Personal criticism obligates commenters to identify themselves...

Tim,

I agree entirely. Anonymity is not a boon to internet discussion.

What Fr. Bill says. If it's not obvious from the linkage that I'm Bert Perry, I'll sign on that way.

As long as we're all coming clean, I might as well, too. My real name isn't David J. Wegener. That's more of a metaphor.

My real name is Mbeki Ndoko von Sponheim. I'm part African and part "what's called" of German descent. I'm sure you can understand why I don't sign by my real name.

I first met Tim and David Bayly while doing militia training in western Montana. We'd work on hand-to-hand fighting and knife skills in the mornings and then do our light arms training in the afternoon. In the evenings, we'd sit around a camp fire and tell jokes about women.

Doug Wilson, whom we only knew then as Fat Eddie the Apostle, would occasionally give devotional talks around the fire. They were usually just a re-hash from Dabney.

Things got interesting when a team of girls, led by the woman we now know as "Kamilla," started lobbing hand grenades at us from the woods. They were mad about our jokes which apparently the camp cook (whom we now know as R.C. Sproul, Jr.) passed on to them. We captured her and made her listen to the jokes until she finally agreed they were funny. Back then she went by Fighting Frieda. I don't actually know her real name.

That's also where I met Darryl. He ran the canteen and was always mad about something. He went by Darryl.

David,

I never knew you had it in you. Heidi and I were laughing very hard as I read this to her.

TUAD was there, too; but he called himself TUAU back then. He'd cry if we didn't end the night with Kum Bay Ya and a group hug. One night Doug and Darryl took him behind the woodshed and he never mentioned Kum Bay Ya or group hugs again.

That was the night he changed his name to TUAD.

Mason used to come. We accepted him, sort of. It was hard living with his rectangular circumlocutions.

Then came the night he tried to get us to listen to a Tim Keller sermon he had on his iPod. It was titled something like "Elder Brother: His Wife Made Him Do It."

We agreed to give it a listen, although no one was eager. But then he said he wouldn't turn the thing on until we'd each paid $5. Claimed it would all go toward the salary of Redeemer's Directress of the Diaconate.

At that point, Father Bill revolted. He said he didn't have $5, and if he did, he'd rather pay to listen to the just-released Jimi Hendrix cover of Ave Maria.

Great hilarity ensued, but I think Mason's feelings were hurt. He never came back, although we get occasional post cards from him with pictures of Ayn Rand and excerpts from Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.

We save them up and send them to missionaries in Zambia who need paper for their home schooled children.

Please help me to understand these two statements:

1. We wrote him privately asking that he identify himself. He declined.

2. Darryl Hart has identified himself from the very beginning.

My Dear Mr. von Sponheim,

I was always surprised your team managed to capture me - I am afraid it means I never lived up to my legend as the Warrior Queen who was so fleet of foot, she could run across a field of grain without bending the heads or across the ocean without wetting her feet.

There was some powerful magic in those jokes.

ROTFLOL,

Contrary to what a particular sniping website claims, Kamilla is my true name.

Tim,

I didn't understand why Denver was confused until my wife pointed out the ambiguity of this statement: "After many personal exchanges with Darryl Hart in which many individuals requested that he identify himself, we wrote him privately asking that he identify himself."

While it might be obvious to many of us who have followed the fight, you might want to clarify in the post that it was the anonymous commenter that had many personal exchanges with Darryl Hart.