They never get the zot or even a warning until someone hits the abuse button. Again, I’ve never had a problem with hitting the button where it’s clearly unacceptable behavior.
The site rules are clear, and the rules and preferences of the owner of this website should be abided by. Look at it from the perspective of a private contract: when we signed up here we all agreed to abide by certain terms and conditions as a condition of posting here. Why should we tolerate the diminishment of the owners property rights by tolerating those who fail to abide by those terms?
When the posts are left standing, they illustrate the caliber of character behind the opinion. I always thought it was great to leave the most odious of the Romney posters comments because it illustrated so well how you can judge a politician by the behavior of his supporters.
We are veterans on FR, but I think newcomers and lurkers are probably as turned off as we are at the porn-peddling anti-libertarian sect, but probably don't yet know that they represent a small minority.
Rolling it around, really there seems to be a faction of "conservatives" for whom the word "conservative" is code for "Christian." So "conservative" use of government is using it to enforce Christian morality.
To me, "conservative" is to use sparingly. It is the essence of libertarian principle. As a Christian, I see that only government spawns and generates the infrastructure for moral breakdown. No one needed government to persecute homosexual relationships, though local governments were welcome to have them if they pleased. What really happened is that homosexuals needed government to force other people to play along with their fantasy. Government is the sole power source fueling the homosexual "culture war" battle, all the way down to its domination of education.