Aurevoir Les Enfants Americain

I left New York City on Tuesday last week along with my youngest son whom I had fly here from Puerto Rico where he is now living (splitting time between Tampa, Florida). I rented a car and we drove to Nashville, Tennessee where my youngest daughter was having her Quincinera. Though she and her mum live in Nuevo Leon, Mexico most of her immediate family are in Nashville (and to a lesser extent Houston, Texas).

The drive took 15 hours straight, stopping for petrol once and to let my son use the rest room. Though we had been offered accomodations in one of her brothers homes (she has 10, 7 in Nashville along with her father), we agreed it was best to take a hotel room. After checking into Days Inn we met my daughter for brunch. It was a bit akward as my son and daughter had never met and are only less than 18 months apart. I gave her her main present, a diamond tennis bracelet which she appeared to love, and we spent the rest of the meal talking about trivial subjects and then we saw her home, making sure she arrived safely.

The next couple of days were spent hanging out including 2 afternoons in which we took in the sights as my son slept back at the hotel. I had brought some Lebanese red hash back in the city, 7 grammes, so he was enjoying a bit of that. Saturday was her big day and from Friday noon until the party we didn't see or talk to each other. That time was enjoyed alone with my son.

The party was decent, which it should be given how much I had to pay for the soiree (6,500 US, rounded off, not including her gifts). Yesterday morning we left Tennessee for New York and arrived late last night. I parked outside the methadone clinic (always fun having junkies banging on the window asking inane questions like, "My man, can I get a smoke?" Why would you assume I smoke? I never have as I find it disgusting." Usually this elicits a heated discussion.).

I dosed, got my 14 bottles, said my "aurevoir" and drove out to JFK, the main airport of the metro area's 5. Returning the car I saw my son through Check In for his flight to Puerto Rico and have ben awaiting my own Check In since.

His flight was 1105 AM (EST) so he will land at Aguadilla at 445PM my time. My Check In counter will open at around that time (5PM). I don't really mind since I have my Blackberry and Sidekick, watching TV, listening to music and talking to Joysa. She is nagging me to fly into Clark, the ex-military airfield in Pampanga Province. I told her don't even think of it because I would probably catch a disease in any plane using the airport. It services Angeles City, the largest red light district in all of East Asia. I hate the city.

I got a BL Warning over my last Avatar. It was a cartoon of a camel with a rocket in its mouth and its balls on a tree stump. An Arab in traditional attire is standing in back of the stump raising a sledgehammer as if to hammer its balls. The caption reads: "Hezbollah Rocket Launcher."

The idea is that Hezbollah's weapons are antiquated and cannot seriously challenge Israel militarily. The cartoon appeared in 2 Lebanese magazines.

I assume the Warning was because the Mod in question very ignorantly imagined it was derogatory against Arabs or Muslims. Had he thought it was derogatory towards camels I would tend to agree. As it is it merely serves am example of Mods who overstep their roles.

 

A warning for that avatar is pretty lame. It seems like you get more than your fair share of flak from certain people on here. Anyway, have a good flight.

 

Thanks. In the future, I will discontinue changing infractions to warnings specifically to avoid temp-banning you and apply implausibly charitable interpretations of avatars which appear offensive.

 

The image itself is not inherently derogatory against Arabs or Muslims... putting in the context of YOU posting with everything you've said on the subject changes the meaning considerably.

 

Ebola, now you are engaging in Thought Policing. You are applying a different standard to me simply because you find my views on other subjects to be offencive. That is not your role as a Moderator. Either an avatar breaks rules in and of itself or it does not break rules.It hasn't broken any rules BUT because of my views you decide to issue the Warning. I am a bit perplexed as to how you can rationalise what you did. My guess? A person we both know ran to you whining and just like the last time you jumped the gun.

 

Cane2theLeft: See above.

 

Socko: It is an ongoing issue. Roughly 3 years ago there was a thread in CE and P that evolved into a discussion into how parents deal with homosexual/lesbian children. I offered that my child's sexuality is not an issue to me BUT if he or she engaged in homosexual/lesbian acts I would follow the dictates of my culture and religion. Judaism punishes homosexual acts with death. However Jews stopped utilising the death penalty 2300 years ago for all crimes except mulitple murder. For the last 2300 years the death penalty has been equivocated with ostracisation. We mourn the child for the traditional 7 days and then refer to them as if they were deceased. The reasons why do make sense but that is besides the point.

A poster, gay himself, went off the deep end. Since then it has been one thing after another though it ebbs and flows as if in a cycle. When this poster acts out it is always with regard to my views on Islam. Ignorantly he thought the avatar was a dig at Arabs, which of course is stupid since it came from an Arab periodical (actually it was in 2 Arab periodicals, both Lebanese). The irony, perhaps, is that I tend to change avatars every 2 days so that it was a non-issue from any perspective.

Anyway, that is the root of that silly issue.

 

Any avatar can be construed as offensive if considering which member.

I can't really say the avatar would be offensive, particularly that Hezbollah is well... I don't need to go there. I would think it would be privy to just kindly ask to change the avatar, rather than pursuing infractions. Or maybe BLUA needs to clarify it's ruling on the political nature of avatars. I have noted some people with Democratic party avatars that showing a donkey eating an elephant etc., with other variations that some may find offensive.

 

Well there goes the underlying point. Instead of communicating a concern just dole out Infractions. Anyway...

I am interested though in how one makes a determination of "offencive" in such an arbitrary manner. I suppose that if BL had a Buddhist or Hindu member using a swastika it would be prudent to deal with it differently than with an avowed racist. However, things are rarely if ever that cut and dry.

 

I started a thread in support to discuss this... you're welcome to join in.

 

I think that I will. I appreciate your taking the initiative to do so. It is an issue affecting the entire site actually (or alternatively it is not and I am actually being singled out, perish the thought).

 

A warning is a tool of communication, not something functionally similar to an infraction-proper.

How do I justify what I did? Given (as others have said), your prior history of catching administrative action for avatars expressing widely offensive sentiment, and ALSO given that you take ~2.5 weeks to respond to PMs of mine, whereas you respond to warnings quite punctually, I stand by my decision.

You'll also notice that in the CEP guidelines, there is a clause against inciting fruitless vitriol in discussion. I value open discussion but also discussion that gets somewhere. Perhaps I applied the rule too widely, but I'm not partial to tinkering with rules to accommodate single posters who are essentially gaming them.

I'm, of course, fallible, so why don't you PM Heuristic and Redleader about the matter?

Andy

 

Ebola, I have never had any problems with a single avatar vis a vis staff. I did have an accusation made by Jamshyd however, in the context of a post in a thread and not through his role as a Mod. Perhaps that is where you became confused. THAT avatar was also a cartoon in which the boy character from the American comic strip "Hobbes" took a pee on the HAMAS flag. As soon as Jam pointed out a fact that I had overlooked (the HAMAS flag contains an Islamic precept in Arabic calligraphy) I quickly changed my Avatar. I do not relish desecration of any religious objects, even if I despise the religion in question. So that is yet another pretext you got incorrect.

As for telling me you issued a Warning because it catches my attention faster, you and I both know that THAT has never happened. Perhaps a prudent course of action might have been to PM me, and THEN if I didn't quickly respond issue the Warning, but water under the bridge at this point.

As for your suggestion of PMing the Sr Mod or Admin, rest assured I did that immediately after getting the Warning.

 

... and now, since everyone has had a say in public, could we please take this to PM now? Grazie.

 

Hahaha, what a can of worms. Sorry Dave (well kind of).

 

No worries; it's just that when there is a long conversation in comment threads in Blogs, it pushes the comments from other Blogs off the front page notification. Besides, it seems like it's a bit more of a matter between a couple people really.