The Billy Lee Privacy Policy

Since going live in January 2014, theBillyLeePontificator blog-site has been successfully attacked three times — once by bots representing, ostensibly, disgruntled gays; once by people upset about some essays we posted which defended gay marriage (protestors intimidated Billy Lee into shutting down his site for six weeks — it’s a complicated story); and again during the 2016 presidential contest after Billy Lee endorsed Hillary Clinton.

Hackers took down the site and an anonymous person threatened Billy Lee’s life in a private video message forwarded through Twitter. Site stats suggest that the threat originated somewhere inside the Ukraine. 

Despite fear, we hardened our site and continued publishing. Our intention is to keep theBillyLeePontificator.com website public. Anyone should be able to read an article or post a comment on our blog.

That’s the fun of open discussion, isn’t it? We can argue with one another in a safe place, where we are respected and hopefully appreciated, if not loved.

Regrettably, experience has shown that not everyone can tolerate the controversial nature of some of the content published on the Pontificator. For Billy Lee to continue to write from the heart and with truth, he can’t be looking over his shoulder every time he writes an unusual sentence or paragraph. He wants to write with the excellent tools WordPress provides, so it’s not really possible to move controversial content to another site.

Because of Billy Lee’s affiliations outside this blog, on certain subjects (like religion) he’s learned he’s not free to present just any content he chooses to the general public. He has obligations to people that transcend his constitutionally protected rights of free speech. And some content has upset some people. 

It seems wise to password-protect content that is likely to annoy certain sub-sets of internet viewers. In this way, Billy Lee can continue to write with enthusiasm, knowing that his family and close friends have access to controversial content while protecting others from their perceived obligation to police him. Think of the password-protected content as his private journal, not available to anyone but trusted confidants.

Having said all this, it is nevertheless upsetting to publish password-protected articles on a public blog-site. It is unseemly, un-democratic, and distressing — at least in the view of us, the Editorial Board. It saps the joy out of pontificating, Billy Lee complains. It makes him want to never write another word, he insists. So much for writing with enthusiasm.

So, after a lot of thought we, the Editorial Board, have decided not to post password-restricted articles. If that means Billy Lee never publishes another article, so be it. No one is ever going to miss an article they’ve never read or even know exists. No one is ever troubled by what they don’t know.

It’s like television — hundreds of channels but nothing on anyone cares to watch. Who ever thinks, gosh, a lot of good stuff is out there, mostly in people’s heads; it’s just not produced on television?

Then again, Billy Lee foresees circumstances — like giving viewers he doesn’t want to offend a password-protected first look — where it might be necessary that we suspend our policy against password-protected articles once in a while. Reasons to violate policies always seem to present themselves. The stress of making rules and then ignoring them diminishes Billy Lee’s ability to write well.

I am experiencing fear, he told us. I thought writing a blog during retirement would be fun. It hasn’t turned out that way. Not yet. So what is it going to be? Will I publish password-protected articles, or not?  I don’t know!

Billy Lee wishes people would leave him alone and just let him write. But traveling that route can lead to writing needlessly offensive articles. It can lead to broken affiliations and fewer friends. He doesn’t want that. Who does?

Well… enough hand-wringing. Let’s move on.

Many readers will be happy to learn that the Pontificator does not publish last names or e-mail addresses unless you happen to be a public person, like an author or politician, for example.  We respect your privacy, but we hope you will include your full name and email address when you post comments.

Our avatar program assigns unique icons to your posts using this information. Once approved, we remove all personally identifiable information, like last names and email addresses, unless you make a point to ask to include them.

Practically speaking, this site is for family and friends. It has a tiny readership by internet standards, and Billy Lee is fine with that — even if we, his Editorial Board, are not.

We aren’t trying to change the world, though it may seem like it at times. We are trying to come to terms with it — the world and all its apparent shortcomings, its wonders and joys.

If you are not family or friend, we hope you will enjoy your status as a welcomed visitor and behave as you might expect those who visit a site you built for your family and friends. We believe everyone wants to be polite, considerate, and tolerant of idiosyncrasies. We forget sometimes, when we feel strong emotions provoked by unfettered opinions. We’re human, after all.

Yes, Billy Lee likes to pontificate. It’s who he is. He likes to express his opinions about things he sometimes know nothing about — and wax eloquent on the human condition, politics, religion, philosophy, science, whatever. Nothing written on the Pontificator is written in stone. Everything changes as he grows in knowledge and we force him to refine his understanding of whatever is before him. 

You may find yourself in disagreement with a post or comment found here. We invite you to pontificate about it yourself by posting a comment of your own.

We review all comments to make sure they’re from humans and are written in English or French, the two languages Billy Lee can read. If you are a human writing in French or English, we will post your comment.

Keep in mind the Pontificator has a PG rating policy. And yes, we ourselves have violated the policy once or twice. Speak freely. We encourage it. And permit Billy Lee to speak freely, as well. It’s how we organize our thinking, achieve new insights, and move forward to become better human beings.

The Billy Lee Pontificator Editorial Board

Editors Note: on July 1, 2015 Billy Lee resigned his memberships in all organizations that tried to control content on his blog-site.