Can we ban joseph, Loran, and Simon?

[_Doctor Scratch]

When are you folks going to take your training wheels off and engage us apologists in serious, civil, rational discussion of our differences, and cut out the the High School in-group giggling and finger pointing?

lol...are now calling yourself an "apologist"? For what organization? The teabaggers? I have yet to see you actually engage in Mormon apologetics (I don't know a single Mormon that would support any of your looney political nonsense so who are you defending?).......didn't you get kicked off the main LDS apologetic forum?

Yeah, If I recall correctly, Droopy has actually been kicked off of the MDD board for being an idiot. You're right: it's very, very difficult to think of anyone who respects him.

And this is sad on some level, because it's easy to get the sense that Droopy could be a decent apologist if he'd adopt some Christ-like humility and if he'd find a way to get over his inferiority complex. What he wants more than anything is for people to respect his intellect---he wants people to think that he's well-educated and smart, and while it's clear that he's ingested a ton of right-wing propaganda and think-tank "scholarship," I cannot think of a single person---critic or TBM--who would single Droopy out as a bright, shining, intellectual Light on the Hill. Droopy isn't stupid, but he's so obsessively hell-bent on demanding that people treat him like some sort of genius that he just winds up shooting himself in the foot and coming across as an angry hayseed who just fell off the Right Wing turnip truck.

[Guest]

Hey, Droopy:

How did it feel to get kicked off of The Foyer? Were you angry?

No, not really. Intellectual Leninism (the creation of an intellectually and psychologically pure sphere of discourse isolated, as much as possible, from any dissent or balance in the discussion) of this kind is one of the most salient features of exmo email lists and message boards and something I noticed as far back as the late nineties on email lists such as Mormons in Transition.

So intense is the need for psychological sealing from argument contrary to the exmo worldview narrative that, not only was I banned, but all my posts were removed.

I find all this to be, not maddening, but simply...banal.

[_Buffalo]

I'm not projecting mine, just reflecting PP's intellectual Stalinism, which I found in full bloom at the Further Light and Knowledge board, a forum that makes the terms "Trailerpark" and "cesspool" seem like terms of endearment.

Stalinism? You mean McCarthyism, right?

"Are you now, or have you ever been a Communist?"

Same difference.

[_Doctor Scratch]

Hey, Droopy:

How did it feel to get kicked off of The Foyer? Were you angry?

No, not really. Intellectual Leninism (the creation of an intellectually and psycholgically pure sphere discourse isolated, as much as possible, from any dissent or balance in the discussion) of this kind is one of the most salient features of exmo email lists and message boards and something I noticed as far back as the late nineties on email lists such as Mormons in Transition.

What are you talking about? They told you in plain English what the purpose of the board was. What you're saying here, apart from being absurdly hyperbolic, is just plain stupid. Do you think LDS sacrament meeting services are "Intellectual Leninism" because they don't tolerate boatloads of profanity, or rigorously intellectual examinations of homosexuality in the talks?

[_Buffalo]

It's pretty tough for a believer to get kicked out of the MAD board. Usually they only go after people who question Mormonism. Droopy is special though.

[_Chap]

After looking at some of that thread, it appears to be just the same MDB posse goin' to a lynchin'. Nothing to see here.

No, nothing at all ...

I am as ever happy for others to judge whether there is any incompatibility between these two statements referenced in that thread (which for convenience is temporarily linked in my signature), and whether they indicate an attitude towards truth on Belmont's part that is perhaps a little too flexible:

And, by the way, as a techie, I have your IP address, along with everyone else's here. I could easily use it to determine who each of you are in real life -- but will I? No. Because I am honorable and would never stoop to the level you bring yourself to.

followed, after what I think was a considerable interval by:

If it turns out that Belmont can find our IP addresses from this message board, may I say that its technology may be in need of improvement.

I do not have everyone's IP addresses, I simply indicated that I have the ability to get them, as does everyone else.

So long as Belmont keeps on with the good old 'Dishonesty? Moi?' post, back this thread will pop onto the board. Boring, I know. But only Belmont has the power to stop it.

How about Belmont admitting that the first post was simply a piece of silly untruthful boasting that he had forgotten about by the time he made the second one that contradicted it? Then, if he asks nicely, he can be forgiven for telling a lie, and we can move on. That's atheist auto-atonement for you.

[_schreech]

Yeah, If I recall correctly, Droopy has actually been kicked off of the MDD board for being an idiot. You're right: it's very, very difficult to think of anyone who respects him.

And this is sad on some level, because it's easy to get the sense that Droopy could be a decent apologist if he'd adopt some Christ-like humility and if he'd find a way to get over his inferiority complex. What he wants more than anything is for people to respect his intellect---he wants people to think that he's well-educated and smart, and while it's clear that he's ingested a ton of right-wing propaganda and think-tank "scholarship," I cannot think of a single person---critic or TBM--who would single Droopy out as a bright, shining, intellectual Light on the Hill. Droopy isn't stupid, but he's so obsessively hell-bent on demanding that people treat him like some sort of genius that he just winds up shooting himself in the foot and coming across as an angry hayseed who just fell off the Right Wing turnip truck.

I wouldn't say he is "stupid"...he's just a narrow-minded, ignorant, dangerously-obsessive, compensating (for what? I don't know...), hypocritical momo who is trying (way too hard) to not sound like a complete dullard....

[_asbestosman]

Because literally everyone does it. Who cares?

Probably nobody you care about. However, copyrights on photos is an issue I've seen come up in the news from time to time even for amateur photos. Most amateurs don't mind except when others use it without attribution or make money off of it. Recently there was the photo of the space shuttle taken by an amateur while on a jet. There was also the revolutionary scream photo from Noam Galai.

Also, jut because many people download mp3s (and many even download movies) doesn't make it right. There was a time when I think just about everyone I knew had some pirated music or videos. Nowadays it seems far less common among those I know--you can just watch it or listen online from Pandora or last.fm or even youtube--effectively removing legal risk from you. Besides, those sites often have deals to pay content owners and use advertising to do so.

Again, I'm not saying that Joseph is right. I'm not a lawyer. All I'm saying is that you're argument about it being commonplace is weak and that there may be some larger forces for change in the works.

[Guest]

When are you folks going to take your training wheels off and engage us apologists in serious, civil, rational discussion of our differences, and cut out the the High School in-group giggling and finger pointing?

lol...are now calling yourself an "apologist"? For what organization? The teabaggers? I have yet to see you actually engage in Mormon apologetics (I don't know a single Mormon that would support any of your looney political nonsense so who are you defending?).......didn't you get kicked off the main LDS apologetic forum?

Teabaggers...uh huh. Keep exposing yourself for what you are schreech. I won't try to stop you.

I have engaged in a great deal of "apologetics" over the years, defending the church at the MADboards, at a defunct board called "Answering Mormonism" (dating to the late nineties), two very left leaning email lists on Yahoo, Mormon-L and Mormon Thinker.and here, over the last five years or so.

I know a great many Mormons who would support my political philosophy; indeed, the vast majority I've known in my lifetime. I know very few who would not. Now that you mention it, the only active, TBM LDS I've ever known who would have serious trouble with it are people I've met in cyberspace; just a few people who have spent a great deal of time within academia (in the humanities, primarily) and who have allowed themselves to be affected by the culture and zeitgeist of political correctness within the humanities and social sciences respectively, that have long dominated those departments.

Outside of that, I've known literally no one within my personal life, throughout my life in the Church, who does not hold to some form or hybrid of conservatism and libertarianism, depending upon the issue. I've spent the last few years especially concerned with politics at the MADboards because of significant provocations that continued to occur there and which demanded response. I was not, it should be said, in any sense the only one assertively defending liberty, free markets, property rights, and other gospel principles against an insurgence of LDS leftism, an oxymoron to be sure, but apparently a somewhat burgeoning attitude among a small core of LDS intellectuals interested in a synthesis of certain secular, ideological concepts with the gospel.

They typically allow such to themselves, but not to conservatives.

[_Buffalo]

Because literally everyone does it. Who cares?

Probably nobody you care about. However, copyrights on photos is an issue I've seen come up in the news from time to time even for amateur photos. Most amateurs don't mind except when others use it without attribution or make money off of it. Recently there was the photo of the space shuttle taken by an amateur while on a jet. There was also the revolutionary scream photo from Noam Galai.

Also, jut because many people download mp3s (and many even download movies) doesn't make it right. There was a time when I think just about everyone I knew had some pirated music or videos. Nowadays it seems far less common among those I know--you can just watch it or listen online from Pandora or last.fm or even youtube--effectively removing legal risk from you. Besides, those sites often have deals to pay content owners and use advertising to do so.

Again, I'm not saying that Joseph is right. I'm not a lawyer. All I'm saying is that you're argument about it being commonplace is weak and that there may be some larger forces for change in the works.

Using photos without permission is much, much, much more common than any other sort of copyright violation - much more than pirating music or movies. I have yet to see a single online forum where "unauthorized" use of copyrighted images wasn't common throughout the whole site.