No, not at all, gshs. I find you a perfectly lovely and gracious person to talk to.
I don't know the source of your FReepmail. But if it comes to you second hand -- that is, not from the person with whom some of your party, at least, seems to have a problem -- I wouldn't read too much into it, or take it too much to heart.
FWIW, there were no "winners" here today.
I've just got to get this off my chest: I have been posting at FR for five-and-a-half years now; and not once have I ever asked the AdminMod to pull a post, or ban anybody. There are two reasons for this:
(1) I truly believe free speech is a great blessing that is absolutely indispensable to the functioning of a civil society under law. It is something that must be defended, almost all of the time (incitement to crime, for instance, would be an exception to protected speech, and quite properly so, IMHO).
(2) I really do think it's better to leave "the public record" intact.
This might strike some readers as a Machiavellian insight; but sometimes what people say about each other sheds more light on the speaker than on his "target."
So I just say, leave it all up there -- let it all hang out. The careless speaker can discredit his entire line of argument by relying on ill-founded maneuvers. And if such backfires get posted "up there" in neon, indefinitely, there might be something there from which the rest of us might draw some timely and practical instruction.
Of course, that question is now moot, WRT some of my more "adversarial" friends at any rate. Good grief, but I find myself already missing them.
I don't mind adversity in the least. In fact, when I sponsor a thread, like this one, truly I want to encourage the broadest diversity of views.
I'll make my case as strongly and fairly as possible, and I expect others to do exactly the same. I just hope with civility and graciousness, if that's at all possible.
But the research! And the resource! that gets built up in this kind of process really is marvelous, extraordinary. So many have helped to make it so.
I humbly hope JimRob will reinstate any present persona non grata established as such on this thread as soon as possible. And that all the parties will make peace with each other. And then we can begin to move on together -- again.
Maybe there can be winners here today. Where do we go from here?
May God grant His grace and blessing on all today's "contestants."
In Christ's love....