Dan, Stay away from the Slog (Flog?) while on vacation...particularly if you are in a place where they serve Margaritas and don't have an Azteca sign over the door.

Dan- you're on VACATION? DRINKING?! Sweet Jesus, if you do such things, for the love of god don't mention them here! You'll only lure that fucking troll to yet another thread.

Yeah, Dan, what kind of parent are you?

You know what would be an interesting way to do away with a troll? If everyone started using his handle. Then no one could tell who the real troll was.

The internet lets me steal people's anonymous identities! Haha!

@4: That's a great idea!

I love Democrats, support gay marriage, and wish for universal health care for everyone paid for by my taxes.

thank you dan: i didn't want to speak for anyone else at the stranger, but y'all know damn good and well--and everyone else should too, if i haven't made it quite clear---i'm no meth head--and never have been. if i had a fucking soapbox...

oh! i do. one quick story off my chest, in a nut shell: best friend (we'll call him troy). tight-assed, straight-laced troy and i worked together, traveled together, hung out chronically, for years. he: secret meth habit. in order, in a matter of months: homeless, jail, aids...and not one thing i could do to stop it. now? he's totally mia, possibly doa. i have no idea.
i'm off the box now. thank you for the indulgence. i'll never wag a finger agian.

I wish every one of you all the love and fulfillment in the world, in all the different beautiful ways you live your lives.

I've had the same story happen to me about five or six time, Adrian--a crystal habit I didn't recognize, a descent that seemed to happen so fast but which had really been building for months, the feelings of guilt and remorse that I didn't know enough to do anything.

The Stranger has always taken exactly the right stance about the meth problem, stating facts, never underplaying the problem or launching into hysterics. You folks do so many things right, and your writing about this scourge has always been right on....

Many colors in the homo rainbow
You give me shade from black to yellow
Many colors in the homo rainbow
A warm embrace and a kind-a hello

If you find a pot of gold
Every little thing is gonna work out fine
In the homo rainbow

If you find a pot of gold
Every little thing is gonna work out fine
In the homo rainbow
Every single color, every walk of life
In & out changin, every day and night
From the golden shores of Kansas, to the middle of Japan
reach inside your soul and learn your fellow

There are many colors in the homo rainbow
Don't be afraid to let your colors shine
Don't be ashamed of what God made you

God I'm fucking hungry

So, seriously Savage, my guy is out of town. Who's your hook-up?

I'm a magical unicorn!

Wow, you have all really opened my eyes. I'm going to get off the crank and start taking my meds. Sorry I've been such an asshole.

You know, down there in my snackateria, in my shaggy DA, my dirty cleft palate in my fuzzy mimosa, the dirty old moose hoof. God I could really use some trouser gravy right now.

I'll be in a sling all weekend with my ass in the air at Club Seattle.

Stop by and say "hi!"

I could be a crackhead, who got hold to the wrong stuff, and it told me to get up a tree and play a leprechaun.

Ecce homo is a butthead, but he's his own butthead. Posting as him should by rights get you banned from Slog.

Oh, Fnarf,

You really know how to ruin a party.

I'm proud to say that, despite a long and tawdry career as a tramp, and despite having worked in a GAY BAR for years, meth has always remained a mystery to me. I don't even really know how one would go about "doing" meth. The only thing I knew was that I've seen too many nice, sexy guys turn into twitchy assholes because of it.

I think The Stranger has always done a good job of warning people about meth, without getting preachy or moralistic - and also without trying to "speak the language" of meth heads, which would just be embarassing for everyone involved (Hello, Gay City)

I also think that the message is finally starting to percolate through the "community" that meth just ain't worth it.

Fnarf is right. Leave his identity alone; if he's an asshole, let him come across as one on his own merits; if he has a point, make him earn it himself.

You wouldn't like it someone else stole your handle.

it's sort of fascinating how worked up ya'll can get over ol' ecce. he must hit a nerve. not being a gay male, i can't really know what that nerve is...y'all be knowin he's a troll and not to feed him, but you can't seem to help yerselves. he's a reactionary hater...is reactionary hate aimed at him really all that evolved a response to him? it's not like he holds elected office or any other power in this world greater than yours..he's got his "issues" and deserves our mirth in response, not our heat, imo.

Meth is bad all the time. Ecce is funny sometimes. Leave meth alone. Leave ecce alone. I think I could use some Gold Bond.

The obvious solution to all the post comment shenanigans on Slog is to eliminate the ability of readers to post comments.

I think that ecce is a phony personality, an unreal web-being, and so I don't mind appropriating his lame "handle". It doesn't seem like a violation.

But, doubts be given, comments 18 and 22 are most worthy.

Feeding a troll is bad, not feeding a hurting troll could be worse. They are hating on themselves, you know? I don't know. Seems like all this suggests that it wouldn't be a bad idea for the stranger to start making people register. At least, I'd like to hear why they would compromise the integrity of their comments (these are some of the best, most useful comments on the web, so far as I know [granted I do not know much]) so that dicks who are probably fake can continue to ruin the discussion for the rest of us.

You even have to register to post fake shit about celebrities on wikipedia, is what I'm saying.

Who needs Regular?

Peter @ 24: No, that's not the point at all! That wouldn't be very nice, or very fair, to our fellow posters, now would it?

Um, am I missing something? Who exactly is out there promoting meth use? Are there gangs of tweeking Neighbors faries roaming Capitol Hill, handing out fliers that say "Meth is Good!"? Did the Fremont hippies put their bongs down and start calling for meth instead?

The Stranger must be in a really warped world if they have to DECLARE they are against meth use. Really, guys, throw us a bone and tell use who are these freeks are that insist using meth is A-OK!

May I have your attention please? May I have your attention please? Will the real ecce homo please stand up? I repeat, will the real ecce homo please stand up? We're gonna have a problem here.

I'm ecce homo, yes I'm the real homo. All you other ecce homos are just imitating. So won't the real ecce homo please stand up, please stand up, please stand up?

Ha ha. Guess there's an ecce homo in all of us. Fuck it, let's all stand up.

(Apologies, or not, to Eminem)

@28, in response to your question on promoting meth, no, I don't think there are Neighbours faries handing out flyers, but then again I could be wrong, I haven't been there in a while...

The "promoting" of meth, if you can call it that, happens like most drugs, friends introducing friends, fuck buddies introducing fuck buddies. Speed has been around in Seattle and the West Coast for a long time, but around 2000-2002 crystal use absolutely exploded here in the club scene. People I knew who said they would never do crystal in a million years, and who mocked those who did, were suddenly up on three-day benders. When people who had been doing ecstasy, k, g, and other club drugs were looking for a newer, better, faster high to keep the party going all weekend, there was crystal. Ultimately crystal makes people miserable, and as the addage goes, misery loves company. Tweakers beget tweakers, hooking their friends into their fucked-up reality. As a hardcore clubber (who never touched crystal, ever) I watched the gay club scene plummet a few years ago as more and more people hooked up with "crissy". For those gay men who had dealt with feelings of guilt, insecurity, and all the other baggage that can collect from growing up gay in a homophobic society, crystal was their key to a world that looked glamorous - long parties, hot friends, hotter sex.

Now of course not all crystal users are looking to escape reality. Some just want the wild party and wild sex. Others are just plain drug addicts. And crystal use is not just limited to the club scene - I'm amazed at the seemingly regular, upstanding guys I've met who lead a double life - good citizen by day, twacked-out freak at night. But no matter what, very few people can do speed recreationally and not end up with a BIG problem. It's such a cliche, but I watched dozens of friends toss their lives out the window and end up with HIV, homeless, jobless, some even toothless. But because crystal had become so widespread and acceptable (in an unspoken way) there was little you could do to pull these guys out of it.

Meth is definitely not just a problem of the gay community. Go to any afterhours club in Seattle and you can see the diversity of spun out speed freaks that coexist in an alternate reality. And how many news stories do we have to hear about meth in small towns? But as a newspaper that reaches a large gay audience, and with gay writers, I think The Stranger has taken the right approach to declare in a number of ways that meth is bullshit, especially when other drugs have gotten a thumbs-up (either explicitly or implicitly) in this paper. Most of the people I know who started using speed (and later got off it) would, at the beginning of their crystal use, tell me "tina (crystal) is no big deal - it's like drinking really strong coffee". If The Stranger can get the message out there that speed sucks, in a way that is not preachy or just plain silly (like some of the harm reduction material out there), then more power to 'em. Sincere apologies for the long comment.

So people can use someone else's username now? What a bunch of fucking children.

At least I stand up for what I believe, unlike you pussies who use someone elses name.

I seem to recall when someone used Fnarf's name, they were threatened with being banned. Is this still going to be the case?

let's hope not

Oh, and all of the tounge in cheek commens about the importance of meth use in the gay community just gives another justification for young gay people to use meth and assume they have the support or even tacit approval by the rest of the gay community.

I don't care how many overt anti-drug slants the stranger has taken over time. They don't mean shit when compared to the power that acceptance of Meth use in the gay community has. People ignore the "Meth kills" message over and over, but listen to the "Meth is SO gay and fun and makes sex HOT!!"

The stranger is as responsible as anyone in perpetuating this problem in feature stories that mention meth in passing, making jokes about people and meth use, and the posting of videos of young gay men shopping for womyns clothing for pride parade whilst tweaking out of control. How about accepting responsibilityfor you actions instead of being a coward and just outright denying it and throwing up some useless examples of the papers unspoken "editorial slant"? Instead, how about ALWAYS mention Meth as bad, never fun, etc...

Or is Meth sometimes fun and/or funny?

i need to shut up. i have cyber-tourettes.

#34 is not me. Someone thinks its really funny to use someone elses username.

What a fucking tool...

I am amazed at the amount of time ecce has to devote to the Slog. Between raising children, going to church, running the PTA, baking cookies for the kids at the playground and tending the tulips in front of his white picket fence so that his straight suburban neighbors will accept him as one of their own, it's incredible that he can fit in the hours and hours he must spend on Slog. Just how do you do it, ecce? I can't even get out of bed in the morning until I do my first line of meth, and then I just spend all day running around trying to catch up with myself. Snark.

"Or is Meth sometimes fun and/or funny?"

ecce, obviously it must be fun for the user - at least at first - or they wouldn't do it. That's the trouble with drugs, be it alcohol, cigs, or the harder stuff.

And yes, I thought the Stranger's video was funny. In the same way that "Absolutely Fabulous" is funny (although Ab Fab is much funnier).

See, I'm capable of making the distinction between make-believe (the two queens at Woolworths or Eddie and Patsy at Harrods) and real-life - and I think a lot of people can grasp that concept.

Because I understand that distinction, I'm also able to realize that not all affluent middle-aged British women are alcoholic drug addicts. In fact, most of them aren't.

Also, as a person who actually goes out and interacts with "the community" (with all of its flaws) and has a history of being somewhat slutty, I disagree with your assertion that Meth is as widespread as you claim. Yes, there are people who do Meth. But even at my bathhouse-iest or public restroom-ish, I never was offered, nor would I have engaged in, meth.

Lastly, if you would step out of the bubble of the Emerald City (or however it was you put it that time) you would realize that meth use is by no means limited to gay men. It's a huge problem in the general population back in the midwest, and even in the rural areas here in Washington State.

Finally, You obviously enjoy moralizing and haranguing people, so why don't you start your own paper or website or something? I bet you could get dozens of hits a week!

"it's sort of fascinating how worked up ya'll can get over ol' ecce. he must hit a nerve. not being a gay male, i can't really know what that nerve is..."

I'm not gay either, but Ecce earned my everlasting hatred in the thread where he advocated running over cyclists with his car.

The shitbag that Ecce is transcends gay issues, he's a well rounded turd that needs to be flushed.

oh, my, this is great fun!

Well, when my tweaker neighbor held up a city street sweeper with a steak knife, claiming that the street sweeper was the Terminator, yeah, we had a few laughs about it in the newsroom. But journalists are known to laugh at morbid and inappropriate things.

I'm amazed that meth needs any anti-propaganda other than what it does to your teeth. *shudder*

Word to KX1. Ecce must burn.
-

Most drug propaganda is bullshit, as we all learned in DARE. Unfortunately, while most of the illegal recreational drugs on the market can be enjoyed safely, and users of these drugs can and do remain functional in their everyday lives, the propaganda about the horrors of meth is mostly the truth. Only much worse. It fact, it is understated.

"not trying to escape reality." blah blah blah "wild party and wild sex" ??!?

are you high? Do you really think the kind of sex you have on crystal meth is 'reality'???

whatever dude. stay away from me.

sincerely,
http://methedup.net