by This morning when I started to make my rounds of the blogs I came across an anomaly. Tam Keel’s View From The Porch was coming up with a weird message saying that it was open to invited readers only. Thinking it was just a typo on my part, I tried to access her blog from a link at Shall Not Be Questioned. I got the same result.
As she is a Facebook friend, I checked there for info. I saw that she had posted a note last night saying she was done with it. Reading through the comments she noted that she didn’t need the hassle and she had writing for pay that needed attention.
This is a stunning loss to the gun blogosphere. Tam was not merely the Mistress of Snark. While she was that in spades, it was her deep knowledge of firearms and training that kept me coming back. Whether it was her recent posts about testing out the Walther PPX or her collection of Savage pocket pistols arranged in chronological order, you learned something and it made you think.
And why did we lose Tam as a blogger? Because of an unrelenting cyberstalker who just wouldn’t give up.
One who writes nonsense like this:
If my South Bend business trip wraps up early tomorrow I might stick my nose in the 1500; I don’t need anything but yesterday was my b-day 60 so who knows…I haven’t hit a big show in a few years and just a walk-through with my little Georgia Girl would be fun. And I may see you at your Sun. gathering for a bit, maybe buy the group a round; that in itself would be a nice little present from me to me.
That is just a taste of the crap he’s been sending Tam at, from what I can gather, an unrelenting pace.
I don’t blame Tam a bit for saying enough was enough. Perhaps this will be merely a hiatus. We can only hope for that. In the meantime, keep an eye out for her published work. I know she writes for SWAT Magazine as well as Shooting Illustrated.
I do have one wish. I would like this cyberstalker found, charged, convicted, and imprisoned for a long time.
UPDATE: Tam has turned her blog archives on and has disabled the comments. While she is still on indefinite hiatus, we are still able to partake of her past work. Thanks to Rob Reed for making the request. And thanks to Tam for agreeing to do it.