Posted on 10/10/2003 2:23:07 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
Edited on 10/10/2003 2:27:00 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Dear Free Republic Friends,
My old friend and brother-in-arms BADJOE has promised to warm the cockles of our hearts by publishing an expose (the truth about JimRob and Free Republic according to Joe) on the 18th of this month, which represents the one year anniversary of the date he last posted to FreeRepublic.com and started up with LibertyPost.org.
So, as I believe that only the truth can set you free, and based upon the stratergery of pre-emptive strike, I have a confession to make (before BADJOE makes it public):
I have poisoned the well.
By my sly innuendos behind the scenes.
By my intellectual ineptitude.
By not trusting those that brung me to the dance to bring me home.
By my biting every hand that fed me.
By my arrogance that causes me to think I did it all by myself.
By my stubborness not because of principle, but because of my lack of ability to see what is transpiring.
Evidenced by:
One would think that with half again as many Freepers. with a recovering economy, It would take a great deal less time to raise the necessary funds.
By this time in the June 2002 effort with a goal of $70,000 we had raised $73,000. Not because of who did the fundraising, but because the sense of purpose, of family, of comaraderie, was still present.
BADJOE rang the warning bell, but none heard.
Conclusion:
It is a sad day.
For what was once a great hope, a means of bringing together those who are willing to pay dearly in blood, sweat, and money to save this country, we all love, has been reduced to an asterisk.
So sayeth BADJOE as he promises to publish all this and much more on the 18th. He's been feverishly working on this "project" for one full year. In addition to the "truth about JimRob" BADJOE intends to further betray our trust placed in him by revealing the names of our moderators. And who knows what else?
I can hardly wait.
Is it the 18th yet? Tick, tock.
Can there be a free forming debate possible on the topic? I am on the evo side, but if I genuinely believed that somebody was committing blasphemy against God by suggesting the Earth was older than 6,000 years, I probably would consider them to be one of Satan's minions.
I don't have a real answer, just an observation. I think the threads are necessarily going to be angry and contentious. Perhaps a time out for a personal attack no matter who does it would be a stop gap solution, but otherwise, it seems kind of intractable, even putting haggis and Lutefisk or McClintock/Arnold threads to shame.
Perhaps there could be a special function, form to click on and abide to, recognizing that the other posters are all human beings, and you will respect them as such or else should be in order.
The big thing is respect. IMHO many creationists think that evolutionists are Satan's little helpers. Many evolutionists think that the creationists are buck toothed inbred hillbillies. This is the crux of the problem. How do you debate civilly in such a situation?
You and I have never chatted before. Until this thread, I don't recall seeing your name. (I'm confident, however, that as a mod, you've had some experience with mine.) Trust me, you don't want to get mired in the mess that the evolution threads have become. But to bring you up to speed just a little ... do you know about the "Agreement of the Willing" that many of us negotiated? Alamo-Girl was the mediator.
The agreement was drafted in the hope of ending the horrors we'd been experiencing since around June of this year, when a plague of disruptors descended upon the science threads. I won't name names; that would be unproductive. We tried to work it out. It was a long and difficult process. Alamo-Girl was in the middle of the two feuding camps.
The final agreement is posted at the end of my personal profile page. It provides for doing exactly what you suggest. We were going to start with a clean slate, with a set of rules about what was acceptable behavior and what wasn't. Most of the evolution regulars signed on. Many of us have been here for years and we were sickened at what had been happening in our threads. Alas, none of the group that hangs out at DesignedUniverse would sign (well, one did sign, but then withdrew). And our problems continued, and they continue to this day.
So I donno. We've tried. Many of us are still trying. There are lots of good people who hang out in the science threads. We hate what has been happening there. Your suggestion is excellent, but we've been there. I'm willing to try it again, as I'm sure most of us are. But it's not easy. I appreciate your patience.
What has Clinton done for the democratic party other than for himself? He lost the house, he lost the Senate, he lost Governorships, he lost state legislatures. He did a really fine job boosting Gray Davis' numbers. Hillary is so unelectable that honest democrats realize it. The Clinton's designee Gen Clark is so green that he is in the middle of collapsing as we speak. The Clinton's hand picked man Terry McCauliffe has a disasterous record as head of the DNC, and Howard Dean loathes him.
I predict a Dean primary win, a loss against Bush, and a reshuffling of the DNC in 2004, with McCauliffe out, and Rudy beating Hillary in 2006.
But, that's just my opinion.
You're right in a way. There have always been flamewars on the crevo threads. The person who goes in thinking he's just going to calmly and rationally explain why he thinks as he does will sooner or later get a bucket of slops poured over his head. It is possible nevertheless to have a discussion of an article and for each side to get its point out to the lurkers. You just can't be too thin-skinned.
What happened starting in June--and only settled down with the banning of a few people--was an organized effort at disruption which resulted in thread after thread being moved to the Smokey Backroom and then pulled. Nobody was talking about science. It was all finger-pointing and ridicule, nothing else. Attempts to talk about anything else were invisible in the noise level.
What we're seeing on this thread is crying about the injustice of the banning of the disruptors (and some very revisionist history).
No kidding?? COOL!!!
Howl. At the moon. Full one, at that.
This does not mean the Clintons are finished. You assume rationality on the part of Democrats. Maybe they're finished, or maybe they'll manage to inflict still more harm on their party. I'm not sure I care, so long as they don't inflict any more harm on the country.
Yeah, those asbestos undies would be useless!
Here he be:
±
"The Era of Osama lasted about an hour, from the time the first plane hit the tower to the moment the General Militia of Flight 93 reported for duty."
Toward FREEDOM
I've used select portions of it on rare occasions.
Never ran across anyone I thought deserved the whole thing. Although a couple have come close.
...and you think that none of your prior behavior might have played a part in your receiving one of the "blanket warnings"? It doesn't seem safe to presume that you were warned solely for the last thing you happened to have posted before you received the message.
Also, did you take any part in the DesignedUniverse thread concerning how to "get" certain FR posters?
In any case, if I were warned not to attack anyone, especially as a general "you guys behave" message instead of something sent to me only, I'd just make sure not to attack anyone. I wouldn't nurse it as a personal insult to my honor or go on about it in post after post, especially when it was just a warning.
Jim's just trying to keep the peace, so take it in the spirit in which it was given, and don't read it as a "sign" of bias or persecution or whatever.
I got a "knock it off" from Jim not long before you did, you don't see me making an issue of it, or complaining that anyone was targeting "my side".
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