Sunday, June 24, 2007

Goodbye!

This will be the final post on On the Radar. It has been a fantastic nearly two and one-half years sharing my thoughts with the world, but unfortunately this time has come to a close.

You see, I am a conservative. Within my current realm of experience (higher education) this fact of my identity leaves me at a major disadvantage. My opinions and ideology concerning a number of political and social ideas places me in a fantastically small minority of individuals within my field. Considering the liberal slant of those in the majority and their predilection towards "diversity" and "privilege" it is even more disturbing the turn of events that has led me here. This minority status of my opinions and identity leaves me a target for virulent criticism and attacks by those in the ideological majority. Indeed, I have blogged anonymously from the start in order to protect myself from these attacks that would inevitably come. Although I rarely mentioned my upbringing or current surroundings, I still assumed that no one would go to the extensive trouble to find out my real name. I was wrong.

A few weeks ago a fellow student affairs professional - that I will not name or link to (I will provide him the courtesy that he refuses to me) didn't like what I wrote about Al Gore. He proceeded to check my site regularly, comment on posts that bothered him, and stalk me through search engines, Facebook, MySpace, and two university web pages. This individual was obsessed with finding out who I was. Why? Well - that is where it gets ironic.

I started this blog with the intent to comment on news stories that interested me, social issues that were in the news, and to use as an outlet for venting my frustrations with far-left craziness in academia. I assumed that what I had been taught within this liberal bastion of knowledge (to support diversity, to be tolerant of difference, to respect differing opinions) was the perfect auspices for writing on this blog. It is indeed with the most severe degree of irony that it is one individual who falsely claims to hold these values as important that has caused me to stop writing this blog because - if you can believe it - he disagrees with me, has decided that I am wrong and immoral, and has decided to let the whole world (or the five people that read his blog) know who I am as a result of his stalking.

This individual has made the classic far-left intellectual non-sequitur that has plagued liberals time and time again. They claim to support those that are different, but because they are so sure of the righteous rightness of their opinion instead attempt to destroy and belittle those with which they disagree. They support those who are different, but not those with differing opinions. Since I am fundamentally wrong for disagreeing with him I am "homophobic" and even "islamophobic." Because I blog anonymously he has decided the only way to get back at me is to reveal my identity - which he did with ease and enjoyment. I posted a comment immediately on his blog asking to remove the link that revealed who I am, or I would be forced to discontinue blogging. He has checked my blog at least five times since I made my request. He has failed to consider it (and I'm not particularly surprised).

So that's it. It's profoundly sad and ironic that it is the intolerance, ignorance, and general idiocy of individuals like this person that motivated me to blog in the first place that have used their ignorance, intolerance, and general idiocy to force me to stop. I truly pity this individual, and hope that in the future he will find it possible to consider conflicting ideas without rejecting and attacking those with which he disagrees (although I won't hold my breath).

I would like to thank slowpitch (my first blog-mate), Clint, and the Captain for their assistance with this blog. I would also like to thank mrs. radar for her patience in the time I spent here nearly every day.

I will leave the links along the left sidebar (slightly edited) for you all to enjoy. Remember to check Little Green Footballs, Powerline, and Michelle Malkin for the best real news from a conservative point-of-view. Those who run the previous blogs are truly lucky to be able to sustain their blogs regardless of the constant criticism and occasional death threats they receive for what they do.

Goodbye all! I wish you all well.