Comments on: I had no idea Salman Rushdie was a pseudonym

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:45:34 +0000

I was not there and I’m not certain that my colleague was using the term ‘machine gun’ correctly. Let’s assume at least big-ass highly visible firearms of some kind.

By: Daniel J. Andrews

Daniel J. Andrews — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 17:35:02 +0000

Machine guns? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, “WTF is wrong with you people?” (yeah, I’m Canadian 🙂 ). More seriously though, if people did show up with Kalishnikov’s I suppose you would want the guards ready for a response–would that response result in more casualties in the audience or not?????? Not a decision I’d want to second guess.

By: Chris Winter

Chris Winter — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 22:51:58 +0000

As if, in those days, anyone who wasn't Salman Rushdie would pick the screen name "Salman Rushdie" and not expect tons of hostile messages. It's not really similar, but back in the day AOL sought to protect its members by blocking third-party posts which mentioned their names. Participants in a coin-collecting group had some trouble when trying to discuss dimes stamped with the image of FDR. It seems the football player Roosevelt Dime was an AOL member. They got it straightened out fairly quickly. BTW: Guards for a public lecture with machine guns? Sounds like a recipe for lots of collateral damage if anything serious goes down.