My mum always used to say: “If you can’t say anything nice about someone, don’t say anything at all.”
Mind you, that was usually after she’d made a decent hole in the cooking sherry, verbally knifed just about every neighbour and relative she had, and was looking for a way to forestall impending counter-attacks.
I know just how she felt*. Blood is thicker than water, so they say.
For only the second third time ever, I’ve closed off a comment thread. I no longer possess the patience or civility to respond to the sorts of dickhead comments it was generating. But it hasn’t helped. I take this civility stuff very seriously, but my patience and forebearance in general are at a low ebb. Almost certainly these people aren’t as completely fucking stupid as they seem to me at the moment. It’s time for a blogging hiatus.
This crotchety disposition also coincides with an unavoidable need to spend even more time on university administrative tasks. So posts will be light to non-existent for the next 10 days or so. With a bit of luck, some of the Troppo co-bloggers may take up the slack. If not, put this blog on slow rotation and I’ll talk to youse all around the middle of the month.
* My mum is actually still alive, despite the past tense of the above. But she seems to have mellowed in recent years (not before time). It might even happen to me one day too.
Sorry I missed all the fun Ken, but I hereby hand over the Sheil Short Fuse Award.
More sincerely, we all enjoy your blog Ken, as I’m sure you know, and we all love disagreeing with you when we see an opening, as I’m sure you also know, and I also think a good dummy spit is always in order, as I’m also sure you also know. Hope to see you back much sooner rather than later mate.
We’ll be good Ken, honest!
It was Godwin’s law in action. Bunyip called Adams a Nazi, you linked, from that moment the thread was doomed. Terminating it was possibly the best choice, though just deleting the post might be better.
Tim
It’s not the point. The crotchetiness is more generalised than just that one post, and the university imperatives really ARE pressing. A break is definitely the answer.
Any chance you could post the happy result of next friday’s “One Wrong Move” performance? That, and what else appears to be cooking, seem exceptionally good ideas. Keep that magic moving!
Peter
Yes, if all goes according to plan I’m aiming to post the “One Wrong Move” video in streaming audio format and make it available here. It probably won’t be all that professionally filmed, but it will be captured with a reasonably good digital movie camera.
As for the magic, Geoff and Wayne (and Wendy if she has any available time) are more than capable of injecting it, and so is Jen if the muse moves her to post instead of just making mischievous comments.
The Bunyip deals with that last comment from Tim Lambert. Whoo-ee…beware the wrath of Bunyip.
– it is my job to be mischevious – especially where you are concerned – poor darling so much work and so much responsibility on those broad shoulders – better now.
Peter I am warmed by your interest. Thankyou. We will film it on Friday night. The kids have had a much wider educational experience than I planned – it is all good – a generous spirit opens lots of doors. And yours is much appreciated.
And parish
Farewell old man – catch you at the traffic lights
Thanks Ken and Jen. Have fun you guys. Ratbags, both of you!
Comments to this post have also been closed, as a result of a pathetic comment by an anonymous lurker, which I’m about to delete.
But I do find it interesting that almost all the RWDBs who participate in comment threads here at Troppo when I post a piece with a generally left-leaning slant manage to conduct discussions in an essentially civil if robust manner. On the other hand, in the last couple of posts (including Geoff’s comment thread about Kirby etc) where I’ve adopted a somewhat right-leaning stance, several left-leaning commenters (though certainly not fellow bloggers like John Quiggin, David Tiley, Tim Lambert) have posted comments that can only be described as nasty and ill-tempered in the extreme. It does rather appear that the left contains a greater number of people with a Stalinist inability to tolerate opposing viewpoints, or a compulsion to dismiss them as motivated by “hate” instead of a good faith difference of opinion.
Of course, you get a totally opposite impression from reading Tim Blair’s comment threads, so maybe it’s just a temporary aberration.
Godwin’s Law
Wikipedia
states: