The Logic Off Topic list

Greetings,

I believe that it is important for me to enter a few notes in the public
record.  Your collective patience is appreciated.

First, foremost, I would like to stress that NO ONE I mentioned in my post,
neither the individuals mentioned in the body of the message nor the cc'd
recipients, has EVER given me the flimsiest shred of evidence suggesting
that they might actually condone the _hate mail_ from Gruvwiz.

Second, the rhetorical excesses of that post were partly by design and
partly unconscious, but they were not as well thought out as I would have
liked them to be, and in some ways they were quite irresponsible, for which
I offer my sincere apologies.  The central device of intentionally lumping
together diverse individuals, and blurring the distinctions between what any
one of them might or might not approve of, in the hopes of goading the
reader into overtly mapping those distinctions for themselves worked... far
better than I had expected it to, in part because it was SO unfair.  To give
an example of just how unfair, one person on the cc list notes that he stood
with Barb against Gruvwiz two months ago.

However, it is unlikely that anyone would have remembered that fact - I
hadn't.  It is clear that I made it too easy for the casual reader to take
away a lasting negative impression of any one of the names listed.  I am now
very distressed by this thought, and I urge everyone who saw what I wrote to
base their judgement of those individuals on _anything_ besides my
oversimplification.  I am tempted to post a disclaimer for each and every
person wronged. 

Third, as a whole, the emails that I have received in response to my
missive, including withering rebuttals and unanticipated, greatly
appreciated olive branches, comprise some of the most thought-provoking
correspondence I have received in some time.  In the future, I aspire to
provoke such stimulating writings with creativity and empathy rather than
rancor.  I will dwell upon those letters.

Fourth, I regret having alienated and disappointed a number of people who I
have enjoyed communicating with over the last several months.  Perhaps I
will win back your confidence some day.

Sincerely,

Marvin Humphrey