[conspire] NYLXS Press Release on the OLPC Project

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Ruben Safir (ruben at mrbrklyn.com), replying to Ed Cherlin:

> I never said that all jihads are anti-semetic.[...]

It's just a little uncool for you to follow up Ed's post shortly after I
gave him a mild tongue-lashing for its direction and tone.  You've
continued in the same direction I chastised Ed over, but now he's going
to be reluctant to respond.  

Again, I'm not donning my listadmin "hat", but this entire thread, which
you yourself started, has been wildly offtopic for a LUG technical (and
social) mailing list, and you've not been doing your part to keep it 
pleasant and inoffensive.

My rule of thumb observation is that offtopic mailing list threads tend
to be welcome to the extent that they're some combination of:

o  amusing
o  short in duration (the threads, that is)
o  concise (as to the length of postings)
o  cordial and lacking in vituperation
o  entertaining or genuinely interesting
o  infrequent in their recurrence
o  lacking flamebait or temptation towards various infamous online boondoggles

I figured that my engaging you on philology, and a limited amount of
sparring with you -- i.e., jihad al-lisan -- on the historical and
religious connections thereof, could be kept amusing, short in duration,
cordial, somewhat interesting, steered skillfully away (if necessary, by
yrs. truly) from imfamously tedious flamewars, and would not be a
frequent event by any stretch of the imagination.

You (and, briefly, Ed) have not really cooperated, and you are now
attempting to broaden the discussion to include at least a few infamous
online boondoggles.


<hat = "listadmin>

In a word, no.  You will _not_ argue the Arab-Israeli conflict here.
You will _not_, unless perhaps you have a ream of relevant maternal
mitochondrial DNA test results handy, tell us who the ancestors of
Lebanese or West Bank / Gaza Arabs are.  You will _not_ drag this
mailing list into whose ancestors massacred whose, 147 years ago.
(FWIW, the Luftwaffe firebombed my family's town of Kristiansund just to
make a political point to the British and resistance forces, so it sucks
to be even _impersonally_ in the way of historical conflicts.)  And you
will _not_ drag this mailing list into the merits of the Iraq
occupation.  Not here.  Period.

So, you rendered inaccurate my prediction that I would descend with
listamdin irritation onto Ed _first_.  Congratulations, _you_ managed it.
Great.  But now, this is your cue to cut bait.

</hat>