Guess I’ve been out of the loop for awhile and don’t check in with what the wingnuts are talking about. A commenter who shall remain nameless is apparently pushing to have prominent lefty bloggers EXPOSED! by threatening to post their personal info on his site. Apparently this stems from a Huff-Po piece that published the names and I believe addresses and phone numbers of some of the Swift Boat Veterans on their site. When contacted, according to the blogger, Huff-Po pulled the info. Good on them. But what is striking is the rhetoric spewed by this particular blogger on his site about this episode. He obviously chooses to ignore the fact that the Swifties libeled John Kerry by propagating lies about his service while in Vietnam. His hypocrisy is noted when checking his site and seeing this:

But what should NOT BE ALLOWED is to post information that could lead to physical harm of a person’s body or property or violate his personal peace and privacy.

and noting that further up in his post he threatens to do the same.

Let me just say that “outing” someone, regardless if they lean Left or Right, is reprehensible. Even though you may not advocate for violence or threats upon a person, publishing someone’s personal information where it can be publicly viewed makes you just as responsible as someone carrying out those threats of violence. It accomplishes nothing but undermining the safety and security of not just another blogger or politician, but their family as well. The Michelle Malkin dust-up awhile back proved that. People were making comments about her children and the school they attended, etc. Granted Malkin is an Asshat to the Nth degree and brought it upon herself by her actions, but she didn’t deserve that and neither does anyone else.

The great thing about blogging and the Internet used to be that if you wished to remain anonymous for whatever reason, you could. Thanks to a few enterprising asshats out there, anonymity isn’t as guaranteed as one would wish. The information that these folks use to threaten others can be had by applying a little time and sometimes money, but it’s still a shitty way to do things.

The bottom line is this: If you have a beef with someone on the Internet over incorrect information, keep the problem private and resolve it in off-line ways. Don’t go around publishing their sensitive personal info on your site. It makes you look like an Asshat and violates their privacy and potentially their safety as well.