Taken as a whole the article can fairly to be said to be rather self indulgent though your reference to his self indulgent nature is absurdly sweeping But disproof on one Israeli mailing list is not the issue within hours the internet a vile institution which I do not use was awash with stories that the United States had banned my entry to America because of my critical articles about the Bush administration or because I had long ago interviewed bin Laden or because I was so horrible that no democracy would ever let me stain its front doormat This rubbish followed me round the world In Australia to launch my book I was asked on 10 radio and television shows and in four lectures how it felt to be banned from the United States I must have spent a total of two hours collectively explaining that this was untrue I had simply travelled on an old passport that was no longer valid for entry to the US It was useless In Scotland a university academic introducing me to his audience by announcing that my articles must at last have got up the nose of the Bush administration because I had been banned The internet bullshit followed me to Dublin and then to Cork and then to Belfast Nothing it seemed could switch off the message Remember too that this is the guy who some people dislike enough that the internet term Fisking was coined