"Beyond the Pale": David Neiwert doesn't like being "dead," even if he's not. Not even if it was only in the brief dream of somebody he libeled.

German philosopher Martin Heidegger, Rector of the University of Freiburg, speaks to a Nazi Party rally in late 1933. Intellectuals like Heidegger provided a philosophical excuse for Nazi ideology.


Martin Heidegger (26 September 1889 – 26 May 1976) was an influential German philosopher. His best known book, Being and Time, is generally considered to be one of the most important philosophical works of the 20th century. Heidegger remains controversial due to his involvement with Nazism. . . . Adolf Hitler was named Chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933. Heidegger was elected Rector of the University of Freiburg on April 21, 1933, assuming the position the following day, and on May 1 he joined the Nazi Party. Heidegger delivered his inaugural address, the Rektoratsrede, on May 27. It was entitled "The Self-Assertion of the German University," and became notorious for its praise of Nazism. -- Wikipedia.

David Neiwert doesn't like being "dead," even if he isn't. As my regular readers know, I never say anything to anyone electronically behind their back, and I am always careful to copy the person I'm talking about via email and/or snail mail.

Thus it was with David Neiwert, when I wrote And thus the abyss beckons: "David Neiwert died violently last night" found here.

But David didn't like it, not one little bit. He was so rattled, he got my name wrong in the email he sent asking that I pull down the post.

Subject: RE: And thus the abyss beckons: "David Neiwert died violently last night."
Date: 7/27/2009 2:30:25 P.M. Central Daylight Time
From: dneiwert@hotmail.com
To: georgemason1776@aol.com

OK, Mark, this is beyond the pale.

Put your own name in place of mine and think of what it would be like if someone wrote this about you.

Please take this post down. -- DN

Well, I must confess I was bit nettled by the fact that he got my name wrong. Call me anything you like, but at least get the name right. And so, I sent him this reply back:

Subject: Re: And thus the abyss beckons: "David Neiwert died violently last night."
Date: 7/27/2009 3:21:55 P.M. Central Daylight Time
From: GeorgeMason1776
To: dneiwert@hotmail.com

The name is Mike, not Mark. Mike Vanderboegh. And I actually did substitute my name on one read-through, just to make sure I had the flavor right. It didn't scare me none. I've been prepared for my violent death since the 90s. Ever since, in fact, collectivist light-weight liars like you, Dees and Pitcavage have been laying the intellectual excuse for the government intervening to take my liberty and my life. You have more in common with Herr Doktor Martin Heidegger than you care to admit.

Ho Chi Minh once said, "Cherish your enemies, they teach you the most valuable lessons." Try to accept it as a cautionary tale for the next time you slander the motives and character of someone you disagree with politically, but have actually NO idea what kind of person they are.

You know, before you wrote that screed, you might have contacted me. My email address is just about everywhere on the Net, and was, even back then. The fact that you made no attempt says that you are no journalist, just a collectivist hack.

On a lighter note, I don't believe it was a premonition or anything. Now if my good friend Lillian, who is three-quarter Cherokee and has "the sight" dreams about your imminent death, THEN you need to make sure your will is up to date. Until then, don't sweat it.

Maybe, like Scrooge, you can put it all down to something I ate. Or, maybe, something YOU ate.

Mike Vanderboegh

The alleged leader of a merry band of Three Percenters.

PS: If your preconceptions can stand the shock, you might try reading Professor Churchill's book. You could even learn something. Unless, of course, your mind is completely closed.

"Going beyond the pale."

Now I'm sure Neiwert used the phrase "beyond the pale" in the modern sense of going beyond the limits of law or decency. But do you know where that term came from?
Wikipedia tells us:

The Pale (An Pháil in Irish) or the English Pale (An Pháil Shasanach), was the part of Ireland that was directly under the control of the English government in the late Middle Ages. . . The Pale boundary essentially consisted of a fortified ditch and rampart built around parts of the medieval counties of Louth, Meath, Dublin and Kildare, actually leaving half of Meath, most of Kildare, and south west Dublin on the other side. The northern frontier of the pale was marked by the De Verdon fortress of Castle Roche, whilst the southern border roughly corresponds to the present day M50 motorway in Dublin.

The following description is from The parish of Taney: a history of Dundrum, near Dublin, and its neighbourhood (1895):

In the period immediately after the Norman Settlement was constructed the barrier, known as the "Pale," separating the lands occupied by the settlers from those remaining in the hands of the Irish. This barrier consisted of a ditch, raised some ten or twelve feet from the ground, with a hedge of thorn on the outer side. It was constructed, not so much to keep out the Irish, as to form an obstacle in their way in their raids on the cattle of the settlers, and thus give time for a rescue. The Pale began at Dalkey, and followed a southwesterly direction towards Kilternan ; then turning northwards passed Kilgobbin, where a castle still stands, and crossed the Parish of Taney to the south of that part of the lands of Balally now called Moreen, and thence in a westerly direction to Tallaght, and on to Naas in the County of Kildare. In the wall bounding Moreen is still to be seen a small watch-tower and the remains of a guard-house adjoining it. From this point a beacon-fire would raise the alarm as far as Tallaght, where an important castle stood. A portion of the Pale is still to be seen in Kildare between Clane and Clongowes Wood College at Sallins.

So the "Shasanach" within the perimeter of the Pale (which comes from the Latin "pallus," or fortification stake) -- the leading gentry and merchants -- lived lives not too different from that of their counterparts in England, except that they lived under the constant fear of attack from the free Irish, "beyond the pale."

In a sense then, I would agree with Neiwert. I am, in that definition, the Irish definition, "beyond the pale." I am free and I intend to remain so.