A Sound Politics contributor and rising star of the national blogosphere, Ambra Nykol, shares with her readers that she has been "dooced," or fired from her day job for something she wrote on her blog. Note that the definition of "dooced" does not include "blogging at work," which could be considered just cause.
Never one to play the victim card in any way, this prominent young black conservative and Seattle native is pointedly declining to identify her employer (one whose name you would surely recognize) or the offending post to her many readers. She sees the whole affair as a blessing in disguise.
Still, I wonder if it was this right-on post that got her in hot water.
While you may not have seen a whole lot of posts from Ambra at Sound Politics yet, she is someone you should check out. Her blog, Nykola, is a great read and very politically incorrect. It contains many insights about the political culture of Seattle and the U.S. that Sound Politics readers would appreciate. For instance, "In Defense Of The South," a post that the embittered and hallucinatory "Urban Archipelago" theorists at Seattle's Sandinista Weekly, The Stranger, certainly ought to read if they are interested in climbing out of their intellectual rathole.
A smart daily newspaper op-ed or local news section editor would immediately commence a thorough review of Nykola's archives, because her talent, in my estimation, is worthy of a regular guest op-ed, or local section/staff columnist slot. I do not say this lightly, and have at least a bit of standing to launch that opinion, having contributed a regular bi-weekly guest op-ed column to one of Seattle's daily newspapers for three years before choosing to focus on magazine work and blogging.
Last year, Ambra gained notice in a National Review Online profile of conservative black bloggers and their online coalition named The Conservative Brotherhood.
In my December Seattle Magazine article (written in September, actually) on the growing impact of the Puget Sound blogosphere, Ambra was one of six bloggers I profiled. Here is a pdf link, which Ambra posted on her blog at the time; there is no other full version available online. (Two of the other bloggers profiled in the piece were Stefan and Andy of Sound Politics. I disclosed in the piece that I'm a contributor here, too. The other three bloggers covered were pronouncedly liberal, so it was quite balanced, as one even noted on her blog, and in case the ethics police are wondering, as they should).
From the Seattle piece, let me share this thought from Ambra Nykol on our fair city's political vibe.
It's trendy here to be a vegetarian, or bi, or liberal, or be in favor of condom dispensers in school bathrooms. People are wearing it just to wear it, saying it just to say it. Seattle is just a bunch of people having an identity crisis. No more 'organization of the week.' Take off the mask, figure out what you really stand for.
You can say that again. And again.
Best of luck, Ambra, although you certainly won't need it.
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at January 12, 2005 09:39 AM | Email ThisEither pull out your drivers license and look at it or go stand in front of the mirror.
Posted by: Sandy P on January 12, 2005 11:32 AMSimilarly, you are not playing the victim card if you name your ex-employer.
Posted by: South County on January 12, 2005 12:32 PMI should spend more time writing here......
I can't be fired from my job.......
Hang in there Ambra! Something better is coming for you! Anything HAS to be better than working for an employer that would find such a silly reason to let a talented employee go!
Posted by: Deborah on January 12, 2005 02:26 PMYou can check out her website here. By the way, while witty she be, conservative she ain't.
Posted by: joseph on January 13, 2005 02:34 PMA new era has begun in America, an era where the courts determine the rights of every citizen regardless of what the U.S. Constitution says about the “right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the rule of law or the will of the people. Every citizen needs to understand that the rights he or she has enjoyed historically are now subject to the approval of the courts. America’s courts are using the artificially created notion of ‘basic human rights’ to advance the concept that individual liberty must be subservient to a ‘greater’ social good.
We’ve all read the media’s many stories about the problems in America from homelessness, to lack of adequate health-care, to discrimination against gays, to how America abuses and ‘tortures’ its enemies in places like Abu Gharab and Guantanamo bay. We’ve also read the many pieces from the feminists in the newspapers on the abuses of women by men in this male dominated society.
Judge Greer of Florida’s 6th circuit court has ordered the removal of Terri Schiavo’s feeding and hydration tube which will result in death by dehydration, but it’s not painful and she won’t feel anything, we were told. We’ve heard the distortions from your cohorts in TV journalism about Michael Schiavo’s rights, etc. Terri has been denied any rehabilitation and your assertion that she’s either brain dead, or in a persistent vegetative state doesn’t agree with the data on www.terrisfight.org. Before many of you begin your ‘busy’ day of writing your next Bush or America ‘sucks’ piece, I want each of you to know what will happen to Terri Schiavo.
Dr. William Burke a neurologist in St. Louis, describes the agonizing process of death by dehydration. "A conscious person would feel it (dehydration) just as you and I would. (And, Terri is awake} “They will go into seizures. Their skin cracks, their tongue cracks, their lips crack. They may have nosebleeds because of the drying of the mucous membranes, and heaving and vomiting might ensue because of the drying out of the stomach lining. They feel the pangs of hunger and thirst. Imagine going one day without a glass of water. Death by dehydration takes ten to fourteen days. It is an extremely agonizing death." (For anyone stupid enough to believe the media’s lies that dehydrating someone to death isn’t painful and cruel, go without food and water yourself for a weekend and see how you feel)
Where are the cries of outrage from America’s feminists and our supposedly sensitive journalists? The same ones that rush to every state execution and wail and bemoan some serial killer’s fate. And what reaction might you expect, if the media’s environmentalist hero, unibomberTed Kaczynski, had been sentenced to death by dehydration in the same Florida court?
The example of Florida’s 6th circuit court judge George W. Greer granting Michael Schiavo the right to put his wife to death without a written instrument, and on his ‘hear say’ testimony alone, couldn’t serve as a better example of the court’s assault on constitutional rights. Terri is being murdered in spite of at least 5 Florida statues against euthanasia, the American Disabilities Act, the 1st amendment (denied communion), and the 8th Amendment.(cruel and unusual punishment), Here are a few of the Florida statues judge Greer had to ignore in order to render his judgment.
744.3215 - requires that incapacitated people cannot be deprived of food and water.
744.3215C - denied Terri the right to be restored to capacity.
744.474(11)- a conflict of interest between the ward and the guardian due to Michael Schiavo living with and fathering children with another woman.
744.474(16) - improperly managing the ward’s assets by using Terri’s money which was awarded by a court to be used for her rehabilitation but at the authorization of Judge Greer is being used to pay legal fees in an effort to end Terri’s life.
765.309 - prevents mercy killing and assisted suicide.
Read the Florida statues for yourselves.
Judge Greer has simply ruled that it was Terri’s wish not to continue living, therefore none of the above laws apply, which also excuses him from removing her guardian or questioning his motives because he (the guardian) was also her husband. If this isn’t a conflict of interest, that along with the money that Michael and his mistress received, should have caused any reasonable person to stop and think, what would? Why didn’t Greer consider that someone may be looking to benefit from Terri’s death? Everyone should take careful note, because Greer’s decision is going to set a nation wide precedent.
Wake up America! The court rush to murder Terri Schiavo is just a back door means to circumvent America’s laws against euthanasia. Look at the Netherlands, if you want to see where this is going. The press and their TV pals won’t tell you that people are already being put to death there against their will.
What kind of society murders invalids in their hospital beds?
America’s courts are full of bastards just like George W. Greer of Florida’s 6th circuit court who is audacious enough to try and convince the public that Terri or anyone else would voluntarily choose to die an excruciating death by dehydration. The ‘right to die’ has long been advocated by the American Eugenics Society and the American Press. And, what better way to condition the public acceptance for euthanasia by lethal injection, than by the horrific ‘gut wrenching’ example, of Terri dehydrating to death? Perhaps, your political friends in Hollywood will film Terri’s last moments for one of their reality TV episodes to promote euthanasia, like most of you journalists, they possess neither conscience nor moral constraint.
We are rapidly descending down the same slope as the Third Reich, led by a band of despots in the courts while you journalism fools and hypocrites sit on your perches writing pretentious words. See if you can recognize the similarities. First, it was the unborn who were declared ‘non persons’ to be destroyed at will, next the terminally ill and elderly, and now the mentally handicapped must be put to death for the good of society.
Most of you lack the courage of your own convictions, publishing your putrid articles that glorify America’s enemies under anonymous bylines and giving bogus e-mail addresses or names of employees not directly involved in news or its management, no contact address period, or implementing SPAM filters, so that you don’t receive feedback on the dirge that you write. Perversion and death are the symbols of a new age intellectual enlightenment to the social pariahs that populate today’s journalism.
I hope to help the public understand that the American News Media is really not a good source of information, unless you enjoy the fairy tales of Dan Rather, Howell Raines, Jason Blair and his associates.
I intend to do my small part in reducing your collective audience and viewers as best I can, purely as a token of my appreciation for all your efforts though the years in vilifying the God of Heaven and destroying the country that I love.
Allen K. Williams, P.E.
Reg. Prof. Eng.; MI #30246
Overland Park, KS