I can understand that. Erik’s language could have been more diplomatic. I believe even he would admit that.

/* I still feel the same and I am not going to interrupt the flow here any further attempting to make a point that no-body agrees with.
*/

We’re free thinkers. It’s not so much an issue of whether anyone agrees or disagrees (judging by comments to previous articles on immigration, I believe the audience here strongly disagrees with our host on immigration). It’s not even completely interrupting the flow.

It’s more about using Bush to interrupt the flow (and, no, I don’t think the audience here really loves Bush, http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2006/05/lol.html ). It’s just that Bush is such a lightening rod that simply throwing out accusations about him (or DeLay, or Cunningham, or Hillary Clinton, or Bill Clinton, or Al Franken, …) just isn’t going to go anywhere with this audience.

/* It requires complete respect for each other, and using terms that are generally seen as insulting is no way to get there.
*/

I agree.

I still feel the same and I am not going to interrupt the flow here any further attempting to make a point that no-body agrees with.

Thank you for your attention… I am not angry or depressed; I simply believe that there is a level of communication that can be reached online that supersedes the topic.

It requires complete respect for each other, and using terms that are generally seen as insulting is no way to get there.

Forgive me for interrupting your flow; I know it was thoughtless of me…

R

/* I must have been mistaken when I read “Robin Spam-A-Lot…”?
*/

I understood this to be a reference to the fact that your original comment was off-topic. There’s no denying that the comment was off-topic. I don’t want to run you out of town, although I think we can have a better discussion if we stay on topic. That is, I am very interested in your opinions on immigration and terrorism, but I’m not so interested in reading a pages long essay on why President Bush is the worst President ever.

/* ”So go run your mouth on your own site. Geez.” This isn’t an attempt to convince me that in your opinion I am unwelcome here?
*/

This is actually one of the benefits of easy access to blogs (although the wording could have been improved). If you believe you have enough to say about President Bush’s shortcomings, sign up for a free blog at blogger or typepad and start writing it. You’ll magically attract people interested in your opinions of President Bush, and you’ll be very happy.

Then, stop by here, and when you read a post like this one, you can lay out your opinion regarding President Bush’s handling of the border and also say, “Oh, I wrote more about this at my own blob [link],” linking to an article about President Bush’s position on immigration.

/* Then there was, “Most people who read this blog are independent thinkers and all you are doing is spreading meaningless tripe.” Is it your opinion that only some posts have value? Are all long posts “meaningless tripe” and how on earth do you justify your statement as anything but an attack on me?
*/

I understood this comment to mean “simply accusing Bush of terrible things, and comparing him to Hitler ( http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/legends/godwin/ ) won’t go very far around here.” It may go farther with a different audience.

You also said, “Don’t apologize if you don’t mean it.” Why on earth would I? I don’t hold out much hope for your having any depth of communication if you are under the false assumption that you can read a strangers motives. Believe me when I say, that in my case, your attempt failed you, I never waste words making statements I do not mean, what benefit would there be for anyone in that except of course to harm the other. There is enough pain in the world already without my adding to the pot.

Then there was, “Most people who read this blog are independent thinkers and all you are doing is spreading meaningless tripe.” Is it your opinion that only some posts have value? Are all long posts “meaningless tripe” and how on earth do you justify your statement as anything but an attack on me?

”So go run your mouth on your own site. Geez.” This isn’t an attempt to convince me that in your opinion I am unwelcome here? It sure feels that way to me. Your post goes on to put me down etc. etc. but I am willing to be completely wrong about my assessment. After all you are the only one in the universe who can ever really know what your intent was when you wrote your reply.

I would just say to you though, that, you did not give me any reason to want further contact with you, in fact I interpreted your recent postings as hostile and you either wanted me off the site, or you were looking for a conflict as do a lot of posters on the blog circuit.
You might try looking for what is good and worthwhile about those you meet online, text is a flimsy means of communication at the best of times, it is never truly representative of the real person’s character and if the persons creative spirit is more abstract, unless he is educated in the skill of writing, it has been my experience that these people find it difficult to share through the more concrete medium of text. I guess I’m saying, give people a break before you lunge in with ambiguous statements, you might find you make a lot more real friends.

R

/* PS I think there is an option to read posts before they are posted you may want to use this option if it is available in the blog you use.
*/

If you were adressing our gracious host, you may be interested that he decided against this recently http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2006/05/comment_changes.html ).

You seem to be self destructive, you get off on insulting others needlessly, a similar psychology to Bush, it seems to be the new American sickness. Your self destructiveness is evident in that you have succeeded in creating a vision of yourself as someone I will defiantly avoid in future, so, to me you only used to exist.

You might try opening your mind to see that the past is repeating itself now, when a great civilization such as America (and I do believe that America is still great) is seldom overtaken from without until it has destroyed itself from within. Bush will see to that, I just wish he could confine his disparaging ways to America, where they seem to be acceptable.

Self destructive people lose their sense of care for others, and so their devastation pervades everything they touch. How truly sad!

I have deleted your blog from my favorites… I will not trouble you again…

Good bye

R

PS I think there is an option to read posts before they are posted you may want to use this option if it is available in the blog you use.

If Bush is the Anti-Christ, he’s sure doing a bang-up job of it with his 35% popularity ratings here and much much lower in the rest of the world, huh?
Put some critical thought into your beliefs and you will see they are foolish. People thought the same thing about Clinton, that was ridiculous too, but he was actually popular and had a decent world-wide influence.
I don’t know what to think about the Anti-Christ, but I do know he is supposed to deceive and bring all people together… oh yeah… that sounds like Bush to me!
Go hang out with your nutty friends, build us some tinfoil hats, we’ll need them when Bush reaches his full power and takes over our brains! (If he hasn’t already…)

R

Obviously this country was built on the mixing of cultures, so there is good
that comes. The people that came, came for the opportunity to be successful.
But, with the good can come bad. Bad ideology in mass quantities
could have a devastating effect on our culture. We wouldn’t want tons
of people coming here which are lazy. This is 180degrees different from the
roots of our culture. For example, many European
countries ban ‘offensive’ speech, which our 1st amendment protects.
If enough immigrants came here, they can one day have enough votes to get
a new amendment changing our law and values held as a society.

Also, I fail to see the correlation between Robin’s post and the topic at hand !?!?
Find another forum where that post makes more sense to actually post.
I’m not going to post a thesis about why I don’t like chocolate chip cookies…