When does fearlessness become recklessness? When does honesty become irresponsibility and meanness? When does Eric Somers stop asking questions and get to the meat of his column?

Another Heavy Hitters columnist that I respect a lot (I won’t give his name but it rhymes with Mason Mature) recently turned me on to something really, really good. And that something good is comedian Doug Stanhope’s website (dougstanhope.com). In particular, Mason’s sound-a- like insisted that I would love Doug Stanhope’s journal.

Well, oh my God. I’ve read only one entry but I’m already hopelessly hooked. Doug’s July 12th entry, which talks about the evil nature of comedy classes, is one of the funniest, most stinging blogs I’ve ever read. Unlike me, he names names – big names, and he calls out all of the wannabe emperors, not just for having no clothes, but for shamelessly profiting on their bogus flowing robes. Doug Stanhope doesn’t make any friends with this blog, but if you liked Joe Rogan vs. Carlos Mencia, you’re gonna love this. You’re gonna love, love, LOVE it.

Consider this is my gift to you, faithful reader. It was generously passed along to me and now I’m paying it forward. You can thank me later.

Now, on to the unpleasantness. Despite my overall review of “read it,” I feel compelled to add the following little disclaimer to my recommendation of Doug Stanhope’s journal: IT’S NOT ALL GOOD. You see, I’ve got a problem with Doug Stanhope. I say, I say, I say boy (in my best Foghorn Leghorn attention-commanding voice), “I’ve got a problem with Doug Stanhope. I’m not kidding. I’m not kidding even a little bit.”

As much as I respect Stanhope for taking on the profiteers of the comedy world, I think he takes his act way too far when he names the names of civilians. It is one thing to call out a powerful, well known wrong doer. That takes balls. But it is something else altogether to tell a humiliating story about a private citizen who is not in the limelight, does not seek the limelight, and did nothing worse than choose between the lesser of two evils.

“But, Eric,” you might object, “I read that journal entry and I don’t remember anything about a humiliated private citizen.”

Scroll down, young Skywalker. I beg of you, scroll… down.

Just beneath Stanhope’s brilliant “Comedy Death Camp” blog is a comment section where some woman berates Stanhope for using the story of their relationship as a bit in his stand up act. More specifically, she berates him for revealing the embarrassing details of their first sexual encounter.

At first glance, you might think that this woman (and I) might be overreacting. After all, comics talk about their sex lives everyday. But a closer look reveals something sinister. In fact, a closer look reveals something sinister on two levels.

First of all, it is almost always wrong to brag about any sexual conquest (because bragging suggests that you weren’t deserving of the implicit trust that a person places in you when they have sex with you in the first place), but to record a comedy album where you give the first name, last name, and hometown of that partner, a girl that you haven’t even seen in fifteen years, is beyond insensitive. It’s reprehensible. In Stanhope’s defense, the story is terrifically entertaining, but it would have been just as entertaining if the girl’s name hadn’t been revealed. The girl’s name has nothing to do with the greatness of this story.

Second (and this is the sinister aspect that provoked me into writing this column), it is sinister for Stanhope to deflect and be intellectually dishonest when discussing this situation. When this woman complained that Stanhope’s story was an embarrassment to her in front of her friends, her church, and her current husband, Stanhope tried to make himself out to be the victim. This is wrong. This is just plain wrong.

Despite Stanhope’s protestations that this girl misunderstood the point of his story, that she was too dim to understand that he was calling her a beauty that could be compared to a mountain peak or a sunset, and that, by the way, this might not have been the first time she had engaged in an encounter such as the one they shared… I say, “Come on.”

Seriously. “COME ON!”

For a guy who so vigorously takes up the cause of the little guy in his hopeless fight against the big bad world, I say, “come on.”

You know better, Mr. Stanhope. You are too bright not to know that every part of your story is embarrassing to this woman. Yeah, she shot off her mouth, and yeah, it led to her giving you sex (that she may or may not have really wanted to have with you), but as ungentlemanly as you portrayed yourself within the story, it doesn’t compare to how mean and ungentlemanly you have shown yourself to be afterwards. You should never have recorded this girl’s full name and address on a comedy album, and I think you know it. Don’t make it worse by shrugging and throwing up your hands. If this girl hurt you in some way and you wanted to get even, then man up and say so. But please don’t play dumb. It’s unbelievable and insulting to your audience.

Just own it, apologize, and get back to attacking Carlos Mencia. Believe me, you’ll never catch me writing a column defending him.

So, that’s it for this week. I’m spent. I’ve just discovered, and then crucified, someone I suspect is 99% good guy… and I’m feeling a little frustrated. I’m gonna go have a stiff drink and take a long nap. I’ll see you next Tuesday.