Here’s the thing – if people would quit gullibly accepting Bronze Age superstitions, we wouldn’t need to keep publicly humiliating them for it. You don’t have any right to respect for ridiculous childish beliefs. Grow the fuck up already.

Oh, and please allow me to clarify – *I* don’t wish you dead…I merely suggested an out for you, so that you (and those in your life) can be put out of your obvious misery. Thus my pity for you, and those poor souls upon whom you inflict your peculiar form of boorishness on, in person on various blogs.

The question is: What did I ever do to you? A couple of comments rankled your nerves, and you wish me dead?

Damn, that’s harsh!

Get a grip on yourself, fella!

You’re swinging at a mosquito with a baseball bat.

Now you’ve added “semi-tard” to the mix. What’s next? Doody head? Banana nose?

Why don’t you just slow down, take a deep breath, and figure out what is in you, not me, that is generating such hatred…

You have now added “fucktard” to the list of names I did nothing to deserve, as well as asking that I consider suicide (nothing too extreme for you, eh, Alex?).

Aside from the FACT that my life is not my own — I have children — and God gave me my life (and yours), I would never deny you and your ilk the pleasure of my company.

BTW, to correct a wrong impression of yours, what I said was that if you had no commitment to an afterlife, AND no standards but your own to follow, it would seem to be a waste of time to help others, when absolutely no good could come of it.

Finally, my personality is by no means decrepit or diseased. You have no way of knowing anything at all about me or my personality, except for the superficial impression to be gained from my sociopolitical comments. Yet you persist in wishing me dead – by my own hand, no less; you wish I might be eaten by a dog (I don’t own); you are assured that my personality is diseased and decrepit. All this hatred directed at a perfect stranger.

No doubt, in another “atheists” thread, you will be touting your innate goodness, and insisting you need no religion to have moral standards.

You’ll get no argument from me. One doesn’t need religion to have moral standards. I know literally hundreds of people who belong to no formal religion, and yet they have extraordinarily high moral standards.

I would suggest, however (and if the shoe fits, etc.,) that, lacking in religion, maintaining moral standards can prove quite difficult. Of course, I don’t mean you, Alex .

You obviously have great character, and evidently high moral standards, as witnessed by your conduct towards, say, me…

Here’s the deal, Frank. You say something controversial, contentious, or just plain wrong. Someone (me, css, rex, etc.) calls you on it. You ignore the counterargument, or counter it with something that is just as wrong as the FIRST thing you said to incite the initial response. Rinse, and repeat.

This is extremely obnoxious behavior, Frank. If you were intelligent, you’d be able to see that. I’d say that a severe lack of self-awareness qualifies someone as an idiot (or similar), wouldn’t you?

Oh, and stop being the morality police. You’re a hypocrite. You’ve called me a “shithead,” called someone on this thread an “asshole,” and consistently disparage the intelligence of others. I don’t begrudge you these behaviors (except that they demonstrate you to be painfully self-unaware) because I engage in them sometimes as well. What I do begrudge you is your consistent whining about how mean we liberals are. Cry me a river, old man.

What exactly are you insisting I apologize for?
Nothing. What I said was,”You did what you did when you did it… Your role has never been explained.”
No apology asked for, OK?

Really, when since the cease-fire have I just outright insulted you?
Again, that is irrelevant. How many times did you say, “Eat dick, Frank” in threads where I didn’t even post, when, in fact, I wasn’t even posting to the blog at all?
“Why?” is what I’m asking. That’s the only question you (and frameone and strowbridge and mambochicken) won’t answer.

And now alex — to whom I have addressed absolutely nothing (in fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen his comments before), has seen fit to gratuitously insult me, while wondering if my body will be found (after I die from the stroke he has wished upon me) before my (non-existent) dog eats me.

Let’s see, Alex: Is that comment my fault, or all in good fun?

If I respond by insulting you, will ten people attack me, blaming it all on that insult?

Please don’t explain yourself, Alex — let’s not spoil your moment in the spotlight.

In your justification of your behavior it was contended that somehow it was my fault.

Look, I’m not trying to be contentious, but seriously, where/when did this happen? I cant apologize or correct statements if you don’t show me the statements I’m supposed to be addressing. Honestly, what are you talking about? I’m not saying this to be insulting, but really Frank, I don’t care enough about your opinion to be “apopleptic” about it.

As far as my Explaining my Role… as far as I know (which is clearly incorrect, at the very least, in your eyes) I’ve been trying to provide evidence and logic in the course of argument. I’ll concede that when a non-argument comes up (Greenland! Piltdown! Painted Schools!) I get dismissive about it for contributing nothing to the discourse, perhaps even insulting it as much as I think the very statement insults the intelligence of people actually contributing to the dialog, but where else has this happened? This thread as a case study, how hostile have I actually been to anyone, much less you? What exactly are you insisting I apologize for? Really, when since the cease-fire have I just outright insulted you?

I can only hope that someone finds his body (after he keels over mid-post from a horribly painful stroke) before his toy poodle (named “Dittohead”) eats him.

Rex, you did what you did when you did it. A momentary truce (with lapses on your part, natch) notwithstanding, your role has never been explained.

In your justification of your behavior (as in the case of frameone, strowbridge, and mambochicken) it was contended that somehow it was my fault.

We all understand how it is that someone says something in reaction to another person’s statements.

What has never been explained by any of the four of you is why you do what you do, and why you do it to me.

If I am wrong, you have two opportunities to correct it, simply.

One, find that explanation, where it was given, and re-state it. I will then retract my statement that you have never provided such an explanation.
Two, explain it now. Explain the apoplectic, blistering, withering attacks against me for simply making statements with which you disagree. Explain why, even if my statement was as factually incorrect as the day is long, your response(s) was (were) as if I had vomited on your shoes.

You do understand that I have heard from you, mambochicken, frameone and strowbridge, more than I need or want to know about my contribution to this vile largesse.

Now it is your turn to explain yourself, if you wish. If such an explanation is possible.

Not that I want to throw fuel to the fire here, lord knows I get enough arguments about arguments about arguments dealing with my own family, but Frank? Where, since the Phallo-Consumptio Cease-Fire have I been the one inciting your attacks on me? I’m pretty sure I’ve been actively trying to avoid getting personal and trying to stick to debating (GWarming and Atheism predominantly) and if I have, unprovoked, just outright insulted you then I actually am sorry for that, as much for attacking you as for derailing the thread as such things invariably do, but honestly, have I ever done it? Where?

“…answering a question for believers: If God is the sole measuring stick of life — God’s desires, God’s needs are paramount (after all, everything will be ok after we die and go to heaven, anyway), it would SEEM futile to help, or even care, about anyone else…”

This was me using your method against you to show you how it sounded to me: foolish and irresponsible. I’m not positively asserting this argument, I’m putting it up only in order to tear it down.

working against each other or just selfishly does not work well
How would you know? You and your perfect buddies seem never to have tried it (so you say).

Simple: I never said my friends are perfect or that we’ve never done wrong. Which is clearly what you’re asserting I said, and continuing to defend, which confounds me. Because I didn’t say it. (??????)

I’m aware of what’s in my post but I must be interpreting it differently than you because I still can’t find where I (A) asserted that I’m your intellectual superior, and then (B) used sophomoric wordplay.

The only play I was doing was offering up a John Calvin quote in response to your Tom Hobbes quote, in what I thought was a rather clever counter to your implication that I don’t know of any Hobbes other than the stuffed tiger, PLUS the added irony that Hobbes would fall on my side of the argument and Calvin on yours. Well I thought it was funny…

Point #2: This is a very common practice on this blog. It has been done dozens of times about me, and by me.
And by you.

You want some cheese with that whine?

The comment I made regarding their, and others’ – conduct — is not new. They seem to justify their comments on threads “d” through “m” by saying that I insulted them in threads “a”, “b” and “c” (and this, usually, after being provoked). They truly write as if they don’t realize the irrelevance of their defense. I make the comment from time to time, they make the false defense, and the behavior goes on. It is an impasse.

As to your post:

Ugly, stupid, foolish — those all work if you ask me. I’m glad we agree.

I was obviously referring to your foolish attempt at a response — you pretended I agreed with you.

working against each other or just selfishly does not work well
How would you know? You and your perfect buddies seem never to have tried it (so you say).

So I say? Nope, I don’t think I did say that. Honestly, you seem determined to have your own discussion with yourself.

“working against each other or just selfishly does not work well”

I think that was where you said it — was I wrong?

and and here’s a Calvin quote to accompany your Hobbes one:

Please re-read your post a few more times, until you’re aware of what’s in it.

You’re starting to sound like Strowbridge: “I must be right, because if I’m not right, then I’m “wr-”, “wr -”, “wr -” …

Where I used to hang out…
Memo to Strowbridge: This not a bar, a Frat house, or a college dorm.

Frank’s used insults as long as I’ve been here. He usually tries to be subtler about it. Use weasel words so he can later claim he wasn’t really trying to insult anyone and he’s above the common gutter insults.

On a side note…

“They are just being immature, and on the Internet — surprise!”

Where I used to hang out people used to call each other, “Crack Smoking Donkey Fuckers.” It was considered a compliment.

Sounds far – fetched? See the comment above, Apr 8, 2007 5:12:25 PM

I’ve re-read my post a few times and I don’t understand the connection. Elaborate, please?

You’re making an awfully big deal out of people calling you names on the Internet. I agree with you, that the people here throwing around “moron”, “idiot” etc. are not being very nice, but that is a far cry from not being “good people.” They are just being immature, and on the Internet — surprise!

I’ve been called an idiot, a moron, “worse than a child molestor”, and received death threats — IN PERSON — from Christians several times in my life. Does this make all Christians evil? No, it makes some people stupid.

You have to ignore the stupid people, Frank, and avoid being reduced to their level. I see you’re already throwing out “ass*ole” so it may be too late.

You probably wrote “ass*ole” because you’re angry and frustrated. Well, so are atheists when you speak for them, saying horrible things as if that’s how they really feel. It’s really quite irritating and frustrating. So much so that they might just say “idiot” or “moron” — although it really doesn’t help the discussion (you guys!!).