“Well, Jim’s allowed to express his opinions here, just like any other Freeper. I’ll make my own choices, as my conscience directs.”
That’s magnanimous of you. I copied you since you pinged him, presumably to get him to change his mind, not to “make your own choices”.
Did you re-read what you posted? It sounded to me like you were telling us all to "move on" because Jim says so.
You raise an excellent case in point; I'm pretty sure that WF "pinged" Jim Robinson to bring to his attention the fact that the author of this article gave FreeRepublic and Jim himself a nice plug in an online newspaper that is nationally syndicated, and which will be reprinted nationally dozens of times in the next few days.
Especially in the middle of a Freepathon, this can be helpful. However, your focus and attention is being colored by your own feelings to the point where you completely either miss or ignore this possibility.
"Love blinds us to faults, hatred to virtues."