I don’t understand why he was. He had every right to defend himself in public. Yes his way of writing was unusual, but I had the option to not read his essays.

Thanks, Sirena and it’s good to see you here again. Please don’t be a stranger.

I wonder til today what of his writing style had pushed the button of our respected overlord who has to keep silent to keep the peace here.

I don't remember that Alligator Ed's so-called rudeness was targetted at any individual reader or writer here on the site. If it was, I would like to have the link to that. I found his language often original, even funny, and took much of it as entertaining. But then everyone has other reasons to like or dislike someone's style.

I like to know if I overlooked something or not.

JtC has the task to not comment and to be silent. In this case I find that silence is not helping us, but leaves us with more questions than answers, we have no chance to get clear about.

I remember what made me think about Alligator Ed a bit more than other writers.

He provoked for example with the expression 'Obersturmbannführer (Bill) Gates' (well, a bit too weirdo for my taste, but then I belong the to tribe of former Obersturnbannführers, so I like precision in describing the profession of my tribal forefathers, of which I have no knowledge that Bill Gates belonged to or not).

He once hinted and provoked race by saying about a person with the last name of 'Black' that "at least she/he is black". That was too twisted to slip through unnoticed by me.

He reacted very seriously and furiously in defense of his professional integrity as a medical doctor, when it was questioned. He defended himself so strongly that I felt there is distinct reason for it. I admit I disliked the back and forth between him and CB in the beginning. But then I said to myself, let the boys figure it out between themselves. And voila, CB said above he misses his professional 'Geplänkel' (= banter in English?) with the gator now as well.

Thoughts about the alligator's reasons for his furiousness in his reactions I kept to myself, because there is no way to find out and ask him about it. But he said something that might have given a hint as an answer. I let you find it, because everything might be not what it seems on these god-damn intertubes. I have swamp-o-phobia, for a reason, see bottom of my comment.

JtC said, he was disgusten by me as being too supportive of alligator ed. Ok, that was a punch directed personally at me, but just made me think more about why JtC felt that way. I think in this case JtC forgot his own regulation for this site to not attack someone personally. Bue heh, it happens to the best of us. I baked some cookies to calm him down.

In any case, Alligator Ed was a voice I would have wanted to have the chance to hear for as long as the gator wanted to talk. We all have our buttons that someone can push and drive us nuts. So what to do about this dilemma? May be this:?

If we jump in the icy waters of the muddy swamp, I started thinking it would be advisable to wear a slick rubber drivers suit. Covers up all our buttons, keeps us warm and lets nothing push you over the top, it perls off like like rain drops or the famous dust Obama thought was not worth to keep on his jacket's shoulders. (I name Obama 'arrogantor' now)

Let Alligator Ed speak his mind. I doubt he still has appetite to do so. But once in a while he will get too hungry, catches a prey and bites. Alligators have to eat too. Have some mercy.

To gjohnsit: there was no drama, imo. but there is a mystery to be solved. Who could resist that?

To Sirena: Thanks for speaking up.

To JtC: I am still trying to be a 'Good German' and play by the rules. Sometimes I forget it for a second. You know, it feels so good to be a 'Bad German' sometimes. Nothing for Ungood.

Peace folks, and hi to Alligator Ed. I lived nearby a swamp as a kid. There was one thick, stony, sand path built up to cross the swamp without sinking into it. People who have sunk into the swamp, never could get out. We always were warned to be careful to not fall into the swamp. For a reason:

I don't want to end up like this famous "Moorleiche" (= bog body in English?) which was found in hat swamp by a neighbor Alfred Rust on our street. I am not sure if that is a picture of that specific bog body or not, but if not, it is a good example of one.

Von Bullenwächter - Eigenes Werk, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

twixt AE and otc
didn't seem toxic
to me but quien sabe?

@jbob
family is what you make it

Not a clue that he had been banned.

Pretty fkn dismaying - to the extent that there were personal attacks,
I would say it was AE who was on the receiving end - from what I have seen.
I did *not* see (where is it?) the exchange that apparently triggered this.

Maybe I misunderstood this 99% thing. If we're rating wit, wisdom, musical taste and generally having one's mierda together I guess AE could definitely be in the 1% range.

Sorry to hear that's grounds for disqualification around here.

The difference between an administrator and a regular member. You all don't keep track of the insults, the factual inaccuracies, the whack-a-doodle sources, the fake news, etc. I do.

You look at one essay, one in which he insulted both individuals and c99 itself by the way, and you make your judgement call. I look at it all in totality.

Our one basic rule is don't be a dick, and Ed crossed that line time after time. I have been very lenient with him for many years, probably too lenient, I let things slide that would have gotten most users banned long ago. Even when he insults me personally.

I have my limits. The decision stands.

Surprised me. I've been here a long time. And I've been impressed with the way Jtc does things. I've seen threads get really hot and Jtc would step in and tell people to cool it. From what I've observed, he has always been more than fair with commenters and posters. That's all. That's my two cents.

I see both sides. While I believe in free speech, even when I disagree 100%, but sometimes people are just being dicks because they can and like stirring the pot, to really no one's advantage, and for no other reason than just because they can.

That's the definition of being a dick, at least one of them anyway, no?

It seems like crossing a line from free speech into bullying, because you don't agree. So, on one hand I'm a big believer in free speech, but on the other, it truly crosses a line into bullying, which no one should have "right" to do to another.

I see @JtC's perspective of things too. I think Jtc has the "right" to run his site how he chooses. Personally, I think the "limits" of acceptable community behavior here, is a hell of a lot wider, deeper, and more "progressive", and free speech oriented, than most other sites.

Also I think about, have you ever experience having to let go of one of your friends because their behavior was just so toxic all the time, you just couldn't stand it anymore. And just kind of had to stop hanging out with them or found excuses not to go along with them when invited?

I firmly believe "freedom" comes with tremendous responsibility, not to mention our freedom's have huge consequences on others in how we "exercise" those "freedoms".

The rest of the world is bullying us enough already, we really don't need to do that to one another. I think passionate debate is fine, as long as we don't cross that hard to define line between freedom of speech and bullying.

I also consider, moderating (hosting, managing, maintaining) a site is a bitch, and I don't think many understand that, the level of personal involvement required, so hat's off to JtC for doing such a good job!

should've read it and caught it. However, I don't read Ed's stuff any more, not for a while, and after a quick glance at the body of the column decided it was essentially tame and moved on to something else.

Now, looking at the whole thread, I see that his first comment is really pretty offensive and insulting to most people and no doubt many who read and participate here.

Trying to prod the Troglodytes from their fear caves is proving very difficult, even here in our learned swamp. If one has no comorbidities, other than being a political junkie, then one is quite safe going outside.

Maybe if enough people started understanding this, the system would be overwhelmed by those emerging from their Caves of Fear.

That is totally obnoxious as well as being pointless afactual horseshit. If you wish to express a baseless opinion, you needn't do it in a manner designed to offend as many as possible. Trogdolytes living in fear caves, including the patrons of this site. followed by nonsense about how If people started understanding some piece of crap fiction then ...

So, 3 users call him out on it, no personal attacks, simple factual statements and how does he respond. Calling them out by name, he attacks with an insulting falsehood and misrepresentation:

Anecdotal evidence is the enemy of health policy

which he follows with a long fact free rant composed of a long series of strawmen. He then ends with another personal attack in the form of a malicious and totally false misrepresentation:

But if you let your life be ruled by anecdotes, then you will be paralyzed into inaction.

Absolutely none of that was necessary to express his misguided afactual opinion on things and it violates the principles of this site - be civil, no personal attacks, no trolling the membership or the site.

At best it warrants a warning and a talking to, but I'd wager, given his history here, that he has had many of those; he is a hard-core serial offender, sufficient for Johnny to jump in with both feet. The fact is that JtC is seriously reluctant to take such actions. More than once, when somebody has been routinely pushing the limits, he has called the mods together to discuss how to handle it, what steps are appropriate and what action and/or reaction is warranted and usually the result has been yet another warning.

Now, I've been harsh with his thesis, and I'll explain

Saying that only those with co-morbidities or metabolic weaknesses need worry is simply not true. There are ample examples to the contrary, based on medical examinations and histories and other sound evidence. Worse yet, it smells faintly of victim blaming. It seems that those with such failings are more prone to infection and to severe results, but that is it, MORE PRONE. The others aren't exempt or immune.

Second, unless old age, in and of itself, is defined as such a condition, then the seemingly heightened susceptibility of the elderly indicates that the definition needs refinement.

Lastly, it is useless information, if it even actually is information. There are those with assorted chronic conditions who can know that they are immuno-compromised or otherwise at heightened risk, but, excluding them, the average person really cannot judge their metabolic health or freedom from co-morbidity because we have no healthcare system. You can walk around this country in fairly good health performing strenuous labor with all kinds of almost debilitating conditions and be none the wiser.

When I turned 53 I had an enormously comprehensive "multiphasic" physical that ran the course of 3 days. (My ex employer saw to it that I had a so-called "Cadillac health care plan", which means to say a decent one, and one which is proactive and into preventative medicine). Nonetheless, when I turned 70, I needed an umbilical hernia repaired and the anesthesiologist, as was the routine, demanded some cardiac testing to make sure I was ok to go under. I have a heart irregularity, almost certainly have had for my whole life and during my super-thorough physical. This got my GP worried, since I've had very flexible blood pressure running a bit on the high side since at least high school, so he had other tests run. I have an enlarged aorta and another major piece of my vascular system that I can't recall. This is probably due to an extremely athletic and strenuous youth and bouts of extreme physical activity later on as well. Yet, this crap was undetected, even with a great medical plan, until I hit my seventies. The average person with the average medical plan wouldn't know about this shit. It is pointless and useless to recommend a course of action for only those in good metabolic health it something like 75% of the population has absolutely no way of knowing whether they do or not. That being the case, trolling folks with bullshit about "trogdolytes" and "fear caves" is simply absolutely unacceptable.

be well and take care

to step in. Thank you Sirena for opening the discussion.

EL thank you for explaining how the admins talk this sort of thing over. Knowing the internal process helped me to understand the backstory and how things are handled. It is good that JtC talks with trusted advisors.

Thank you JtC for your hard work and steady hand. And thank you for participating in this thread.

Even obnoxious posters can be missed. AE was at the end advising, no, insisting that people should go out freely. I agree with the civil liberty part of the thought (or lockdown fever), but without readily available and quick to get results testing available to all, we have a problem in our society and worldwide. Instead of quarantine of the known infected we have to social distance and isolate. It has cost all of us socially, psychologically, economically and politically.

That leaves us where we are at the moment.

Thanks again everybody.

PS: SwedishJewfish was here and I am glad gone after a short foray through our site. Toxique.