"Yeah, that's right."
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.
It is not uncommon for people to pursue advanced degrees in psychology in order to figure themselves out. I suspect that darling Debbie continues to find herself incomprehensible, and now the whole world can agree with her.
Deb Frisch: Her Gums Aren’t Done Flappin’ Yet!
Filed under: General, Scum — Patterico @ 8:14 pm
Ms. Frisch, the toddler-threatener, seems less than repentant. Her blog is open for business, and (h/t nk) we have three more posts for our viewing pleasure. There’s this one:
The point of resigning is that it is something I was thinking of doing anyway. I want to stay in Eugene, OR where moonbats rule instead of living in Tucson, AZ where moonbats are in the minority. So my point is not that you should feel sorry for me but rather you should lay off the stalking like the emails to the head of the psych department at the University of Arizona, the nasty, threatening comments at the various rightwingnut blogs that have jumped on this “story.”
The department head said he would deal with this on Monday. No one has formally accepted my resignation yet. I’ve just submitted it. I understand there are many, many people out there who will want to know how the University of Arizona responds to my offer to give up my temporary gig teaching psychology next year. I will let you all know on Monday or Tuesday.
I’m just asking y’all to leave me alone and go stalk another moonbat.
And this one:
Sheesh - this is really not fun being the lightning rod for unhinged rightwingnuts. But the dust seems to be settling. I just told my parents about what was going on. They read my blog sometimes. My mother told me I was grounded AND I had to wash my mouth out with soap.
Yup. I was just curious about what was posted. Libs NEVER admit to being the offender.
And this had me laughing.
"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."
A left-wing Rush? When she descended into threats? She sure has a firm grip on reality. *snerk*
The whole article is a statement of victimhood.
I think that makes my point fairly well! I've always said that gays would sue God if they could.
She may be 44 years old, physically, but mentally, she is, at best, around 13....a malevolent 13 year old. I wonder if she is a RED DIAPER BABY.
Yes, I concur. :-)
i had to stop reading for a moment.. I truly believe she is deranged and am concerned for any child in her household.
If they adopted that child, a pox on the person who did the social study. I don't see how someone as unstable as Ms. Frisch presents could have kept a lid on her behavior during the adoption process.
'Deb' makes a 13 year old sound like an adult.
More rantings from lunatic 'Deb'...
I do not speak for the University of Oregon or Arizona. I thought I made that abundantly clear from the get-go, but you pissants show a remarkable inability to understand what a person says.
I understand that all of your panties are in a knot because I joked about the demise of Jeff’s pathetic progeny. My point was to show you how you all tolerated comparable jokes about injury to my physical being.
Apparently, what with your frantic sissified emails to the FBI, CIA, etc. you still don’t get it.
Get a grip, you sissified bullies.
I am just trying to give you a taste of your own medicine. I am treating Jeffy boy’s offspring with the same respect that you have treated me with.
Get it?
Doubt it?
What a surprise.
You are truly a fetid, rotting, swamp of right-wing imbeciles. The sooner you are maced and/or raided, the better.
My ranting about Jeff’s pathetic progeny was an attempt to get you pathetic idiots to understand how offensive and threatening your response to me was.
I reckon the boys at the FBI will understand and track down TANG man and DAN man and the other guys who made threatening comments about me.
As for you Jeffy boy, good night.
That poor child probably is in danger and unless she is, will grow up to be a very sick, twisted, adult.
'Deb' supports the troops, too, like all the lefties. /sarcasm
"Send the National Guard - I’m sure there are a lot of them who would much rather come after an alleged child-abuser from Eugene, Oregon than rape and murder Iraqi civilians."
She claims to "enjoy" playing with fire...does she? Well, it appears that she really doesn't, when her own "fire" comes back at her.
Social workers and the like are usually bleeding heart LEFTIES! They probably thought that she and her "partner" were splendid people. *gag*
The phony patriots with the yellow ribbons and Bush/Cheney stickers on their SUVs are oxymoronic morons. The only way to support our troops is to pressure the axis of evil (Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld) to stop this war for oil. It's that ephing simple.
Posted by: Deb Frisch at December 13, 2004 08:12 PM
Sorry for flaming and running - I'd forgotten about this post until I googled myself and landed back here.
Thanks to all y'all for playing - I didn't realize I'd landed at a site with SUV drivers with oxymoronic support our troops stickers.
Every soldier who has died in Iraq died for a lie. Every soldier who died in Iraq died because George Bush and his cronies are greedy oil boys.
Your tax dollars are being spent to maim Iraqis, kill Marines and mangle Humvees. Oh yeah, and to destroy the Iraqi infrastructure.
And y'all are proud to be Americans. Yikes.
Posted by: Deb Frisch at January 3, 2005 11:10 AM
OMG...........................................
Lunatic "Deb" on the right & her partner, Dr. Cecile McKee is former Director of NSF’s Linguistics program and teaches linguistics at the University of Arizona.
http://tinyurl.com/nl66y
"Yeah, that's right."
Good read LdSentinal.
Deb Frisch seems to be a real pro at making threats:
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.
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