and I certainly wouldn't want someone to hit me over the head with a baseball bat because I chose to give the begger a few dollars in a moment of generosity on my part.
The comparison fail me. If a negative karma point is anything but the expression of an opinion I'm lost. If a negative karma point would "hit me over the head with a baseball bat" I'd liklely be dead by now.

It seems that some are very sensitive about their karma score - is that not a lack of respect for the right of others to express an opinion.

That, as you (Craig) have posted, one member has used the karma system for "revenge" is easily resolved by the means you suggested: block that person from entering Karma scores.

One more thing re karma score. It would be very helpful if there was an (anonymous) way to ask the negative scorer why? on the "wrong answer" point. I think on 3 instances I have been at a total loss as to why that score was given to one of my posts.

Are we to get rid of the code library to make sure everyone does their homework?
By no means. When using a library, you will, in most cases, need to tweak the code before you can use it and THAT can be very educationl.

Using a library and tweaking is no silver platter, you can not tweak if you do not (nominally) understand the code you downloaded.

Erik