Sorry, but in this case, YOU are incorrect. The OP you quote had a link in it, and that link went to a post of Liberal’s, from a thread in which he WAS being pitted. Although the OP here did state that he was not personally pitting Liberal, linking back to the other thread opened the same can of worms.
I’ll take a stab at this one. When one posts a message on this board, and someone responds to it, that response is a form of attention. When one posts in such a way that, rather than add to or further the discussion under way, they tend to divert the discussion into another direction, particularly when they divert the discussion to themselves, that is called hijacking and is frowned upon. When one does this repeatedly and dramatically, they are sometimes called an attention whore. When one does it spectacularly, annoyingly, compulsively and for years without end, well, that’s our Liberal.
Your example of an innocent post of his is a good example of one of the things he does to bring about the flaming that he apparently craves. When one of SDMB’s better known Christians throws out something like “I don’t believe in the bible either”, it’s bound to get a reaction. He got exactly what he wanted. He exacerbated it by going into his cute little parsing of what believing in the bible means, and Klaatu responded.
Stick around and watch. Liberal has earned lasting animosity from a lot of people here. Not from me. I may chime in if he comes out with a particularly egregious piece of bullshit, but mostly I just watch the fun. I think he’s an asshole, but I generally don’t hold that against him. 
Heffalump and Roo
Could we dispense with all the drama?
To me, ‘personal attack’ means ‘to attack a person’. To criticize behaviour is not an attack on the person but rather on what the person does.
I do not think anybody is a bad person. I think good people sometimes do not-very-nice things.
But it seems that people (most people?) do not distinguish between ‘sinner’ and ‘sin’. If I say ‘you did a bad thing’, people (at least here) seem to hear ‘you are a bad person’. To me, they are very very different statements. Apparently, they are not to some people. I don’t know why. All I know is that the people who are feeling so wounded need not - I didn’t say, and don’t think, that anybody is a bad person. I just saw some people doing a not-very-nice thing and asked why.
I remarked upon the behaviour of some posters. I asked why it was considered to be ok to attack people in a personal, hurtful way. It is not all right on other boards and is considered bannable on every other board I’ve ever visited so I have been trying to figure out why it is considered acceptable here.
Bravo, sir.
Sorry to disappoint, but I wasn’t offended. But, given that I was supporting you in the PNAC thread, I thought I might’ve gotten a point or two in my favour.
Here’s a hint: if you’re telling someone else something thinking it might be useful, it’s ‘making a suggestion’ or ‘raising an issue’. If someone is telling you something you don’t like or don’t want to hear, it’s them ‘lecturing’ you 
(and that, folks, was indeed the general ‘you’)
Good points all around. However, if you’re in a room with a bunch of people that you address as “Listen, for all you dog-kickers…” someone might take offense because you haven’t specifically refined your declarations. Now I’m sure the best possible zen like thing to would be to say “Well, since I am not the dark curly haired moron…” and then disengage. But in my humble experience of almost 40, folks don’t behave that way. That seem to hate being lumped by inclusion. And to the point I’ve bolded, 16 showed up because one was a hitchhiker, it’s just not an assumption I’d think it prudent to make. Plus, it my case it’s just ever so really, really simple to add those qualifiers to 1) clarify my position and 2) so as not to do something unfair. YMMV.
No. And you are correct that someone probably shouldn’t inflict a personal attack on another. Although I do understand that many feel differently according to their specific circumstances and it’s not up to me to set as a judge of what they should or shouldn’t do. Since everyone here are mostly grown ups, I feel that making an observation (maybe even more than once) is sufficient to allow them to make up their minds about taking that information on or seeing it as shit. As to your last question? I’m sorry, but I’m not even sure what you’re talking about there.
I apologize for my lack of willingness to go there, but I feel that many other Dopers have already explained that adequately and all I’d probably do would further confuse and muddle the matter. I’m sure someone else with better explanatory skills can help you there.
Maybe those’ll help. If not, mea culpa for wasting your time.
It’s just hard to watch.
First you want to eliminate personal attacks, and we should dispense with drama as well? Have you read the rules of this forum? They’re in a sticky at the top. If you don’t like the rules or how the pit operates, do what many other happy users here do: stay out.
And you don’t think there are any bad people? Wake up, Pollyanna, they’re out there.
If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Then don’t.
I swear, you are thick as a brick. The point is that you are presumptuous to sit in judgment of others and annoying to post in a self-righteous holier-than-thou manner. It doesn’t matter if you are think you are criticizing who people are or what they do. If you are gathering that people around here do not draw those fine distinctions, you are correct.
Why don’t you e-mail a moderator and ask? Then you could get your answer as to why certain behavior is allowed straight from the horse’s mouth. Of course, being a private exchange, it wouldn’t bring you nearly as much attention.
If you find it hard to watch, there’s some cute kittens for viewing in MPSIMS. Or so I’m told.
Actually, that’s excellent advice and what I try really hard to implement in my own writings out here among the intarwebs cyber spacie thing. Because, although I do understand folks getting upset for whatever reason, we always have time before we ultimately post it. So, at least in my case, this is my own chance probably ever ( ) to be a better person than I am.
This has been asked and answered already. Such things are only allowed in the Pit. One forum out of several. If it bothers you that much, might I suggest you check out MPSIMS?
I don’t. And, trust me on this, there are many things I’d rather be doing right now.
I said in that thread that I’d answer questions. At the end of that thread, there were people asking where I’d gone and why was I not answering the questions. So I said I’d answer via PM because I thought the thread was supposed to stay shut and got slanged for not ‘answering publicly’. Now I’m answering publicly and I’m getting slanged. If you’re going to gang up on me, would you at least have a strategy meeting first and coordinate your approach?
But the OP’s question was something other than that thread and Liberal’s answer dealt with the question he was asked.
So, go do them. Nobody’s keeping you here except you.
Not a problem, the closing were not do to the subject you addressed.
Jim