I'm against censorship -- but believe in and practice self-censorship.

I agree with Jeri. If someone's workin' our last good nerve or says something insulting, tell him or her to knock it off. Then let's go about our business.

Interesting -- I looked in some old threads from a couple of years ago, just to get some sense of history, and this certainly is not a new controversy. It keeps rearing its ugly little head, stirring up trouble, then going away until the next time someone acts like a consummate butthead with someone else. Still, it is a public forum and that kind of thing is going to happen -- unless the forum is censored. Which seriously goes against my nature and inclinations.

I work for a daily newspaper and we have a huge "letters to the editor" section. And on those pages, we run about 97 percent of the letters we get -- an unheard of number in the newspaper business. And I HATE, HATE, HATE at least a third of the letters we get because of their nastiness, their stupidity, their idiot axes to grind, their repetitive, dependable nature. However, we have taken a (I think, principled) stand in favor of free speech, so we have to take the idiots with the savants.

I agree with Joe. Let's just try to let it roll off our backs, tell 'em when they've done something unacceptable, and continue enjoying each other's company -- and our liberty.

WW