For those not familiar with Godwin’s Law, it states: “As a Usenet [a message board-style system] discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.” It was also used in the ye olde days (back when you had to carry the electrons on your back!) to determine when a Usenet discussion had reached it’s peak and needed to be ended due to someone deciding to compare someone else they were arguing with to a Nazi or Hitler. Anyone that make a comparison to Nazism or Hitler was determined to have lost the argument as well.
Well, here’s a new wider variation coined by me: As any argument continues, online or offline, the probability of a comparison to a mass murderer, including a serial killer, approaches 1.
And, ladies and gentlemen, we have reached that point in the back and forth regarding Sheriff Tony Lippa’s vendetta against Caroline County High School football coach Benjamin Boyd. In a letter to the editor in the July 23, 2009, edition of The Caroline Progress, Roger Cavendish stated the following as part of a tirade against former Principal Jeff Wick, the Caroline County School Board, et al.:
I can certainly understand why Jeff Wick is an ex-principal with his moral values. For him to even suggest that the drug crime was nineteen years ago is disgusting. I am sure that if Mr. Wick has anything to say about it the next time Charles Manson comes up for parole, he will want to hire him as a music teacher — after all, it has been forty years since he killed Sharon Tate and he is quite a musician.
Yep folks, he just compared someone that was convicted of two misdemeanors for the possession of steroids nineteen years ago to someone that was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of seven people. Do I really have to point the absurdity of that argument? To compare someone to Manson, who was involved in the brutal murder of seven people, including the murder of Sharon Tate who was eight-months pregnant at the time of her death, is beyond absurd; it’s reprehensible.
In the same letter Cavendish also stated that former School Board member and Coach George Spaulding had also come out in support of Boyd’s hiring and condemned Spaulding for supporting Boyd. Now that’s pretty interesting since Lippa is such good friends with George Spaulding through his wife Elisabeth Spaulding. Elisabeth Spaulding is the widow of Stan Benson who was a very good of friend of Lippa before his passing several years ago. In fact, Lippa was a big supporter of Spaulding’s failed bid for the Bowling Green Board of Supervisors seat back in 2007. Does all that support and friendship go out the door when someone ends up on the wrong side of one of Lippa’s vendetta, or, in this particular case, is it just the ravings of a lunatic like Roger Cavendish? It’s hard to decide at this point.
And then we have a portion of a the letter that appeared in the same edition from former Virginia State Trooper Robert Gordon:
As for the cheap shot by Mr. Wick regarding Sheriff Lippa’s son-in-law being interested in the coach’s position, it now has become a situation where members of the School Board and former principal Mr. Wick are now attempting to portray Sheriff Lippa as the bad in this entire matter.
First, note that nowhere did Gordon deny the truthfulness of Wick’s allegation. And, uh, excuse me, that’s a cheap shot? Is it a cheap shot for the Sheriff, the chief law-enforcement officer in the county, to publicly and falsely accuse someone of committing a crime? Is it a cheap shot for the Sheriff to invade another government employee’s privacy and to go around stating as a fact what was included on the employee’s application? Is it a cheap shot to get someone indicted for two felonies as part of a larger vendetta against someone and then run to a friend at WTVR Channel 6 News (Jon Burkett) to have him do a story about the charges?
No, of course not. It’s only a cheap shot to reveal to the public why a elected public official is pursuing a vendetta against someone. This is part of a wider revelation I’ve had: To Lippa and the people that are supporting him in this travesty of justice, they think there are two sets of rules: One set just for them and another set that everyone else has to follow. The problem is their set of rules is blank. They can do whatever they want: falsely accuse someone of a crime, try to publicly ruin a man’s reputation using the media, or try to get a man fired from a job that he was properly hired for, and it goes on and on. But when someone dares to point why they’re taking this course of action it’s a ‘cheap shot’, ‘an invasion of privacy’, ‘uncalled for’, or whatever else they want to say about it.
I think you are as usual misinformed. I have attended two GOP meetings in Caroline and one event which was Sili’s campaign kick-off in 2007. Sheriff Lippa was at both events. As one of the speakers at the kick-off he urged about 200 people to vote for Sili. I met Lippa that year at the 4th of July when he was sitting on the tailgate of Sili’s truck when the two of them were talking. The Sheriff is a good guy and from what I can gather law enforcement in Caroline came into the 21st century when he took office two terms ago. This site seems to be all about driving a personal wedge between people.
Really, Jason? Then why did Jeff Sili’s own campaign kick-off announcement (which also appeared in The Caroline Progress) fail to mention Lippa’s presence?:
http://www.carolinefirst.org/campaignkickoff.html
This is just like how Catherine Crabill was going to use her $1,000,000 inheritance to fund her election campaign, right?
Jason, please refrain from posting anymore comments on this blog in the future otherwise you will become the first I’ve ever banned from commenting here.
Why am I hitting a nerve? You don’t seem to be very well informed at all as far as local politics are concerned. I also attended an event at Sili’s house in October where both the sheriff and his wife were present where I was formally introduced by Mrs. Sili to both the sheriff and his wife in their living room. In their basement is a host of pictures, one of which is a picture of the sheriff speaking with a microphone in his hand, wearing an orange campaign shirt standing with Lt. Governor Bolling in the Sili’s back yard. After the sheriff spoke, the Lt. Governor then spoke along with several other elected officials. There is also a good picture of Lippa and Sili together at the breakfast they hold every spring. I don’t blame the locals at all for not including you in whats happening especially the way you are treating the sheriff’s office.
Jason, I’m sick of your lying. You’re now banned from posting comments on this site. Thank you, have a nice day.
Oh, and by the way Jason: Where exactly was Lippa sitting on the back of the tailgate of Sili’s pickup on July 4, 2007?
Was it at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Port Royal when Lippa was there? Oh wait, Jeff Sili wasn’t there. Lippa, Tony Spencer, Bobby Popowicz, and Calvin Taylor were all there but no Sili.
Was it in Dawn the same day? Now I doubt Sili was there seeing as to how Dawn isn’t part of Sili’s district.
Was it at Caroline County High School on the same day? Doubtful, since Lippa arrived late as hell and was working the crowd or the Sheriff’s Office booth most of the time.
And has anyone ever seen Lippa sit on someone’s tailgate? You can’t get the guy to sit down if you try. So if you’re going to lie about someone, you might at least make his nonexistent actions appear consistent with his personality.
Wow Jason, I must admit I’m slow on the uptake. I didn’t realize who you were until I Googled your IP and guess what came up? Fredtalk. Hope you’re having fun Susan Sili.
Hi Ms. Sili :)