I feel sorry for the two dogs at bottom right and that little girl.
Posted on 07/10/2006 8:53:40 PM PDT by LdSentinal
An adjunct psychology lecturer at the University of Arizona resigned Saturday after writing to a conservative blogger she wouldn't care if his 2-year-old son was killed the way JonBenet Ramsey was.
Deborah Frisch's comments on the Web site www.proteinwisdom.com created such a furor she has been lambasted on countless conservative Web sites. Her boss at the University of Arizona also received irate e-mails calling for her termination, she said.
Alfred Kaszniak, head of the psychology department, said he has received close to 300 emails about the incident. "The majority were very angry and many of them were using similar kinds of language that she is alleged to have used, accusing myself and the university of all sorts of things," he said.
Frisch, 44, said she quit her $32,861-a-year part time position not only because she fears for her safety, but because she regrets the UA ended up in the middle of what was intended to be a "sick joke."
She had hoped by quitting her job, supporters of blogger Jeff Goldstein would stop their online attacks. If anything, she said, they've increased.
"These people think I should be incarcerated, that I'm mentally ill or that I should be shot," Frisch said during a telephone interview from Eugene, Ore., where she is living now. "This whole thing has been crazy to me. People have spent their whole weekend on this."
Frisch, who has a doctorate in psychology, has been using the Internet to post her political views since the 2004 presidential election. Not only does she have her own Web site, www.debfrisch.com, but she also loves to "troll."
"Trolling is a type of Internet behavior where you post inflammatory comments on blogs when you know they disagree with the blogger and their minions," Frisch said.
On July 4, Frisch found herself on Goldstein's blog, or on-line journal. Soon, she was trading barbs with Goldstein and others of his political bent. At first, Frisch said she was enjoying herself.
"I like to play with fire. I'm a left-wing Rush Limbaugh. I'm a writer and I like to fight with words. I'm a word warrior."
Suddenly though, Frisch said, the conversation degenerated into disparaging personal remarks, many of a sexual nature.
She said she asked Goldstein to tell the others to desist, but was ignored. Eventually, she grew frustrated, she said.
"I wrote something that would make him as queasy as they were making me feel," Frisch said.
According to Goldstein's blog, Frisch wrote "You live in Colorado, I see. Hope no one JonBenets your baby" and "I reiterate: If some nutcase kidnapped your child tomorrow and did to (him) what was done to your fellow Coloradan, JonBenet Ramsey, I wouldn't give a damn."
Six-year-old JonBenet was strangled to death in her Boulder City, Colo., home in December 1996. Her killer has never been caught.
Kaszniak said he was not aware of Frisch's blog or her trolling behavior before the incident. Had she not resigned, he said an investigation of her actions would have been necessary.
The UA's Handbook for Appointed Personnel includes "an obligation to respect the dignity of others, to acknowledge their right to express differing opinions, and to foster and defend intellectual honesty, freedom of inquiry and instruction, and free expression on and off the campus,"
Goldstein, in a telephone interview from his home in Colorado, also says Frisch suggested he kiss his son inappropriately and made disparaging remarks about his wife -- something Frisch emphatically denies. She says someone must have used her name and Web address to impersonate her; Goldstein said he traced the remarks back to Frisch.
"I should have just left the blog. It was a horrible, terrible thing to say and I hope his son never finds out about it," Frisch said.
University of Arizona spokesman Johnny Cruz Monday confirmed Frisch's resignation.
Goldstein, a stay-at-home dad, freelance writer and former English professor, said he has grown used to personal attacks since he began blogging following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
"Debbie is unusual in that she used her actual identity," Goldstein said. "Usually I get people who hide behind anonymous names and fake e-mail addresses." Goldstein said he never felt threatened by Frisch.
He's not sure if his blog has seen an increase in the number of visitors, but he says attackers have managed to bring it down three times within the last week.
Frisch said the number of visits to her Web site increased from 25 hits a day to 30,000 in the past week. What saddens Goldstein is, according to him, an ever-growing number of people are coming out in support of Frisch.
"I'm seeing more and more people from the left embracing her as a heroine," Goldstein said. "Some of the liberal bloggers are apologizing on her behalf, but others sites are trying to justify what she said."
Frisch's comments were likely a calculated move to get banned from his Web site, Goldstein said. "Being banned is a badge of honor for hard leftwing commentators," Goldstein said. "That way they can say 'They censored me. They can't handle the truth.' " Attacking someone's beliefs is one thing; attacking someone's family is another, Goldstein said.
"I think this speaks to Debbie's character. She's someone who wants to be the victim, the martyr. She wants to be embraced by a political party," Goldstein said.
Goldstein denied urging his supporters to contact the UA. He said he simply posted her comments and the address of her Web site.
Kaszniak described the affair as "simply very sad. The comments that she is alleged to have made are highly in appropriate. I don't think that kind of language is in anybody's interest, regardless of the nature of the political debate. It's certainly not the thing the University of Arizona or my department supports in any way."
Now that she won't be teaching, Frisch said she plans to finish writing a book on decision-making. While she still hopes to fill the need for "edgy lefties," Frisch said the entire debacle has taught her where to draw the line.
She'll continue to write inflammatory comments, but she'll stay away from personal attacks.
"I don't want to get anywhere near that line again," Frisch said. "It's been scary, overwhelming and exhausting."
Star reporter Eric Swedlund contributed to this story. Contact reporter Kim Smith at kimsmith@azstarnet.com or 573-4241.
I can't believe it.She and her "partner" are raising that child?
Ewwww!
I guess trolling doesn't warrant benefits.
She'll show up here and plant a few flannel shirt comments. They usually do.
It is scary to think how miserable and sick this venomous woman must be.. She needs help fast..
Hehehe. That's what I was thinking. What dingbat would honestly think she could even write a book like this when her own life is in such obvious disarray?
That would be the nasty little witch, nutcase 'Deb'...
Deb spews in the comments section:
I've never encountered someone in the blogoshere that I knew was a right wing christian capitalist before. And I think this guys a closeted homosexual, to boot. So he's about as low in my pecking order as a person could be.
Deb writes the following:
That's demon, stevie.
And earlier she wrote:
You're not one of those limp-loped pissants that says "HEY! You wrote WHOSE instead of WHO'S!" and use that as an excuse to ignore a 30 page paper, are you?
******
Timmy: You do track back to the Oregon Comentator. Wow.
Tell you what. I was planning on keeping quiet about the stupid white men who fired me at Oregon. I didn't want to embarrass the cheaters too much.
But you are inspiring me to just name the names.
How would you feel if you knew that YOU personally were responsible for my naming names (and in the process, revealing even more sordid details) of some of the stupid, sexist, sleazebag white men at the U of O? You'd be FAMOUS - like Steve Prefontaine!
Let me know if you want me to name these fellow's names in YOUR honor, Timmy!
Say the word, Timmy and it is a DONE deal.
F*** you to the whiteboyz@quacks, from your friends@OregonCommentator.
http://debfrisch.com/archives/000072.html
******
January 22, 2005
quacks@oregon
I used to work in the psychology department at the University of Oregon. When the quacks (=ducks+psychologists) denied me tenure, the only way I could fight it was to allege discrimination on the basis of sex and/or sexual orientation. Although my main nemesis frequently made inappropriate comments regarding these two topics, at the time, I wasn't sure I’d been discriminated against.
The majority of people who are denied tenure either fight or leave. Although I didn’t want to fight, I also didn’t want to leave. So I finegeled a demotion. One of the quacks was famous and had a lot of clout with the administration. I told him that if he could arrange for me to continue teaching for a few years, I wouldn’t sue and embarrass his crony.
So I continued to work for the quacks for several more years. During that time, I observed an incident that provided strong evidence for the hypothesis that the department and University were insensitive to issues of sexual discrimination.
The department was choosing a new head. The choice was between a female full professor and a male associate professor. All other things equal, universities tend to prefer full to associate professors for department heads. And given that the department had not had a female head in at least 12 years (maybe longer, I don’t know), you might expect a slight preference for the woman.
Both candidates had received their doctorates from the same highly esteemed university, so that was not a factor. There were several other noticeable differences, all of which favored the woman. For example, although the man had a lower rank, he had been a professor longer than her. That is, she was proceeding up the academic ladder more rapidly than he was.
The woman was clearly the better choice, but the same quack who had campaigned against me campaigned against her. The department chose the man. Amazingly, no one higher up in the administration had a problem with the department electing a head who was inferior on many dimensions.
Most women I know have at least one story like this of flabbergasting sexism. Imagine if every woman professor told just one story of experienced or observed sexism. Larry Summers and his ilk might not be so prevalent in the upper echelons of academia.
Posted by Deb at January 22, 2005 03:16 PM | TrackBack
http://tinyurl.com/r8w8e
"Wanna escalate this game. Fine wit me."
Fruitcake moonbat speaks volumes.
Thanks for the post.
I am about as unanonymous as they get, aardvark.
My name is Deborah Frisch. I live in Tucson, Arizona. I teach in the psychology department at the YOUkneeversity of AIRYzona.
You want to come find me, see that I'm real, hold a .357 magnum in my face, i say:
BRING IT ON.
Posted by: Deborah Frisch | Jan 3, 2005 8:02:40 PM
Kind of funny she was making 32K in a part time job with a PhD. Wrong field if you ask me, and it just proves what PhD. really stands for, piled higher and deeper.
LOL...that's just what I was thinking too.
bttt
Just damn.
As they used to say.
I feel sorry for the two dogs at bottom right and that little girl.
And she's a psych major. I think she needs a bit of counciling from her peers. What a whack job.
Not to mention horrible taste in women.
# lefty Says:
February 28th, 2005 at Feb 28, 05 | 12:27 pm
You guys are kind of funny - Michael Moore look alike? I dunno. I’m a MM thinkalike, that’s for damn sure.
I’m the one with the vino:
http://www.azstarnet.com/ss/2004/02/24/11198-1.jpg
******
# lefty Says:
March 1st, 2005 at Mar 01, 05 | 8:02 am
I appreciate the chance to share my feelings repeatedly since you keep responding!
The issue of child abuse is tangential. The real point is that Christians constantly bash gays, women, abortionists. But unbef***inglievably, it’s still not kosher to talk about how judeo-christianity is nuts. Sorry Charlies, there is no guy who lives in the sky. Hey seuss’ daddy wasn’t god. His mommy wasn’t a virgin. It’s kooky to believe the abrahamic nonsense about the guy in the sky.
Being a Catholic priest is a huge risk factor for being a pedophile. So the Christians bash gays, but they are the ones having the most man-boy sex!
******
# lefty Says:
March 1st, 2005 at Mar 01, 05 | 5:15 pm
Mikey! Thanx for playing. To the extent empirical data has been collected on the relative well-being of children raised by:
a. one man and one woman
b. two women (or two men)
c. one woman (or one man)
I’m thinking that a and b are more alike than a and c. You see, Mikey, evolution designed women to have a very large investment (9 months plus) in every offspring. Evolution designed me to have a very small investment.
You might not know this, Mikey boy, but many men f*** and run - siring children but not staying around to raise the little bugger. You do understand that the problem of single mothers caused by guys who think with their d**** and don’t give a f*** about anyone but themselves is more serious than any deficits caused by having two moms instead of one of each flavor?
What is this place - a kooky kristian site? A generic republican asshole site? Where the HELL have I landed, Spock!?
P.S. If any of you limp-lobed pricks calls me a c*** again, I’m leaving your shit-filled pond. Unless, of course, I decide to stay.
http://tinyurl.com/lfvd9
What a Frisching loser!!!
If being banned from web sites is a badge of honor, then DU hands badges out left and right! They'll ban you in 10 seconds or less if you depart the party line!
And THEY claim to be all about the exchange of ideas and the freedom of speech.
She appears to be enjoying herself, posting that vile, disgusting garbage, but is now just sooooooooooooooooo upset that she got replies told off by others?
I hope that the FBI and the local police do go visit her. Just losing her job isn't enough punishment for what she did.
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