[PW] Re: Isreal, and soldiers

[John Franklin]

On Nov 10, 2006, at 1:22 AM, Jackie Griffin wrote:

> I'm a silent reader on this list but I've just been
> moved to de-lurk.
> There is something extra insidious about a list owner
> who insists on continuing to beat a drum of his own
> making when the rest of us have no recourse except to
> accept his own particular point of view or remove
> ourselves.
> Truthfully, I share some of your feelings about
> Israel.  I don't, however, choose to make this a
> political list or to continue on with the ground rules
> that you can say any inflammatory thing that you like.
> I choose to remove myself.  Please unsub me.

Sorry, I do apologize. (And to the list in general, too, on this  
latter point.) The message to which you were responding was intended  
to stop at Open, but one of the other moderators (Mailman doesn't  
distinguish, and it's probably for the best if I don't know which one  
anyway) either decided to make some mischief or else didn't read  
beyond the first paragraph. (Which, ironically, specifically said  
that these messages shouldn't go beyond the Open list. This is not  
the first time Murphy's Law has been a source of foot-eating, and it  
won't be the last, but it doesn't make it any less embarrassing.)

I assure you that the ground rules are not intended to allow me, or  
anyone else, to say any inflammatory thing I like, or at least not on  
the main list, where it counts. (They are, however, intended to allow  
anyone at all to say anything whatsoever on the Open list, as long as  
they aren't selling something, in which case the moderators try to  
use their own judgement.) The reactions to this thread, both on- and  
off-list, have been alternating between thought-provoking and merely  
provoking, and had I not been accused of anti-semitism, I would not  
have said as much as I did, but I was, and as is so often the case, I  
felt the need to say things in my own defense. That doesn't mean the  
normal list should be subjected to them, though, and I apologize for  
the inadvertent mess. Whether you think I'm insidious or not, it  
wasn't my intention!

I will unsubscribe you (or at least check that you're unsubscribed if  
you already did it yourself), since you have specifically asked for  
that, but please consider resubscribing.

-John Franklin