Allan:The Tao of Tod, Part Two

On Tuesday, I submitted a posting for the main page of Ouimet's blog.
The one entitled "Premature Adjudication and The Tao of Tod".
It took only minutes for Anonymous comments to appear berating my effort and thoughts.
I was attacked and Tod was defended.
I let the comments roll in without responding.
Readers were given a chance to react as they saw fit, with disdain or approval or indifference.
Their comments are there for all time and readers can judge the merits of what each of us said on that day.
By 3 AM I wrote a follow-up and sent it in to the comments section.
A few hours later, I was at work at my wonderful job.
When I got home in the evening there was a message from Ouimet that Tod had asked that my comment be removed. She did so, for the time being, knowing that I would understand and that we could sort this out later. She has more important duties than this blog. It's called making a living.
Perhaps she also knew that I would forgive almost anything, even without having been assured that I hold everything she does here in the highest regard.
I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm practically in love with the Ouimet that has been revealed here for the past two years.

Nevertheless, I am furious.
Furious at Tod for not allowing anyone to see my comments and what they said about him. Furious that he would try and corrupt the best thing that ever appeared on the internet in Canada and in the short history of blogs in Canada.
It had been one thing for Tod to delete my comments at his own (or is it the CBC's?) blog - insidecbc.ca.
It was something else to try and force another blogger to do the same.
And to try and do so, in secret.
This was the comment that Tod feared anyone seeing:

"I don't like being insulted.
And neither does Christopher Hitchens.

And I'm not referring to the comments above.
(Please do your worst, you wannabe-Allans)
I'm referring to this quote from Love, Poverty and War

Was it always this way? ... did a visit to the movies or the theatre most often reward me with a sense of insult?

He could just as well have include turning on television and watching The Hour, or clicking on a blog and reading Tod The Techno Wiz thinking he knows how to do jokes and news as well as binary code.
He does not. It's not his forte.
He's in over his head.
This blog, this official piece of low-brow "news", should and must be a group effort.
One person can't be expected to know everything and be good at everything.
So I'm not surprised that Tod wants to control things, control everybody.
And he's not alone in wanting to control me, obviously.

It's all about control for him and the Tony Burmans and the executives at the CBC.
It's about not trusting your audience, about having a very low opinion of them.
It's the exact opposite of what Ouimet does here.
This place is about as close to freedom of speech as you will find anywhere on the net.
It even allows people to make a call for denying that freedom to me.
Point me to any other place on the internet where you can say whatever you want.

The trouble with Tod is that he wants to be in charge of what we think and do.
He alone chooses what we are allowed to think about and talk about, and what opinions we're allowed to have.
But he doesn't just control, he also manipulates.
Take that dalet nonsense.
He tries to sucker people into thinking this is an important and relevant issue.
Because this is an area of strength for him, where he can get even with the bodybuilders who kicked sand in his face years ago.
So now a blog about the CBC becomes a blog about what's important to Tod.
And one thing that's important to Tod is Tod.
On the very day that insidecbc.ca is mentioned in the National Post, is the very same day that Tod's picture is posted and kept at the top of the page for the duration, and the post is him asking to be sent equipment for review (and for free) and that he's open to new business opportunities as well.
What a self-serving coincidence.
What a self-important, greedy dick.

... and I'm just getting started.
Your turn next, CBC.

And here's a taste ...
hiding the truth and selling illusions
WHAT THE HELL WAS GEORGE AND THE CBC THINKING TRYING TO LIE TO THE AUDIENCE ABOUT WHAT DAY NICKLEBACK WAS BEING INTERVIEWED???
WHY DID THEY DO THAT?
WHO DO THEY THINK THEY'RE DEALING WITH?

And therein, in the answers to those questions, lies the insult that Hitchens is talking about.

3:30 AM August 1, 2007"

It was an odd situation for Ouimet, who had championed freedom and fearlessness by setting the most liberal policy for allowing comments about her work and about the CBC and it's doings.
But for Tod, the rules are different. He wanted to control the freedom of others as far as he could reach.
The very point I was trying to make, is the one he wants desperately to suppress.
Isn't it ironic?
Perhaps one of you dozen or so fans of Ouimet's reality (which I'm honoured to be part of) would care to say if they think Tod's actions are acceptable or reprehensible.
Say anything you want.
Because Tod does not control this blog or me and you.
It's not 1984.
Yet.