[papertyger]

Travis is a military man. It formed who he is, and how he deals with the world. That's what made him valuable to this forum.

Throwing him under the bus now for not observing the rules of polite conversation, particularly after he was given a defacto dispensation for so long, is as repugnant, dishonorable, and doctrinaire as Eleanor Roosevelt trying to keep WW2 vets from coming back home.

If you are going to legislate, recruit, educate, and order particular men to be executioners, you can't complain when they openly advocate capital punishment, nor refuse to blanch at its prospect.

[Rokke]

"Travis is a military man. It formed who he is, and how he deals with the world. That's what made him valuable to this forum."

This forum is full of military men. Some who are still serving. That does not excuse Travis' recent posting history and his active violation of almost every posting rule listed. Above all, military men learn how to achieve an objective while adhering to specific rules of engagement. When they don't, they know the consequences. There is no rule on FreeRepublic that says conversation must be polite, and Travis' posts went a LONG way beyond polite conversation. For the most part, they weren't even conversation at all. They were nothing but spam.

Your concluding statement strongly indicates you have never served in the military. Our military is trained to kill, not execute. And hanging men from trees is called "lynching". Not "capital punishment". Big difference.