Saturday, May 07, 2005

Make that four.

I don't like playing the bouncer, but I will (sorry, Peter). Here's from my last comment (be advised he/she was still in violation of several of the rules at the time of banning):

This comment confirms that you are a spammer:

[The pseudonymous Mr. Rubb, in response to my query about his religious affiliation]: "One's (my) religious affiliation, age, color, gender, sexual orientation is not pertinent to a good lively discussion."

Oh. So you conduct all of your discussions off the net wearing a mask, gloves, voice distorter and body tunic?

In a word: Nonsense. One of the prerequisites of a "good lively discussion" is the recognition that you are dealing with a flesh and blood human being with a set of perspectives. Even in my college bull sessions I knew quite a bit about those I was "debating" with, and vice versa. We didn't exchange emails from isolation booths. Most human beings recognize the silliness of such an endeavor. I simply asked you your religious beliefs (and only that--nice descent into huffy victim status by offering a litany of categories) in order to frame the discussion. Should it be a theological perspective, or one tilted toward the secular?

Your canned static leaves me attempting to dialogue with a pseudonym. You know a ton about me. I know bupkis about you. I am happy to try to dialogue with an actual human being. Even one with a diametrically opposed perspective. I cannot have a discussion with a pseudonym.

So I will not. Thank you for visiting. Email me when you are really interested in a discussion of the topics, or have opened your own blog.

I'm not holding my breath. Here's a sampler of the "good lively discussion" you missed out on. Judge for yourself whether he/she was sincerely interested in discussing anything.

In the meantime, I have revised Rule 5. I do not want to discourage honest questioning by struggling Catholics (who got jobbed by glitterchesis) and curious non-Catholics on the hot-button issues. In fact, the box below is open to such questions--just abide by the rest of the rules in so doing.

And everyone else--be nice in responding, too.

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Be reasonably civil. Ire alloyed with reason is fine. But slagging the host gets you the banhammer.

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