I’m so special that the editor responds to my post in the post itself.

Rock on Dude. I found your post to be one of the most thoughtful written anywhere in a long time. You should know by now though that discourse is a lost art. If anything is mildly discomforting its got to go. However, remember growth is often painful and unsettling. keep it up.

I’m going to try and engage you on this, because you linked to me, and we should set a few things straight. First of all, I wouldn’t have chosen you to be a contributer on MCB. Thats honest. It has nothing to do with your views, or what political Party you belong to. I almost never find much in your posts that isn’t deliberately controversial, or interesting, or original. I have no idea why you hold those views. Perhaps if you related to people in a way that gave them a more complete idea of who Glenn Dean is, your posts that aren’t intended to tweak people’s noses wouldn’t do so. The thing is, I don’t think you hold any views near and dear that you didn’t read in an Ayn Rand or Milton Freidman book, or heard on Rush Limbaugh. I don’t find you to offer much insight on policy, candidates, or the political process.

And, yes, you do enjoy basking in this idea that you have some Liberal types foaming at the mouth over your words, and well, Glenn, thats fine for your blog, but I don’t think it has a place here.

I’m not involved with MCB except in a support role, like all regular readers here. So, now that you are a contributor, I see nothing gained by asking you to leave. I don’t think you are a bad person…hell, we’ve broken bread and shared agave together, and you are polite and some would say shy in person, and it was a better party that night by your presence. So, lets be clear, I like you, right up to the point that you insult people who do not share your opinions.

With Mack’s comment here, I concur.

First off, it is important to note how important a person’s name is to them. Mine is spelled with one N. I assume that you just made a mistake, not trying to insult me. I forgive you.

Mack, in all fairness, I haven’t done any name calling here. If I happen to ever do that, it gets zapped. It’s also important to note that some of my posts here have to do with football, baseball, and music. Sometimes I just pose questions in order to start a discussion. Examples of this are “How Do You Feel About the Bush Plan To Help Homeowners?”, and “DLC Town This Weekend”. As for originality, it was me that used this site to advocate the firing of Michael Chertoff and amnesty for all illegals. I do find myself in agreement with Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman, Limbaugh and a few others, but Mack I’m not some skull full of mush. I developed my opinions on my own and then I found pundits and economists that agreed with me and I reference them from time to time. I am a free thinker, a Republican and evangelical who despises social conservatism. You really can’t even classify me as conservative, not by the current definition.

Mack, you said that you wouldn’t have added me to this site. Knowing that, do you really think you are able to judge me objectively without a built in bias?

As for insulting people Mack, that’s really all you do, when speaking to me. The comment you left was insulting. Once again, you labeled me as stupid. I am glad that you found me to be a nice guy though. I surely hope to run into you again some time in the future. What you saw that night is pretty much who I am. I like people, all people. Thanks.

Mack, I don’t concur. I think your position is a stretch.

Where were you when Jesus General and democommie were bombing NiT? Or for that matter when William was bombing the ruins of NiT?

Toughen up. It isn’t all rainbows and bunnies.

“It isn’t all rainbows and bunnies”

Huh? Why didn’t I get the memo? What am I going to do with all these rainbows and bunnies I’ve got lyring around?

What am I going to do with all these rainbows and bunnies I’ve got lyring around?

Send them to a lesbian artificial insemination clinic.

To be honest with you, I kind of like the attention. With all of the stuff going on in the world, little old me is still able to aggravate some folks.

This is the problem. You post things specifically intended to aggravate people. It’s one thing to voice an unpopular opinion. It’s another entirely to instigate.

You seem to like to see yourself as some great icon of free speech, but let me tell you, picking a fight doesn’t make one a defender of free speech, it just makes one a jerk (that’s not aimed at Glen specifically, but just a general idea. It’s what I said after the Mohammed cartoons came out).

To use an analogy, the posts of yours that have caused controversy have been the equivalent of a young child holding their finger a half inch from their sibling while repeating “I’m not touching you, I’m not touching you.” Then when the simply reacts getting defensive and saying “I wasn’t even touching you, why are you mad at me?”

Examples of this are “How Do You Feel About the Bush Plan To Help Homeowners?”,

As I recall, this post started some good discussion but didn’t cause a controversy. That’s the difference between saying, “I think this, what do you think?” and “I think this and if you disagree you’re a moron.”

Glen, when are you going to realize that MCB isn’t all about you?

When I started a blog to support my business, I made it the blog that people found when they clicked on my name. Ginger went in and altered that. I did get it changed back,***** but good grief.

I did that with the purest intention of looking out for your best interest. We discussed this privately via e-mail between you, Ivy, Kat, and myself.

It is incredibly tacky for you to bring this up again, and making it appear as if I was trying to hurt you by changing where your name links.

This is getting very personal, Glen, and I would strongly advise you to get off of my back.

Glen, I can personally vouch for the fact that Ginger wasn’t trying to harm you by changing that link.

Glen, (yup, earlier misspelling was an honest mistake) fair enough. I should have said your “political” posts don’t interest me. I realize that I have in fact inferred that you might be stupid, even though I would never actually call someone that. I did so by saying “moronic’ or referring to what you wrote as “nonsense”, and so I will admit that I have been biased toward you. That will end today. I know you aren’t stupid. i have said you are sometimes lazy backing up your assertions, and sometimes you have been. So, lets both help MCB attract and keep a loyal audience by putting our best foot forward at all times.

I bet you backslide first.

did that with the purest intention of looking out for your best interest. We discussed this privately via e-mail between you, Ivy, Kat, and myself.

This is getting very personal, Glen, and I would strongly advise you to get off of my back.

Just to clarify, Glen.

I was the one who told Ivy and Ginger to change it back to your business name. And I did not do so with pure motives. As I told them “If he thinks his writing here is the type of advertising which will win people over and bring him more business, that’s his problem”

Or something to that effect.

I’m just chiming in and then I’m going to slowly fade back into the shadows on this.
Over the past couple of weeks, there has been a lot of tedious “Gotcha” sort of stuff happening here at MCB. I’ve been out of pocket and when I saw it, I decided not to engage in it all because, personally, I like a good dialogue but it really was getting rough and, to be honest, I have enough of this sort of discourse in my real job.
With that said, Glen, I know Ginger pretty well and I know she didn’t do anything with malcontent and Katherine stated this as well. It was a swipe and your statement was hurtful, especially if you guys discussed the privately.
Here’s what I’m seeing. People get along, sometimes it’s fun to banter back and forth. Hell, Glen, I love to banter with you on politics. We disagree but that’s cool with me.
With that said, the comments have gotten into this game recently of “Let’s call out everyone” for the sake of what? Not just you, but several folks.
I don’t know. But with that said, I don’t participate either because it’s not my thing.
If people throw it out, they have to be able to take it, I get that.
But on the other hand, if it’s uncomfortable all the time, then there is a problem.
Now…
This is a community. This is what Kat and Ivy have strived to build and they are doing quite well. Communities disagree, they fight, they get irritated. We don’t all have to get along, ad we won’t.
Mack and you both like to throw the stink bombs, I also get that. Most of the time, I dig it.
But, communities have to have some balance.
Some folks are having friendly discussions even though they disagree.

I, and this is my opinion, don’t want to wince every time I read the comment section over here. It has gotten ugly but it can be fixed if we remember that we are all human beings and we all need to treat everyone else with respect.
That’s my two cents. Take it for what’s it’s worth.
This is what Rachel was trying to say in her post yesterday. And I agree with her.
Moving back into the shadows now.

This is kind of off-topic… kind of… but I just want to say that, as a reader, it really, really frustrates me to read something like First off, it is important to note how important a person’s name is to them. Mine is spelled with one N. I assume that you just made a mistake, not trying to insult me. I forgive you.

Mack, in all fairness, I haven’t done any name calling here. If I happen to ever do that, it gets zapped. It’s also important to note that some of my posts here have to do with football, baseball, and music. Sometimes I just pose questions in order to start a discussion. Examples of this are “How Do You Feel About the Bush Plan To Help Homeowners?”, and “DLC Town This Weekend”. As for originality, it was me that used this site to advocate the firing of Michael Chertoff and amnesty for all illegals. I do find myself in agreement with Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman, Limbaugh and a few others, but Mack I’m not some skull full of mush. I developed my opinions on my own and then I found pundits and economists that agreed with me and I reference them from time to time. I am a free thinker, a Republican and evangelical who despises social conservatism. You really can’t even classify me as conservative, not by the current definition.

just because it hints at all kinds of interesting things. I mean, again, as a reader, I want to know why Glen’s name is so important to him and why having someone misspell it might be considered insulting. This interests me and it’s not something I can get my head around exactly.

Same for wondering what it is about Glen that makes those authors and subjects resonate with him.

To me, as a reader, I don’t just want to know someone’s voice (and I feel like I know Glen’s voice very, very well); I want to get to know them as a person, to understand not just how they tick but what makes them tick.

And, again, for me, what’s so frustrating about these kinds of posts is that it’s all like “Why I’m mad” or “What’s I think sucks balls today” and no sense of who the “I” saying those things is.

As someone who has success with having a blog with conversations that tend (for the most part) to stay civil and to attract people back to continue to participate, I don’t see any reason why that can’t happen here. After all, many of y’all are the very same people who come to my blog and have good, hard discussions that don’t always devolve into “God, republicans suck” “Oh, yeah, hippie? Why do you hate America?”

And, again, I’m just shooting off my mouth here, so take it for what it’s worth, you have to understand that communicating well in writing is difficult and, if you don’t understand something, to say “Are you really saying…” You have to have a sense of humor about things and a willingness to have a sense of humor at the times when you really just want to reach down someone’s throat and rip their heart out and eat it. And you have to be willing to humble yourself enough to really hear criticism and decide if you should act on it.

If people see that you’re willing to listen to them and willing to consider what they’re really saying (not just the clumsy way they’re putting it across on screen), they’ll usually respond in kind.

Just some thoughts.

MCB has rules?

[…] a’ Coming Posted by Kathy T. under Random Stuff, Wrinkles   At the risk of being unoriginal or uninteresting* I have to tell you how much our local railroad irks me.  I had an appointment in Murfreesboro […]

MCB has rules?

Some people read their Posting Guidelines, smart guy.

I know you already went to the trouble of creating a list with links on your blog, but for what it’s worth, you can filter the posts on the site by author. Here are yours, Glen.

Man, do I hate to double post. But I that this might be the last post on the earlier thread and I would hate to have poor old #1+2+6 worrying about where I had got to.

So, it follows. Again, sorry for the duplication.

Dear Mr. 108/12:

I know it’s a bit early but I’ll be giving you your Xmas, Birthday and HS graduation present early. I’m gonna be kind of busy and I’m also dumping my Verizon broadband wireless. So I will not be commenting here or most other places pretty soon.

In parting I gotta say that being called a troll by you, [redacted personal attack], is a signal honor. Virtually every post of yours that I read is an attack on someone who disagrees with you or a defense of your opinions, usually without any specificity or factual back-up.

You keep beating a dead horse in several ways:

1.) By continually trying to link me to Jesus General. You have suggested, numerous times, that I am here or on NiT at his behest. That is so wide of the mark, it’s laughable.

2.) You keep saying that I destroyed “your” precious NiT. If NiT is destroyed (and it does seem pretty quiet at the moment) it has at least as much to do with all of the other people leaving as it does with William, myself and other folks being on there. The notion that I, a commenter, or William or any other poster could make or break NiT is farcical. If MCB is about community what is NiT about, except the lack of community? I would not be chased off of a blog that I cared about as deeply as claim to have cared about NiT.

I have no problem with people who left not being there, or starting this or any other blog. I do, however, think it’s more than ridiculous of you to suggest that NiT is gone because of my, or any other single person’s, actions.

I don’t know what happened when you went to NiT as a poster, except that it was all over with in a couple of days and all the posts were taken down. No explanation from you or anyone else that I ever saw as to why that happened (I might have missed it).

I am absolutely one of the people who could be accused of being partisan. I am also one of the people who could be accused of being “personal” in my comments to people who are being “personal” with me, you, for instance.

I’ve been told by some people who posted at NiT, who now post here, that I should stay out of Nashville as it doesnt’ need people like me. I’ve been called an idiot, a misogynist, a troll, a witless tool of General Jesus and a few other things. None of it has ever cost me a moment’s sleep.

I think that you and several of your fellow commenters and, also some of the contributors on MCB will be delighted to see me leave–I’m glad I could make you happy, if only for a moment.

I told somebody who was hating on me (some months back) that they don’t know me. If I sat down next to them on the bus, they wouldn’t have a clue about who I am. They might or might not like me. I’m thinking with you, that would not be the case. I think most of what you claim to believe in is anti-thetical to what I believe in and neither of us would be very good at hiding our genuine feelings on those things.

I would never say I won’t read anything on this or some other thread but it’s highly unlikely I’ll be commenting–which, again, should make you happy.

So, Vaya con Dios to those with whom I’ve had some fun and buh-bye to the rest.

Democommie,

I’ve been “out” for a while and was one who abandoned NIT after a short tryst there for some of the reasons referred to above. However, I for one, will miss your interesting observations and opinions and our respectful (hopefully) debates and interactions. Good luck and see you around.

There’s a bit much naval-gazing going on around here.

The point of this site is to be a focus for some local social interaction, a melting point for diffracted bloggers who would otherwise never read each other’s posts or comments. As if I would ever visit Mack’s site without the curiosity I worked up here! (Oh, it’s a decent thing, Mack; given your political stance.)

I wouldn’t change a thing. If you drive away Glen, then you will have left a vanilla-wafer layered ‘MySpace for Grownups’ that won’t attract anyone, after a while. Disparate opinions begat good conversation. For the most part.

For the other parting…see ya, DC, LFACHE.

Folks,

First of all, if you can’t appreciate why someone would care about having their name rendered correctly you need a refresher in respect for basic humanity.

The real lesson here is that Glen is an evangelical republican, while I am a non believing democommie, and it turns out we agree on more stuff than we disagree. We stronger testimony could there be for allowing an open forum?

Ginger, let me start out by saying that I sincerely apologize for hurting you. I was wrong to air that to everybody, very wrong. Please forgive me. I also realize that I am a narcissist. In fact, you might say that I am an egomaniac with a low self esteem. I understand why some might think that this post shouldn’t have been done here. I still feel like it needed to be done, so that we could all have this discussion.

Dolphin, I will certainly consider the things you said.

Mack, I will do my best. The first time we met, we shared food and drink and got along great. How about we meet another time, but instead of food and drink maybe we could do some type of service work?

Katherine, actually you said something like “Glen can link back wherever he wants to”. I remember because I got the email. Btw, the purpose of me linking back to my business site was not to get MCB readers to do business with me, it was and is simply to create inbound links in order to move me up on Google. The purpose of the blog is to attract buyers who are relocating. It has worked too. I have wasted a lot of money on marketing, but the little bit I spent on that blog has paid off tremendously.

Newscoma, I love ya and hear everything you are saying.

Aunt B., believe it or not, I got the name thing from Dale Carnegie. In “How to Win Friends and Influence People” he wrote “Remember that a person’s name is the most important and sweetest sound in any language.” Proverbs 22:1 says “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches.” Names are important to people and misspellings or mispronunciations can be considered insulting. This isn’t me just talking about me, but me talking about human beings. By now you are probably laughing at the idea of me reading Dale Carnegie, but I actually study Carnegie and Norman Peale’s work pretty regularly and try to apply their principles in my life and business. The impression that most people have of me as a blogger is nothing like the way I am in person. I try to avoid conversations about politics in real life and I go out of my way to make people happy and comfortable. Blogging to me is fun, and since I don’t take politics personally, I think others are the same way. I do take personal attacks personally though and that is why I reacted to Rachel’s post like I did yesterday. I felt piled on and came out fighting, saying things that I wish I hadn’t. The way I look at things though is if someone makes me mad, rather than focusing on the other person, I need to focus on myself because in reality nobody has the power to MAKE me angry. If I get angry, it is because I chose to be angry. I firmly believe in the motto “It’s not them”. That’s what I have been trying to tell everybody. The fact that I piss you off has more to do with you than it does with me. But God has a strange way of humbling me. Every time I point out somebody else’s shortcomings, he allows me to display those very shortcomings. He kind of pisses me off like that. It’s like he never allows me to feel righteous. You know I am actually thankful for that.

Serr8d, thanks for the support.

ROR, hopefully if you have time, maybe in the future we can discuss/debate the importance of religion in modern culture.

I guess that covers everybody. Oh yeah, how could I forget. “Scarecrow I’m going to miss you…”

Sorry about that. Anyway, happy Halloween to everybody.

Glen,
Apology accepted.

The thing is, I thought we had worked it all out, so it took me aback that you were still stewing over it enough to bring it up here. When I spelled out my reasoning in changing the link, I thought it was clear that I was looking out for your best interest. It was just very upsetting to see it brought up again in this manner.

Anyway, I appreciate your apology, and I accept.

Thanks.