It has been a while since Ol' Bob has dropped anchor here, but it seems like not a day has past--Oh, Dot-commerce turned from the saviour of our economy to the millstone around our neck, Napster has been zapped by a legal beam from the Music Industry Death Star, and our pensions and IRA's have shrivelled up like prunes (which are now referred to as "Dried Plums") but forget all that-- someone made a commentusing the name of Pol Pot, someone else decided it was inappropriate, and the threats and accusations began flying once more--thus beginning yet another Mudcat Nor'Easter on the Darjeeling Sea--Don't think for one moment that Ol' Bob defends Pol Pot, in fact, shocking as it may seem, he thinks Pol Pot was a very bad man, who did some very bad things. In fact, Ol' Bob thinks there are a great many bad men (and bad women) who have done very many bad things. Even more shocking, he thinks people should bring their names up, either in serious discussion, or, because their deeds often shock the soul, in a sort of sardonic jest (Parody and Satire having been considered an appropriate vehicle for the conveyance of moral outrage since the time of the Classical Greeks)
The thing is, Ol' Bob thinks that the truly socially and politically concerned person would feel compelled to discuss Pol Pot and the genocide that he was involved in, as well as previous and subsequent genocides--
As far as Ol' Bob knows, know one in this forum has any deep culpability for what happened in Cambodia, and it is his thought that, for that reason, members of the group ought not to be subject to any of the cinematically induced outrage that has been expressed in other threads.
As a closing thought, Ol' Bob is truly saddened that, for many, knowledge of the Cambodian Genocide only came after seeing the movie "The Killing Fields". He cannot help but reflect that, if people spent less time bickering about the "appropriateness" of others casual conversation, and more time reading and discussing the news of the world, this would not be the case.