That's really nice of you to say -- and I appreciate it. Just to set the record straight, however, I was not banned, only suspended temporarily by a Moderator. I know it seems like a matter of semantics, but, because there has been a lot of talk of banning on this thread, perhaps others on the board would be interested to know the distinction:
Suspension: Temporary, 1 to 7 days
Banning: Permanent
Nuking: Permanent, with posts deleted (example: Michael Rivero)
From Jim and John's comments I have read on some very informative explanatory threads, I believe I am correct in saying that Moderators don't have the ability to ban people, only suspend.
My fervent wish is to never again have to experience that secret and ineffable joy of watching my friends festoon FreeRepublic threads with "Free Silly!" balloons.
Rivero got NUKED!? What a tragic loss of great threads, some of the best conspiracy-type critical-thinking out there. I can hardly believe it.
When Jim left for TX (August?) I expanded the powers of the sidebar moderator to include the new ability to suspend accounts, and the ability to remove comments and articles. As well as the sidebar duties. I created a higher level moderator function for banning and especially nuking, this was called "admin moderator". And I created one special class of moderator now called "lead moderator"; this person, and there is only one, is basically the foreman, and has access to the moderator logs and their names. (Moderators are anonymous even to each other.)