Liberty is an inherently offensive lifestyle. Living in a free society guarantees that each one of us will see our most cherished principles and beliefs questioned and in some cases mocked. That psychic discomfort is the price we pay for basic civic peace. It's worth it. It's a pragmatic principle. Defend everyone else's rights, because if you don't there is no one to defend yours. -- MaxedOutMama

I don't just want gun rights... I want individual liberty, a culture of self-reliance....I want the whole bloody thing. -- Kim du Toit

The most glaring example of the cognitive dissonance on the left is the concept that human beings are inherently good, yet at the same time cannot be trusted with any kind of weapon, unless the magic fairy dust of government authority gets sprinkled upon them.-- Moshe Ben-David

The cult of the left believes that it is engaged in a great apocalyptic battle with corporations and industrialists for the ownership of the unthinking masses. Its acolytes see themselves as the individuals who have been "liberated" to think for themselves. They make choices. You however are just a member of the unthinking masses. You are not really a person, but only respond to the agendas of your corporate overlords. If you eat too much, it's because corporations make you eat. If you kill, it's because corporations encourage you to buy guns. You are not an individual. You are a social problem. -- Sultan Knish

All politics in this country now is just dress rehearsal for civil war. -- Billy Beck

Monday, July 22, 2013

OK, Let's Have a Vote (Bumped)

Markadelphia is currently doing his thing in the comments to So Detroit Files for Bankruptcy, having veered off into a non sequitur thread about Trayvon Martin and race relations in the U.S.  Current comment count as I write this is 91.

I will admit that through the years (going on seven now), Markadelphia has inspired some pretty good posts (see the left sidebar) and a LOT of outstanding commentary (inspired, not generated).  And I will admit to "hunting over bait" to draw him and his special brand of Leftist brain-damage out from time to time, but as the GeekWitha.45 (among others) has noted more than once, what Markadelphia does in general is well described as comment shitting.  Great for traffic, but the signal-to-noise ratio drops right the hell off when he starts up.

I, your "Cult Grand Wizard" have said that I will never ban him from this site, but he left once previously voluntarily when he believed he had been "voted off the island" by my readers.  I pointed out to him the "vote" was 2-2, which is known in my world as "a tie."  So he came back.

So let's do this for real.  Leave a comment below:  Should Markadelphia be voted off the island, Yes or No?

UPDATE:  Regardless of the vote, I'm not going to ban-hammer Markadelphia.  I'm going to let his conscience be his guide (I can't believe I actually wrote that.)   Voting concludes Monday at midnight, MST.

As of 4PM MST 7/20/13:  Yes - 4, No - 9

As of 9:30PM 7/20/13:      Yes - 5, No - 11

As of 7:50AM 7/21/13:      Yes - 5, No - 16

5:05PM 7/21/13:               Yes - 10, No - 13, Abstaining - 3

I just rechecked the comment thread and also my email.  Sixty-two comments, 23 votes.  A couple of people have changed their votes, I've gotten one "Yes" vote via email because Disqus refuses to work for them, and I think I might have double-counted one "No" vote on the last round.  Somebody check my work.

07:28 7/22/13:  OK, with Unix having now weighed in, the vote stands at:  Yes:  12 13,  No:  14 (two "Yes" votes via email) and Abstaining:  2.  Voting continues until midnight tonight.  Anything timestamped after that will be ignored.  Honestly, it's closer than I thought it would be.

I changed the "Yes" count to 13.  I'm tired of him, too.  I'd have been happy if he hadn't gotten progressively (and I use that word deliberately) worse over the last six years, but his complete wharrgarbl of late has prompted me into it (and this post).  I still won't ban him, but I am tired of him and would not be disappointed if he took his navel lint and went home.

12:32 7/22/13:  TIE!  Yes - 14, No - 14, Abstaining - 2.  Less than twelve hours left.
14:03 7/22/13:  Another vote change.  Yes - 15, No - 13, Abstaining - 2.
18:40 7/22/13:  Yes - 16, No - 16, Abstaining - 2.  Yup.  We're a monolithic cult here marching in mindless lockstep.  What kind of "Cult Grand Wizard" am I?

UPDATE — FINAL TALLY:

YESNOABSTAIN
DJjuris imprudentLyle
ToastriderHelen ThomasPerlhaqr
Peter G. (email)Grumpy Old Fart  
Merchant O'Death (email)  GuardDuck
Phil BRandyGC
Andrew PRobert Frampton
QuadGMotoFrognot
Mark DietzlerJohn Pryce
GeekWithA.45Ragin' Dave
PascalMiddleAgeKen
DCJeffro
Unix-JediJohn Hardin
Mark DSteve
John Hardin6Kings
WillHaplo9
DixieMrBill
JustSomeGuy
Peter Barrett

One late vote from pedeim was excluded.  "Yes" - 18, "No" - 16, Abstain - 2.  I left my vote off because it didn't matter.  The People Have Spoken.

UPDATE 4:07 MST 7/23/13 - Now that we're done with this, I'm going to lock this thread in a little bit.  If you have something you want to say, please get it off your chest, but leave comments specifically about Markadelphia out of it.  We've voted, it's done.

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