Condorcet is Cute

[Rob Lanphier]

On Wed, 24 Feb 1999, Donald E Davison wrote:
> Blake: "The people who come to the most bizarre conclusions usually seem to
> hold them most strongly."
> Don: Yes, I agree with you. There seems to be a lot of that going around.
> That is the way the pairwise guys are. This is not a perfect world. People
> don't always act the way we would like them to act. But, it is nothing that
> we cannot put up with. I have been putting up with them for the years that
> I have been on this list - life goes on.

Donald, I think the "pairwise guys" have been putting up with you, and I
feel like I've been pretty generous in not taking you off of this list.
Your arguments are specious and disingenuous.  This last email clearly
demonstrates that you have no desire to learn anything, but rather try to
grind down people's resistance to your beliefs.

I'd appreciate input from other members of this list as to whether I
should take Donald off of the list.  On one hand, I feel it's very
important to allow for free speech, and I always hold out hope that Donald
will stop with the ad hominem attacks and have reasoned discussions.  On
the other hand, I'm tired of providing a free soapbox for this Donald's
brand of rhetoric, and there are any number of other avenues to express
oneself (Usenet, web forums, other mailing lists).

Perhaps a good compromise would be an "idiot list" on the web page where
people sign up for this list, and a list of preconditions for getting off
of the list.  That way, it would be very clear that I personally don't
condone this behavior (since it may not be clear by my lack of action
thus far) and would encourage a higher level of discussion by providing a
penalty box by those that don't abide.

My problem with this solution is that I'm not sufficiently engaged in the
discussion these days to maintain this list.  I may have to externally
reference someone else's list.

Thoughts?

Rob Lanphier
robla at eskimo.com
http://www.eskimo.com/~robla