On very, very rare occasions, I employ a tactic utilized by Professor Kingsfield in the pilot episode of “The Paper Chase.” In that episode, young student Mr. Hart proves so inept, so worthless, that Kingsfield “shrouds” him. Akin to “shunning” in certain societies, it means that the person is effectively dead. He will never be called upon or acknowledged or responded to in any way. Far more effective than taking steps to shut someone up, it allows them to shout into the wind as much as they wish. I consider it a far more elegant solution than censorship.
Peterdavid.net officially shrouds Dee and his/her various personalities. Dee, who gives conservatives a bad name, is dead to this board. As far as I am concerned, he/she/it no longer exists.
I invite others to follow my lead or not, as they see fit.
PAD
• 
I don’t post here much as I’m interested in reading some opinions and getting the news of the ‘biz.
I am also probably one of the most right-leaning people you’d find posting here. I don’t post very much opinion here because I do conservative / liberal, right/left, democrat/ republican debate elsewhere; and I don’t have the time to do it here as well.
Half of the time, I feel as though I belong on an island or the top of a lonely mountaintop. (Not as a result of the blog here, just in general with respect to popular opinion.)
Right-winged or extreme-inclined on that side of the fence- I certainly am. But that/ those/ he/ she/it person is an ášš. Does he/she/whatever have a point?
Cross the line of gender, size, race, etc.. and it proves you have no other decent argument. Just as a frustrated little child bangs his fists on the dinner table- not even knowing what he wants.
Oh, and JEW? Thaaat’s nice. I love how people waste bandwidth and storage space on hatespeech. Very uneducated hatespeech.
Here’s a shout out to everyone here: hello, and keep up the good work.
I’m an extremely conservative, republican, right-winger; and I’d certainly kick this guy off of MY island or mountaintop. Probably with little effort; and certainly a miniscule amount of effort if remaining were the prize for winning a debate.
Shrouding is a problem when a coward changes his posting identity. People have got to read a few lines to realize it’s the same ášš all over again. That can get frustrating.
PAD- You rule. Dee/DeeDee/DumbDee will fade off into oblivion; most definitly mirroring what happens with the rest of what he does in his life.
Overcast and rainy in the northwest, too.
“Overcast and rainy in the northwest, too.”
And this differs from an average day how, exactly?
🙂
cloudy, overcast & rainy in the midwest
Well, Jonathan, I moved here because I hate the heat. Every summer it gets hot and sunny. Luckily, the summers don’t last as long as other parts of the states. Seems we have a blanket of clouds over the whole US. On that note, when we begin to discuss the weather, maybe it’s time to find a new topic? : )
Well, the subject is “shrouding”.
And the clouds are “shrouding” us from the harmful effects of the sun’s rays….
So Peter, I just read in the latest issue of Locus that you will have a new NEW FRONTIERS novel out this Fall. One is not enough. I miss the days when you had more.
Did you ever read the Trek parody manga that Antartic Press reprinted about ten years ago? It was actually funny.
Well, J., I know you weren’t addressing me, but so what… 🙂
I do own the two-part “ElfTrek” comic, published many moons back by Dimension, set at the Motel at the Juncture of Realities, in which the Woofriders, astride their vicious poodles, encountered the crew of the Secondprize, and we learned that their entire species was fathered by Mr. Schlock on a shore-leave bender (you could tell – they all had Daddy’s ears).
BONES: It’s fascinating! Just *fascinating*! Gee, Schlock, don’t you find this all so dámņëd FASCINATING?!?
>thud
CAPT. JERK: Hmmm – didn’t know the Nerve Pinch worked *there*…
Its too bad we dont shroud people in society.That way the Anna Nicole Smith,Oj simpson,Whitney /Bobby type of celebrities would just go away.In addition with many criminal cases this should apply.As some else mentioned just say two indidviduals did blah ,blah and be done.While there are other sick forces at work the instant celebrity some of these heinous ,loathsome ,homo sapiens get does feed the drive to do bad things.
Way off topic when watching movies ,why do i find British Gangster movies more entrtaining than Italian/American mafia ones ????I mean GANGSTER#1,SEXY BEAST,AND LOCK,STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS kicked ášš.Maybe its just the american movies are so similar.
Odd that i go from speaking of people commiting horrible acts to praising gangster movies:/
Last rambling statement does anyone else enjoy
Dave Chappelles show??He is great!!!!
Oh my God, Pad!
The Cartman suggestion works like a charm!
I haven’t laughed so hard in weeks.
If only Dee (for ‘dimwit’, ‘dûmbášš’, ‘dork’ or dweeb?) would say, “Screw you guys, I’m going home!” and mean it! LOL!
Josh from TX said: “I’m just sad that we got off topic. I always liked The Shroud, and thought he could have moved beyond the original concept. When Hawkeye formed the West Coast Avengers, I was really hoping that he’d join up. Oh, well.”
At least the Shroud and the Night Shift met up with the WCA. I think that was back when Steve Engelhart was writing the book. Engelhart really had a true geek’s knack for using the history of the universe he was writing for.
I was surprised that Kurt Busiek, who has a similar love and respect for continuity, never had the Shroud meet up with the Thunderbolts since the Shroud was their mirror image (A hero pretending to be a villain.)
I know it’s not an “Ask PAD” thread, but I’ve wondered for some time now how it worked that the Thunderbolts were introduced in the Hulk. Did he hear about the concept and asked Busiek if he could use the characters or was he asked to guest star them? And obviously, he must have been in on “The Secret” but what did he think of the concept of a whole book about the Masters of Evil, turned fake heroes, turned real heroes?
The Shroud… Yeah, someone should bring him back before Garth Ennis hears about him and writes a Max series where the Shroud goes undercover to catch supervillains so he can use a chainsaw on their teeth.
Screw you guys, I’m going home!
I did that.^^^ Sorry I couldn’t resist.
Dee: Screw you guys, I’m going home!
Ben Lesar: I did that.^^^ Sorry I couldn’t resist.
Shroud by association! Shroud by association! 🙂
tOjb
Oh Great- Now that I’ve got the cartman voice in my head, I’ve gone back and reread everything. Laughing my ášš off!
And wouldn’t you know it? There are hardly any new posts from the shrouded one now that I have the proper “inner voice” with which to read it!
D
“Not quite. Kingsfield had the tradition of shrouding a person at the beginning of every year. Hart was the lucky victim. However, Hart was determined to become un-shrouded (? de-shrouded?) since Kingsfield was the reason he went to that school. He studied, and showed up in a real bedsheet/shroud. It got Kingsfield’s interest enough to remove the physical shroud so Hart could show he knew his stuff.”
Almost. First, I should clarify, just in case anyone’s confused, that it was in the pilot of the TV series rather than the film. Second, basically what happened was that an inspired Hart, frustrated that Kingsfield wasn’t calling on him after shrouding him, said excitedly to Ford in a burst of brilliance, “If I’m dead, then I’m dead!” The next day he showed up in a burial shroud and just sat there like a ghost. Kingsfield was completely thrown, so distracted that finally he called on Hart to answer a question. And Hart just sat there. No answer. Kingsfield, starting to get angry, demanded that Hart respond. Still nothing. A now-furious Kingsfield stormed up the aisle and said, “The facts of the case, MR. HART!” and yanked the shroud off him, whereupon Hart promptly rattled off the info. Kingsfield trudged back to his podium, staring at the shroud in his hand, then turned and for the first and only time in the series, smiled.
PAD
Y’know, I kinda miss John Houseman. As a kid I would always insist that everyone shut up whenever he showed up on TV. I would also stop my world when a Smith Barney ad came on. “Smith Baahrney. They make money the old fashioned way: They earrrn it.” Cracked me up every time.
And, of course, who could forget his role in ‘Silver Spoons?’ Great. Now I’m stuck in the 80’s like a bad K-Tel collection. Hey! My time machine works! I’m gonna go find some spandex and hair spray.
Salutations,
Mitch
Some have suggested some form of registration as opposed to shrouding.Which one person said would make this site to much like John byrne’s.Out of curiousity i just went there …….Very quiet,very sterile ,very boring.Lets just keep
shrouding as local policy,shall we?:)
By the way is it me or did the character the Shroud look a lot like Cloak from the old Cloak&
Dagger series??I think the Shroud came first and Cloak was created by Bill Mantlo but just an observation.He also reminds me of a character from WILDCARDS.Dont recall the name though…..
The main difference that would still exist, Deano, is that Peter would not discourage people from disagreeing with him, or brush off honest critiques or unfavorable opinions of his work, nor, I suspect, would the rest of the posters here automatically defend him on an a priori basis.
I will respond to Bladestar’s earlier post referring specifically to me, but first, a small digression on the definition of “terror” and “terrorism” and “terrorist”.
I refer to the Gage Canadian Dictionary which carries the following definitions:
TERROR noun
1. A great fear
2. A casue of great fear
3. Informal: A person or thing that causes much trouble and unpleasantness
TERRORISM noun
1. The act of terrorizing; use of terror
TERRORIST noun
1. A person who uses or favours terrorism
And now, a short reproduction of Bladestar’s post:
“Joe Krolik, are you f-ing insane?
How the hëll can compare what Dee posts to 9/11?
“Internet Terrorism”? Did his/her posts deliete your files? Disrput your internet connection? Delete your bank accounts? Kill people?
Using “terrorism” to describe was Dee does ridiculous and so empowering to him/her/it.
I geuss by your definition when a fly, mosquito, or gnat buzzes right by my face and/or ear I should refer to them as an “Insect Terrorist”?
Please, an annoyance and “terrorism” are two COMPLETELY DIFFERENT concepts…”
As you can see from the dictionary definitions of the words, “Dee” or whoever he/she/it is, definitely falls within the parameters.
I think that the words have recently been more narrowly defined in the informal sense by the violent nature of what most of us accept as “terrorism” in today’s world. Nevertheless, this individual most definitely causes unpleasantness and disruption, and this is what I referred to when coining the term I used, “Internet Terrorist”.
“Terrorism” does not have to be directly destructive in a physical sense to be “terrorism”. There are many different degrees.
All terrorists, whether they be on the minor level of “Dee” or the major level of Bin Laden or his followers all share a common trait:
THEY ARE IN FACT COWARDS!
You never see any of them directly involve themselves in the dirty work of their acts. No suicide bombing for them. That’s for lesser beings who they can coerce (use whatever term you wish) to do it for them.
You never see their faces when committing atrocities. They are always masked (Bin Laden is of course an exception to this one point on the few video clips we have seen of him) when murdering or beheading innocents.
They always have some type of “cloak of anonymity” (dare I say “shroud of anonymity”?) to protect them and give them the illusion of safety, the illusion that they will never be brought to task for their deeds.
This is why I advocated and continue to advocate for exposing rather than shrouding such individuals on the blog (as well as in the realk world).
Exposure on the blog falls in Glenn’s bailiwick, but I believe that using exposure would definitely have beneficial effects for everyone except the guilty parties.
Let’s see how brave and offensive they are when they cannot hide any longer.
Incidentally, Bladestar, on an aside: What is your real name?
Weather: for heaven’s sake I live in Britain, not a fog bound, rain soaked countyr … ok it’s sometimes like that
Move the topic along fast people: any news of a decent sci-fi film being released this summer (not like the day after tommorrow)?
Hopefully one day there will be a Red Dwarf film to show how comedy and sci-fi can be done!
Joe, it’s Joe Mama
Joe, you say that terrorists never “directly involve themselves in the dirty work of their acts. No suicide bombing for them.”
If the jáçkáššëš who are strapping themselves with bombs or flying planes into large buildings aren’t terrorists, then just what the hëll are they? Is bin Laden sending Doombots out to attack Western civilization?
Now, had you restricted your comments to terrorist “leaders”, I’d have had to agree with you. However, you specifically included the *followers* of bin Laden – and, however stupid, misguided, or downright evil one might conclude them to be, one must at least concede that many, if not most, of these followers are in fact willing to die for their cause.
If only their head-man could show the same committment…
If the jáçkáššëš who are strapping themselves with bombs or flying planes into large buildings aren’t terrorists, then just what the hëll are they?
I think that the comments were more in reference to the leadership of these terrorists organizations.
Good point to Luigi Novi ,in regards to Peter not opposing honest criticism.I just feel that the registration thing makes it seem so formal and in a way(to me)arrogant like we need to apply for the privilege to discuss and express ourselves.I would just as soon keep things as is ,with shrouding in effect as deemed appropriate by PAD
or the collective community as a whole.
PAD: First, I should clarify, just in case anyone’s confused, that it was in the pilot of the TV series rather than the film. …Kingsfield trudged back to his podium, staring at the shroud in his hand, then turned and for the first and only time in the series, smiled.
Yes, the TV show was much better than the movie. I find the movie version almost depressing to watch in all those dark colors.
Then there was the final scene of the pilot which was just priceless as well. Hart and his friends were all walking down the hallway enjoying the “victory” and they get on the elevator with another professor. Kingsfield rushes on at the last moment. The unnamed teacher asks Kingsfield how classes are going so far. Kingsfield replies as only he could: “The usual sloppy minds, but I shall be fixing that in the weeks to come!”
The unnamed professor looks back at the students with a mixture of amusement and pity.
Here’s a trivia question for everyone (no fair using IMDB, either): What Paper Chase actor/actress was a guest star on DS9 and one of the supporting roles in 24?
Penny Johnson. And she first appeared on NextGen before appearing on .
Also, there is actually a shroud option on the message boards at the Internet Movie Database. It’s the “Ignore This User” button. If Peter’s blog were set up the same way, it would be easy to do so. Just restrict what you see to those posters whose posts you’re actually interested in reading.
Also, there is actually a shroud option on the message boards at the Internet Movie Database.
Useful, but likely a bad example – the IMDb boards are so full of idiots that it’s a struggle to actually find intelligent discussion since you have to ignore 9/10ths of the posters. 🙂
…and of course everyone remembers Penny Johnson as Larry’s assistant on the Larry Sanders Show, right?
Don’t you?
She ended up in bed with Larry.
*shudder*
^^^^
“Those are my Cheesy-Poofs! Bad Kitty Kitty!”
“MAA! Kitty’s being a dìldø!”
“Oooh, I know a certain kitty-kitty who’s sleeping with Mommy tonight!”
“Meow??”
Okay – new odds –
Is that REALLY the last post?
Hehehehehe
Dammit Deano, I cannot think of the character you’re thinking of. I’ve read the entire WildCards series, including the recent one focusing on Deuces.
I remember a bit about Cloak, but not familiar with DC, so I don’t know who shroud is.
Were you thinking early, middle, or late-series WlidCards character?
Long live Croyd and Popinjay!
Got it. Shroud proably reminds you of “Cosmic Traveler”, one of Mark Meadows (a.k.a. Cap’n Trips) “friends”/alter-egos…
And poor Dr. Finn, Medicine Centaur…
To Jonathan (the other one): Yes, I did mean to refer specifically to the terrorist leaders. In the public consciousness I believe that every reference in the media usually results in being associated with the leaders as opposed to the drones they use to carry out their work. Hmm…..drones….an interesting analogy.
To Bladestar: Joe, meet Joe. And I’m glad to know ya!
God, I just about got a heart attack when I thought Mr. David was talking about me… I don’t post here much (last time was on May 17, regarding Fallen Angel #11 and why I was having trouble “getting into” that series) and I had NO idea there was another Dee here. So I’ll be using my full name from now on. 😉
Re: My favorite movie
Well, I ADORE the Hallmark Channel’s adaption of “Arabian Nights” with Milli Avital and John Leguizamo as the Djinni. The tales were exotic and beautifully played out, with a blend of cultures ranging from Arabian to Persian to Chinese. Granted, it was about the length of a Lord of the Rings film, but dámņ, I’ve NEVER felt so utterly and completely satisfied by a TV movie before. 🙂
(Still marvelling over a great and appropriate line)
“My dear, you are by far the ugliest bìŧçh it has ever been my misfortune to meet.”
Good point to Luigi Novi ,in regards to Peter not opposing honest criticism.I just feel that the registration thing makes it seem so formal and in a way(to me)arrogant like we need to apply for the privilege to discuss and express ourselves.I would just as soon keep things as is ,with shrouding in effect as deemed appropriate by PAD or the collective community as a whole.
Not really here nor there, but as someone who runs several message boards for some groups I’m involved with, most good board software allows for “instant approval,” so it’s not really a matter of “applying for approval to post.” The biggest benefit is to allow the user to set their own level of shrouding. 🙂
Now, also using MT on a few sites, I don’t believe it has that same flexibility. But, that’s also comparing apples to oranges…boards and blogs obviously have two vastly different approaches behind them. And, for what Peter’s got this blog set up for, it’s kind of a 50/50 toss-up as to which format would work best.
What I can think to recommend to PAD & Glenn is to move from MT to WordPress, since MT has transformed from freeware to licensed software, and will no longer provide support to any freeware versions. 🙁
Oops…hit “post” a smidge too soon.
Re: using the Cartman voice….
Does anyone have an equally effective suggestion for someone who just doesn’t find anything about South Park to be remotely entertaining?
(Oh, great…I just opened the door for a flood of suggestions to substitute the equally annoying voice of the Chipmunk Woman from Will & Grace.) 😉
Chipmunk women, surely you mean Karen! One half of a truly devine partnership. Let’s face it, the show is all about Jack and Karen. The reason why it’s Will and Grace is so that we don’t get too much of a fine thing.
I don’t really have a favorite movie. It depends on what kind of mood I’m in. I go more for humorous movies. Not necessarily comedies, just movies with humor in them. Looking forward to “Serenity” by Joss Whedon.
Ditto That about ‘Serenity’.
Hey everyone, first-time poster.
I’m very excited about Serenity, now that roles are being cast for it, it actually feels like things are in motion. Here’s hoping Joss Whedon can juggle nine characters, each with his/her own backstory, and come up with a movie that satisfies fans of Firefly and newcomers alike. He’s got his work cut out for him, but I have faith.
For the record Bladestar ,i was thinking of Black Shadow.He also had other identities like Wallwalker and i think Gravemold.Havent read the Deuces ,is it any good?My favorite character was probably Yeoman followed by another Mark meadows
character /female martial artist(tigerlily?) .I havent read the series in years and need to sit down and check em out again.
I love the WILDCARDS stuff ,that would make an interesting movie franchise wouldnt it???
For those who don’t know… “Serenity” has actually started filming already (started last monday). Current proposed release date is 4/22/05. All this info and more is available at Joss’ site… http://whedonesque.com/
Okay, I have to ask Joe Krolik:
Do the words Winnipeg and Styx mean anything to you?
I agree with Adam about Clint. He
Hm. Favorite movies. Well, I have no problem admitting I’m a huge Star Wars geek (yes, I even love the prequels) and could watch any one of them at the drop of a hat. I’ve only seen a handful of Kurosawa flicks, but I’ve really enjoyed the ones I’ve seen. I also happen to be a Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan nut, but if we’re talking more than just enjoyment and guilty pleasure and more along the lines of favorite/actually critically good movie, I’d have to think more on that…
Monkeys.