Defamation for Dummies

It's been a long week, and I really didn't have any plans to blog tonight, but the urge struck me for two reasons.

One is, a jerk decided to threaten us last night. Now really, after all this time, and all that has been said, do you think that would scare us? I will blog, and blog, and blog, until my fingers fall off. And then, I will use my toes to blog. And after that, I will buy that cool thing Stephen Hawking uses. So don't waste your time, keep your threats to yourself, and stick them up your ass.

Secondly, lots of readers, whether on the website or in blog comments, or in a lovely letter posted on the St. Francis Prep website, like to throw around the term "defamation." Defamation means a false statement. It does not mean a statement you don't like, or a statement that makes someone look bad. True statements are not defamation. They are called "the truth", and that is what has been written in these blogs. In order to sue for defamation, someone would have to prove a statement is false, and that the person making the statement was negligent in making them.  Then, they would have to prove damages attributable specifically to the alleged defamatory statements.

There you go, a little course on defamation. It is my hope, dear readers, that you would use this term in proper context, and not throw it around so carelessly. Because, if you say we have "defamed" someone (which we haven't), you will actually be defaming us, and we can sue the crap out of you for any damages stemming from that.

OK, y'all, that's it now. 'Night!