Aaarrrgghh! The insane Moxie-vs.Moxie webfight has erupted in Spleenville -- to be precise, at Tim Blair's site. Here's my take on the matter:
No one who can see lightning, hear thunder, and is warm to the touch could possibly have thought that Moxiepop.com and Moxie.nu were the same website much less the same person. Moxie.nu is, if you ask me (and I have only read her site once or twice) being a real asshole about this. I don't care about the established writer Ellay-Hollywood, "my Brand" kashizzle. "Moxie" is a commonly known and rather outdated slang word, not a special name that Moxie.nu came up with all by herself. The girl at Moxiepop.com took the name from a popular soda that they sell in part of the country and if they haven't sued her than where does Moxie.nu get off with calling the girl an "imitator"? Moxiepop's anger at being basically labelled a thief is justified.
However -- the actions of friends of both women are another matter. Posting obscene comments, calling Moxie.nu the c-word referring to her as "that ho," and so on, and harassing Moxiepop with childish names ("MoxiePOOP" -- oh, ha ha ha) and obscene emails and IMs (note to Moxiepop: you really should restrict your IM list to just your Buddy list; that will keep the weirdoes away), and so on, is not only infantile, it is making both women look bad. Stop it, all of you.*
I think the KKK thread is more fun, really...
*I am referring to the comments threads in both Dawn Olsen's site and Right-Thinking.com more than to the owners of those sites, though both Dawn and Lee have also contributed more than enough to this wrestling match. But it's their commenters who have really taken the fight to a new low. Do we really have to let blogs descend to the level of newsgroups, people?
Posted by Andrea Harris at June 11, 2003 01:39 PMMan, you are wise beyond your years. Maybe you should be the supreme court judge of the blogopshere.
"I, Honorable Andrea, hereby sentence you to being blogless for thirty days, you crazy morons."
I'd go for that, I need a damn break.
Posted by: Dawn at June 11, 2003 at 02:46 PMOr should that be time on? Whatever -- I have to wash my hair...
Posted by: Andrea Harris at June 11, 2003 at 02:54 PMHasn't this issue been done to death already? Let it go. Noone would confuse Moxiepop with MoxieElLay anyway.
Posted by: Bunkergurl at June 11, 2003 at 04:47 PMHasn't this issue been done to death already? Let it go. Noone would confuse Moxiepop with MoxieElLay anyway.
Posted by: Bunkergurl at June 11, 2003 at 04:48 PMHasn't this issue been done to death already? Let it go. Noone would confuse Moxiepop with MoxieElLay anyway.
Posted by: Bunkergurl at June 11, 2003 at 04:48 PMIt has been done to death, Bunkergurl. The impressive thing about Andrea's post is her criticsm of how nasty the whole business had gotten. It's unforgivably ridiculous the way people are treating each other over this one teeny issue.
Posted by: Emily at June 11, 2003 at 05:11 PMWhat? Blogs aren't already at the level of message boards and newsgroups?
Posted by: Scott Chaffin at June 11, 2003 at 06:23 PMTsk tsk tsk. Andrea, are you still expecting rational, mature behavior in the blogosphere?
Posted by: McGehee at June 11, 2003 at 07:40 PMOMG! I just wasted thirty precious minutes on this earth, that I will never have back, reading that drivel from every single point of view I could find a link to, and all I can say is
GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY!
If I ever talk about my "brand", please hire a hit squad to come take me out, as I will have lost it completely. I hear the Colombians are cheap.
Posted by: Scott Chaffin at June 11, 2003 at 08:02 PMWell, at any rate, this would be an interesting court case if it were to ever get that far. I'll point you to the Vanna White case, which applies in California and which seems to have a few but not many similarities to the Case of the Two Moxies. (The link is to the dissent in the White case, by the way; the majority didn't give an opinion, but the court decided the opposite of what the opinion says. Don't get confused!)
I've never read either Moxie.nu or MoxiePop, so I don't have a horse to back in this race. I'm just giggling hysterically at both sides, and in the back of my head thinking, "Oh, shit, I hope someone else hasn't used the word Interrobang for their blog." Not because I would mind at all, but because shouting matches give me hives.
Posted by: Dave at June 11, 2003 at 08:11 PMApologies for the double commenting, but I'm also curious what supporters of both Moxies would have to say about the Spike Lee/Spike TV brouhaha. Or, for that matter, what the loyal citizens of Spleenville have to say.
Posted by: Dave at June 11, 2003 at 08:15 PMI wonder what the estate of Spike Jones had to say to Spike Lee, if anything? (Or was Lee's choice of nickname supposed to be a "homage"?) Sayyyy... that Buffy character is named "Spike." Why didn't Lee sue the creators of that show for "diluting his brand" or whatever?
Not that I want to "spike" the brew or anything. And gee, I thought Lee knew basketball -- isn't there a term in that game, "spike"? Yeah, lawsuits are a great way to make a quick million and/or get some instant publicity. What was it P.J. O'Rourke said in one of his books about celebrities -- if someone says a celebrity is a jerk and pervert and so on all that means is they've read the celeb's bio? Hollywood, feh.
And that's what the good citizens of Spleenville have to say about "Spike" Lee. That and Summer of Sam was one of the most unpleasant movies I have ever subjected myself to. Lee pretty much showed that not only did he hate white people, he didn't think too much of the whole rest of the human race either. He didn't even seem too thrilled with dogs. (I'll bet it's because dogs like people.)
Posted by: Andrea Harris at June 11, 2003 at 10:41 PMDave, I'm offended that it's so totally disrespectful to MY favorite Spike, the cartoon bulldog.
Posted by: Julie at June 12, 2003 at 09:53 AM