This is long. Comments about Boro at the bottom, boring stuff about my ban at the top. Also, please note, I am not an ACr. I am an independent. I disagree with many of Borodog's political positions.
Although I regularly read the Politics forum, I was not aware that there had been some sort of shake-up. Quite honestly, being a big believer in, and supporter of, free-speech I did not think that there needed to be a regime change. But, whatever, not my place to tell the site how to run its business.
Unfortunately, my ignorance led to my first ever suspension. I made a one sentence joking reply to a post that Midge made about the present U.S. administration ( I am not a supporter of the present U.S. administration and neither is he). His OP was, IMO, inarticulate, poorly thought-out and ended with an ugly political implication.
Now I happen to like Midge, or at least his internet persona. He seems nice and he is obviously smart. Although I don't agree with much of his politics, I can easily respect his positions.
I chose to reply to his op with humor. My reply to Midge's post was, "Shouldn't you be out shooting pygmies?"
For that reply, I was banned for a day for a "personal attack". Now anyone with an 8th-grade education or who has watched cartoons as a child knows that Pygmies live in Africa and Aboriginal people live where Midge lives, in fecking Australia. I was leveling him when I referenced the Pygmies (obviously).
The woman and I on vacation with Pygmies
Aboriginal persons, so fecking obvious.
Pygmie reference not withstanding, clearly, my reply was a joke. Unless Midge was a convicted Pygmie killer or perhaps, a Pygmie himself, I see no way how my post could be construed as a personal attack.
So, needless to say, I was quite surprised that I had been banned.
Ironically, I found out that I had been banned while I was in bed in a Hyatt suite in Miami (drove down for a long weekend with my woman). After lots and lots of really, really good secks with my woman,
NSFW
http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e3...hicks/army.jpg
(had to have been at least 8 or 9 minutes worth-this pic isn't her. But, it does look just like a girl I saw at the outlet mall, who I then obsessed about for 13.5 hours)
Anyway, I asked her to check my 2+2-PM's so I could see if I had received a response from a mod about a project that we are trying to get going in another forum (ie I support 2+2).
When she attempted to log me in, she started laughing and told me I had been suspended for telling someone to shoot a Pygmie. She laughed at me and said, "oh poor little school boy got in trouble with the hall monitor and got suspended." And then she laughed at me again. This was really humiliating and I was really crushed for like thirty-seconds.
Now, admittedly, this turned out pretty well, because after laughing at me, she wanted to play the stern teacher,
naughty school boy game.
This isn't her. But she looked just like this when we were playing the game.
We had never played that game before. Apparently, it consists primarily of an oral exam. Anyway, after that, I was really, really upset..honest.
Now, regarding Boro's ban:
Are you serious? Why in the world would you ban a guy who is exceptionally intelligent (as in genius), extremely well educated (PHD), and pedagogically gifted? Is it because Boro
thinks and writes on levels that eclipse most posters' capacities?
Politics is the articulation and manifestations of our core beliefs and most closely held ideas. Debate about them should be heated and passionate. The debates should be confrontational. The forum should be the crucible where weak assertions are crushed and destroyed and the strong are hardened and sharpened. There is nothing to fear in the exchange of ideas, no matter how intense the discourse.
There is, IMO, something to fear in the censuring and restriction of ideas. Particularly, when that censoring is a derivation of lesser people's attempts to impose their misguided interpretation of what for them is political debate.
As much as I make light of my own ban, I find Boro's ban to be extremely disturbing. Especially when one views what is presently passing for political debate on the forum; IMO, weak, pseudo academic ramblings of under-educated (relating to the specific subjects), overly-subjective posters.
The value of the site is driven by the number of members. The quality of the site is directly tied to the class of member who is reading and posting on the site. Why would you want to discourage and drive out those who are at the top of the class?
But, hey whatever, keep up the good work.
