Thank you for posting this. Sometimes we lose perspective.

I know you'll enjoy it.

For your perspective.

It is easy, probably too easy, to become heavily invested in this place. I've done it too...

We are a community, and we love belonging here.

But there are other communities, other interests to engage.

It is worth the effort to reach out and get involved in other places, other people.

I hope your weekend is grand!

i took a break and i stopped while doing yard work,washing clothes,and cleaning the garage

that train is never late.



Sid

Head in the sand....

That's how it works on this here forum.

to this former republican ole southerners comments.

to the ultimate troll, dkf. Actually I won't even think about her/him.

as being considerably worse than some of the other bully-like behavior that is so common here. I think the issue is that the ban occurred, not for any TOU violation, but because her points of view fell consistently outside the comfort zone of this site. Management of this site is obviously within their rights to make any such decisions, no matter how arbitrary those decisions may be. Ultimately, however, the site is only as good as the people who contribute here.

Personally, I am not threatened by a point-of-view that differs from my own, if it is presented respectfully and clearly. I find much more troubling, the gaggle of belligerent participants who seem to have nothing at all to do with their lives other than to hang out here, never making any useful contributions -- only spewing out a continuous stream of snarky comments. And coincidentally, these seem to be some of the same folks celebrating this banning incident. To me, that lowers the quality of this site much more than having some conservative opinions in the mix.

And that same gaggle also makes fun of people who actually go out there and try to make a difference.

They confuse sitting around on a clubhouse website typing snarky comments all night long with actually doing something productive.

Step away from the computer.
Get out into the real world.
Do something that actually matters.
Write a letter to the editor. Run for school board. Talk to your Congressman and Senators. Attend a rally. Write checks to 10 candidates.

Warning!!! You will discover that not everyone out there looks just like you, thinks just like you, acts just like you, has the same experience as you, has the same priorities as you. It is OK.

Sheesh.

either will work,

comes from the those with non mainstream liberal views. Once or twice a year I might get a little riled, enough to post a rant, but the people who post day in and day out with negative stuff about the state of the D party drive a lot of the noise around here. If you can't see that then you must not be looking. DKF while not so much noisy, tended to link to RW sources as I recall. Its making the D party bashers nervous that this one was banned.

Last edited Sun Oct 27, 2013, 03:50 PM - Edit history (1)

Thanks.

To quote another southern saying:"Opinions are like dogs and assholes,everybody gots one!"

It has given me my ideas and ideals; my principles and convictions, and I would not exchange one of them for all of Murdoch's blood-stained dollars. It has taught me how to serve - a lesson to me of priceless value. It has taught me the ecstacy in the handclasp of a comrade. It has enabled me....to take my place side by side in the great struggle for the better day.

I assume it was not sarcasm. Please tell me you were sincere.

and any resemblance to a paragraph in this speech would be pure coincidence

http://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/111debs.html

-Laelth

Thankfully, in school, however, we had Debate Club. So, I am open to disagreement, but have a really hard time with stupidity. Go figure. I do have my limits. You know, like the people who don't believe in dinosaurs as if the bones are not really appearing every day. Somehow, I guess, they are being planted.

I thank, Will, Magistrate, Nadine and so many others for their wonderful contributions to DU; also our leaders and the owners of this forum, for the many years of relevance they added to my life. But, I also will admit to missing people who used to post here, in particular, Nance Greggs, Hannah Bell, and the list goes on.

I believe we have to guard against becoming what we dislike. Intolerance certainly is the right of people who come to this forum, but, it won't necessarily keep them from being banned.

Perhaps we need a Cooling Off Group. People who just go too far, but don't realize it, could go here for a few months to angst with other similar people, and could then leave DU of their own accord or could accept the lesson in intolerance.

For the dear departed members of DU that we loved and miss, we owe more consideration to posters we do not agree with. I am very afraid of intolerance, can you tell?

quite a few people for whom DU is their main avocation, if not an obsession.

Of course, it is hard not to sometimes but you always have to remember that this is just a website, not your whole life and there are some people who like mocking and bullying others. Sad, really.

That said, I have made friends here so I enjoy my company and leave the rest to be...

As Bastian is reading the book about the end of Fantasia and says to himself

"It isn't real, it's only a story."

and then looks back at the book/movie where apparently his disbelief in the reality of Fantasia has caused a fissure/quake in the castle which knocks over Atreyu, and perhaps will swallow him up, and he cries out in horror 'ATREYU, NO!!!'

Okay, it's only a story, it's only a game, it's only a website, but dammit, people care about their stories, their games, AND their websites too.

I think it is good when people care, although at the same time, there is a fine line between caring deeply and obsession.

And Nadin, rather than missing the point, perhaps has another point. You do NOT know that dkf is even reading these threads, nor if he/she is smiling about it. Football and baseball are only games, but some people get pi$$ed off when their team loses, or, like me, when the teams they hate, (New York Yankees, Dallas Cowboys, Chicago Bears, Duke) wins.

In theory, dkf could be really upset about being banned. The Hate Mailbag, after all, features emails from people who are upset about being banned, and some people get mad about being banned from HOF or the BOG. DKF could be reading grave-dancing threads and be hurt by the people expressing enmity towards him.

And I might agree with Nadin on another point, that the banning itself was somewhat puzzling. At least as I see it, dkf posted a series of articles critical of Obamacare - and said nothing, one way or the other, about the articles. The "offensive" OP didn't necessarily mean "I agree with these articles". It could have meant "This is what people are saying about Obamacare, and Obama and Democrats need to be able to respond to these criticisms."

Why shouldn't the DU community be up to that, instead of just wanting to refute those criticisms with another cup of fut the shuck up?

Or heck, even a Democrat who reads some bullsh*t in the M$M could easily think "they have a point". Sure maybe they are being lied to, swallowing the lies and then repeating them, but why can't we liberals respond to lies with TRUTH instead of HATE?

I mean, you are part of truthout, not hateout.

Mr. Guggenheim?

for false advertising'.

Paraphrasing attorney Lionel Hutch (played by Phil Hartman) from The Simpsons. I like your post & thought I'd inject some levity.

Even if one never posts here or isn't even a member, they could spend a great deal of quality time just reading.

I sometimes have to remind myself to go outside and live life. The online forums can wait. Republicans will still be assholes tomorrow.

the rest of us just have our regular lives.



(same thing happened to me when i started a farm. if real life doesn't triumph, keep trying.)

But everyday there was more than one dkf thread, and they all seemed slanted to negativity and general downbeat material.

Did notice when dkf joined with the smart people when it came to the spying. Was a turn from support of the mainstream which got my attention.

What is most disturbing here is the rampant, non-logical propping up of the very system that has gotten us into this mess, and the attacks on the anti-spying, anti-war folks who can see the disaster capitalism behind the scenes of those issues.

If dkf is smiling at this situation, that person should be ashamed.
If dkf is remorseful then it may be a good learning experience, just as Will Pitt has learned.

Enough was enough, indeed. Cereal posters, take note.

Certainly those addicted to coffee fresh from the GD front page brewery would have no complaints.

We always run into problems when we closely examine the contents of the cereal. Rat droppings, pesticides and other nasty chemicals. It's all in the mix.

Glad you're past it now! *hi*

who has offended me or vice versa. I do remember having a sour taste in my mouth reading "dkf", though, but I've long since stopped caring about the details. So posting in one of the tombstone threads seemed irrelevant to me.

I'm glad you get it, Will. Enjoy the weekend and some baseball with your lovely family.

And I have gotten wound up over certain personalities here. I had to let it go. It's dumb to let it bother me in real life. Dumb but it happens.

It was just interesting to remark on how long dkf lasted.