I am a bit confused by this. Where did I break the rules?
-John
or
First of all for you there are no rules, being your website and all, if you want it that way.
Second, I've been reading your posts on here for a long time, some very good, others maybe not so much. I know from personal experience the more you write, the more likely sooner or later you will make someone mad. If there was a "thumbs up-thumbs down" option, I can pretty much guess how my postings would rate with the majority on here. That's the price we pay for freedom of speech, and sometimes good can come from argument and discussion. My observation is that as long as you follow the "party line" and are a JD ditto head, a little rule breaking is O.K. Examples would be dissing against the President because of his struggling health care plan, or making fun of Al Gore because of some of his ridiculous statements on global warming. As far as I am concerned that's all fine, especially since I don't believe in censorship of any kind (within reason). But when I play devil's advocate (pushing some people out of their comfort zone), with an "outsiders" perspective on controversial topics like trespassing, property damage, soil erosion, air pollution, noise pollution, endangerment by reckless operation, etc. caused by people on snowmachines with tracks of various lengths and configurations - then I get shouted down, dismissed as chatter, wink-wink maybe he'll go away, and people may even threaten to cut down trees or sacrifice puppies.
Third, it's very easy to sit here with beer and popcorn, or cup of coffee this morning, and try to solve all the world's problems. It's also easy to get carried away and off on a tangent from time to time. People often want to see things as black or white, when most of the time it just isn't that simple. And it's easy to get riled up when things get ugly and it starts to look like the end of the world is upon us. Then it's time to take a deep breath and go outside and turn off the computer...
