I don't know whether he lives in the UAE or not. That's not what's important to me. Matter of fact, I don't know he even said he lived in the UAE, he may have. I do know there was one poster on the pro side who stated they were in the UAE but I can't say it was definitely him and since I can't search for his posts now, I can't check it out. Again, though that's not why I asked for reconsideration.
You know, you say he wasn't the most convincing, persuasive person - blah, blah, blah which is fine. The thing is, I don't consider myself to be one of those either. I'm simply a run of the mill poster who loves my access to FR. I would hope someone would stick up for me in the event of a misunderstanding even though I'm not one of the "important" people.
What I find interesting is the people on this thread who are expressing sentiments such as yours about this being an open and shut case are the one's in disagreement with his position on this particular issue. If the shoe had been on the other foot and you had been the one to make the mistake (and that's what I see it as) I would have asked Jim to reconsider for you. When I see something which I honestly view as a misunderstanding I'll stand up for that poster regardless of whether I agree with their position on a particular issue of not. I prefer not to vanquish those on the opposing side by banning.
I regret you have personal friends who have been permanently expelled. Hopefully it wasn't due to a misunderstanding.
There are certainly plenty of people on FR that disagree with me vehemently, but what I took exception to was his actions, not his personal beliefs on this particular subject.
If he had not started a vanity attack thread-using some of the same scurrilous accusations that had been lodged by certain advocates of the DP World terminal agreement-his advocacy would be immaterial.
I guess you could give him the benefit of the doubt and credit him with a common mistake, instead of a malicious lie, but that still doesn't absolve him from responsibility for not researching whether or not this very derogatory epithet-which called into question the integrity of a very respected, distinguished talk show host and attorney-was genuine.