To who ever cares.........

[Guest regulation]

>Reg,

>

>IMHO censorship is the enforced suppression

>of ideas -- very different

>from suggestions regarding self discipline,

>manners, and good taste, in

>other words -- suggestions regarding

>behavior.

>

 

Sorry, but there is clearly more than a mere "suggestion" going on with you, Boston Guy, Esc-Tracker and several others. If all you have in mind is to make a suggestion, you make it. If people want to accept it they do, if not, they don't. But all three of you have repeatedly made the same "suggestions" over and over again despite the fact that it must be clear to you that your "suggestions" are not being accepted by the people at whom they are directed. Haven't you noticed that yet? I have. I'm afraid you crossed the line between suggesting and preaching quite some time ago.

 

 

>If we rely soley on our

>own rudders to set our

>course -- dead reckoning --

>we eventually stray off course.

 

 

Off course? What "course"? The course preferred by the group that you referred to in your first post as "most people"? Most people consider gay sex disgusting. Most people think prostitution is immoral. Are you going to give up those things because most people don't approve of them? If not, how can you exhort others to stop doing things that "most people" consider bad behavior? The fact that you come to this website shows that you are willing to toss aside the values of most people when they conflict with your own desires. Those of us who come here are the last people in the world who should be trying to set up a code of behavior based on what the majority thinks is best, considering that our very presence here shows our firm rejection of what the majority thinks. Don't be silly.

[BewareofNick]

Wow..all this from posting a picture of Mother Klump and the black church ladies!

[Guest Tampa Yankee]

Reg,

 

”Sorry, but there is clearly more than a mere "suggestion" going on with you, Boston Guy, Esc-Tracker and several others. “

 

You continue to ‘lump’ me in with such a fine gentlemen -- sometimes I wonder if your are trying to turn my head, to soften me up :-) -- I do thank you for the compliment.

 

 

If all you have in mind is to make a suggestion, you make it. If people want to accept it they do, if not, they don't. But all three of you have repeatedly made the same "suggestions" over and over again despite the fact that it must be clear to you that your "suggestions" are not being accepted by the people at whom they are directed.

 

Somethings bear repeating... what with new people coming in all the time and then there are a few that maybe benefit from being reminded of good manners. I don’t think most people wish to be rude or unpleasant intentionally.

 

”I'm afraid you crossed the line between suggesting and preaching quite some time ago.”

 

Maybe so, but I’m curious on your view of the distinction between ‘scolding’ and ‘preaching’, I see them not unrelated but differing in tone.

 

Off course? What "course"? The course preferred by the group that you referred to in your first post as "most people"? Most people consider gay sex disgusting. Most people think prostitution is immoral.

 

I think you are mixing apples and oranges here. Most people do not approve of picking one’s nose or farting at the dinner table. One difference is that your examples involve two consenting people acting in private. Such is ususally not the case at the dinner table or on these message boards.

 

Are you going to give up those things because most people don't approve of them?

 

Depends on what it is... I gave up ill behavior at the table as a young child -- when I was old enough to understand manners and offending others unnecessarily.

 

Those of us who come here are the last people in the world who should be trying to set up a code of behavior based on what the majority thinks is best, considering that our very presence here shows our firm rejection of what the majority thinks.

 

Just because I did not ‘invent’ table manners doesn’t mean I should forsake them. They serve me as well as others and that is what is important to me... and they make dinner so much more pleasant.

[MiamiLooker]

I'm curious. Would you consider it rude for one to post his opinion and then in the same post suggest that his is the final word and the thread should be closed?

[Guest Esc_Tracker]

>I'm curious. Would you consider it

>rude for one to post

>his opinion and then in

>the same post suggest that

>his is the final word

>and the thread should be

>closed?

 

ML, your question is addressed at TY but I hope you will allow me to respond. I did suggest the thread be closed but not because I wanted the last word. The discussion has since shifted onto far more substantive and courteous ground than "Get a life!" and "No, go see a shrink!" (These are not direct quotes, of course, but they represent the gist of the ground the thread was covering.)

 

I know and recognized in my post that you meant well and that your remarks were (I assume) intended more in the abstract than aimed at a specific poster. Your remarks were not explicitly couched in those terms, however, and as such were reinforcing (unwittingly?) a particularly and (to the initial poster) personally offensive drift.

 

If you found my intervention rude and preremptory, I apologize as my intention was to bring us back to a climate of mutual respect, not to cut anyone off at the knees. I remain interested in your views.

 

Esc-Tracker