As a current popular thread indicates, it is damn near impossible to get the last word on anything round here, even for the administrators! But it is a little quieter now, and serious words spoken softly are ignored when everybody's supporters are shouting at the top of their voices. You can't hear others when you are shouting. Sometimes 'a soft word turneth away wroth', but perhaps not at Mudcat...

"I don't care who's right or wrong -
All I want to do is stop the fight!!!"

Ah yes, the response of an ignorant bullying thug! If you're for real, I wouldn't wish anyone to be one of your kids. Only spineless wimps tolerate that sort of treatment, once they become adults. The Alpha Male may scare the kiddies off for a while, but once he looks away, the ants are back in the sugar bowl again, requiring constant 'hands-on' effort to keep the peace. Kids always fighting? Displaying that attitude usually generates a 'lose-lose' result, and the participants are at it hammer and tongs, as soon as the 'peacemaker' turns his back (and then he complains that they are at it again!). At best it can create a "win-lose" situation, so one side feels justified in carrying on the war. If the USA uses this as its foreign policy in the Middle East, bend down, put your head between your legs and kiss your arse goodbye - as song goes "We're all gonna die" - WW III. The Pakistan Prime Minister was on Aussie TV today, and his words were that you will not solve the current problems of terrorism without dealing with the fundamental societal issues in a spirit of fairness and justice. One of the basic drivers for Terrorism is Poverty. Sweeping it under the carpet is only for the incompetent, and doesn't fix the problem.

However, and I suspect that there are very few reading this... and for those of you who have claimed to have lost the will to live after reading my serious posts - well, sod you too, ignoramuses!....

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Joe, as a representative of Mudcat, is fighting a rearguard action against Cultural Imperialists coming in form outside trying to run the place. Unfortunately many people, some of who were intimidated into silence by their own admission, saw the 'Toon' as a Cultural Imperialist too - trying to impose his foul mouthed racists, etc life view on them.

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"Sometime when you're feeling important,
Sometime when your ego's in bloom,
Sometimes when you take it for granted
You're the best qualified in the room." ....

"I'll tell you, **NONE** of you could do the job he does with the basic equanimity and fairness he has displayed for years! I couldn't, JtS couldn't, Ron Davies couldn't, Foolestroupe couldn't, brucie couldn't, dianavan couldn't, Clinton couldn't.. etc.... all for different reasons! I know a couple who could come close... maybe..., but I doubt that the ones I'm thinking of could stand the strain or keep up the pace."

I had assumed that these words were said in haste or perhaps a flush of overenthusiasm: so far no word from the originator. Also no word as yet from Joe, so now I have to take it that he means for me to understand that he thinks me one of the winging troublemakers: I asked him for no help with the 'Toon'.

1) I have been insulted - it is claimed that I do not have the technical knowledge.
2) I have been insulted - it is claimed that I do not have the personality.

I have used the nice polite "I" word instead of the more confronting "D" word, (which was part of the reason for Martoon departing) since I am prepared to give the poster a chance (as I know of nothing in the past that should have alienated us). I am tired of people saying "Don't like the Mudcat? Well start your own then!" OK, then what?.... ;-)

I am tired of being put down by people who just don't know what they are talking about. If anyone who doesn't know me personally in real life and has said such things will forward me the documentary evidence (personal opinions, especially of those who don't know me, are cheap!) to back this claim that I couldn't perform the duties of a Moderator, I will look at it without prejudice. If the information was supplied to them from someone else, I will, of course want to know who from, as I may then want to pursue that original source for defamation.

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Some people like to make a big fuss about how difficult things are to do. When I was in the SCA, there was this guy who was doing everything, but complaining endlessly about how he was doing everything, and not enjoying it, and how much hard work he was putting in, etc. We were at a 'Demo' and he was complaining that he didn't enjoy doing the commentary about the fighting bracket on the mike: he didn't like talking on the mike, it was hard work, etc.

Several people stepped forward, and 'convinced' him to have a break. As I was someone who had experience actually doing the fighting, and was a Safety Marshall, etc, the ladies decided I should do it.

In future the only way we could have gotten the mike out of his hands at these events would have been to pry it from his cold dead fingers. Funny, he complained a little less in future .....


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And what about the future of the Mudcat?

QUOTE

   Jophan tried to pull himself together, telling himself that there must be some mistake. But there was nothing else on the roof, just the trapdoor through which he had come, the gold cube, and the old mimeograph. Dazed by the shock of his disappointment, he wandered aimlessly across the top of the Tower.

   As he did so his hand brushed against the handle of the mimeograph, and something like an electric shock coursed through his body. Amazed, he took a firm grip on the handle. A current of some potent force seemed to flow between him and the machine, feeding back and forth from one to the other until Jophan felt every particle of his being suffused with a strange new life. The mimeograph had also changed. There was no difference in its outward appearance, but he knew that the potent force had also taken possession of it. It was subtly changed, as if it had been dead and was now alive. The handle seemed to throb in his hand. Still uncomprehending, Jophan looked down at his own body. His skin was glowing with the same golden radiance he had noticed in the bodies of the Trufans. His limbs were being invested with the same godlike strength.

   As the revelation came to him, there was a sound of golden trumpets in the air, and he heard again the voice of the Spirit of Fandom.

   "Yes, Jophan," it said," you are now a True Fan; and it is yourself that has made you so, as it must be. And now you realize the second great truth -- that this is indeed the Magic Mimeograph, and it will produce the Perfect Fanzine. For--" and now the song of the trumpets filled the air, ringing across Trufandom to the far mountains-- "FOR THE MAGIC MIMEOGRAPH IS THE ONE WITH A TRUE FAN AT THE HANDLE."

   And Jophan found that it was so.....

UNQUOTE

Goodbye!