Argument to Support Law that Atheists Cannot Hold Office...

[Scooter]

yeah, even I got rubato s point. it was fairly clear.

and I agree with scooter s posts about it.

...two things I may never say again.

We knew there were going to be consequences to fucking with the ozone layer.

[wesw]

over my head . probably for the best.

[BoSoxGal]

Yeah, poor innocent rubato...

He's such a victim...

No, the rest of us are victims of having to endure this ridiculous Jr. High School adolescent drama, which is apparently unending.

[Lord Jim]

I'm sorry BSG, by your credibility is exactly zero with me on this subject...

I've lost count of the number of times you've hurled this sort of criticism at me over the years but in all this time I've seen you not one word of criticism from you for the nasty little toxic prick who spews out a nonstop stream of insults in nearly every direction day in and day out, week after week, month after month, year after year...

Maybe you have trouble seeing (though it's hard for me to imagine how anyone could miss it) this non-stop pattern of behavior in a fellow liberal. Maybe because this behavior of his is so ubiquitous that it's become like background noise to you and you don't even notice it. Whatever the reason, this kind of crap is properly directed at him, not the people who stand up to this noxious, vicious little wannabe bully.

I can absolutely assure you that any of this sort of criticism from a person who never criticizes the guy who is far and away the most deserving of it will fall entirely on deaf ears. The one and only thing you accomplish when you keep directing this sort of thing at me is to piss me off and diminish my opinion of you, which is unfortunate, but that's the way it is.

If and when I ever see you start to jump in when he pulls this stuff, (which BTW I have seen Scooter do, but never you) then I'll give what you have to say on the subject due consideration. (Lord knows you have enough opportunities; hardly a day goes by without him expressing his gratuitous, arrogant insulting snottiness) Until then, not so much. You might as well just save yourself the key strokes.

This is the only time I'm going to respond to you about this. Going forward any time I see another one of your criticism posts being misdirected at me or strop, or anyone else who stands up to this guy rather than where it should be directed, I'm just going to scroll past it and ignore it.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Oh, that's just a load of prolix!

I agree with everything Scooter wrote, including the pissing part; what bsg wrote and even what wesw wrote (it was quoted by Scooter).

For every 3 vile words rubato vomits (and he has no excuse at all for that), someone who shall remain anonymous manages 3,000 of vile insults and thinks some people call that "equivalence". Believe, me - no one thinks it's equivalent.

At least Joe is pithy, even when mistaken (as in this thread).

rubato's really enjoying us arguing amongst ourselves of course. He likes tossing a stone and watching the ripples. But I do like to brighten his day - he finds such pleasure perversely annoying and he's not sure whether to keep silent or deny it.

[wesw]

meade, if you change "to brighten" to "brightening", it would improve the parallelism of your last paragraph...

...also change "deny it" to keep denying it"

[Lord Jim]

Meade you're such a hypocrite about this, I really have no interest in what you have to say about it either. It's bad enough that someone might not even notice what this guy does, but to get this kind of sanctimonious shine from somebody who clearly does get what this guy is about and has no problem letting him have it themselves is just plain strange.

It's as thought there are two completely different people posting under your handle, one person who understands the situation and sees it as it really is, and also the clueless character who writes complete crap like your last post. The only thing in that post that's accurate is the observation that rube enjoys seeing other people argue about how to deal with him.

ETA:


viewtopic.php?f=12&t=12412&p=154801&hilit=dwarf#p154801

[MajGenl.Meade]

Actually, I'm not a hypocrite about this. I believe rubato should be given a good slap when he deserves it and certainly it's worthwhile countering his arguments - at length if necessary to make the point

You keep on posting yards of inane insults. It makes you look good.

[Econoline]

Actually, I've got to say that while I don't enjoy the endless inane trading of insults, I think that there is more often some substantive component to Jim's posts about rubato (not so much, rubato's posts about Jim) than there was back when he had rubato on ignore but still managed to hurl almost as much shit. Which is a (relatively) good thing. When the two of them get going I still often scroll through the thread till I find some posts by other individuals, but when I do occasionally decide to examine some of the fudge nuggets I'm more likely to look at Jim's posts than rubato's. Feel free to take that as a (very mild) compliment, Jim.

But it does become tedious, and I think that BSG is exactly right: neither of the two of them is a victim (they both seem to enjoy it too much); the only victims are the rest of us.

[Joe Guy]

I enjoy reading Jim's posts in which he rips rubato's mean-spirited thoughts and flawed logic. It saves me the trouble of having to respond to rubato's hatred of all things republican and/or hatred for anyone who disagrees with him.

People who don't like reading Jim's posts can move on to another post. It's a free board... sort of...

When will it be time to send you money again, Gob?..... .?

[BoSoxGal]

Excuse me for saying it LJ, but FUCK ME! You have such a biased viewpoint on this, you can't see reason!

I just called rubato an ASSHOLE. Just now here in this thread, the post to which you were responding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've called rubato an asshole at least a dozen times over the years, but I don't call him an asshole more because for every time I have, you call him an asshole one hundred fucking times, plus a lot of other shit!!!!

WHY CAN'T YOU SEE THIS?? Use the search function and go see how many #s of YOUR posts alone in which rubato's been called any number of hideous names!

YOU ARE BETTER THAN THIS, JIM!!!!!

Put aside the potty mouth sniping and stick to giving him your very informed opinions as you do to all the rest of us.

PLEASE.

Now, here's this just for you:

[BoSoxGal]

rubato's really enjoying us arguing amongst ourselves of course. He likes tossing a stone and watching the ripples. But I do like to brighten his day - he finds such pleasure perversely annoying and he's not sure whether to keep silent or deny it.

I don't know if he gains perverse enjoyment, Meade. Maybe he does, and maybe besides holding many of the same liberal views as I do, he's also a narcissist or even one of the very many intelligent functioning psychopaths who work elbow to elbow with us in all industries.

I haven't met the guy except via electronic interaction on the interwebs, so I don't know. I can tell you that from what I know of him, I'd feel secure visiting his home to see his bees and meet his lovely wife as I would feel visiting you, or visiting Jim. I have developed a sense over many years that you are all good people at heart, albeit very different in this context.

I prefer to believe that what rubato has is what many of us lack; a very centered belief in his place in this world and universe that he's not fluffed enough by the pig pile that he won't still participate in a place where he feels he is part of the community and enjoys much of the company. And he has as much right to do that as any of us, no matter how arrogant, insensitive, narcissistic or condescending LJ perceives him to be.

There are, it seems to me, more posters here and at the old CSB in whom he rarely, if ever, provoked that perception. Or perhaps it's just that they won't be provoked to a pissing match repeatedly, day after day, week after week, ad infinitum.

Could it possibly be that LJ's filter and assumptions had a hand in creating the initial conflict, and it's just snowballed from there? I don't know; the fight's been going on since well before I met the two. I know that I never perceived that kind of hostility as coming from rubato or being created by him when I first posted at CSB in 2005-2006-2007(?). I perceived him to have a dry sense of humor and to be often very assured - some would say 'arrogant' - manner of presenting his thoughts in the declarative. "Of course any sensible person would see the world as I do"; that can be annoying if you don't agree, and obviously him being liberal and LJ being a Ronnie Raygun disciple, conflict is inevitable. Thus when LJ came back from his hiatus, it became immediately evident there was a history of conflict between the two, and the level of button-pushing and reactive posting went right up from there. And it sucks.

LJ, if rubato deserved your initial ire, I don't disrespect your feelings about that. But the mood this whole endless boxing match brings to this board is the thing I like least about this place, and which often makes me want to stay away. You can be really very mean, saying way too many mean things in one sentence to somebody than anybody should have to hear, even from a random stranger on the interwebs.

Please don't get all pissed at me for saying this, LJ; I am just being courageous and honest in telling a friend something I think he really needs to consider. I like you, respect you and you are one of the only Republicans I ever want to talk politics with,because you talk policies and issues from an informed perspective and you usually give a reasonably fair hearing to those with a different opinion. You're a good guy, and my efforts in addressing this are not as much about defending rubato - although admittedly, I just don't perceive him the way you do - as they are about wanting to see you rise above the Jr. High competition.

eta: Even if I am totally wrong (which I have been countless times in my life already) about rubato, and he's the biggest asshole on earth, this last bit is something I'm sure of:

He will probably never stop goading you as long as you perceive it to be personal. Only YOU have the power to stop letting him make you descend to the depths of name-calling and ranting; all you have to do is re-orient your perspective.

Look at it this way; you have a beautiful wife and two amazing kids and you're a successful happy guy who plays on the beach. Your life rocks! Why bother getting your blood pressure up every single day over a random asshole on the interwebs?

That's my last word.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Endless speculation, eh? It's true that rubato over at Smitty's (or whatever it's called) is evidently a nice chap - but that's a moderated board isn't it? Anyway, he posts thoughtfully without all the bitter snarks and people respond like normal adults.

I've often noted (and no one ever seems to take me up on it so I must be wrong) that rubato and Rubato post in different styles. I've yet to see Rubato post snarks. Two people - one with a peculiar way of satisfying a need?

I think what I find most difficult is that rubato often posts some snarky thing which is not an attack on anyone here but just generally mean or belittling to/of the subject at hand. What follows are personal insults from others (and I've done it) against his personality - which he responds to in kind. So he'll say that 9/11 was a minor attack - and the response is a stream of ad hominems.

Well we each have to do what we do I guess. There was a time when I thought I'd use 'Meade' to post only nice things (you see how that worked). And LtCol.Flashman would be the 'bad' me. In retrospect, it was some kind of really stupid effort to think that the real Me(ade) wouldn't be guilty of mean-spirited rudeness - it was that other chap.

I do wish that intelligent people (which almost all of us are) would stick to arguing and not post what is mere invective. Making a joke is surely OK - even perhaps a mean one at times? I'm trying to cut down on the insulting type of remarks but it's an addiction of a sort. Controllable though... no one is forcing me to type hurtful words that make me look like an arse.

Natural talent.

[Gob]

I'll call him as I see fit I think. If people do not like the way I respond to him, ignore me.

We get told to ignore him often enough.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Odd that no one has suggested ignoring either you or him.

The suggestion is that not-ignoring rubato can be achieved in posts of less than 30,00 words, most of them consisting of variations on "rubato's a meany meany poop face"

[Gob]

I stand by my asseveration.

Though I must insist, my debunking or insulting of rubato, 95% of which is done following him shitting, yet again, in a thread, rarely takes more than 30 words.

Jim may be a little more verbose than I.

We'll have to agree to disagree Mr M.

[MajGenl.Meade]

[Lord Jim]

That's my last word.

Good.

Now if Meade would only reach the same sensible decision.

ETA:

Meade, let me assure you that nothing you have said or will say is in any way going to have the slightest impact on how I deal with rube. (Only his cleaning up his act and abandoning the role of über prick would do that, and since that's so much intrinsically a part of who he is I doubt that's going to happen. )

The only thing you are impacting with your incessant wrong-headed yammering about this is my opinion of you

Please feel free not to respond.

[MajGenl.Meade]

[Gob]

Missed that!!

That's my last word.

Bet it's not!!