Hi Craig,

Okay, now that I know which thread precipitated this crisis, it is clear that nothing you discussed in this thread has anything to do with what's going on. There is simply no way for any reasonable person to get out of sorts over the closing of that thread. Thus, I can only conclude that there is something else going on with Michael and the closed thread was simply a triggering event. Thus, "fixing" any of the things you mentioned won't do anything to solve the problem. At best you can just leave a bunch of us half-cocked but un-fired.

Changing the tire on your truck won't solve anything if the gas tank is empty. Okay, if your tire is also flat changing it would help. But this forum has gone from dozens to thousands. That growth belies any notion that "the tire is flat." It ain't broke, don't fix it.

Now if you, or anyone else, knows what is really getting at Michael, and you want to address that, okay. But don't fix what ain't broke. I for one like the occassional off-topic threads, even, no, especially if that means being occassionally offended by anti-American politics. Conversations between people who always agree are boring to the point of being annoying. I'll take offended over annoyed any day.

And finally, since there seem to be so many around who can't wait to apologize for even the slightest of unintended offenses, whether theirs or not, let me be the first to say that if I, in any small way, have offended any of you, then you obviously needed offending ;-)