Noble sentiments, Holly. On the other hand, a pain in the ass by any other name is still a pain in the ass. Troll is the accepted terminology, honored in the breach however often it may be.

I don't use it myself, but under the circumstances, I'd be loath to have it banned by self-appointed arbiters. When it comes down to it, democracy is a messy business, for all the order some of us might feel ordained to bring to the suffering masses.

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!

-- Holly McLachlan

Your less than frequent missives are as interesting, in terms of the taxonomy of trolling, as those from omooex or blank. I called the letter writer blank a troll, which it is, but you go one step further, professing to know who but not what it is. What keen insight and perception you possess! You state the letter writer blank is RealName and Nulla Sallus but that none of them are actually trolls. How, we might ask, can you tell that they are one and the same? Is it woman's intuition? (If, in fact, you are a woman. How do we know?)

Blank's first letter:

I'm sure we stayed in VN despite all the rancor at home and despite what they told the populace. I'm sure that Korea was far less popular than the government hoped it would be. Heck - even WW2 had a strong and persistent strain of un-popularism at home throughout. And if you go all the way back to 1776 only 1 out of 3 colonialists sided with the Revolution. You simply need to understand that wars are fairly unpopular when they are going on. It's only later that they become heroic. If we could, we should go back to 1776 and just stay a colony. At least it would all be someone else's fault.

RealName was many things. He was often arrogant or haughty, like you, but mostly without justification simply because he was usually wrong in spite of his intelligence. He was obnoxious, like you, but he was not stupid and although actual numbers of those remaining loyal to the Crown are difficult to estimate, it was never over 1 in 3, the reverse of what blank asserts. No rebellion would have succeeded in such a case. Blank is ignorant, as I said, and just being a troll. Both. But I very much doubt it is RealName.

This is about the level of analytic ability I would expect from someone as keen and incisive as yourself, or blank, but never RealName.

....a pain in the ass by any other name is still a pain in the ass. Troll is the accepted terminology, honored in the breach however often it may be. -- William Timberman

Bill, Do you think, maybe, that Settembrini is Nulla Sallus/RealName/blank/~~~~~

The similarity of outlook is striking.....

The similarity of purpose is undeniable -- ANYTHING but the post topic, by God!

I'd be loath to have it banned by self-appointed arbiters. When it comes down to it, democracy is a messy business, for all the order some of us might feel ordained to bring to the suffering masses.

-- William Timberman

I identified and classified it. I put a label on it. I assumed serious people might wish to ignore it. If you see it on the shelf and engaging "trolls" is what you are here for, have at it. Open that can. At least with Shooter it is ostensibly a contest of philosophies and ideas, albeit one sided. He's running out of ammo. Blank is just a troll and makes things up out of whole cloth just to be contrary. RealName was banned for spamming obscenity (loading up a letter with the F word repeated ad nauseam), probably from frustration, not for being contrary. I can only go by what he wrote but takin him at his word, he was not an idiot, like blank.

Bill, Do you think, maybe, that Settembrini is Nulla Sallus/RealName/blank/~~~~~

I think "Bill" has an idea who I am. For a man, William is "good with words". For a woman, if you are a woman, you are better with the numbers, I think.

ANYTHING but the post topic, by God!

-- Holly McLachlan

Occasionally lodged in reference to bebop-o. Are you calling him a troll? Someone with a background in quantitative analyses should be a quicker study here than someone with no education at all.

Yes, everybody knows that the Germany declared war on the US first. Did you just write to give trivia? I guess I'm not getting your point.

"... now does not mean that everyone who's been over there has gone by choice." -- Anonymust

How does that work? Are you saying that the volunteers did not know that the military is used to kill people and break things"

I have a lot of family members in our military, but I have never heard one say that he had no choice in joining. I have heard many talk of the benefits and so forth.

Why do you think these 'not-really-volunteers' of your joined?

"...often had more education themselves than many do today. I'm not sure that's true, mind you, or at least not universally true. It would be interesting to hear what people here say who have more recent experience with the public school system." -Timberman

You would be wrong on that one count. The incentives are to gain more advanced degrees since the pay scale is based on education as well as years of service.

You could argue that the 'schooling' that confers these advanced degrees to teachers is not really education; but at least on paper the public school teachers of today are more educated than those 50 years ago.