Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Byrne Nukes His Own Immortal Words

Some months ago I described Overstock.com chief executive/conspiracy theorist/journalist-taunter/short-and-analyst-suer/"miscreant"-blamer Patrick Byrne as the man who "could not shut the f--- up." Well, apparently he has decided to do so, at least on his own website.

Patrick Byrne has deleted a section on Overstock's website which he had formerly used in his patriotic pursuit of short-sellers and other hobgoblins. He had modestly called it "Deep Thoughts by Patrick Byrne."

So it seems that Deep Thoughts has been deep-sixed, and with it all of Byrne's posts expounding on the naked shorting menace, the "miscreant" situation, and other fave topics. If you search under his moniker "Hannibal," all you get are innocuous posts on the less patriotic subject called "Overstock.com." Imagine that. He actually talks about the company he is running!

He had previously talked about renaming "Deep Thoughts," but I don't see anything about deleting all of his fantastic, intelligent comments. I wonder why he did that? Gee. Who put that bee in his bonnet, I wonder?

Anyway, here is a link to its former incarnation, as preserved by Google Cache.

Update (8/3): As Dealbreaker points out today, Byrne has a blog of sorts at the Overstock site. But a search of its archives reveals none of the table-pounding on miscreants, the naked shorting menace, and other obsessions that has made Byrne the most fun-fun-fun! CEO since Charlie Chaplin ran his own studio.

© 2006 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.

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