Pamela Geller's Web Site And Fox News Apologizes

Temporary site up HERE.

Read the details about the kind of attack that Atlas Shrugs sustained HERE.

Note the following:

...My site host, Media Temple, said they couldn’t cope with the attack against my site. They had never in their history seen anything like it. The DDoS attack didn’t just take down my site. It also took down Media Temple and threatened all of their clients, and even attacked the servers that Media Temple uses at Net Data Center, a service provider that promises “uninterrupted operations.” Net Data Center could not handle the massive traffic that the attackers were sending to my site to take it down, and finally had to pull the plug on Atlas Shrugs.

The timing was noteworthy. Our ads calling attention to Islamic Jew-hatred in San Francisco have gotten an immense amount of national and international press. And above all, our free speech rally last Saturday to counter the “Stand with the Prophet” anti-free speech conference in Garland, Texas, got the foes of freedom riled....

Meanwhile, have we all seen what Fox News has apologized for? See Fox News corrects, apologizes for ‘no-go zone’ remarks.

Pamela Geller's Site Down

For almost 24 hours now.  See this.

No cached version available, either.

Note the timing: AFDI Texas protest against anti-free speech “Islamophobia” conference, Saturday, January 17, 2015, in Garland, Texas.

Gateway Pundit

Because of my recent vacation in Williamsburg/Jamestown (photo essay) and the start-up of the 2013-2014 school term, I've been a bit out of the loop the past few weeks.

Therefore, this information (dated September 3, 2013) about Jim Hoft's health came as a sad surprise to me:

It would be quite impossible not to have noticed Jim’s absence this past week and a half. As has been periodically posted and updated, Jim’s health is in serious condition. He has been in the hospital battling a blood infection and complications from an infected knee replacement. Last Friday, Jim had surgery to remove his knee. The surgery went well. This morning, Jim had surgery to replace a heart valve, which was, also, damaged due to the infection. Jim is in the best of hands and is receiving extraordinary care. But his path to recovery will be a difficult one, and he and his family could use all the prayers you have to give.

Gates of Vienna has moved

Gates of Vienna is now at THIS LOCATION. More information at the link.

How Dangerous Is Blogging?

Make time to read all the links in this post. Bloggers need to know this information!

Please watch the following short video from Patterico's Pontifications: Harangues That Just Make Sense, a conservative blog (hat tip to Right Truth):


Find detailed information HERE at Patterico's Pontifications.

Also read about how conservative blogger Stacy McCain of The Other McCain has been harassed. One of Stacy McCain's posts about his having been forced to leave Maryland is HERE.

This is America?

In my view, if we are threatened in the manner that Patterico and Stacy McCain have been enduring, we have two choices: (1) knuckle under and close our sites or (2) make a stand for our First Amendment right to freedom of expression. Of course, if we opt for knuckling under, we lose not only a precious individual freedom but also a precious freedom as a society – possibly for decades. Once a freedom is lost, getting that freedom back requires desperate measures.

Additional reading: "The Harrassment of Patterico & Its Roots In Left-Wing Activism."

In Memory of Alex Münch

Our good friend Alex has passed away.  He was a frequent commenter here at IBA and a regular participant in the chat room at The Gathering Storm Radio Show on Blog Talk Radio.

I just got off the phone from speaking to his son Amnon. Of course, I offered my condolences.

I was crying then, and I'm crying now.

Alex was a good friend to Mr. AOW and me. When Mr. AOW was in the nursing home, nobody called him there - except for Alex, who phoned all the way from Israel to speak to my husband.

"Courage from Israel!"  he stated emphatically.

Alex also phoned our home several times after Mr. AOW came home. Mr. AOW loved those calls.  They meant a lot to him and to me as well.

Amnon asked me to post an announcement here on the web as Alex's family didn't know all the Internet acquaintances and friends that Alex had made.

Tough as I am, I am typing this post through tears.

I will miss Alex.  He was a rock - and lots of fun too.

I'm Baaaack!

The 2011-2012 classes I teach end on Tuesday, May 29.

For all intents and purposes, I don't have any "homework" now.

I'm looking forward to a summer of frequent blogging as we approach the November 2012 National Elections.

Blogger Comments Down?

I keep getting an error message when trying to comment at any Blogspot site.

Silencing Voices

About the shuttering of Bare Naked Islam for the second time in a month....

We are living in Orwellian times.

A few days ago, I posted THIS here at IBA: "The End Of Blogging?" SOPA looms. Its power to silence voices is nearly unlimited.

It's not farfetched to realize that our days of freedom of speech on the web are numbered.

Furthermore, I expect that 2012 will bring the closing of all sorts of web sites, particularly blogs that are controversial.

I won't quit speaking out until my blog is shuttered by the forces of silencing voices, until I'm in jail, or until I die. After all, I'm an old woman. I don't have much to lose, really. The life I loved ended when Mr. AOW had his crippling stroke in 2009.

But I doubt that younger folks feel the way that I do. And I can't blame them for feeling that way.

"Life goes on, even after the thrill of living is gone."

Bare Naked Islam has been Taken Down by Wordpress Thanks to the Jihadists At CAIR

barenakedislam barenakedislam

. Looking for a new host now.

4 hours ago

Retweeted by @creepingsharia

PR Newswire reported:

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced today that an anti-Muslim Internet hate site that contained a number of threats of violence targeting mosques, including the comment “I want [Muslim] blood on my hands,” has been taken down by its hosting company.
CAIR said visitors to “Bare Naked Islam,” hosted by WordPress.com, now see the message: “barenakedislam.wordpress.com is no longer available. This blog has been archived or suspended for a violation of our Terms of Service.”
[NOTE: "Bare Naked Islam" was one of the major promoters of the campaign to pressure Lowe's to drops its ads from TLC's "All-American Muslim."]
Last month, CAIR called on the FBI to investigate the threats of violence targeting mosques posted on the blog and urged WordPress.com to remove it for violating the hosting company’s terms of service (TOS), which prohibit blogs that “contain threats or incite violence towards individuals or entities.” Articles and comments posted on “Bare Naked Islam” urged attacks on and desecration of American and European mosques.

Of course, CAIR has never acted to have any Jihadi site (calling for war on Infidels and Jews) taken down, have they?

No, they have not.

Because CAIR is the enemy.

And, you know what a sensible nation does to it's enemies.

Notice To Those Who Post Here At IBA

Posts you may have queued up to auto-publish have not published. You'll need to publish those posts manually.

Also, posts and comments were lost during the recent Blogger FUBAR.

Hey! We have a share button now?

When did that little perk get added?

I'm Having Computer Issues

I have limited access to the web right now.

That limited access also includes checking my emails.

Back soon.

I hope.

I Knew This Was Coming

Two anchors on CNN have called for muzzling bloggers:

Anchors Kyra Phillips and John Roberts discussed the "mixed blessing of the internet," and agreed that there should be a crackdown on anonymous bloggers who disparage others on the internet.

[...]

Phillips wanted to go even further, asking if "there's going to come a point where something's going to have to be done legally" about anonymous bloggers.

"There has to be some point where there's some accountability...."

[...]

CNN's two regulation-happy reporters, think the Sherrod situation can help bring attention to the "necessity" of blogging reform if she brings a defamation lawsuit against Andrew Breitbart.

According to Roberts, Sherrod has "the power now and she also has the profile to maybe bring this into a new light, so we'll see where this goes."

I'm willing to bet that most Americans who get their news from the mainstream media, particularly those Americans who have followed the Sherrod incident, are nodding their heads in agreement with what those two CNN anchors said because of the way the story has played in the media.

In my view, discrediting the blogosphere is the primary way that the left can hold onto its appeal and, more importantly, to its power.

Objective Journalism: Michael Gerson Defends a Profession That No Longer Exists

A great post from John Nolte at Big Hollywood (click on the title above to read the whole thing):

Yesterday, Washington Post columnist and former Bush II speechwriter Michael Gerson played a long slow violin solo over the death of the mainstream media. There’s nothing new in his piece. Dazed with panic as the circle of financial ruin closes in, we’ve heard this song many times before from our ink-stained dinosaurs. And true to form, Gerson can’t break the mold. It’s all there, the rose-colored glasses, denial, and a heaping helping of rationalization.

Once again, from that familiar MSM perch where one can look down their nose at the great unwashed who just don’t understand the magnificent tradition of journalism they’re about to lose, Gerson blames We the People for no longer wanting to pay for our news and choosing partisan sources “that reinforce and exaggerate … political predispositions.”

How absurd.

A non-partisan, unbiased news media simply doesn’t exist anymore. All that remains of this once somewhat respectable profession are two kinds of media: those who lie about their agenda and those who don’t – and Mr. Gerson’s employer is one of the liars. Whether it’s Glenn Beck, Arianna Huffington, National Review or MSNBC, tell me your biases upfront and we can at least start a dialogue from an honest foundation. On the other hand, the Washington Post, New York Times, Newsweek, Time, CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS and the like, have spent years making jerks out of us – lying to our faces. We knew this, there just wasn’t any alternative. But now that there is, their time is just about up.

Gerson doesn’t seem to want to face this truth – I don’t mean the truth that Big Media’s dying, that’s undeniable — but the truth that the death of this profession was a suicide. Does Gerson’s waxing of the nostalgic here sound like the MSM we’ve all grown to know and loathe:

I don’t believe that journalistic objectivity is a fraud. I was a journalist for a time, at a once-great, now-diminished newsmagazine. I’ve seen good men and women work according to a set of professional standards I respect — standards that serve the public. Professional journalism is not like the buggy-whip industry, outdated by economic progress, to be mourned but not missed. This profession has a social value that is currently not reflected in its market value.

What profession could he possibly be talking about? Certainly not the same profession who set out to destroy Clarence Thomas, circled the wagons to save President Clinton, summoned all their resources to lose the war in Iraq, told us more about the background of an unemployed plumber than our current President, dragged Sarah Palin’s family through the mud, and on this very day refuse to investigate three of the biggest stories of the year (if not the decade): ACORN, CzarGate and ClimateGate.

I've Got A New Blog

I've headed it The Most Destructive Single Cause and it's about (now who would have thought so regarding the title?) feminism and a spawn of my two other blogs The Editrix' Roncesvalles and The Evil Style Queen. I am not a Renaissance polymath and I have found that if I try to cover too many topics at once it doesn't become a coherent overview of the woes of our times but an unstructured mess. I have weeded those posts that are germane to the topic of the new blog, even if only peripherally so, from my other blogs and put it there to give the new effort some substance to start with. Roncesvalles will now focus on the Islamisation of the West and its related phenomena,The Evil Style Queen's focus will return to, well, style. Feminism permeates every single aspect of our daily life and thus needs dedicated analysis and not just some blog entries, which are soon drowned by a flood of other information or laments.

Thanks to Blogger, one of the most unfairly badmouthed organisations on earth, for the excellent import- and export functionality without which I couldn't have done this.

Bloggers And The Potential For Getting Sued

READ IT.

NOW.

Blogging During An Election Year

I began blogging in mid-2005, so this year is my first in the blogosphere during the run-up days to a National Election. What a frenzy! It's all about the election, all the time — or nearly so. Perhaps all general elections cause such turmoil on the web and elsewhere, and I simply didn't notice.

Last week, a friend of mine in Moline, Illinois, phoned. He wanted to share with me some of the not-so-well-covered information on Barack Obama. This friend of mine — I'll call him Bill — doesn’t use the web at all. Instead, he relies on the mainstream media and word of mouth as his sources. Not unexpectedly, Bill didn’t have any information I didn’t already know. In contrast, because I surf the web every single day, I had some information he had never heard....

Read the rest at Always On Watch.

IBA Administrator Note

It would be helpful if each who posts here would us a label from the list of labels. See the bottom right "Show all" in the Create screen. You can also create a label of your own if you don't see a label which fits your post.

Labels allow for searching for posts more easily - by topic and by the one who posts.

Thanks.

And if you forget, don't sweat it. I believe, however, that the labels will add to ease of searching archives here at IBA.

Insurance For Bloggers?

(With a hat-tip to Cube)

Freedom of speech: Use it or lose it.

Freedom of speech: Use it or lose the war of ideas.

From this article in the Christian Science Monitor:

...“We’re coming up with a product that covers defamation, copyright, privacy violations – the same protections as newspapers – for bloggers,” says the group’s Mr. Cox. [Media Bloggers Association] members will receive a hefty discount on the insurance package, due to be launched at the end of this month. The cheapest coverage for a solo blogger will be $540 a year....

Why would bloggers need insurance? According to the article:

The blogging community increasingly is subject to lawsuits and threats of legal action running the gamut from subpoenas to cease-and-desist notices. Since blogging became popular in about 2004, there have been 159 civil and criminal court actions involving bloggers, according to the nonprofit Media Law Resource Center (MLRC) in New York. Seven cases have resulted in verdicts against bloggers, with cumulative penalties totaling $18.5 million. Many more legal actions never result in trial.

[...]

Bloggers faced with legal threats often deem it easier to remove potentially offensive content rather than undertake the difficulty and expense of defending themselves...

In the United States, of course, we have a broad definition of freedom of speech:

Bloggers face much bigger threats overseas, particularly if they criticize governments or point to human rights abuses.

Since 2003, 64 bloggers have been arrested around the world – with Egypt, China, and Iran initiating more than half of those arrests, according to the World Information Access Report, published last month by the University of Washington. By contrast, the United States has arrested two in that period.

Still, online commentators face risks in the United States.

“In the developed world, bloggers can be punished through lawsuits,” writes Philip Howard, a communications professor at the University of Washington, in an e-mail.

The number of lawsuits is growing, says Robert Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association (MBA), a US-based group devoted to protecting citizen journalists. “As blogging expands and more people are aware of it, the lawyers are not far behind.”

The article begins with an anecdote as to how a personal comment left on a blog led to litigation. Read the entire article HERE.