Wherein I Fisk Sharon Cobb

Okay. I was going to leave this alone. But this bears repeating and a bit of explanation on my part. Please be aware that there is foul language which I will not censor in any way. The bolded parts are written by Sharon Cobb. My response is below them.

I’m in a bad mood. I have no coping skills left. I’ve lost almost everything in the flood and the last thing I needed was some blogger to write lies about me.

I still maintain I wrote no lies at all. The entirety of what I said at Michael Silence’s blog was this:
Last I knew, she lived in a condo several floors up in a part of town that was relatively unscathed. In fact, I drove by her condo–or what I assumed was still her condo– on Saturday.
It was still standing and still dry.

All I meant by that was that I didn’t realise she was in a damaged area. At no point in those two sentences did I call her a liar.

I don’t give a damn if you hate me or my site or whatever, but I’m all out of give a damns, and libel and slander will no longer be tolerated.

First off, I don’t care about Sharon’s site. I don’t read it. If I want to read original source material from CBS News, Newsweek, etc, I’ll just read it there. I have no reason to see what you’ve decided is worthy of being copy/pasted to her blog. I haven’t visited it in over three years. Second off, there is absolutely nothing libelous or slanderous about saying that I didn’t know she lived in a flooded area. Which is all I did. All I said.

Michael Silence had copy and pasted a story I wrote about losing almost everything in the flood.

No. Michael Silence copy/pasted a story Sharon copy/pasted from another writer after appending her own two-or three sentence intro. The gist of it was “Not that you care, but I lost everything in the flood. Here’s the copyrighted material from another writer talking about that flood and why it got no coverage.

Kat Coble, who has not spoken to me in over a year, felt it was her job to write that I live in a condo that looked dry without calling me or emailing me to see if I still lived there. Like I said, I moved over a year ago.

Again, what I wrote was that LAST I KNEW she lived in that condo by Centennial Park. You may have guessed from the tenor of this post that Sharon and I do not speak frequently. You may also have guessed why.

But she intentionally made me look like a liar by what she wrote, instead of calling me or emailing me to see if I had moved. (E.Thomas Wood and a dozen others can verify I moved over a year ago)

Where Sharon Cobb lives and/or lived was of no concern of mine before this weird set of posts came out of nowhere. I’ve now found out the address of the Sylvan Park house from where she was ostensibly displaced by the flood waters. Since it is of such grave concern to Ms. Cobb I will be calling the realtor with whom that property is listed as soon as they open up today. I will verify with that realtor the state of the home in question and the extent to which it was damaged by flood waters. Public records show that the home in question was placed on the market in February of this year at a price substantially lower than what it last sold for (in 2006.)

I do not know E. Thomas Wood. And as one may have guessed by the tenor of her original post, I was not myself eager to contact Sharon over what was to me a passing remark about not realising that where she lived had flooded.

By the way, Kat, thanks for asking if you could help since I lost everything. Ah Hell, thanks to everyone.

There are, as I have remarked here and elsewhere, literally DOZENS of places where those who have been adversely affected by the flood can find help. My family have contributed to some and our home is listed with two of those charitable outlets as being available to a displaced family. I am given to understand that finding help for those displaced by this flood is not difficult in the least. I prefer to channel my charitable efforts through those organisations unless you are a person with whom I have a long-standing and friendly relationship. I believe it is clear that I do not have such a relationship with Cobb, and also clear as to why.

So Kat, you retract your stupid babbling that was for the single intention to make me look bad.

No, it wasn’t. And no, I won’t. I said nothing worthy of retraction.

I’m in a mighty bad state of mind,

That much is patently clear.

and you and bloggers that don’t have time to call me(all have my #) or email me (all have my email) then I strongly suggest you don’t write about me if you’re going to call me a liar and not call me or email me to get the facts. One can have a different of opinions, but making someone look like they intentionally lied is libel. Reckless disregard for the truth and malicious intent. How easy to prove both with you.(And your “Godess”)

Truth is an absolute defence to libel and slander. What I said was and is the truth. The last information I had was that Cobb resided in a condo by Centennial Park. I was surprised to read that she had been displaced from the flood, just as I would be surprised to read that anyone else who lived in an area that I knew to be undamaged was displaced.

I have no idea what she means when she talks about the Godess [sic].

Remember, over a year ago you were going to get bloggers to help me with surgery? NEver heard from you again. That was March of 2009. Oh, and of course you and the bloggers you were going to get never helped me when I had surgery.

I believe Cobb’s recollections of this conversation are hazy at best. That conversation took place on Passover week of 2009 when I had a Jewish houseguest for whom I was trying to find Passover week observances here in Nashville. At that time I was quite overwhelmed with not only having that houseguest but also being very ill myself. I specifically told Cobb that I wished I could help but couldn’t because I was too ill. Much of the conversation was about the types of pain meds that we both have to take for our health conditions. While I sympathised with Cobb’s plight I was not insane enough to say I would help her with surgery. I explained clearly that I can no longer even drive. I am in no way shape or form going to tell another ill person that I will care for them when I am being cared for by my spouse and relatives.

You are so full of shit.

Somedays this is true. However I have presently a collection of tumors in my abdomen that prevents me from eating much and so I don’t have much fecal matter to speak of, let alone any that has become impacted in any way. But I do admit there are days when those tumours (called lipomas) –benign, but painful–cause me to be constipated quite badly. So on those days this could be said to be an accurate statement.

And feel sorry for real Christians because it must be painful for them to hear you say you are one and act like nothing but a trouble maker and be cruel and mean and enjoy hanging out with someone like…

Cobb appears to believe that attacking my faith is the button to push to hurt me. The fact that she would do this shows that she has the intent to wound, not just to state her case for innocence. While it is true that I am far from the best example of Christianity I in no way believe that I am cruel or mean. Although I do enjoy spending my time with various ellipses, as well as other random punctuation marks.

But as far as me, you don’t write about me without getting in touch if you are disputing what I am saying. There is NO excuse in the law to call someone a liar with no attempt to talk to them and get the facts.

I most definitely did not call Cobb a liar. That much is clear. And after this farrago I will find other ways to factcheck Cobb should I ever be tempted to even discuss something she has written. I will not be speaking to her again.

Go fuck yourself,Kat, and any other bloggers doing the same type of irresponsible “blogging.”

I think this would be yet another reason I will not be offering Cobb houseroom despite her stated homelessness of the moment.