Blogging About Obi Ken

Of course I'm at somewhat of a loss to know exactly where to start on this one, but last week I get this phone call from my estimable padawan, Obi Ken, who tells me, if I understand it correctly, that he was suspended from his job at Kroger for narcing on a co-worker or two for having an affair of some sort.

Of course, despite many years of my sage advise, Obi Ken (who goes by KenDiesel on most of the sites he frequents) has never quite gotten this notion that what goes down in the storeroom STAYS in the storeroom.

He did not even learn from my own experience that if you make the mistake of opening up a thread about the romantic exploits of a certain television reporter clearly in the public eye that certain people clearly NOT in the public eye who may or may not have been involved with said television reporter can go full-bore off the handle and threaten to sue you down to your shorts and ultimately cause you to completely restart your blog.

Obi Ken has also apparently not kept up with the news that what you write on MySpace in particular can get you fired. Among a great many other incidents, apparently a supervisor at an Olive Garden in Florida was fired after posting photos of herself, her daughter and other restaurant employees hoisting empty beer bottles. The Olive Garden claimed that the photos could "damage the company's brand".

Yes, I, for one, am shocked senseless that the wait staff at Olive Garden are not all strict teetotalers. There are wait staff who DRINK?? How horrid! I would have never suspected such a thing. Why, next thing you know there will be wait staff puking on me at wedding receptions and getting SO f*cking beligerently drunk I'm having to put them out my car in the middle of the night ... but that's another story.

No, if I had to guess what happened in Obi Ken's case, it's that he put them in mind of our favorite late Virginia Tech student.

Yes, the Mundanes simply cannot tell the difference between the overly bright, creative and hopelessly frustrated who occasionally go off on 30-minute expletive-laced rants about how disgusted they are with most of the people on this planet, and, yes, the truly disturbed who go off on on 30-minute expletive-laced rants about how disgusted they are with most of the people on this planet and then try to KILL AS MANY PEOPLE AS THEY POSSIBLY CAN.

So, on this particular one, maybe the Mundanes do have some cause for concern. Perhaps one day someone will be able to figure out a way to figure out which people simply have a need to vent from time to time, and which are truly dangerous.

However, actually, I am beginning to wonder, if one in fact IS publishing something that is, in fact, TRUE about someone, in the public eye or otherwise, who is whoring around, if, perhaps, to protect the overall public interest, if such communication should not only be allowed, but actually ENCOURAGED ...