askjohnlott
tlambert | August 12, 2003 Jeff Johnson of CNSNews.com has a fourth story about the Lott parody site askjohnlott.org. Johnson discusses the evidence that Jonah Peretti is involved with the site and quotes Lott:
"I don't see how one can get around that [Peretti] either is running it, or he knows in detail exactly what's happening with the website"
... Lott notes that, while the creator of the site now claims to have "regained control" of it from the hacker, the e-mail address the hacker posted on the site is still active and auto-replying to messages from the Contagiousmedia.org…
tlambert | August 8, 2003 Scott Carlson at The Chronicle of Higher Education has a story (subscription required) about askjohnlott. He quotes Lott: "Someone called me up a couple of weeks ago, very angry, claiming that they got an e-mail from me, telling them that I was advising them to do illegal things," like buy guns illegally, he says. "I just thought the person was joking. After I was done talking to them, I found this crazy Web site."
This doesn't make sense. If the person believed that the email was from Lott, the natural thing would be to reply to it, not phone Lott. If…
tlambert | August 8, 2003 The registration details for askjohnlott.org have changed: Registrant Name:Mary Rosh Registrant Organization:Center For Truth Registrant Street1:45 Main Street, 12th Floor Registrant City:Brooklyn Registrant State/Province:New York Registrant Postal Code:11201 Registrant Country:US Registrant Phone:+1.7182223892 Registrant FAX:+1.7182225621 Registrant Email:maryrosh@mail.com
Compare with those for contagiousmedia.org: Peretti, Jonah 45 Main Street 12th Floor Brooklyn, NY 11201 US
tlambert | August 7, 2003 After askjohnlott linked here some people decided that obviously I must be behind the site and emailed me to let me know what they thought of me. Nope. Not me. Using false identities is not my style.
It was also suggested to me that Lott might have set up askjohnlott.org as a ploy to gain sympathy and to distract from the serious allegations that he faces. I don't that this is at all likely. If Lott was behind it, the site would never have added the disclaimer.
So who is behind it? Well, Black People Love Us, What is Victoria's Secret and…
tlambert | August 6, 2003Jeff Johnson has an story on the defacement of askjohnlott.org (now restored, by the way), but apparently both Lott and Larry Pratt suspect that the defacement was staged: "I think we have to assume that the owner of the fraudulent site that hijacked John Lott's name is running scared," Pratt speculated. "And certainly, until we know for sure, it's a possibility that he may have hacked this to try to throw off the scent."
However, as I noted yesterday, in this freeper thread someone observed that the site was vulnerable and it was defaced some time…
tlambert | August 5, 2003askjohnlott.org now just contains the following text: AskJohnLott.org was recently hacked by someone who values the Second Amendment but not the First. Although we at AskJohnLott.org can understand why pro-gun extremists would be afraid of free speech, we believe that the entire Bill of Rights should be upheld.
Ask John Lott will be restored soon. In the meantime, the following sites provide information about the John Lott controversy:
Who Is Mary Rosh?
More Guns, More Crime
Tim Lambert's weblog
Thanks, and long live the Bill of Rights!
This thread over at freerepublic.com has the…
tlambert | August 5, 2003 Lott has a posting on his blog where he insistsfew will think that the site was set up with the intention of making others think that it was a parody.
I don't agree, but you can judge for yourself.
Jeff Johnson has another overblown story about askjohnlott.org. From the story: "That's like stealing money and then, when you get caught, saying you won't steal anymore," Lott said of the disclaimer Tuesday. "They're not giving the money back that they have already stolen."
No, it's like telling a joke and then when some people don't get it, explaining that it was…
tlambert | August 4, 2003 There is now a disclaimer at the bottom of every page at askjohnlott.org: This site is not run by John Lott, he has no affiliation with it. It is run by Mary Rosh. John Lott used Mary Rosh to support his books in internet forums, and put false claims in her mouth. Now Mary Rosh has created this site, to show John Lott that parody is a two-way street. You can find out more about her at WhoIsMaryRosh.com.
I think that puts paid to the silly claim of "identity theft".
tlambert | August 1, 2003The Washington Times has a story about a Lott related Internet impersonation, but it's not about Mary Rosh. The Washington Times considers the Lott parody site askjohnlott.org to be a more important story than Mary Rosh. That site contains answers like this: Q: I want to get roughly ten hand guns for my friend's 50th birthday party, but I really don't want the police to know about this. Is there any way for me to do this without getting reported?
A: Hopefully, you haven't saved this for the last minute. By law, licensed gun dealers must report to federal…
tlambert | July 28, 2003John Lott informs us about askjohnlott.org but warns us that it is not run by him and is "trying to create a negative impression".