Actually, Kelly, I'm bit fed up myself, but save the fuses for real problems.
You see, I'm a bit fed up at people who quote entire posts in order to reply to one part of them and then write as if they were in a personal conversation with someone in a rather public place.
Second, I'm a bit fed up with all the quotes within quotes within quotes. Most of the points being made are not that fine tuned anyway. What is it, you people never made it out of grad. school or something? And don't they teach paraphrase and summary as writing skills?
Third, I'm a bit tired of all those text bombardments from online articles--a link would suffice in most cases. In the case of Debka or NY Times not even that.
But you know what? If someone wants to violate my sense of what's best for a list, they can go right ahead. That's because I'm a sophisticated pc user with a delete button.
I believe, Kelly, that you would have a hard time following me even if I did quote all that much. That's because I'm not always necessarily responding to a particular point. Get it? And you know what? Not all things worth reading are worth replying to in an interrogational way. Sometimes I'm really obtuse and say to myself, gosh, what can I write in response to a thread so that no one will reply? Blows your mind doesn't it?
Besides, you can always go to the online archive if you are having a hard time following a thread. I always do. Please rest assured, if I post on a thread I'm responding to the totality of that thread. Give me specific examples of my supposed irrelevance and I'll provide textual clues from previous posts (like titles of threads) to show otherwise.
Sometimes it's best to beat around the bush instead of going right for the point because often there are no simple points to be made.
And by the way, you are completely off thread and would have better started your own one (basic netiquette)--about the need for in line quotes so list culture will not be violated or something.
Charles Jannuzi
PS: btw, you could have at least said thanks for the tip on John Pilger, or didn't you follow that?