I'm not a fan of bans, outside of spammers, but other than that I'll back you up. When he runs out of arguments he just starts posting stupid insulting crap. If it affects your desire to come to the Cellar, it's probably best to just put him on ignore.

Just put him on ignore and get on with your life. If everyone begged for the masses to be on their side every time they were slighted, we'd all be a bunch of blubbering idiots. God, why do I care? I don't know, but I will say that neither one of you is completely without blame. Get over it.

Or: no please stay, please don't go, oh please oh please oh please. :eyebrow:

Merc, the Cellar rules:

1. Do not try to break the law using the Cellar.
2. Do not try to break the Cellar.
3. Do not be "intolerably irritating".

Rule #3 is the rule under which most people have been banned over the years. It's pretty hard to get to the point of intolerability. The rule is extremely subjective and it's interpreted by three different people. This is part of the fluidity. Of course you can point out that you feel someone's an asshole, and you can be an asshole yourself. "Testing" the rules ("Hmmm, how far can I go?") is the one thing that gives me an itchy ban finger... so much so that it really should be rule #3a.

It is through this approach that the Cellar attempts to reach a higher moral plane than simple law-n-order. Very little is actually against the rules because it's nearly impossible to build a set of rules that would apply to every intolerably irritating situation. So it's not about the rules; it's about making a positive contribution to the forum through reasonable communication.

On NPR today... You have to go to the site to listen to it. Very interesting.

Interviews
Moroccan Village Funnels Suicide Bombers to Iraq


Morning Edition, April 25, 2007 · Moroccan authorities believe the village of Tetuan has sent as many as 30 suicide bombers from the North African village to Iraq. Scott Atran, senior fellow at City University of New York's Center on Terrorism, briefed the National Security Council on the issue in March.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=9814476

I listened to that one this morning. They sent 30 to Iraq after providing the 5 sets of legs for the Spanish bombings as well. Atran said something about the North Africans seeing the jihad as the only counter-balance to US hegemony. (a sloppy paraphrase) It is stunning how we're perceived after a half-century of meddling. I don't see us changing methodologies anytime soon so it will get worse.

Did you see a story recently on policing the internet? Folks who show know better are trying to get a code of conduct for folks to embrace net wide. Sometimes when things get a little wild here people learn something about human behavior and about their own attitudes. The Cellar is about as close to free speech as anyone will see, complete with reaction. peace out

Morocco is one of America's closest Arab friends. Morocco demonstrates how American extremist hate is even making closest friends into enemies. Once upon a time, over 70% of the world thought positively of the United States. Then wacko extremists took power. Some Americans hated so much as to even believe Rush Limbaugh. Extremists lied - and did so repeatedly. Therefore American approval ratings dropped to the 20 and 30 percentiles even in countries that were once America's closest friends.

At what point does the evidence become obvious to wacko extremist supporters in The Cellar. Why so many suicide bombers? American leaders - the wacko right wing of the Republican party - are making enemies even of once strong American friends. Wackos deny this using tricks such as denying or forgetting history. For example, denying the many FBI investigations that were stifled before discovering 11 September.

A Norwegian foreign minister within months predicted George Jr would destroy the Oslo Accords. That wasn't good enough. George Jr has so tried to create Armageddon that even Morocco villagers now become suicide bombers. No wonder Americans openly advocate international kidnapping, secret prisons, imprisonment without judicial review, and of course torture. Torture is good - implies our wacko extremist Republican leaders. If so, then it is also good for Moroccans to be suicide bombers. That conclusion is inevitable when American leaders are corrupt and supported by extremists who are just as anti-American.