Just wanted to be clear, I wasn't defending Blank. He's acting like a serious wanker. My comment was an expression of my distaste for terms that come to be used to exclude ideas. Its not to say there aren't trolls, but you certainly should do your homework, as Anonymust implied, though in another context. Read all their posts, and their archives, before you brand someone that way. We may all be anonymous here, but we still 'exist' in this space. By creating a situation where someone may be unjustly branded a crank--that is a troll-- their access to this space becomes limited. AND THIS IS AN IMPORTANT SPACE. I think there are also some race, gender and other issues that should be thought about in this regard, and--I'm guessing here--that there aren't too many people of color posting here on a regular basis. I remember when I first started posting here, my opinion seemed so different than everyone else's that many perceived me to be a troll, and some called me as much. I still believe that it was because race and class breed different perspectives, and even different ways of projecting the same perspective. I hope that people understand what it is I'm trying to say, its not an attack on anyone.

And never admit you are wrong. One couldn't ask for a better demonstration of the phenomenon addressed in this post. You don't have to be a liberal war hawk to be full of mindless optimism, meaningless platitudes and wrong about everything.

Good celery, you asked politely for a poem. I regard that as marching orders, and beg pardon for our having been such indifferent drummers.

Wilfred Owen

Dulce Et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Jkalos @ 8:38 is conked out? O, Me too.

Rocket99 and blank? O gone plumb mad.

Monkey-blank pricks a dang 'ole donkey?

pin a tail on a orange pumpkin? O ya's do Puke?

`

Crabbe, George's satires? O Gads.

Were crowds assemble like blank?

Be sure to diddle? I'd dilly. NOTHING!

He contributes only more disgust-ill.

Muse upon what he says and feel disgust?

a blank has a long way to journey... o hush. o creepy?

Be Attentive listening to blank? Wonder what he means?

It's vile, and maybe it's also so very-Very-very creepy?

but that is okay... good night.... I'd grab a spatula? blank?

blank's a NYC inner city roach? Spray the kitchen pantry?

maybe Raid sprayed can rid Salon of infestations of pest?

Did spell your name well?

Really. okay. Good night.

Visualize George W. Bush, or any one you please... on the wagon.... Please.

...I remember when I first started posting here, my opinion seemed so different than everyone else's that many perceived me to be a troll, and some called me as much. I still believe that it was because race and class breed different perspectives, and even different ways of projecting the same perspective. -- omooex

Your letters are generally valuable, educational contributions to these discussions. That said, as PDA and others have indicated, it is legitimate to express a dislike of your tendency to have a public hissy fit when your comments meet with critiques -- especially if you conveniently group legitimate critiques with the flaming ones in order to avoid addressing the legitimate ones at all.

You were right about the TROLL epithet, Septembrini was not. Even though the letter writer blank (formerly known as RealName or Nulla Sallus) fits the definition, there is no good reason for any other poster to label him "TROLL"! in lieu of worthwhile comment.

Septembrini: None of the rest of us needs or wants to read about the details of your own great superiority to the common run of letter writers.
You could keep going on about it, of course. But, that would make you a.....TROLL!

As someone who taught immigrant children 3-13 in a child care and after school program for 14 years in the inner-city and also created and taught a life skills course in Chicago public schools, I have a lot to say about the subject of public education and parenting. To keep things brief because I woke up and need to get back to sleep, let me cite the basic problem:

KIDS ARE NOT TAUGHT TO THINK

They get confused because too many adults and the media are not teaching them that they have to be responsible for the consequences of the decisions they make. And that includes thinking. Kids are led to believe that parents/adults are responsible for their thinking and the consequences when problems arise. They will sit in a school classroom and believe that just by being there, they will learn and anyway, it is the responsibility of the teachers to teach and it is not their job to learn because it will just happen for them. And then the school system totally confuses them by making them think that a bunch of information and historical facts checked through tests will prove if they are learning. Teach to the Test!

Aycharaych is absolutely on target about how the brains we have cause us to have to learn in very different ways. When we put so much emphasis on grades as the only measure, we are catering to one style of learning and saying to the other kids like those who learn tactically by handling things and figuring out how things work, that they are stupid because they can’t learn from the style of teaching that is the only one used.

Far too many of our students don’t realize that learning can be exciting, fun and a never ending love of their life. As you are all aware, all kinds of information and facts are available through many resources. Our education system should be concentrating on learning through the scientific method, logic and reasoning and taking charge of your own thinking. I found all kinds of fun ways to teach that to children and youth. If you don’t teach a child to think, all the rest of your education endeavors are pretty much wasted.