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Credit to Author: Ashley Feinberg| Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2017 14:59:54 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n Last week, representative <\/span>Blake Farenthold of Texas lamented on the radio<\/a> that some "female senators from the Northeast" stood in the way of repealing the Affordable Care Act. "If it was a guy from south Texas," he said, "I might ask him to step outside and settle this Aaron Burr-style," suggesting he'd love to duel, say, Susan Collins of Maine. But who really is<\/em> Blake Farenthold (besides a man who jokes about shooting his colleagues and an actual pajama boy<\/a>)? Based on his early internet Usenet messages, Farenthold is a man who cares deeply about the accuracy of Die Hard 2<\/em>'s telecom tech, and also that Jimmy Buffet videos be full of boobs.<\/p>\n It's not too surprising that Farenthold was big on BBS in the internet's early days, considering his history. He received a bachelor's degree in Radio, Television, and Film in 1985, and even ran a computer consulting and web design firm<\/a> before entering politics.<\/p>\n So it makes sense that on July 9, 1990, Farenthold wrote the following in the comp.dcom.telecom<\/a> newsgroup under the title "Die Hard 2 Dies on Telecom<\/a>":<\/p>\n Google Groups<\/a><\/p>\n He may be the Neil deGrasse Tyson<\/a> of the early 1990s telecom BBS community, but honestly, inane but glaring and wholly avoidable mistakes ruining a movie is perhaps the most sympathetic position Farenthold's early postings stake out .<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Farenthold's office confirmed this is indeed the same Blake Farenthold, noting that "he has been using the internet since the 1980s." And boy, has he ever!<\/p>\n In that same telecom newsgroup, Farenthold\u2014the one-time owner of Blow-me.org<\/a>\u2014also revealed his strategy for dealing with his apparent "possessive woman" problem<\/a>:<\/p>\n Google Groups<\/a><\/p>\n It's worth noting that, in 2014, Farenthold's former communications director sued him for sexual harassment<\/a> . Farenthold eventually settled out of court<\/a>, denying any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n But the Corpus Christi congressman didn't just use the boards to talk telecom. As an apparent "Parrothead<\/a>," fond of sharing margarita recipes<\/a>, Farenthold participated in the alt.fan.jimmy-buffett<\/a> newsgroup, writing at one point in 1996<\/a> that he'd "planned on partying in the parking lot for about an hour or so" before a Jimmy Buffet show in Austin. He then noted that "the location video in Austin was, however better than the one in Dallas, several women bared their chests for the video camera in Austin. The Debutaunts [sic] in Dallas are a little too stuck up to do that :-)."<\/p>\n Back in October, when The Washington Post<\/em> published a tape<\/a> of Donald Trump bragging about sexual assault, MSNBC host Chris Hayes asked Farenthold<\/a> if he'd unendorse Trump if Farenthold heard him talking about raping women. Farenthold responded, "Again, I \u2014 I \u2014 that would be bad. I would have to consider \u2014 I\u2019d consider it.\u201d He later took to Twitter<\/a> to apologize for his "failure to immediately condemn anyone who would say something as outrageous as they like raping women.\u201d This, of course, has nothing to do with BBS newsgroups in the 90s. Though it does continue to astound.<\/p>\n Clear History<\/em><\/a> is WIRED\u2019s occasional deep dives into the lesser-known internet lives of the rich and powerful. Think you found someone's online identity?<\/em> Let us know here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n