The votes are in and the winner of the highly coveted Man Boobz Troll of the Year Award for 2012 is … MRAL!
Wait, you say, he wasn’t even on the ballot?
Well, no. The troll that got the most votes from you, my dear readers, was the verbose anti-Man Boobz crusader known as Steele — also known as Mikhael Varpole and, briefly, as Torvus Butthorn. Indeed, Steele cruised to victory, getting 47% of the vote, as compared with the 33% received by Tom Martin, his only real competitor. (Dr. Pell came in third, with a mere 6% of the total.)
But as it turns out we’ve been played, big time. The troll we know and love as Steele turns out to have been MRAL all along.
Yes, that MRAL – the long banned commenter who cannot seem to walk away from this blog. We’ve uncovered and banned many of his previous sockpuppets, but somehow he managed to slip his boldest sockpuppet right by us.
Oh, sure. I and others here often wondered if Steele was for real; it seemed pretty clear to me that he couldn’t possibly believe everything he said. But it wasn’t until I went back to some of “Steele’s” earliest comments here, in preparation for this post, that I discovered how justified these suspicions had been. Turns out that one of “Mikhael Varpole’s” IP addresses matched one used by an earlier troll, Scooby Doo on Zombie Island, who had been outed as MRAL a couple of months earlier.
D’OH!
“Torvus Butthorn” really should have been a dead giveaway. But otherwise the highly dedicated MRAL did a masterful job of keeping his troll character consistently ridiculous yet plausible enough to not be an obvious phony, and of hiding his particular obsessions in such a way that he didn’t give himself away.
So, congrats, MRAL, and you’re banned again.
After this, the rest of the results are a bit of an anticlimax.
Sunshine Mary wins the Special-est Snowflake award for Female MRA Trolls, with 52% of the vote. Driversuz comes in second with 32%.
Tom Martin easily wins the Worst Human Being award with a stunning 73% to David K Meller’s 22%.
Some Guy Bored With Your Schtick wins Most Tiresome with 58% of the vote; Diogenes is a distant second with 24%.
And JudgyBitch wins Most Pathetic Vote Beggar.
I hope they’re not all MRAL too.
Strong coffee with lots of sweetened soya for me, and a good ‘cupan tae’ (that’s a proper Irish cup of tea – milky and strong!)
Ginseng right this moment though.
So, I got all derailed from these comments by reading Tom Martin’s rants on B&W (like a year ago or more, during his ill fated court case). In the comments he confirmed that he is literally the worst guy ever, but his rants are also quite funny and a bit sad. I mean, although he blames Muslim children for their own rapes and calls them whores to boot (the charmer), he also says things like ‘I am suing some books’, and he has a really cute little colour-coded male-shaming theory. It goes like this – if a stupid man (see Tom Martin) says something stupid and you call him stupid, then that is code duck-egg blue and you are a misandrist due to anti-male stupid-shaming. There’s just nothing to take seriously, and that’s before we get anywhere near his opinions on those fat, money-grabbing, squawking little whores in the Antarctic.
Bless him, I wonder how he feels when he opens his eyes in the morning? I bet it’s weird, knowing you have to go through your days being him. *shudder*
Anyway, the derailment means that I missed some conversation opportunities from ex-MRAs and ex-sorta-MRAs. Carlyblue, Wee Boy and Fox, I did read your responses and really appreciate you taking the time to respond. It just genuinely baffles me that this is something that can be long term for many people.
I can understand getting into it, there are definitely men’s issues that need to be addressed and it may seem like a good place to start, particularly if you have been exposed to negative feminism stereotypes. But the lack of any reason, research or real intelligent thought (particularly on sites like AVFM and Men Going Somewhere As Far Away From Me As Possible Hopefully) just seems to glaring to ignore, and I wondered about people who kinda fell into it and, after a while, realised just how sort of fruitless, computer-based, and hateful it seems to be.
Anyway, really happy that none have you have that level of hate in your hearts! Also they rarely if ever post videos of kittens and tiny bulldogs on AVFM, so, instant fail really.
Oh gosh, you wouldn’t like it here. We had a high of about -20C on the 25th. Of course it reached about 0 three days later so far be it for me to complain!
Viscaria – whoot! That is cold. I’ve never encountered cold that extreme, so I don’t know how I’d manage. On the assumption that indoor heating was adequate, I wouldn’t mind, I think; it’s being stuck in a cold house that gives me the wibblies. I flat-minded once during a really cold winter (by our standards) in a place with rising damp and only one small electric heater, and was almost crying with the ache of the cold. It was certainly cold in November ’11 up in Illinois, but not real-snow cold, we just had a few flakes and I wasn’t in heavy winter gear.
deezers – ” those fat, money-grabbing, squawking little whores in the Antarctic.”
Love it. Just love it! 😀
Delurking to commiserate with Kitteh’s about the weather in Melbourne. Grumblemoan, etc.
Also adding my support for white tea for thenatfantastic to try! Make sure to brew it with cooler water though, boiling water makes it bitter.
Ymata – grumblemoan sums it up!
Back for 3 hours, blockquote failure. lolol XD
It was -10~ °c this morning, should’ve kept my mother waiting longer, she dragged me out in the car with no heat.
Things I hate, in order of hatred: spiders, cold, assholes.
“Back for 3 hours, blockquote failure. lolol XD”
SYSTEM RECOGNITION
YOU HAVE NOW OFFICIALLY RETURNED
WELCOME BACK TO THE WORLD OF MANBOOBZ
The daft thing here is that we’re always getting “helpful” advice in the papers and so on about how to choose an AC system, install it, how to do things to avoid using it too much (electricity prices are monstrous) and so on, which totally overlooks that there are a lot of people renting who simply don’t have the option to do any structural changes. If you’re in an older house with none of that, sucks be to you is basically the message. Speaking as one of those people, I would LOVE to be able to install solar panels, and grey water systems, and all the rest of it, but I will never have the money to own a home and do so.
The really scary thing is that our summers are going to get hotter. The continent is having the biggest heatwave on record at the moment, for the sheer area covered – this is 50C + in the inland deserts. Elderly people or those with health problems died during the last severe summer we had. It was over 40C for a week in the lead up to the Black Saturday fires; IIRC almost as many people died from heat-related causes as died in the fires themselves. My Katie passed over that week (she had cancer) and our vet said they had a lot of otherwise healthy animals in the clinic who’d been brought in with heat stress and were on intravenous drips.
Bugger this weather thing for a lark.
(Blockquote success!? *holds breath*)
Melbourne, eh? I was at the Gold Coast last week and expected it to be super hot, but it was only 28-30C and humid, and the temperature was pretty much the same each day. Gobsmacked.
Sorry for weather derail, we like to complain about it here. Although I suspect everyone everywhere complains about their weather 🙂
Oliver is SO GODDAMN PRETTY. One of our APBT x’s must be part Rhodesian Ridgeback because she looks like a weird stumpy, slightly too bully one so Oliver reminds me of her crossed with our AB. <3
That Capybara site cracks me up so much. I also love rats so Capybaras rock my world. Although obviously they look more Guinea Pig-ish.
And Kitteh, so much feeling you. NZers always talk about how much better Aussie weather is. Fuuuck that. Wellington is having a hot summer, which means highs of 26ish (78F) and I AM DYING. I like cold weather, kthx.
Oops, chaiandmuffins = Ymata.
::waves to hrovtnir across the Tasman::
26 is as hot as it ever needs to get for me! Even when it’s mild here, like in the mid teens, if the sun is out it has a real sting to it. Damn you, ozone layer hole! ::shakes fist::
Someone asked my sister if her dog’s a Rhodesian ridgeback cross once. Her dog is a corgi/some unknown variety of terrier so I have no idea what put that into their head.
Hmm, really strong teas for someone who can’t taste tea…I’d suggest Lapsang Souchoung for starters. You should be able to smell as well as taste that. For a REALLY strong tea you could try pu-erh. As far as the basic Indian teas go, Assam tends to be bitter and a bit astringent, Ceylon has a good robust flavor without the astringency, Darjeeling is sort of floral but a bit delicate for anyone who wants a strong tea, Keemun is strong but pleasantly mellow (and a nice color), Yunnan is nice and smoky but not as much so as a Lapsang. I generally prefer the Chinese black teas over the Indian ones, and the Japanese green teas over the Chinese ones.
Green tea made from teabags is pretty weak, since what you’re getting is basically just the stuff left on the floor after they’ve packaged up the part they can sell as loose-leaf tea (this is true for black tea too, but less of a problem than with green since it’s stronger to begin with). Some of the Japanese packaged green tea actually has flavor, but the Western ones aren’t worth buying imo. The good stuff should be grassy and vegetal and have a color somewhere between clear light green and a really bright green that almost looks like spinach (aracha and kukicha brew up very green). Japanese green tea is easier to brew properly than the Chinese greens, so maybe better for a beginner. It’s really easy to overbrew the Chinese greens and that makes them unpleasantly bitter, the basic Japanese greens like Ryokucha are a bit more robust.
For anyone who likes sweet scented teas rose congou is worth a try if you haven’t tried it already. I’m kind of meh about jasmine tea, will drink it if someone gives it to me but I never buy it, but rose congou I love, brewed nice and strong on a cold day.
@ lauralot specifically
If you like hot green tea when you’re sick then aracha or kukicha would be worth trying, I always find both of those comforting when I’m feeling a bit under the weather, especially the deep steamed versions (identifiable if you can see the actual leaves because they’re a darker green color). I feel like the open up the airways the same way soup does.
(This has been your tea geek comment for today. Tea is for me like wine is for some people, so many different types and all so different!)
I totally read that as purr-eh.
http://youtu.be/H6p1lryw7l0
RE tannins in tea, Assam is the worst culprit in terms of the unpleasant feelings that some people get from consuming tannins. I love almost all tea but Assam makes even me feel a bit funny, especially on an empty stomach, which is why it puzzles me that it’s in so many breakfast blends. It’s really not the most gentle thing on an empty stomach. The smoky teas like Yunnan and Lapsang tend to be less tannin-y, for anyone who has that issue.
@Kittehs
The comment about people “giving” their spouses sex made me want to vomit too, so you’re not alone. Sex is supposed to be fun, and it’s really not if you’re doing it out of a sense of obligation or guilt. Forcing that on your partner is a great way to put them off sex in general, at least sex with you.
Pu-ehr is the “gotcha” for anyone who thinks tea has no flavor. It has flavor all right…you may not like the flavor, but it definitely has it! There’s a tea place here that serves it and I find the disclaimers on their menu hilarious, they really do try to warn people off who might not appreciate a drink quite that strong.
Cassandra – and you notice how it never really works out that the woman gets to make the same demands upon the man. The “sharing” or “one flesh” thing is very much him having an Access All Areas card to her body to be used at any time, not the other way around. The idea that women (who supposedly don’t enjoy or initiate sex) have any right to say no or just be left alone never enters the conversation.
And purr-eh (or purr-ew) is when you find a cat hair at the bottom of your cup AFTER you finish drinking.
*waves back* People have totally bizarre ideas about breeds. I love guessing dog breeds but I do not know what gets in some people’s heads. That dog… corgicorgicorgi. lol S/he’s a cutie!
At least the “must provide sexual satisfaction” thing in Islam is assumed to apply to men too. Whoever said that Sunshine Mary is basically projecting her own sexual fetish onto the rest of the population got it exactly right. It’s creepy – nothing wrong with having a fetish, but boundaries are important, and it’s really not polite to include strangers in your sex life without their consent.
I’m really not sure what to say to Evito other than that I don’t think she’s cast off the remnants of her MRA-friendly upbringing nearly as much as she thinks when it comes to sex.
She is! Her name’s Sally. She’s a sweetheart. I may not see her many times more, the sis is moving interstate in a few weeks and Sal’s 15, so … yeah.
There’s definitely something terrierish in there, her face isn’t corgiish. Sis likes corgi crosses, she’s had a few. Her Laddie was sold as a corgi cross but we think she was diddled, lol. He’s probably got some Sheltie in there, but looks less and less corgiish as he grows up. These days he looks like a giant, fluffy, slightly pre-used teddy bear with a mega-feathery tail.
(Yes, that’s Laddie as in a bad pun on Lassie.)
Well, that’s the longest link ever …
Hahaha. Long links are fine! How do you make links show up as your writing on this blog?? She does indeed have a pointy little face. <3 And 15! The nice thing about small dogs. *wistful*
The code for links as text is [a href=”URL of what you’re linking to”]text you want to use instead[ /a] but with arrow brackets instead of square ones.
Yeah, if I were a dog servant instead of a cat servant I don’t think I could have the big breeds that live such a short time. When ten years is old for ones like Danes … couldn’t go through that so often.
My boss’s daughter had a Great Dane x mastiff. Gorgeous dog – tall as a Dane and heavy as a mastiff and the sweetest nature. I’d swear there was some Clydesdale in his ancestry, though. He was so big I could sit on him! He passed over last year at 13.
Kitties, though … well, our Magnus was nearly 22 when he went. Probably something to do with being related to Greebo!