to me outside of a computer. No names have been mentioned to me just an acknowledgement of the issue in question. So to those anonymous people who can't quite figure me out feel free to contact the source. Its perfectly safe.

Tuesday September 14, 2004

  (06:30 pm) An Interesting Development

     1. There's nothing little about me.

     2. There's nothing anonymous about me either, my name's Gregory Vale McClay. I was born in Maine, got my Bachelor's and Master's in Library Science at SCSU, New Haven, CT. I live in Lowell, MA and work as a Systems Librarian in a public library. I don't have to be anonymous because I have excellent job security and I'm also single so job security or not the only person I have to take care of is me. So trust me when I say I'm not a serial killer.

     3. Tomeboy is anonymous and his real name is not on the Librarians For Victory petition. He originally signed as Tomeboy and I felt I had to take it off to keep the petition as official as an online document can be. He's cool with it, I'm cool with it. I do know Tomeboy has a family to worry about and he has rightfully chosen not to put them at risk by rubbing what has become a very intellectually lop-sided and rather nasty profession the wrong way. He could be a serial killer but I don't think so. Check with the people at LISNews, I'm not always well-liked there but I think you'll find plenty of people to vouch for him. They'll also tell you he's not shrill. I'm not either but my case isn't quite as solid on that one.

     4. I've said some harsh things on this site. It was and still is my belief they need to be said. I'm going to continue to say them. Our profession has a credibility problem and it ain't 'cause of my one-man band. Its because of people like McCook and the support ALA gives to such people. In talking with a couple friends today the term 'high road' came up, as in 'taking the'. Pointing out a website that still thinks American involvement in WWII was a bad idea, pointing out a library professor who likes to compare Republicans to Nazis, pointing out a national library convention that moonlights as a political rally, these things are neither high nor low, they are simply the truth. There's not really going to be a way to take the high road on this. If any headway is made its going to mirror what's been happening in the political world. A branch of the liberal media is currently throwing fits simply because conservative bloggers dare question their judgment on a few forged documents. The liberals of ALA are going to scream just as much every time a conservative voices their opinions. High or low, its a tough road ahead.

     You're probably wondering what I'm talking about. I promise I haven't gone off my rocker. I just wanted my take first, it is my site after all. To begin with some emails have gone back and forth between McCook and myself. Here they are:

Delete references to me from your website. If not, I will file a formal complaint to protect myself.

--Kathleen de la Pena McCook

and....

No.

Do what you have to do McCook. I think you have brass but you're not getting a free ride on this stuff.

Greg

and finally....

Mr. McClay, I have made a formal complaint. I cannot stop you from continuing to post your attacks without engaging an attorney, but I have created a record of my concern over your doing so. Your posts have drawn other conservatives to send unwanted messages. I am an antiwar pacifist and I make no excuse for my beliefs. By this message I am alerting you to the fact that I now have registered my concern over your website.

     That last one was from McCook in case you didn't know. I asked who the complaint was filed with but haven't received a reply. Now while this was going on she contacted her fellow progressives through plgnet-l. That email and a few replies follow. Take from them what you will. I think it says a lot about them myself.

     Before anyone gets in a tizzy about my right to post this stuff, according to these people I'm a news source. So I'm going to play the 'Freedom of the Press' card. Don't you hate it when that's used against you? Oh well. Here's those emails...

During the RNC I contributed a few entries to the radical reference blog. These have led 2 of the shrill websites (shush & tomeboy) to launch some truly nasty attacks against me with links to my work website and calls for my being fired. I am not going to respond on their sites, but am curious as to whether or not anyone on this list has any opinion as to whether I should do anything. The attacks are quite vicious. This is not the first time the SHUSH person has attacked me....the first time was for an opinion on diversity.
--Kathleen

replies follow...

Kathleen's posting on Greg McClay (the slimy little slug who thinks she should be fired), I think we should "out" Tomeboy. I've taken a few minutes to look at his webpage (then wretched), and found 3 significant factoids:

He's a he...
He's in higher ed (though probably not that much "higher")
He's a director.

Cross referencing this with info. on McClay's "Librarians for Victory" (gag) signup list, I find the following candidates:

Stuart Boggs, Librarian - Ohio
Jack Stephens, Librarian, Los Angeles
Eugene Bier, Librarian - Missouri
Whitney Prescott, Librarian - Dallas TX
Arnold Jacobs, Librarian - Chicago
C. Erik Wilkinson, Librarian - Sanger TX
Donald Gordon, Librarian - Wells City, ND

The rest of the signatories were either female or listed their job as "reference" or "assistant director", etc. Given how arrogant Tomeboy is, and how proud he is of being a sneaky-shit anonymous attacker (again, comparing himself to Madison when he wrote the Federalist Papers - no kidding...), I think he's full deserving of being unmasked. Anyone want to help out?

John Buschman

and this one...

The question that I have is what forum should we use to attack them? If their attacks on Kathleen are on their own websites, should she simply answer them on her RadRef blog? Or LISNews? I'm also not sure what form the fight should take - do we simply defend Kathleen's blog postings that they are attacking? (That seems a little unecessary to me.) Or do we attack them publicly for going after her?

I'm not sure I'm in favor of a reaction that would show us to be seriously troubled by a couple of right winger's blog postings, personally.

Rory

and this one...

I like John's fighting attitude here, though I also remember the aphorism: "don't get in a pissing contest with a skunk." Nobody reputable in the library world--or in academe--would take seriously these anonymous attacks. You're obviously being upfront and public, and they're hiding behind a nom de idiocy. My impulse would be to let it lie--or to publish something about the experience. Easy for me to say, since I'm not the one being attacked.

Good luck,

Jeff Purdue

and a little more from...

From: Kathleen de la Peña McCook
I read Frank Thomas' "What's the Matter with Kansas" over the weekend and I see that thinking here. The trouble is not knowing who these people are. They know who we are...but we don't know who they are. Do you think that creates an unfairness? Some of us have up front histories of writing and research but they could be serial killers for all we know.

  (05:18 pm) Dissent is Patriotic, Rude is Rude

     Somebody forwarded me an email from an Oregon Libraries listserv:

     We need your help! You might have those Men From the Long Tom Grange or one of those Calendar Girls from England hanging on your wall, but it's almost time for a new calendar. As a fundraiser for the Oregon Library Association's Statewide Summer Reading Program, CSD is creating a library-themed calendar for 2005.

     Keep your shirt on-- we're not necessarily thinking naked librarians, but we are thinking edgy, satirical and/or humorous photographs taken in Oregon libraries. Please post this request for your staff: Whether you work in a public, academic or special library as a librarian, page or director, we need your creativity!

     Using a 'Series of Unfortunate Events in the Library' as a starting point, we brainstormed ideas such as: For February, two pairs of legs extending suggestively from behind the (300's or ?) stacks for Library Lovers Month or simply Free Porn @ your library to play off Valentine's Day. Or maybe gov doc librarians dressed as patriots sandbagging Bush's request for destruction of certain documents to celebrate the month of July (or other Dissent is Patriotic poses) . . . and these are just suggestions. Use your imagination and express yourself: staid librarians being silly, silly librarians being staid, we'd like to celebrate the complete spectrum of contemporary librarians and library services.

     Do you think that spectrum includes Bush supporters?