What was that all about?

MenareJerks.com has never been about hate speech. The idea was largely tongue-in-cheek to start with and, aside from letting a few people share their (usually justified) rants, has mostly focused on pro respect for women and pro self-esteem building topics … and occasionally pointed out some jerky behavior. Facebook elected to delete a smallish (261 likes), four year old page connected with this site because of their “community standards”… I guess they failed to get that “jerk” really has a range of meanings. Other than calling Rick Perry a jerk … mild talk about Rick in Texas … it never got stronger than that. The Facebook page was somewhat more actively updated than this site and its posts referenced stories from the Washington Post, Hooking Up Smart, Time and other credible sources. The “rants” were never published on Facebook.

So, Facebook … please remember that free speech is nuanced and delicate … hate speech is not. You didn’t find the latter on that page. And keep in mind Ralph Waldo Emerson’s saying that “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”

Oh, yes … and on the largely free and open Web, we’re still here. Facebook can keep its “walled garden.” If anyone wants to see what was on the Facebook page, I’ve got some screen shots. Thanks.

LovableJerksCup

One of the great controlling jerk stories

Nothing new here, but worth the revisiting. The story of Travis Taylor Frey and his wife was posted on TheSmokingGun.com in 2006, with the emphasis on a bizarre “contract of wifely expectations.” I won’t steal another site’s content, so you can find the document itself here. It’s pretty appalling. A jury of eleven men and one woman found him guilty of third-degree sex abuse and domestic assault. He was sentenced to ten years in prison with the ultimate term depending on his progress in sex offender and batterer rehab programs.

I followed up on some loose ends with TheSmokingGun’s story … i.e. Frey appealed his conviction, but an appellate court affirmed the conviction. Further, there was a mention of child pornography on Frey’s computer, for which he was sentenced to an additional five years in prison.

My guess is that you can’t top this story, although you undoubtedly know of stories in which the outcome for the victim was much worse. If you want to delve more deeply into the subject, you might want to read Coercive Control: How Men Entrap Women in Personal Life. The Travis Frey excerpt can be found here on Google Books.

A jerk gets his

This is just a hoot … justice is served to a tail-gating, finger-flaunting idiot. I hope your employer, coworkers AND your momma see this, Buddy. You can read the full story (and see the jerk’s name) on the Huffington Post.

Now, if we could just teach Florida Driver to shoot her videos in landscape. Still, she captured everything that was important. Way to go!