Please Blog Politely or Else

I don't know if you heard but some woman received some nasty comments and death threats on her website and now the liberal left is calling for a "blogging code of conduct". That is all just moonbatese for "censorship". But they want to make sure you understand that it is not censorship, it is a way to make free speech even freer! Here is the New York Slimes Times article A Call for Manners in the World of Nasty Blogs

Or you can go to Radioactive Liberty and read their take on the whole thing.

One of the things that caught my attention in the NYT piece is this section :

A subtext of both sets of rules is that bloggers are responsible for everything that appears on their own pages, including comments left by visitors. They say that bloggers should also have the right to delete such comments if they find them profane or abusive.

That may sound obvious, but many Internet veterans believe that blogs are part of a larger public sphere, and that deleting a visitor's comment amounts to an assault on their right to free speech. It is too early to gauge support for the proposal, but some online commentators are resisting.

So basically some think that if you come to my blog and cut loose with what I feel is unacceptable language in the comments; it is an affront to the First Amendment for me to delete your comment. Well let me say this about that.

First I will not subscribe to any "blogging code of conduct". I have a code of conduct that supersedes any that a bunch of liberal nanny staters could come up with. It is called The Bible. It dictates what I say and what I allow to be said. So if a commenter says something I feel that I would not want anyone to associate with me or my blog, it is history.

Secondly I control everything about my blog. That includes comments. You have free speech but you can't come into my house and just start spouting trash. If I don't like it it goes.

Now you may think that I am crushing freedom of expression or promoting only like minded opinions on my blog. Far from it. I am saying up front that I am the final authority at Dane Bramage and I have a low tolerance for ignorant trolls.

Now that I've said that, let me encourage everyone to leave a comment. So far I've needed a comment policy like a bald guy needs a comb and brush. And so far the only comments I have deleted were spam. So I don't reject opposite opinion out of hand. In fact I encourage it. It's just that if it gets too ugly I have the right to remove it. It is that simple.
FrankJ at IMAO has a more amusing approach to comments.