Blogageddon: Goldstein vs. Frisch, Ace vs. Paul from Wizbang (Update: Escalation!)

To recap, as Glenn Greenwald, Rick Ellensburg, Thomas Ellers, “Ellison,” or “Wilson” might say:

1. Seixon receives intimidating e-mails from someone who may or may not be former CIA operative Larry Johnson, then gets an anonymous phone call threatening him with death from someone who may or may not be Jason Leopold.
2. A commenter whose gateway just happens to be the same as Dr. Demento’s leaves new comments accusing Goldstein of molesting his son, leading Jeff to shut down his site until this is settled “[o]nce and for all.”
3. Ace accuses Paul from Wizbang of being disingenuous about l’affaire Greenwald in the comments to Paul’s latest post, to which Paul responds by deleting Ace’s comments en masse for what he claims is Ace’s own good. Whereupon Ace writes his own post threatening to turn Paul, a la Frisch, into an Internet verb. Whereupon Paul promptly quits blogging.

Ace to Paul:

Kevin created Wizbang, not you. You are just hitching a ride, given a platform you do not deserve. Why you think you can behave in such a high-handed fashion when you are — and understand that here, I am merely using your own technique of evalutating someone’s worth by their traffic — a goddamned nobody and a freeloading guest in someone else’s house is beyond me.

Yeah, I, uh, hate people who’d have no audience except for their association with better, more popular bloggers.

Anyway. A bad week for the blogosphere. But a great week for scandal!

I promise, I’m going to stick to hard news next week unless Frisch shoots Goldstein or something. In the meantime, it’s Friday, and I have a video that pretty much sums up the week thematically. Thanks for the tip to TV in Japan, which is richly deserving of your bookmark.

Escalation update! Kevin has updated Paul’s post. Is this a threat or not? (Update to the update: Kevin says it’s not. See below.)

Ace’s meltdown is back. Why a blogger who jealously guards his anonymity would even think about doing an expose on another blogger is beyond me….

Goldstein has updated his post, too:

Here’s the situation as it currently stands: I have one generous benefactor who’s promised to help defray some of my legal expenses. But in order to see this through, I’m going to have to shelve at least one of my paid gigs…

Anyway, I’m hoping I won’t be gone long—perhaps I can even muster at least one traditional Friday posting—but as this entire episode is putting a strain on my family, I simply have to get it resolved before I can commence with the idiot dance that I do here every day.

Drop a buck or two in his PayPal if you can spare it.

Update: Kevin has removed the quasi-threat against Ace.

Update: Thinking out loud: will Frisch’s defense be the Magic Girlfriend?

Update: Frisch times a thousand.

Update: Kevin e-mails to say his comment about Ace’s anonymity wasn’t a threat to out him, it was a reference to one of the elements of the federal “e-annoyance” statute. Using a secret identity while waging a campaign to turn Paul into “an Internet verb” could be considered actionable harassment. I guess.

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