To those against Jim Fleming

[Matt Magri]

Alan Bechtold <sysop-news at WORLDNET.ATT.NET>
> Jim Fleming gets a bit wild...but to say there is nothing to address is
> strictly a matter of opinion. Ignore him if you disagree...or take on his
> accusations and points and deflate them. But I would have to write off this
> entire list if he or anyone like him was silenced.

Do you mean removed from this mailing list, or actually silenced? My
interest is purely academic, of course, since I would not advocate
either action. I just wish that people would stop following onto him
when he "gets a bit wild".

It's nice that people are so sensitive about free speech and contrary
opinions and all, but it does seem a bit odd that people expressing
the opinion that folks are wasting everyone's time by following onto
someone's posts has become tantamount to "silencing" someone.

Even the subject of this thread, "To those against Jim Fleming" is
superheated. I'm certainly not against Jim Fleming, any more than I
was against the rather unkempt guy I saw on a train who repeated...

	Boston baked beans are not Boston baked beans, they're
	Yorkshire baked beans. Yorkshire pudding is not Yorkshire
	pudding, it's Boston pudding.

...over and over again in a loud monotone. I was actually sorry to see
the conductors put him off at the Wilmington, DE station. He seemed
very earnest and, who knows, maybe he even had a point. At any rate, it
wasn't clear to me how leaving him in Delaware was such a great idea,
tho I'm guessing Amtrak doesn't keep professional psychologists onboard.
He was easy enough to tune out, so there didn't seem to be any harm in
leaving him. Of course, if people had started interrupting him and
asking things like, "What do you mean? Why would they have been called
Boston baked beans all these years if they were actually Yorkshire
baked beans?" or "What basis do you have for your claim about this
so-called `Boston pudding'?" then it would have been worse. But, then,
people always seem to be a lot more sensible about such things when
they are dealing with people in person then when they're dealing with
them via computer.

Matt