Michelle Malkin: The criminal raid on Social Security

"You really do need to clean up your own act and stop worrying about other folks so much."

I haven't allowed myself to be "baited" into a flame war since the Lead Moderator made that request of us all.

I'm not going to allow you "bait" me into a flame war this time, either.

You should be apologizing to the other FReepers you personally attacked on this thread instead of making further attempts to antagonize others and instigate another flame war.

FR could maybe start a '12 step' program for all of you flame warriors that seem to be unable to just go 'cold turkey'.

It might be good for your mental health to begin your every FReeping session with words like,

"Hello, my name is CWOJackson and I am an incorrigible flame warrior, whose motives are absolutely transparent to everyone on the other side of all of my issues, and boy do I have issues.

LOL!

The other day, I went through one of these threads. It was a day later than the last time I had gone through most of them. Someone had griped that some people had gotten out of hand on a thread and I had done nothing.

And this is not the thread I ended up posting to CWO to back off.

On the thread I am talking about, I saw someone get extremely nasty with CWO out of the blue. Probably due to some old spat.

Instead of responding in kind, CWO just said "Nah, not a party thing but rather" and made his point. The other guy replied "OK, peace on that. I agree."

I am not going to say that CWO doesn't mix it up, but good. And I am not going to say he doesn't start it sometimes. But what I will say is that when asked to back off, he does and I will also say that when he does get into it, he never complains, even when his stuff gets pulled and the other's don't. And he does not always return fire.

Now that I have gotten the platitudes out of the way, CWO, you do know that you do enjoy mixing it up rougher than most. And what ends up happening is that you may understand or know who you can do that with, but others see it and do it and do it to people they don't know if they want to debate that way or not, and then we get hit with "but he does it" and "you let him get away with it but not us". And sometimes you do get into it with someone who complains. You do make our jobs harder. It would be better for us and probably for the forum if the times you held back, like you did when Burkeman1 was flaming you, were more often and the times where you respond in kind (or throw the first blow) were less.

And it would be better for me if I didn't keep getting called back to micromanage things. I tried for a day or two to kind of set expectations for what I think would work to get things under control in the forum. I think there has been great improvement overall. Now let's do a little more self policing and less scorekeeping and get back to good debate.

Thanks, LM

An approach I could take is to hit everyone I see doing the things that destroy these threads with a suspension when I see it. Given the amount of whining over the little bit I have done so far, I imagine that would cause a huge uproar, but if the forum wants it, they can let me know here on this thread and Jim and me and the rest of the moderators will discuss it.

Self-policing will have its growing pains, but I think there have been respectable attempts to get on with it, all around. There are some stragglers all around too, but I think it's early, yet, for suspensions.
Perhaps after it's sunk in a bit, after the initial phases of the effort, a reasonably brief intermediate "public warning phase" would be warranted.
"In the near future, a post like this will result in a suspension," or something like that.

There have been more restorations so far than bannings or suspensions (returning bannees being rebanned not counting).

I would anticipate that will continue for a short while longer.

I have seen some improvement in a lot of people.

I have also seen some people going off the deep end. One or two (and they are not any of those suspended or restored) are coming really close to crossing a line over which they won't be coming back.

But any effort takes time to work, and we are giving it that time. Thanks, LM

"According to Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fla., chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on Social Security, benefits paid to retirees will exceed revenues in just 15 years. The pay-as-you-go system could go belly up as early as 2030.

" These projections don't take into account the economic impact of the Bush proposal, which would allow untold millions of illegal aliens from Mexico to collect full cash benefits for themselves and their families from their home country -- without having to work the required number of years that law-abiding American citizens must work to be eligible for payouts."

Thefts of Social Security ID rising fast

A Life Destroyed by Those Who 'Only Come Here to Work' (MUST READ)

Stop the Mexican Raid on Our Social Security and the Mexican "ID" Card

SOCIAL SECURITY: FRAUDS WALK OUT THE DOOR

Return of the Great Social Security Giveaway

Michelle Malkin: The criminal raid on Social Security

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