A personal note:
My longtime friend, conservative T. Paine, once enlivened debate whenever he graced us with his presence. He broke my heart a while back when he announced that he would no longer participate. The atmosphere was too hostile toward him and his point of view.
Still, we published beginning paragraphs of, and links to, articles on T. Paine’s site. We often introduce, by the same sort of introductory referral, opinions that differ from those held by us and our readers.
I was saddened at news that critiques of Mr. Paine on Fair And UNbalanced were enough to provoke my old friend. He apparently asked Dave Dubya of Freedom Rants to leave and not come back. Well, it is T. Paine’s site.
Our original referral:
From T. Paine, at Saving Common Sense:
First, the asinine and cynically corrupt fools that participated in the Schumer shutdown of the government should be held accountable with the loss of their seats of power, if there were indeed any justice left in this nation. Why these folks would vote against a spending bill which funds all the pet projects that the Democrats adore and contains nothing of substance for which they loathe is beyond me.
They have chosen, under the “leadership” of Senate minority leader Schumer to place the desires of DACA people over that of all other Americans. The truly ironic fact that displays the cynicism of these folks that care more for illegal aliens and expanding their own political power through the immigration of more future Democrats is that congressional work on DACA was proceeding well already. There was no need to attach a non-related immigration rider onto this spending bill.
We may each come to a judgment on the degree of ferocity within Dave’s comments as our readers reacted:
I’m trying to recall a few years back when Mr. Paine demanded the “asinine and cynically corrupt fools that participated in the Republican anti-Obamacare shutdown of the government should be held accountable with the loss of their seats of power”…
…Nope. I got nothing. Except IOKIYAR.
Ryan:
*Embraces Republican meme “Schumer Shutdown”
*Accuses Democrats of trying to help illegal aliens solely to get more Democrat voters
*Suggests the nuclear option
*Finds a way to mention Hillary Clinton negatively
*Suggests punishment from God for abortion
*Criticizes Schumer both for starting and ending the shutdown
The same old conservatism. The same old nonsense. The same old T. Paine.
Trey:
Dave,
Look back into his archives. He has a post about the 2013 shutdown. He blamed Democrats for that one, too. If only they would have listened to Republicans and just defund the ACA. It’s always the fault of Dems.
Thanks, Trey.
You saved me the trouble of learning who gets the blame.
Whodathunk?
In the comment thread of this post I also learned this comforting notion from Mr. Paine: Unlike Obama, our current “foolish juvenile president” is a “stable” president.
Imagine that.
Common sense: Helping make America great again. You just gotta believe. And know who to blame, of course.
Well, it finally happened. I’ve been asked to not contribute any further at TP’s blog.
I must say the case against me was damning, and the evidence clear:
It was “Paul” and Dave that were on Tom’s blog, and Dave on Fair and Balanced, so I am told, that were being nasty and typically untruthful on the latest posts.
That said, I would greatly appreciate it if you both would leave my blog and not return accordingly. I have no more use for the sophomoric name calling and hate that is part and parcel of both of your debating strategies. Please just leave. You can whine and lie about me, as JG already is, on Tom’s or other folk’s blogs.
Seems something I said was “nasty and untruthful”.
Or “so I am told”, for we must take second hand accusations as fact.
It also seems Mr. Paine couldn’t hack any more “lies” and “name calling” from “Commie Dave”. (Mr. Paine’s sidekick Majormajor gave me my nickname and accused me of lies, with no facts offered in rebuttal, of course.)
I get it. Conservatives are the sensitive kind. Or so I am told.
True to my liberal need for an explanation I reviewed the possible reasons for my being banned.
Was it that “our current “foolish juvenile president” is a “stable” president” part that crossed the line?
Perhaps. I’ll never know.
For the record, here are the actual words Mr. Paine and I exchanged on the matter:
==
TP:
Dave, I do find agreement with you regarding the completely asinine comments Trump has made regarding North Korea and Kim Jong Un. That has unnecessarily ratcheted up the war posturing and made millions of people throughout the world very nervous. It is dangerous and foolish.
I don’t think Trump is unstable, but he is juvenile and un-statesmen-like which is never a good combination when dealing with dangerous narcissistic tyrants like Kim Jong Un.
DD:
It’s interesting to know you feel a “foolish juvenile president” is a stable president.
That’s a lot of faith in the tantrum-throwing, anger-inciting, knee-jerk, whining Orange Julius.
==
I report, you decide.
Maybe it was my gentle ribbing of his sidekick Majormajor on his fear of the “secret society” and “deep state” that went too far. Go figure. It’s so unfair to hold them to such reality based standards.
Maybe I responded to MM’s questions with too many facts. He did seem annoyed that crime went down after cannabis legalization in Colorado.
Wait, I know what it was. I implied MM was a “very fine person” after he repeatedly posted stats on Black crime. Maybe that was the last straw.
Oh, well. I’ll have to find some way to move on through life, exiled from responding to their “facts”.
I guess I’ll have to find comfort when I “whine and lie about” poor Mr. Paine elsewhere.
My loss.
We have maintained FairAndUNbalanced.com for 10 years. We make no pretense at balance, but we do try to be fair. We invite comments reflecting all points of view.
We do have a comment policy of sorts. We remove spam, especially “comments” consisting only of unrelated links. Extreme profanity would have been excluded, but we have seldom had to enforce that rule.
Conversation can be rough. Thin skins tend to become, as Mr. Romney would put it, self-deporting. Purely personal attacks have sometimes been tolerated. But they have mostly remained in the province of occasional visiting conservative trolls. They have not been the rule.
My memory may have become a little vague over the years. I don’t recall losing any participant because of comments made on other sites.
Other blogs have the inherent right to their own standards.
That would include those who would close off opinions that might bruise the delicate sensibilities of site owners.
Have a safe, opinionated, fair, and unbalanced weekend.