If Mbo wants to flame a bloke who's been dead well over two hundred years I can't see the harm in that. No need to jump to the old reprobate's defence.

There are some pretty nasty people out there in the net, and every now and again they drift in here like poisonous jellyfish. Ignore them and they drift away, flap around and the water gets all messed up and people get hurt.

That's a bit different from aggro between Mudcatters proper - including regular Guests who have some reason for not registering, such as doing it on the firms time (as opposed to the threadworms who burrow around in as unadorned GUESTS). I think we have to recognise that in such a varied community there are lots of different ways of talking, and avoid taking seeming insults or cutting remarks too seriously.