As many of you are aware of by now, I am experiencing problems with the hosting at the Anvil. This has been continuing off and on for months and in recent weeks it has built up a full head of steam.
This may be the last blog entry I make here at the Anvil for many days, so just be prepared. I am being badgered by my hosts with nebulous emails, unexpected service denials, etc., all during a time in my life when I need them the least and am not able to make much sense of what they claim to be the “problem” with the Anvil. In other words, I’m out of patience and short on solutions.
All this being said, I am now convinced that my next logical step will be to find a new host for the Anvil. I do not know when I will make this move, but I will make it in order to keep the Anvil online. I will not give in to extortionists, terrorists, Islamists or even poorly managed Internet hosting companies.
What I really will need to find is a hosting company that has a staff that can take the hat of tech support away from me. I must be getting old, because I no longer have the time, energy or will to be not only a writer but also a web designer, graphic artist, editor, marketer AND technical guru. I’ve lost my way in the wilds of the blogosphere and I need to simplify things for myself if I’m ever going to find the fire to start typing op-ed pieces again.
It’s a shame that it has come to this, but I certainly can’t say that I am surprised. The cause of my “problems” could range from an inside mole to an outside hacker to a well-hidden script that is misbehaving. I simply do not know and that is a rare thing for me to admit.
Wish me luck. I already know I have your support and for that I am sincerely grateful.
It has been my privilege to share my views with so many of you for this long and to be received so kindly by the majority. I will do my best to keep keeping on but there may very well be a big bump in the road ahead. Hold on tight.
Foehammer, out.
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Foehammer - I’m so glad to see that you are back on line. The forces of truth will always win out.
Keep up the good work.
LL
An example of the other side (hatemail):
This email reminded me of why I have been remiss in not putting together a ‘Hatemail’ section on the Anvil. That is something I should correct in 2008, along with all the other obvious problems needing correcting that currently trump that idea.
The pathetic thing is that the author of that lovely note doesn’t seem to recognize the intent of his own subconscious mind; fledgling Fascists rarely recognize themselves as such.
Brief Update: First and foremost, many thanks to 1389, Jenn Sierra, Bigsibling, Always on Watch, Christy Li, Flanders Fields and so many other bloggers that have voiced support and concern for what I’m undergoing here. Beyond that, the continuing support I receive from so many loyal readers makes me realize that even if I wanted to stop blogging, I can’t — at least not without a good fight. Kind words from readers like Patricia, Tgusa, Gramfan and so many others I can’t possibly list them all here in a short time, leave me stronger. I read every message I receive, believe me. I simply do not have the time or energy to reply to most of you like I have in previous months.
A small victory has been won here already: the fact that the Anvil is even still online and that my sub-domains are also going (i.e. Jihad News Feeds), cannot be denied. At one point I was quite prepared to have the Anvil drop off the Net for several weeks and yet that has not happened. LunarPages may not be the most able host, but I do not believe they are so actively against me (at least not as a whole) as I once did. Instead I will blame them for sloth and ineptitude and apathy. Those are definite crimes, but again, with one or two notable exceptions in the workers’ pool.
As the new few weeks go by I will evaluate what I’m going to do to protect the Anvil for the longterm, not the least of which will be a big hosting change, and I will also determine how best to continue blogging on a semi- if not regular basis. I am not about to toss this forum for my own voice onto a burning book pile and I damn sure am not going to allow anyone else to do it for me!
Rest assured that I’m still the same surly bastard that I have always been and that my obstinate mind has the strength of 10 average bloggers. I am simply being caught flat-footed and in a “weakened” stage at this point-in-time, and so I have not rallied to my own defense like I might have say in mid 2007. But I will not be completely derailed and any Denial of Service attacks or other antics will fail against me. I have numerous backups of all my blogging, on multiple computers and backup discs. I still have my plans to find new ways to be heard in the future and I have my other “super secret plans” for things beyond just the Anvil.
So, all the Islamists and Leftofascists and Anarchists in Creation cannot stop me or the Anvil. Neither can Washington insiders, and yes, you better believe I’m paying very, very close attention to this Presidential race. Disgusted attention.
Do not support John McCain. I am convinced that he is in the hands of the Bush-Clinton elites, but I might digress. I will write (perhaps even speak) more plainly on my suspicions and new Presidential endorsements sometime in the next few days. (Fingers crossed.)
I have taken direct action against several suspicious IP ranges that have been tapping on the Anvil. I hope to slowly but surely bring things under control @ the Anvil and then you all will not have to endure such inordinately slow load-times when viewing what is here already and what few new rantings I might post in February.
Thanks to you all for your continuing support of myself, of Lionheart and Mark Steyn (yes, I’m paying attention) and of Free Speech in general.
Outlaw Islam.
Foehammer
FH,
People have been leaving some nice comments for you at other sites, including here.
There’s one silver lining to this cloud of attacks on free speech in the blogosphere and elsewhere: If we are making people that angry and upset, at least it shows that we are not merely preaching to the choir.
Who knows… our words will be in the back of their minds somewhere, and maybe some of them will come around to our way of thinking. You never know!
1389
Hang in there, Foehammer. If there is anything FHK can do, let us know.
BTW, as others have observed - there definitely IS a crackdown going on . I have been posting tons of stuff with regard to free speech - and it’s impossible for me to keep up with all of it, as these category links show:
Blog Censorship
Cartoon Censorship
Litigation Jihad
Censorship in general
I just cross-posted your comment here, to make sure everybody knows what is going on:
Foehammer: Anvil Outage Caused by Islamist DDOS Attacks
Foehammer I agree with what tgusa just said. I could not have said it as well so I won’t even try. I look around and I see so many more people opening their eyes to the threat. Yes, we have so many idiots who still just don’t get it but I am also seeing some of the most hard headed people finally “getting” it. It is because of you and others like you. Your numbers are growing. You’re like the teacher and we the students and when we leave here we take something with us that we share, then the next one shares. It is getting around. You ARE making your mark, you are being heard. I have missed you here. I know this is a burden for you personally. I hope your burden is lessened but that you don’t go away from here. Circle your wagons first and foremost but don’t go away. You have made a difference and I know you will continue always to make a difference. God Bless you…
I know you don’t feel as if things are going right but that is how it always feels as things are about to change. This anti islamist movement can best be described as a dam. There is a dam and the water is building up behind it. If you listen carefully you will find that there are cracks developing in that dam. Cracks always precede a collapse, I don’t desire to sound corny but imagine if the men at Valley Forge had said its just too dam cold and we have nothing to eat we better just call it a day? As a matter of fact they had many opportunities to quit throughout the war after all it was dark much more than it was light in those days. No, when the going gets tough the tough really do get going. You are already in full stride so why give up now? Heck, you are being harassed from hong kong, you’ve gone international! Faith brother, faith, if you allow yourself to lose faith you loose the will to go on. Don’t allow that to happen we all need to hang tough, together.
This should satisfy all that are wondering what has been going on with the hosting here at the Anvil. I finally received an email from a LunarPages admin that actually knows how to do her job. Not surprisingly, her name is something that I can actually pronounce and most likely doesn’t belong to a Muslim convert. What follows is an edited version of the response, but you will now see that I have absolute proof that the Leftofascists and Islamofascists have been hard at work tying to shut me up. I’ve been telling LunarPages to check for ddos attacks for weeks; someone finally listened:
This “quieter server” is obviously a snail and unacceptable. I’m hopeful that once some protections are put into place that I might actually want to blog again.
To those that might think switching hosts is no big deal, I’m afraid you do not understand that I am being caught in this treadmill at the worst possible time for me personally, so yes, switching the Anvil to a new host is a very, very big deal — to me. Beyond that, the Anvil is not a virtual sheet of paper. It is a heavily customized blog and setting it all up again on a new host would take many hours of intense work that I think I made clear around the New Year definitely wasn’t what I wanted to be dealing with in 2008.
Damnit, at this point I do not even want to blog. Can anyone really blame me? Just look at the economy, the Presidential campaign, the continued rocket attacks into Gaza, the Stock Market being bought up by greedy Arab Oil Barons, and on and on and on.
Frankly, too much of what I’ve been predicting all these years keeps happening and it looks like we’re going to elect a President that won’t make things better, more likely far worse, in fact. Blogging to a few hundred awake readers and spending 40+ hours a week doing that is no longer an option for me. I have to start circling the wagons. I suggest many of you do the same.
This latest round of attacks on my Free Speech simply puts the exclamation point at the end of every sentence I’ve been typing since 2003. Watch out! It looks like I’m not lobbing softballs around here to be getting this much unwanted attention.