For what its worth, I am the one known as Donkeytale at DKOS. I got banned in the same threads around last July 4 with the great Arthur Gilroy. We were both dispatched ingloriously by DHinMI, who everybody knows (now) is the worst of the worst, but rest assured that Gilroy and I were not offed before getting in a few good shots of our own. I was sick of the rampant idiocy on display at DKOS, especially the Thread Police, which confirmed what the right always says about the left. Freedom of speech doesnt exist here.

I looked at the Redstate blog, thinking it would be fun to rattle some conservative cages for a change, but was mystified to discover that Redstate handles traffic from the left with dexterity. Lefties are welcomed there if they dont act stupid, and righties who respond to the lefties stupidly are dispatched just as quickly. It was truly depressing, because lefties are treated with more respect on a righty blog than they are on any of the lefty blogs, this one included. Unless of course you are always in fawning agreement.

I came to this site as “Illusionsofmagicians.” IOM got himself banned for simply questioning the wisdom of the fanning and spreading of lies (“urban myth” in polite language) at BT in the aftermath of Katrina.

Lies are as powerfully destructive as category 4 hurricanes, only their effects never end. To see good but gullible people buy into bullshit in times of crisis made me not want to be around those people during times of crisis.

FWIW, The troll rating/banning experience here is handled a bit better than on KOS, but not that much better. That this site is more welcoming than Koss is a given, but we kid ourselves to say BT is really more open to divergent views than the orange crush.

I have stopped blogging except for on occasion because I am a 50+ year old who runs his own business and who doesnt have all the time left in the world to make his mark and who surely is aiming to make his mark in reality, not in the blogosphere anyway.

This is just a game for everyone but the owner. Its fantasy football. Anyone who thinks otherwise and is blogging as his life’s avocation is automatically candidate for the new twelve step program being offered for internet addiction.

Its a fact that the “Kos and clone” blogs, like everything else, run in cycles (or circles, if you prefer). The endless recriminations over sexist ads, he said, she said, Im so pissed, this used to be a great community but now its fucked up, etc., why I came here, etc.

Its laughable.

I am laughing at myself too because IOM’s earnest “Open Letter” which led to his banning was just another sorry scene in the same tired melodrama.

My grandfather ran a very successful bar during WWII and after, but he became too addicted to his products and services. He died young and broke. The bar lived on successfully after he died, but owned by someone else from a different family. Grandma didnt end up with a nickel.

Boo is running a business that is in a sense like running a bar. The froggy Bottom cafe. He is serving his clientele’s sometimes not very pretty needs. They come they go, they come back, they act cool, they act pissed, they have a fight, the thread police break it up, they make up, or they go/get sent away for good. Its always the same with alcoholics.

But the successful bar owner is never an alcoholic himself.