Pro, I think I was clear that my jabs were aimed at the Doctor, not you. And while I cross paths with you two about as often as I cross paths with Snarf, that's my impression, that you post, and then the Doctor chimes in once he sees you posted there, and agrees with you. That may not be as true in the OFF TOPIC or RANDOM CHAT and other sections that you both post in, or in real life off the boards. And I only read a fraction of the stuff you've posted outside the POLITICS forum, but that's my consistent impression.
The Doctor annoys me because I've never confronted him about anything, and once a year or so, he just comes out of the sidelines, usually when I'm going at it with someone else (i.e., in a cowardly way, as part of a bandwagon), and gets all high-and-mighty self-righteous about how I voilated the rules of debate on RKMB, and (with nothing to back it up) I'm somehow beneath his notice. When in actuality, the infantile way he snipes at me and then puts me on *ignore* (or so
he alleges, while still seeming to know every detail of what I post, so he can surface and snipe at me periodically), his level of self-righteousness in these exchanges should have you laughing at
his idiocy (i.e.,
).
Joe Mama, in contrast, is tauntingly me regularly with the closet gay issue, and despite my protests, about 50% of the time, I'm amused by it. Because that
IS playful humor that isn't to be taken seriously. Sometimes I have to laugh at comments by Joe Mama, BSAMS and Nowhereman, even when the one-liners are at my expense.
I'd rate my interaction with you to be about equal to my interaction with Snarf (not that you are alike in any other way!) in that I see you rarely on the boards, sometimes we've clashed, and often we've been friendly.
Regarding picking on people (or the perception of it) if you've read my comments through several pages, you can see a shift in my views here, that while I do at times I think one person is overly targeted (in this case, Snarf) it evens out in the long run, that in the final analysis I don't think anyone here is immune or "too cool" to be picked on.
I said that even those who are defended (as Rex has been in this topic) are targeted weeks or months later for the same treatement.
I recall everyone defended M E M (myself included, as I mentioned in an earlier post) when G-man attacked him by name with his Kabul Zick alt-I.D., but if you look at recent exchanges, M E M's been getting the same treatment that Snarf is currently getting. In the short term, it can be unfair. In the long term, I think it evens out.
Pariah's comment that I quoted, where he said declaring "nice" people off limits for harsh criticism to be comaprable to Political Correctness (i.e., appointing people status and position they didn't earn) actually changed my POV on the issue, as did comments by Nowhereman, Iggy and a few others.
Likewise, your post has influenced my POV on you and the Doctor. I freely acknowledge that I haven't read all the topics you have both posted to (although i have read a considerable number of them). I still think the Doctor is a petty schmuck whose posts directed at me are hypocritical of his own posting/debating tactics, but whatever.
Regarding your suggestion that I "leave and take a one-month break from the boards" because I'm presumed to be too torqued up, my offline life is actually going quite well right now, workwise, earnings-wise and girlwise, so there's no issues that I'm venting in my posts with anyone here. You're off base on that one. There was a rough patch for me in July-August of last year, as I discussed with a few here months ago privately, and if you noticed I wasn't around much during that time. But things have turned around remarkably for me since then. Even at that time, I wasn't taking it out on anyone. That isn't how I deal with things.
