This is disingenuous at best, a flat out lie at worst. You want people to judge you on your current posting habits, fine – but don’t whitewash the past. Doesn’t show very good character.
You “voluntarily left” these boards after a massive meltdown with the mods. That really wasn’t that long ago, was it? I’m glad you’ve had some sort of revelation in the past few months, but it may be harder to convince folks that such changes are really to be trusted from someone so unstable.
And since your humble return you haven’t exactly been an example of SDMB excellence in posting. You spend an inordinate amount of time in the Pit, where you seem to continue to piss off a whole mess of people. Perhaps you should stick to the other fora for a while.
And if you really are a 49 year old grandfather, then please stop using the condescending bullshit “You must be young…I remember when…” line. I can assure you there are plently of folks far older and wiser – who have learned the value of “less is more”.
Kiss my ass. I share with you what he told me, in public, no more and no less. If he’s off the drugs, and if his latest unfounded aggressiveness is entirely due to his own personality, then I erred; not otherwise. If it were none of our fucking business, he ought not have told us in the first place.
Jesus. Talk about bringing your own personal issues into the deal.
You, play disingenuous word games? Pardon me while I pick my jaw up off the floor.
No: that’s not the spur between us. The spur between us is pretty similar to the spur between yourself and many other members of this messageboard. Figure that out, and you’ll be on your way to repairing our relationship.
Umm, Mr. Moderator? I understand that even here in the PIT, one should not constantly turn someones poster-name into an insult (altho then, I don’t know where you were when one poster kept calling me “DrDerth”, but that’s another story ). But calling “Lberal” by his old user name “Libertarian” is hardly an insult is it? After all- “Libertarian” is what he originally picked for himself, and enjoyed the use of for years. And, few would think that calling someone a “Libertarian” is really an insult. . Not to mention- I think that there was a “sea-change” in his opinions & posting-style pre & post name change, so it could be useful for some to refer to his “Libertarian” period posts and his “Liberal” period posts. But you’re the Mod, so whatever you say. You did make yourself very clear, and thank you for that.
However, OTOH, his postings did change quite a bit, so I have no problem with a name change- although I agree with all of you who say “Lib” would have been better.
Anywho- “The poster formally known as Libertarian but now calling himself Liberal” is hardly an “idiot”. He has made a change for the worse since his name change- IMHO- becoming more strident, more sarcastic, and less thought-ful and less thought-provoking in his posts. Sorry “Lib” - but “I calls 'em as I sees 'em”.
Depends on what you mean by “idiot”. Certainly, he’s knowledgable, but I have yet to see a moment where he actually learns something. So I see a lack of learning capability, or a lack of will.
I detected a “kinder, gentler” Lib a couple of years ago. I’ve always liked his insight and his tendency to send me scrambling for a dictionary.
When his comments became more barbed and hostile, I wondered if he has a mood disorder. (I do, and that helps me to be a little more tolerant – to a point.)
I am hoping for a return to a more centered *Lib, but such centeredness is only from my point of view anyway.
I do commiserate with Lissener and I miss learning from Lib. I don’t learn well from people who try to humiliate others. I love Lib anyway. I respect his political viewpoint and wish he respected mine, but he generalizes too much to do that. He has good taste in TV shows though.
You and I have sparred on occasion as well, with me always winding up on the “losing” end. So please take the following as you will.
I honestly think you’re being used. Most people - rightly or wrongly - prefer not to spend the time trying to sort out what that particular spur is, because we feel such an endeavor would be fruitless. Because you’ve enjoyed creative debate from time to time with him, you’ve been lulled into thinking that debate was meaningful. I submit that debate’s not meaningful if one of the parties does not come away with more knowledge than he started with, and my perception is that one of you is simply toying and patronizing the other.
choie, I’m with you on this. The fact that Liberal told us he takes / used to take, medicines doesn’t mean some dickhead can use it again and again in his posts, just because he has nothing interesting to contribute.
Didn’t gobear have something similar happening to him? Some asshole reminding us over and over that gobear is gay? Even when it had nothing to do with the subject being discussed.
What I had was a herniated disc that was pinching the hell out of my sciatic nerve. I was in constant escruciating pain that shot like lightning bolts down my right leg from my hip to my foot. These lasted all day long, and even during the night, day after damnable day. After two months and three doctors, I finally was referred to a neurologist who prescribed Prednisone and Percocet. I was on the Preds for a couple of weeks, the second week being nothing but weaning and withdrawal. Neither the drugs nor thrice weekly physical therapy were any help at all, except that the drugs deluded me into thinking I was a manly man for enduring the pain. Finally, I was scheduled for a spinal epidural. (Incidentally, almost all of this is documented here. I pretty much shared the experience with everyone.) I had to sign the waiver from hell that informed me that I might be paralyzed, or have worse pain, or die. There was a one in one hundred chance that I would have a headache so bad the next day, that I would need to go to the emergency room. There was a 30% chance that I would be cured. The doctor had me lie on my side, facing the wall away from him. I did not feel the injection since my back was topically numbed. But when his needle found the sciatic nerve, my knees slammed into the wall, and I cried like a baby as he discharged the medicine directly onto the nerve at the disc. This was a Friday. Saturday, no headache came. On Monday morning, I awoke pain-free for the first time in months. Not so much as a tingle. Two days later, I called my physical therapist and told him I was cured. I also called my neurologist and told her (the man was her colleague) that I would not need the operation that we had tentatively scheduled. The only drugs I take now are Pepcid AC, aspirin, and Tylenol. Daniel and a couple of others apparently made assumptions about me and ongoing medications, and continue to do so.
Actually, there are many with whom I have no spur. There are a few with whom I do.
I’ve learned quite much in my five years. In the past week alone, I’ve learned about copyright law, and how Michael Moore did not violate it for his film title. I’ve learned that it was not the Republican Congress of 1994 that passed the assault weapons ban. I’ve learned why Kittinger did not vaporize when he tumbled to the earth from 20 miles in space. I’ve also learned about Amazing Race. In general, wherever I have said that I stand corrected, or that I’ve made an error, or that I was mistaken, or have asked a question — and there are many such times — I have learned something. I have even learned from you.
It was a drug induced mood disorder. But I have made hundreds of posts since that time. Some have been barbed, some maybe even hostile. But others have been posts offering help to people with ADHD, sympathizing with victims of kidney stones, sharing insights about Jeopardy, Queer as Folk, and Big Brother 5. I’ve responded to IMHO polls, advised people about messed-up keyboards, and shared my personal moral journey with people in GD who asked for guidance. I’ve also joined in with Bush bashing, but I think what some people have perceived as “hostile” are my posts that bash their own political darlings, like the Clintons, or Kerry, or Edwards (about whom I’ll be posting a Pit thread soon), or their own political philosophy. Especially the last one. But as the record shows, my own philosophy has been bashed for five years, usually by the same ones, like Ludovic and Leander, who feign outrage when the same is done to them. In short, I’m just a rather ordinary poster who happens to embrace an unpopular (here, at any rate) political philosophy and worldview. From my own vantage point, I think I have greatly mellowed over the years. I used to become quite hot-headed and even cruel in debates over such things as libertarianism. Now, I state my opinion and deliberately avoid, wherever possible, being dragged into hijacks about hypotheticals and so-forth. That does not, however, prevent two or three detractors on a mission from jumping into a thread and making an issue of me and my views. When I respond to them, THEY accuse ME of hijacking. Daniel has even done this quite recently in Great Debates. As I said, having modded at Philosophy Forums, I have a different take on things now. I don’t view every issue as life and death. I can’t do anything about my past. And I can’t really do anything about ongoing perceptions. What I’ve decided to do is be myself. Those who like me like me, and those who don’t don’t. And that’s fine by me.
I don’t bash your philosophy: I honestly debate it. I bash your debate style, such as it is.
Now you’re just cryptic and smug. Most of the time that is.
It IS ironic that the change in your name has sparked more debates than it has cured. For, since you are a fairly prolific poster, I think it is intellectually dishonest to do unexplained drive-bys, then complain of being piled on.
EXCEPT when the subject was Libertarianism. Despite the fact that choosing that name was sort of setting yourself up to be a target for those who want to hijack the debate into Libertaria, the frequency with which it occurred would outweigh most people’s patience in discussing any subject, not only Libertaria.
And then you changed the name and the debate continues. Again, despite the fact that I agree with those who think you chose the name to deliver another cheap whoosh of those who do not consider every possible meaning of a word, they should just get over it, already.
I see a point in complaints about username abuse. To take a hypothetical, suppose we had someone with the username Lucifer or Lucinda. Cruel and sardonic posters might shorten such to 'Luci, and make snide inferences to Ricky Retardo, running around banging on a bongo and shouting “BOB-A-looooooo!!” or saying something like “'Luci, you got some 'splaining to do!!”
This is so obviously wrong no further explication is needed.
That would likely be true for a lot of people, but Lib is superbly fast and efficient in any task he does, posting here included. He doesn’t spend any more time on this board than he does watching tv and the combination of both do not dominate his day.
I thought it was a bit out of touch with reality to suggest that a person’s life would change because of a reputation on a message board.
If this thread ever had a useful point, it’s been well and truly obscured by smoke, heat, smouldering, lots more smoke, possibly a few mirrors and plenty of smoke, but damned little in way of actual illumination.
I’m locking it off in the spirit of a mercy killiing, not because it’s just plain too dreary, pointless and stupid to live any longer.
Gack.
). But calling “Lberal” by his old user name “Libertarian” is hardly an insult is it? After all- “Libertarian” is what he originally picked for himself, and enjoyed the use of for years. And, few would think that calling someone a “Libertarian” is really an insult. . Not to mention- I think that there was a “sea-change” in his opinions & posting-style pre & post name change, so it could be useful for some to refer to his “Libertarian” period posts and his “Liberal” period posts. But you’re the Mod, so whatever you say. You did make yourself very clear, and thank you for that.
is hardly an “idiot”. He has made a change for the worse since his name change- IMHO- becoming more strident, more sarcastic, and less thought-ful and less thought-provoking in his posts. Sorry “Lib” - but “I calls 'em as I sees 'em”. 
