1) An organization which I respect has as one of its mottoes, "If you don't want it, you can't have any!" Seems appropriate here. 2) the Peoples Republic of China moved somewhat beyond its revolutionary past. The Gang of Four were not executed, but given life in prison-- I think Chiang Ch'ing (Mao's widow) has died; not sure of the others. 3)As for our own Gang of 12, I think it has a shifting membership 4) I have re-read Gargoyle's posts on this thread and others and have found him courteous and often informative. I have seen flames in the past. I keep coming back (and have posted on this point before) to the Prisoner's Dilemma games. . . as a metaphor for life. The winning strategies in those games are (a) nice (never the first to flame)
(b) respond to provocation (meet flame with flame)
(c) FORGIVING (stop flaming when the Other Guy does)
Sound reasonable? It does to me.