One of the great non sequiturs of the left is that, if the free market doesn't work perfectly, then it doesn't work at all-- and the government should step in.

Thomas Sowell

...because it hasn't happened yet -- unless you have some way to see into the future.

You've also misquoted Rob (again). He said that he DID NOT WANT to have the sole authority BECAUSE he felt biased toward several individuals.

If you're going to use someone else's words, get it right.

And, any time you have a positive suggestion, please feel free. We're all ears.

enforcing social contracts or to discuss paranoid fantasies about censorship. Calvino's quotation is about an alternative. We seem to waste a lot of time and energy trying to convince a few negative people that what we object to is their negativity, not their politics. All that energy could be better used cultivating and encouraging the good things we find here on Olyblog. It's just a shame.

This is not at all a criticism of the recent attempt to fashion a social contract. I appreciate that effort.

One of the great non sequiturs of the left is that, if the free market doesn't work perfectly, then it doesn't work at all-- and the government should step in.

Thomas Sowell

I finally need to ask the question:

Why keep going back to a place where you think people are "against" you?

Something I learned in my wrestling match with The Olympian is that I'm not going to win on their turf.  They made it quite clear that they ran the show. 

 Recently, I sent a donation to Rick McKinnon, as a vote of confidence that I'm satisfied with the way that Olyblog is being run and the acknowledgement that he "runs the show" (if he chooses).  Rick and I will readily admit that we've had our differences - publically, in fact.  He said so much as he somewhat recommended that the docents "boot" me, at one point.  Yet, that didn't happen.

What did happen?  Either we agreed to disagree or one of us changed or both of us changed.  Regardless, today, I'm on Olyblog, Rick sent me a nice thank you email for my donation and all is....well........WELL.  Now that could change tomorrow, but that's the roll of the dice that I take.

I have my own blog and have been rather inactive on it of late.  I enjoy Olyblog and for that reason I seek to find the middle ground to avoid eventual "boots" or "dog house" episodes.  You know what?  It hasn't hurt me one bit.  In fact, I think I've grown in some ways by learning that I'm not the only fish in the sea.

Why worry about who is making what decisions?  If I was banned from Olyblog tomorrow for a perceived violation, I have a choice to move on, or discuss a solution to the problem.

Meanwhile, it would be rather intellectually dishonest if I were to send Rick a donation and then say that he has no ownership rights to Olyblog.

I like Gug's earlier (a few days ago) rule about acting like you are a guest in someone's home.

Tschida, I welcome you as person to this blog. When you consistently use argument styles that shut other people down, or when you result to ad hominem attacks, that's when I don't want you. I'm talking about behavior not you as person or your political views. You're the kid in the sandbox that keeps throwing sand in other kids' eyes and then can't understand when they don't want to play with him anymore.

Rick, I pretty much addressed this with my comments to Tschida, but I want to restate what I meant. I'm not worried about my bias getting in the way when it comes to certain people, I could care less. I'm invested in making this blog a safe place, and making this blog a new source for local residents. The biggest worry in my head was based on perceptions people would have of attempted enforcement.

Why is it that conservatives always seem to be the ones being called out for inappropriate behavior here? Well, they are in the minority and perhaps feel like they have to be scrappy to survive. It's our job as docents, in my opinion, to make everyone comfortable here to the point that they can express their beliefs without worry. That goes both ways. If Tschida says something and twenty people jump on him and tell him he's wrong and make him feel unwelcome and he reacts to it, is it his fault? Should would blame him? Or is there something bigger going on that allows that environment? If we allow conservative voices to be ganged up on, we're breeding reactionary discourse. When facilitating meetings, I often ask people not to restate their opinions, and I ask that people don't repeat what others have said, but to always be adding something to the discussion. If a person disagrees they should explain what specifically they disagree on without paying attention to who they're disagreeing with.

I could keep going but am pressed for time right now.

...that I like. And I am very aware of the vast amount of time spent counteracting the negative. Yet, I have the strong feeling that simply making space will not be healthy in the end. We've had NSM on this site, for pity's sake -- they'd love to have some space here. What use is making space when it isn't perceived as an invitation to the good part of oneself?

A quick trip from Calvino to Camus? Only because someone has already done the traveling for me. It is no coincidence that Calvino’s story-teller Marco Polo, perhaps the greatest traveler of all time, is the one telling me something about Camus’ Sisyphus. Polo was responding to this observation by his audience, The Great Khan:

It is all useless, if the last landing place can only be the infernal city, and it is there that, in ever-narrowing circles, the current is drawing us.

There is no difference between The Great Khan’s newly discovered sense of futility and the futility symbolized by the rock. They are the same. The difference is that Sisyphus has traveled enough with his rock to learn something about it:

Sisyphus, proletarian of the gods, powerless and rebellious, knows the whole extent of his wretched condition: it is what he thinks of during his descent. The lucidity that was to constitute his torture at the same time crowns his victory. There is no fate that can not be surmounted by scorn.

While this road leads inevitably to Cervantes, I would first pay a quiet visit to Carlyle:

…hold one's tongue till some meaning lie behind to set it wagging.

Then I would manage a shorter visit with Cato:

Anger so clouds the mind, that it cannot perceive the truth.

before beginning the long Journey to the End of Night that stands between Céline my windmill.