Open Thread

Instead of pay toilets, I’m thinking of opening a bunch of pay bidets around New York. Then when someone asks how my day went, I can say, “another bidet, another dollar”.

DH, I have a suggestion for your automatic watch issue from this morning. put your watch inside a sock (or something that can cushion it against shock) then inside a plastic bag and hang it to a hook or something on your bathrm door (which I assume is the most active dr in your apt). Maybe the dr opening & shutting might just give it enough movemt to keep watch going.

Apparently everyone was drunk on 4th of July weekend, except the chicken, who was in mourning.

I won’t be able to make Sycamore tonight. Friday night was whiskey sours all night, Saturday was margharitas and beer last night.

What,

I’ll bite. This is just me, but I don’t think I’ve ever suggested you be banned. I also don’t think DIBS — your eprceived main nemesis — has, either. You and I have sparred a lot, but usually on a topic. Sometimes I try to call you on what I perceived to be gaps in the logic of your arguments, and I find it frustrating sometimes when you just won’t do it because, it seems, you think all your arguments are self-evidently logical and anyone who can’t see it is, well, in your words an R word or an A word. Sometimes, I take the bait and try to press really hard, because, regardless of the merits of your views, I think you get away with sloppiness. Sometimes, I just don’t bother because I know that you will counterattack, but not debate in a meaningful way. Way, way back, when we were new to each other, I expressed some concerns about whether some of your posts threatened real violence and I was worried you had gone beyond puffery. I don’t see it that way anymore.

My take, fwiw, is that you probably perceive more people wanting you banned than is actually the case. I think that is because you have a hard time distinguishing argument and disagreement with your views from actual attacks and hatred. It is probably true that a lot of the posters you don’t respect or think much of have a similar view towards you. You’ve gone pretty agressively on the attact, and with seemingly a lot of personal venom towards a number of posters and teh community as a whole. (For a while, you were gleefully predicting that I would not be able to get an appraisal to support my refi. Now why would you wish that on me? I don’t wish harm to you. And btw, you were wrong — the appraisal was quite strong.) As a result, you have made yourself quite a target. Also, you have put you persona at issue so heavily that some on this blog miss you just because they want to unravel the mystery — if there is one — about who you are and what makes you tick. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

So, in the end, if you want to dish it out, be ready to take it. This is a blog, and I don’t believe in banning unless there is a serious reason. But I think the better course is to actually pay attention to the arguments of those disagreeing with you and, if you think they are wrong, explain why, with logic and data that actually accounts for the opposing view. When pressed on logic, you usually retreat behind a barricade. I don’t want you banned, but I am not sure at this point that I would miss you if you dropped off the blog.