Masada2000’s fraudulent caption: “They are cooking up a nice bomb they can put on an Israeli school bus to show Dickie’s commitment to Palestinian liberation.”I’ve finally determined that Masada2000 and Rachel Neuwirth are in cahoots in creating the impostor blog, Little Dickie’s Diaper Droppings. [Note: At one time I believed Steven Plaut created the fake blog, but the owner of Masada2000 claims credit so until I discover otherwise I will take him at his word] Yesterday, I discovered Mobius’ attack on Plaut at Orthodox Anarchist and he linked to Plaut’s Wikipedia entry, whose content I found a little too favorable toward Plaut for my taste. Unlike all other Wikipedia entries, this one was locked because, it turns out, Plaut or one of his allies vandalized the article when he was unhappy with material published in it. I suggested to the Wikipedia article editor that they add material documenting Plaut’s disgusting celebration of Tanya Reinhart’s death which Plaut (through Rachel Neuwirth) sent unsolicited to members of the Alef Israeli-Palestinian discussion list.
Roland Rance, one of those editing the article wrote back to me to say that Plaut had set up a fake blog mocking him as well using the Blogger platform. Now this begins to look like a pattern. I’m also betting that Plaut was a key figure behind Masada2000 and hence became enraged at me when the site was taken down.
“My dad was mentioned in 3 newspapers because an evil man took a picture of me and my dad making cookies.”An internet law attorney I consulted said that while there is no legal way to force Blogger to take down the site short of shaming them in the public sphere, there is a legal remedy against the creator of the blog, Plaut. I won’t go into the legal details in case Plautwirth might read this. But the defamation and damage to my reputation caused by the fake blog is definitely legally actionable.
Those of you who follow such nutcasery may know that Plaut defamed Israeli academic Neve Gordon, who won an Israeli libel suit against Plaut which is now on appeal. I definitely want to explore my legal options in Israel proper and here in the States.
A note about the two images in this post. Masada2000’s owner stole an image from this site (the first one displayed above) picturing my then 4 year old son and me baking cookies. Next to the image at the fake blog he wrote the caption:
Little Dickie (on the right) and his short but more mature companion. Little fella on left is being trained by Little Dickie (on the right) to be a shaheed. They are cooking up a nice bomb they can put on an Israeli school bus to show Dickie’s commitment to Palestinian liberation.
I told Jonah yesterday that Daddy had a story about him in the newspaper. When he asked why, I explained that a reporter for our local newspaper wrote a story about a bad man who stole the picture of both of us and put it on a website and said bad things about daddy.
The second image is Jonah’s response which he drew in kindergarten today:
My dad was mentioned in 3 newspapers because an evil man took a picture of me and my dad making cookies.
I figure I’ve got to teach my son about bad things that happen in the world and the bad people who do them. This is as good a place to start as any. I was proud and touched by his response. Plaut of course is a borderline sociopath who has little or no conscience about such things and so abusing my son in this way will trouble him not one iota. It doesn’t seem to bother Blogger much either come to think of it.
Mary Brandel’s Computerworld piece on my blog mud wrestling with Steven Plaut will come out just after April 26th. I had a long, stimulating interview with her a few days ago and she’s posed to write a thoughtful account of the issues not just involving this one incident, but the entire range of problems arising from hate, abuse and fraudulent behavior afflicting the blog world these days. I emphasized in the interview Blogger’s role and hope that a possible reference to it in the article will encourage blogging platforms and hosts to be more accountable for miscreants like Plaut, who take advantage of the ease with which any fool can create a free blog.
UPDATE: Since originally writing this post, I have learned that Masada2000 claims responsibility for the fake blog and says neither Steven Plaut nor Rachel Neuwirth has participated. So while I have no idea whether this person is being truthful, it is possible that Plaut is either not involved in the blog, is partially involved, or that the blog claimant is lying and Plaut is fully responsible. I don’t yet know for sure which is the case. I wrote my opinion above that Plaut was the author based on the source I referred to above who was subject to a similar attack and feels convinced Plaut is the author.
The fake blog was created in the immediate aftermath of a series of posts I wrote criticizing Rachel Neuwirth,which leads me to believe that she has had some direct or indirect involvement in the creation of this website. Again, I cannot yet determine the full extent, if any, of that involvement though it appears likely to me there is at least some, if not more than that.
I sort of wish the shit list was still available. It was like a who’s who list of glorious human beings putting their humanity before their ethnicity. But I guess I didn’t take the site as was intended. Also I think it clearly exposed the hatemongers for what they were. Idiots.
It’s bad enough when divorced parents use their children as pawns in the battles against each other – and in those cases – they at least (in their own minds at the time) are doing so in the interests of the children… But only a completely depraved person uses someone elses child to try to defame them. I would love to hear how they can claim to be “Good Jews” by using such tactics. .
What a “shonda”
Good luck.
This strikes me as an extrememly dangerous situation, not only because its intemperate behavior promises future unpleasantness, but also because the unusual obsessive nature of the focus ( I looked at the blogs referenced) is not good.