I’m coming late to this discussion, but I wanted to mention one thing re: Huck’s posting history. Namely, he put up a truly vile thread a day or two after the Bin Laden killing comparing FR to DU. He said we weren’t giving Obama enough credit—and said we were no different than DU in the anti Obama sniping we’d been engaged in. [He may have compared it to DUers hatred of Bush; I’d have to go back and check.]
I posted several comments pointing out how uninformed, inaccurate or just plain old disgusting his comparison was. Plenty of FReepers who had been taken in by Huck’s smear immediately realized they’d been played, and said so. Huck never had the decency to address even one of my comments. He smeared the entire FR community w LIES, and defended them to the end. Something’s definitely not right somewhere.
That post is here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2714112/posts
It wasn’t vile and I’m not ashamed of it at all. It wasn’t a perfect essay, but I stand by it. It generated a lot of discussion, and if you read through the 800+ comments, it’s amazing (to me anyway) how many FR 98’ers agreed with my sentiments.
Huck has a history that I believe makes her valuable to this forum. She lived through 911 up close and personal. Most of us watched it on TV and although we still have strong visceral feelings about it; we still weren't there. It doesn't surprise me that she might react differently to Bin Laden’s killing as compared to the rest of us. I come into contact with a lot of people who are extremely traumatized and they have a wide variety of reactions.
I believe Huck is a good and reasonable person who like everyone else here who feels passionately about politics and her experiences. And like the rest of us here she enjoys a good argument and isn't afraid to make posts that she knows will get a strong reaction.
catfish1957 I am very sorry if my posts in this thread have been offensive to you. That really was not my goal. We certainly agree on most subjects. My goal when I look through someones posting history is to get a feel for where they are coming from, not to "stalk" them. Most of us are at least sheepishly proud of what we have commented on in these threads. You seem to feel differently and I shouldn't have egged you on.
In my defense I will say that over the years I have helped to bring a person or two to the attention of the moderators who were making contradictory statements in different threads. They appeared to be here only to stir up trouble and were eventually zotted. Often after a person is zotted they just come back under a different pseudonym and some of us find satisfaction rooting them out. On occasion I have been thanked for my efforts by the moderators who simply don't have time to keep track of every DU troll who manages to invade this forum. Technically however catfish1957 is correct this is similar to "stalking" game, although my feeling is that he was thinking of a different connotation. I don't mind people coming here and sharing a different opinion; I have a problem with them when their goal seems to be almost purely destructive.
I learned something else from this thread. After a certain period of time in your history all that comes up are the threads that you started not every post that you have left.
I am grateful for the consideration that I have been shown here. Please everyone have a good day.