[Terriergal]

Oh. Well that *can* be interpreted many different ways... what happens to people who are bothered insults like a duck is bothered by a little rain? It would be easy to say "I don't mind being called a blowhard" (or insert whatever term was used) in defense of one's own actions.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you for your post!

Actually, it is not as fluid as it might first appear. The Language Restraint clause is part of the Guidelines to achieving the first Principle - which is basically a do unto others as you would have then do unto you statement.

To a Fundamentalist Christian like myself, the Principle is like the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:37-40) and the Guidelines are like the Ten Commandments and other parts of the Law and the Prophets.

Thus, the first and most important thing for a complying poster is to make sure whatever he is saying or doing does not go beyond what he would find acceptable in the reverse situation. The second step is to make sure he is not going beyond what is acceptable to all of the willing, i.e. the Guidelines such as Language Restraint.

Again, using the Fundamentalist Christian parallel, the first question is whether what I am about to say or do is out of love of God or my neighbor, and the second question is whether it is acceptable under all the rest of the Law and the Prophets.