[ale] Long ago off topic and wondering ever on... Defeated by the offshoring of America....

[Benjamin Scherrey]

Sorry Ladies & Gentlemen -

	I will now call it a day on the flame fest. Today I decided that it was wrong to allow 
people to mindlessly attack beliefs and freedoms that I hold dear simply so they can make 
themselves feel smart. Its been an unfortunate theme on this list - the cart-blanc insults on liberty 
and things that make this country great met with instant personal assaults on anyone who opines to 
the contrary. One need only look through the archives to see the occurances over and over again. 
Well today I had enough and decided that I would reply in kind - but with a difference. I would back 
every one of my replies with cogent arguments supporting my opinion. My hope was that I would be 
proven wrong and that at least one of my "opponents" would reply in kind with any attempt to 
honestly justify their opinions. Naturally I was disappointed but not surprised. I did get a couple of 
good natured (and well deserved)  parody rubbings but not a single one of those came from people 
who made the personal attacks. I hope they didn't consider my replies personal - but I had to keep 
it up to provoke my attackers into either putting up or shutting up. It is clear that they were 
incapable of the former - it is my hope they will, in the future, chose the latter when they consider 
making such attacks in the future. 

	To those attackers, learn a lesson. If you are going to attack something, you had better 
learn to do it in a polite manner (tread lightly) or be capable and forthwright in backing it up (tread 
strongly) otherwise you might get tripped. Don't be surprised when people take comments 
personally when you condone insults at the expense of their beliefs and values. Its time to learn a 
few manners and develop a little intellectual honesty here or pay the consequences.

	To the rest, I humbly apologize for my behaviour. It is entirely uncharacteristic of me and 
made me very uncomfortable (except that bit when my attacker fulfilled my prediction quoted in the 
very text of his message - that was just too good to be true) to act in such a manner. It was purely 
intended as a demonstration of how it feels when such tactics are reversed (yet backed up - even 
harsher) in order to teach a lesson that I felt someone had to do. When such comments go by 
unchallanged for so long, the makers actually start believing their tripe and needed to have it clearly 
pointed out just how vacuous they were. I truly hope it will not be necessary to repeat it any time 
soon.

	best regards,

		Ben Scherrey

4/14/2003 12:44:23 PM, Marvin Dickens <mpdickens at tlanta.com> wrote:

><<<<<<Big Snip Using A Weed Wacker>>>>>
>
>Even for *me*, this is out of control... Is this usenet.ale.org or
>ale.org...? 
>
>Best
>
>Marvin
>
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>Ale mailing list
>Ale at ale.org
>http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>



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