Persecution Complex?

This is just odd. When I spent a month writing for the Detroit News blog, one of the other bloggers there was a woman named Libby Spencer. She has a blog called Last One Speaks. When I hosted the Carnival of the Vanities a few weeks ago, she left the following post on her blog:

Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture Wars is hosting the COTV this week. I thought the name sounded familiar, it turns out Ed was a fellow guest blogger at the Detroit News last month.

We never really connected. I'm sure this will come as a shock to all of who know and love me dearly, but not everyone likes me and I always got the feeling that Ed is one of those people. I think I'm just too liberal for him. He sure is fond of our other fellow blogger Ed Scalzi though. He talks about him a lot.

I didn't really have any concern over whether she thought I liked or disliked her regardless, but I left the following comment on her blog:

To pick a nit, it's John Scalzi, not Ed Scalzi. I don't know John personally, but I think he's a very good writer and one of the few I find consistently interesting.

I don't know you either, of course, so I wouldn't say that I like you or dislike you. But whatever opinions I have of your opinions, it would not be because you're too liberal. I'm a left-wing libertarian myself, and I agree with you entirely on the subject of drug legalization.

So while checking links to my blog today, I come across the following that was posted to her blog today, concerning this week's Carnival of the Vanities:

Snubbed by the COTV? I clearly sent my entry in time.

carnival@jessicaswell.com COTV entry Mon 06/14 2k

When I first started submitting to the Carnival I was pretty sure this would happen every week. Then I figured out that there was obviously some rule that requires the host to post all entries, but I didn't take advantage of that. I try to send in my more non-partisan posts rather than offend the right-wing sensibilities of the regs at this party.

Interestingly, although I disagree with her politics, I like Jessica's dry sense of humor. However, I guess that she's probably one of those few people out there that just doesn't like me. Come to think of it, I think she and Ed Brayton are friends.

Speaking of Ed, I see he left a comment on my link to his Carnival post. Sorry for the late reply Ed, my comment section is so underused that I rarely check to see if anyone has actually said anything but whether you say our politics are the same or not, I know the chill of a cold shoulder when I feel it. No hard feelings though. I don't take it personally, even if it is.

Actually I know our politics are not that far apart, I figured it was just a personality clash. And my apologies to John Scalzi for getting his name wrong. Chalk that up to dyslexia I guess.

Though I'm not entirely certain why she thought that I didn't like her in the first place, after reading this whiny, self-absorbed post, I'm starting to view it as self-fulfilling paranoia. This post begs for several responses.

First, any like or dislike I might have had for you in the past can't possibly be "personal" for one obvious reason - I don't know you.

Second, you seem to have this preemptive persecution complex, beginning with your statement that you were sure you would be left out of the COTV every week because your posts are "too partisan" or "too liberal" for the "right-wing sensibilities" of....who? You don't say, exactly. The COTV rotates every week among blogs written by people with all sorts of political viewpoints. And as you at some point became aware, the host site does not decide which posts get in and which don't - all submissions are posted for the world to see.

Third, even when your preemptive persecution complex turns out to be false, as you realized it was in this case, you still seem unable to avoid striking the martyr pose. My submission was not initially included in this morning's COTV either, but I didn't write a whiny post implying that I was "too libertarian" for their "right wing sensibilities". I read the top of the page, which said in huge bold red letters that they had forgotten to forward some of the submissions from one computer to another and they would correct it within the hour, which they did. When they updated it, not only is your submission included, it's at the top of the list, and they included your description of your article word for word, something they didn't do for other submissions.

Fourth, you appear to have a tendency to jump to very odd conclusions with no evidence whatsoever, and draw connections between entirely unconnected things. You say that you think that I am friends with "Jessica". There's just one problem with this. I can't be friends with Jessica because, in addition to the fact that I had never heard of Jessica's Well until I submitted my entry to the carnival yesterday, there is no Jessica. Jessica's Well is not a blog written by someone named Jessica, it is what it announces itself to be right at the top of the page, a community weblog for folks in Midland, Texas. It is obviously named after Baby Jessica, the little girl who fell into a well down there and was rescued. The authors there are named Shepherd and Walsingham, and I don't have the foggiest clue who they are, never mind being friends with them.

I don't know you Libby, but I recommend A) reading and thinking a tad bit more before making statements, and B) considering therapy for this kneejerk persecution complex you obviously have.