(From blogger and frequent Joplin Globe guest columnist Anson Burlingame)
Hopefully Randy will not censure this reply. Simply because my blog is down for now for unknown reasons, I post this comment herein.
First someone that created controversy herein in recent comments (I was accused of being that person, the 10:51 commentor on a previous blog) strikes me as very similar if not the same individual poosing as Pastor "someone" of some crazy, Nazi like "church" that has posted on my own blog infrequently. The style of writing and virulence is the same. He posted recently on my blog and I asked him to stop. Rarely do I censure people but in his case I would if he continued. Now it seems he is dropping bombs herein, at least with the words "piss on both of them". He is a well known jerk, Nazi, racist, etc., etc. to Joplin Police and I filed a police report to them when he threaten me several years ago. Another underbelly of the worst sort if you ask me.
All of you can disagree with me all you like. But the opinions expressed, and they are opinions, not facts in most cases as alleged by Randy, are just, well bad thinking in my view. I refrain from using stronger language or names.
This blog and its anonymous commentors have called Huff and others many names for years now. I would run out of space listing them. One that strikes me as really inane is when Randy ran the headline "opinion" that Huff was a coward for abusing women, in reference to his comments about Dr. Fort. All of you may feel that way but others can certainly disagree with equal strength. But to debate such views is impossible against anonymous and strongly opinionated commenters or Randy for that matter herein. All one gets back is a "wall of text" of the worst sort.
I decided to fight fire with fire from my own blog against those herein, at least the vast majority of those herein including Randy. While Randy encourages all to ignore me, he takes me on in whole blogs and look what results, again.
Most of you don't know me at all. Some of you do and don't like me at all. That is fine but it is hard to defend myself against anonymous onslaughts and people that may well know me in other venues and still not like me. I speak of AA where I have gone to meetings in Joplin for 15 years. And yep some therein don't like me. Imagine that. Former drunks trying to get sober but hating one another or at least attacking one another for political reasons in a blog. How else could people accuse me of writing blogs ("bourbonic writing") while drinking which I have NEVER done.
I may be dumb, old, ignorant, you name it. But never drunk when I write or any other time for that matter for almost 16 years. No Randy has not taken that tact but some have herein, anonymously. If that is not an underbelly, I don't know what to call them. It also violates the living hell out of anonymity in AA.
As for teachers I know only a few in Joplin, by name at least. Same with most administrators. But some of them, teachers and administrators in R-8 I know well enough professionally to not like them at all, professionally. They, one in particular, know who I speak of. Other administrators and some teachers I know rather well and believe they are good men and women in a terrible situation right now and I support them whole heartedly. Go ahead and scream at me again for doing so, supporting people that I believe are good men and women in a terrible situation right now.
Now for Jennifer and other members of the BOE, even Jim Kimbrough. I do not know any of them personally but have spoken with all of them about the professional tasks related to education. Some I agree with and others I don't, but only for professional reasons. Before the election I exchanged emails with Jennifer and they were professional, non-confrontational. She willingly exchanged them with me and provided insight into her goals, etc if she was elected. In the case of Jeff Koch and even Dr. Fort a year ago, we met face to face to do the same thing, share ideas about education. They got to know my views and I got to know theirs. Honest exchanges, not virulence, etc.
Of course I disagree with some of their views, just as you in here disagree with Huff, and many others, me included. So what. Do we really need to stoop to such levels to tear apart the other person, personally, as happens herein all the time. But I will, if I chose to do so on my own blog, fight fire with fire if I decide to so engage.
One last point. Your side won some seats in two elections. Good politics, good knocking on doors, good job getting out the vote or simply said, good campaigning on the part of all that won seats. But now they must govern and everyone gets to have a view on how they govern, even me.
Jennifer is working hard to get up to speed with the details of governing as a member of the BOE. Even in comments herein she has been criticized for asking lots of questions, taking up valuable time, etc. (I am trying to be polite in case you did not notice.) So is Jeff Koch. I did not intend sexism in calling a new member struggling in a tough new job, cupcake. Instead I used the term to disparage her lack of ability to step up to a hard job and do it professionally for now. Jennifer and Jeff as well have a ton of heavy homework to be able to govern R-8. A lot of work is needed by them. Can they stop being "cupcakes" and become real and effective "governors"? I hope so but they aren't there yet, the current debacle on the BOE being all the "proof" needed for now.
Finally, I will not stop fighting fire with fire on my own blog. Leave it to be said that I don't like "you" (in here) any more than you like me. If any of you really know me outside of local blogs I will be glad to talk with you if you want, which you won't want to do for sure. I will begin by telling you to your face to "Fill your hands you son of a bitch"!! How's that for not liking you even if I already "know" you. As for others in here acting like underbellies using my definition like it or not (basically uniformed, dumb as hell and anonymous) we should just go our own ways and leave each other alone. I will reject you face to face just as you will reject me. Enough said on that point.
Anson
Anson has invented a new drinking game! Take a shot every time he says "herein".
ReplyDeleteOr "censure" in place of "censor"....
DeleteWow. It is hard to blame someone who has little to no grasp of the English language. The twisting back and forth between bully and victim, often in the same sentence, is painful to read. I used to be sickened by this guy. Now I just feel pity.
ReplyDeleteI get the feeling that the only reason he blogs is because he's bored. That was one, long, rambling piece of "HEY! Look what I can do!"
ReplyDeleteExplain to Anson that having a problem with "anonymous" is his problem and only his. Who gives a rats behind what he thinks anyway...........herein someone must need a hug !
ReplyDeleteSo what was the purpose in posting this? It's been nice getting current updates on school board happenings, but if this is the direction of the Turner Report, I guess I'm done reading it.
ReplyDeleteRandy, if you're all about education, may I suggest some posts that would stimulate discussion about strategies for improving education now that there is an opportunity for change? Otherwise, I'm a former reader. I'll get the news and weather updates elsewhere, and have no interest in following your journalistic armwrestling.
Thanks for covering things the last few months!
I do not live in Joplin, I do drive an hour one way to work in Joplin. I don't have a horse in this race.
ReplyDeleteI do read this blog from time, much more frequently in the last couple of months. I do note that this blog does report facts. The spin is obvious. I believe they are facts because someone would have sued the heck out Randy if they weren't.
On the other hand, Anson 's blog seems to mostly consist of opinion. I must admit though I haven't read as much of his blog.
The two newest board members haven't been in office long enough to see how they're going to do. To me that shows Anson just wants to rag on them. That makes it difficult to take your comments seriously.
It seems very obvious to me the "cupcake" comment backfired big time. You're sure doing a lot of back peddling. Make all the justifications you want. I doubt many are going to buy it. I'm not sure I believe you meant anything as degrading as referral to female anatomy. I do believe it was meant to be degrading, condescending and to "put her in her place". I would suspect anyone with any social sensibility will distance themselves far away.
I am sorry to hear that all it takes for you to stop reading the Turner Report are a few posts you don't like. I will agree that I have devoted far more space to Burlingame that I would care to and have probably caused his blog to have many more readers than it normally would. However, it is important to keep up with what this man is saying because it often gives us an idea of what C. J. Huff and the Joplin Progress Committee are thinking. It is also important because the Joplin Globe, the area's newspaper of record, often features his views on education. It is another way in which the Globe has failed this community.
ReplyDeleteI am not disparaging fellow readers. I would point out that those who regularly follow the plot are alternately amused and annoyed at bringing "drop ins" up to speed. It is particularly bothersome to endure tirades and judgements by those with next to no background information. I applaud your patience in your multiple reiterations to continually catch some up to date. It must be the teacher in you. To that note I would encourage Mr. Burlingame to seek help from you or another English teacher, and to then seek help from a professional in the area of memtal illness.
DeleteThanks for all you do.
I start to read Anson's latest, herein I begin to wonder if Anson is Sarah Palin's secret ghostwriter!
ReplyDeleteI heard a small town lawyer say " one attorney in a small town will starve to death but two can make a pretty good living" I think this back and forth between bloggers provides entertainment. Randy maybe you could offer to edit some of his ramblings.
ReplyDeletePersonally I do not care who is on the Joplin BOE, as long as all the money is accounted for.
ReplyDeleteThank you Randy for taking my abject humble apology and my unconditional surrender.
ReplyDeleteYou see, when Mark Rohr was run off last year, and then Wallace Bejalli run off too and had to declare bankruptcy and then last week when the last lines of mindless witless reaction were over-run last week when CJ Huff and the-m-ass resignations from the Bored of Edjewmacation followed I began to think of surrender, of exposing my soft rotten underbelly like a whupped cut dog to the now undisputed new alpha-wolf of the Joplin blogosphere. That would be you, Randy Turner.
Then when the last citadel of reactionary mass-media stupidity, the Joplin Glob, started pretending that only now that my puppet-master CJ Huff got him a golden parachute courtesy of the insiders of the school board to go away, and the taxpayers are beginning to wonder what happened, and the Glob wrote their "Who farted?" editorial two daze ago, I knew that it was every bigoted reactionary retard for theysselfs. So I decided to cum clean and incoherently beg that I meant well. Really!!!
I know now that Mark Rohr, Wallace-Benjali, and especially CJ Huff were lying to me about how with enough taxpayer dollars that they would turn an extremely ugly city like Joplin, with its only virtue of being cheap to live in, into a cut-rate Boulder Colorado. I always wanted to live in Boulder Colorado since I got the cumplete "Mork and Mindy" series on VHS that I as XO would play incessantly aboard the nuclear submarine to the hapless crew. These puppet-masters really brainwashed me like my mind was a itsy-bitsy teenie-weenie tattered rag of a washcloth and I had the will of a chicken.
Anyways, now I've become reconciled to living in Joplin. I'm instead going to make a big change in my life, like Bradley Manning and Bruce Jenner. . . .
When you see me next on this blog of yours, Randy, I'll be known as Chelsea Caitlyn Girlingtard.
Forgive me, for I have sinned.
In my attempt to decipher Mr. Burlingame's manifesto, I kept picturing The Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz. He seemed to be saying, in that hysterical voice, "put'em up, put'em up! Why I'll murderlize you...warrrgh."
ReplyDeleteEverything herein was very comical Anson, very comical.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that Anson is saying that anyone who is not on his side, is an uninformed, dumb as hell, underbelly.
ReplyDeleteThe problem here with the school board for a lot of taxpayers, is about the spending. Apparently, the old board's out of control rubber stamp spending was just fine with Anson. It is not fine with most taxpayers in the city. That's the reason there have been so many changes in the board. And Burlingame doesn't seem to get that.
And Anson, with your track record of supporting the wrong people in this town, (Wallace Bajjali, Mark Rohr, CJ Huff) have you ever thought that you are uninformed and dumb as hell? Maybe you and your side are the underbelly.
Me, the "in here" uninformed, dumb as hell underbelly, herein find myself shaking my head at that comical rant. If you can even call it that. It seemed more of an oh, woe is me, I'm the smart one and you all are nothing! Never seen anything so back and forth about nothing in my life!
ReplyDeleteIf one of the ways in which the Glob [sic] has failed this community is by giving Anson a platform, then why are you giving him one now? I genuinely think he is delusional and in need of mental health services and drugs; at the very least he clearly has a nasty personality disorder. He has no idea what he's talking about, but he certainly believes that anyone who disagrees is wrong. I'm grateful that I don't know him personally.
ReplyDeleteMr. Burlingame,
ReplyDeleteIf you would like to be taken more seriously then may I suggest you class it up while writing your blog. This is the free world and people are entitled to have differing views, and because they differ from yours does not make them "dumb as hell" as you so tactfully put it. Let me crawl down to your level for a minute and say that if you're going to throw around juvenile insults then you need to put on your big girl panties and deal with the backlash. With that said, I'll now tackle your issue with shaming people for posting anonymously. Joplin is big but it's not that big, and most of us have families to provide for and protect. We post anonymously so that we know our livelihood is secure as well as our safety. Maybe in your eyes that makes us cowards, or maybe it makes you the playground bully that never grew up.
Randy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting my response to all concerned herein. My only observation is that you could not, again, refrain from mockery of the nasty sort, suggesting I seek mental health.
As for cleaning up my own blog, I am doing so right now, trying to write constructive articles on HOW to do the things we all believe is needed. Improve student performance and achieve financial stability are critical for the future of R-8. Were we (this blog and I) disagree, strongly, is in the HOW to achieve those goals.
Mockery, virulence, name calling, personal attacks may make you feel good but they do nothing for our schools. I now do as I should have done before. I leave you to your own "politics".
Anson
Dear Anson,
DeleteFirst, there is nothing "nasty" or mocking about seeking "mental" health. Mental health is a normal aspect of every person's overall health. A backwards attitude toward this area of life is part of your problem.
Second, you seem obsessed with the delusion that this community requires or has even requested any advice on our education and governance from you. You exude panic at the notion that we are anxiously awaiting your guidance.
For your own sake, stop listening to Stark and the JPC. Take care of you.
Hey pot....this is kettle......
ReplyDeleteYou're just as guilty of mockery, name calling and personal attacks as the rest of us. Using your holier than thou attitude is doing nothing but making you look like a fool. You can keep following the crooks right out the door.
Why don't you do something constructive, like tell us where the money went?
ReplyDeleteThat's a stunning lack of self-awareness right there, Anson. You have mocked and called names and engaged in personal attacks CONSTANTLY. And now you can't take it. Hilariously enough, you seem to fancy yourself some kind of expert in education and/or politics, but your consistently terrible language usage and your unsound arguments and your reliance on incorrect data reveal a complete lack of critical thinking skills. Clearly, you are just a small, angry old fool, shouting against the wind.
ReplyDeleteAs Mark Twain said, "Better to remain silent and appear a fool than to speak and remove all doubt."
ReplyDeleteWords to take to heart, Anson. The best thing you can do at this point is just stop talking. You keep adding fuel to your own fire.
To everyone else: I'm going to ignore anything and everything else that Anson says. I invite you to join me. Perhaps if he has no audience he'll find something else to do. Since I don't read the Globe anymore, I don't have to worry about seeing him there, either. Funny how little I miss that piece of trash every day.
Chelsea and Burlingame should have a face to face if indeed they are different people. I actually kind of got a little chuckle out of it. There is a connection of some kind with the mention of Boulder Colorado and submarine duty along with the mocking sentiments of how Rohr, Wallace, Huff, and all there cohorts lied to her, or him as it may be. Also a curious similar name, "Girlingtard".
ReplyDeleteHELP !!! HELP !!! HELP !!!
ReplyDeleteI'm an imbecile trapped in a sub-moron's body!!! And all I can do is to think, speak and write hypocritical buffoonery!!!
And when CJ Huff runnts-offt with the $300,000 plus in taxpayer loot then I'll be in the exact same position as Charlie McCarthy was when Edgar Bergen died!!!
I wonder what Mork from the Planet Ork would do? I don't think that the Sacred VHS tapes hath covered this situation. What with all my pension invested in "making the change" I don't even have bus fare to Boulder. And now Robin Williams is dead . . .
Woe, woe, woe is me!!!
Let the blood sucker run if he was any kind of man at all, done his job well he'd never "retired."
ReplyDeleteRuined his future career and life in Joplin.
Hahaha Huff screwed yourself! But you're done screwing R-8!
"Get off my lawn!" screamed the sad, toothless old man while shaking his fist in the air.
ReplyDeleteOkay, Pilgrim, if you say so, but it reads like a drunken rant to me.
ReplyDeleteI don't like it when cupcakes, frauds, underbeliies, and etcetera call me names. So I'm gonna hop up on my high horse and take the high road...for a minute. Then I will cme back down occasionally to deal with you Turnertard scum. For the children. Because I care, and this town and district would be lost without me. How do I know? Carol Stark and the Joplin Globe told me. Not enough you say. Well I have also been told by the great men of our time. I looked deep into the souls of CJ Huff, Mark Rohr, David Wallace, Randy Steele, Mike Landis, Jeff Flowers, Phil Wilcox, Darieus Adams, and others. I find them all to be completely trustworthy and the right men for the job. So spew your virulence and nasty mockery herein all you want. I will continue to ignore it and respond in my posts. I am not a drunk who waffles back and forth beteeen hating you snd loving you, being combatant and conciliatory, being angry and happy, and writing rambling nonending disjointed tirades that have no form or reason for life beng an unending series of nobody loves me and people are so mean why won't anyone lusten as ll they do is criticize and tell me I need mental help like I was some gutter rat who would stoop so lo cause here ain't nothn erong with me by God I'm inhe damn paper nd I know lots of very vert very important people in this town and I've sat face to face with them and they are damn good people and Turner and his nasty anonymousers are hateful spiteful who are uninformed and ignorant and vote commie sympathizers to ruin my beautiful district and town why won't Randy be my friend and see the truth!
ReplyDelete