Irony

My friend UncleMack has a regular feature on his blog: the Word of the Day. I didn't set out to steal his thunder, but I do seem to be establishing a pattern these days. Since they say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery (an idea that will be repeated a little later), I'll flatter him here.

Rather than the dictionary definition of Irony, I went to Wikipedia, which says:
"Irony, from the Greek (eiron), is a literary or rhetorical device, in which there is a gap or incongruity between what a speaker or a writer says, and what is generally understood (either at the time, or in the later context of history). Irony may also arise from a discordance between acts and results, especially if it is striking, and seen by an outside audience."

The irony I witnessed yesterday was striking, but not surprising. As I've noted here before, I am embroiled in a...difference of opinion within a hobby group which I helped found. A certain population of that group "separated themselves" to form a new group. One of the issues involved was the perceived violation of the forum rules by posters arguing for/against a variety of things/people. Forum rules state that anyone violating the rules will be warned via private message, then banned for 2 weeks if they continue to violate the rules. Certain statements that allegedly violated the rules were allegedly edited and/or deleted by forum moderators. It went so far as to have one member banned from the forums, though that ban lasted less than 24 hours. I myself argued that the 2 week ban was too severe for a first offense, and the rule was subsequently changed to 3 days for a first offense. Interestingly, the same person who was banned (and no, I was not privy to the warnings that were allegedly ignored, but I understand there were several warnings issued before the member was banned), was to my knowledge not even warned several days earlier when he called myself and three others, and I quote, "worthless back-stabbing pieces of s$%t!" Bear in mind, these forums are (with one exception, the "Members Only" section) viewable by anyone in the world with an Internet connection. Membership dues are not required for a forum account, and account registration is not even required to merely read the forums.

Fast forward a few weeks. Now the "new group" has its own forums. Membership in those forums requires "sponsorship" from a "charter member," (edited to say "most of" rather than "every one of") which are (I believe) still paid members of the first group, with full forum access, now with access to both forums. One must register for the "new" forums, even to simply read what is posted there, let alone reply. I attempted to register, somewhere between member number 7 and member number 9. My registration was deleted without comment. the "sponsorship" rule showed up the next day.

Fast forward to yesterday. To their credit, the forum's big cheese created a sort of "lobby" forum, where guests could post questions and such. A poster who called himself "AConcernedCacher" (yes, I know who it is, so did they) asked why the group's forums were not publicly viewable. Had he left it there, well who knows, but God bless him, Henry Kissinger he ain't! He further asks, "Aren't y'all just a fringe element of GOWT?" When his post appears, lo and behold "GOWT" has been replaced with "G-Spot!" In fact, everywhere the letters GOWT are mentioned, it automatically says "G-Spot!" I searched the Internet and found that, if we are "G-spot," we are apparently a highly sought after commodity! Much human effort is expended trying to find us! We should be RICH!

Mr. Kissinger later asks whether a filter that changes a group's name to "G-Spot" could reasonably be considered disrespectful, and thus a violation of their own forum rules. Here's where I use what in comedy terms is called a "callback," a joke which refers to one previously told in the set. Remember what "irony" is? Where do you suppose the "new" group got their original forums rules? Copied and pasted verbatim from the old group's forums, right! (In fairness, they have since developed a few rules of their own, but the resemblance is still quite noticeable.) A defense of sorts, is offered, talking about burying the past, along with an admonition that, in order to "earn" respect in these forums, one must clearly identify one's self (although they assure you, they know who you are, apparently by using a Top Secret decoder ring called an "I PEE address!").

So I post a little blurb there myself. I hope I can recall my exact words, they are no longer available to me, as we will see in a second:

This is Spencersb (I have no idea what my IP address is). The previous posting by a member of our organization is the opinion of the poster. This is mine.

(the site I choose not to mention) is what it wants to be. You have every right to form a group and run it anyway you choose. (Your city) certainly has the caching population to support a group, and I supported its formation. I even requested membership myself directly to (a charter member, who coincidentally is a high ranking, though AWOL, elected official of the first group) in the parking lot after [an event]. Apparently, my request was declined.

Respect can indeed be lost, and apparently has been, but I'm okay with that. But automatically changing the mere mention of an organization's name to a vague sexual reference? I cannot voice an opinion of the propriety of such better than the one which it engenders on it's own. If you truly wish to bury the past, insults make poor topsoil.

You have to power to make (the site I choose not to mention) anything you want it to be. "Ultimately, the only power to which man should aspire is that which he exercises over himself." Elie Wiesel

Thank you for the opportunity to post on your forums as a guest. I will not post further. If anyone feels the need to contact me, I am readily accessible. Best of luck with your new group.

Without tooting my own horn, I felt that I expressed myself reasonably. A response almost immediately came back, quoting my statement about making it anything they wanted it to be, and saying basically, that's all we are doing. They apologized, sort of. Not for calling our organization "G-Spot," but that I mistook it for a sexual reference. I misunderstood. Insert rolling eyes here.

All of this remained visible on the site for about 10 hours. Then, inexplicably, the entire interchange vanished. Gone. Poof. Nothing to see here (sorry Jim!). [I have since learned that it was not deleted but rather moved to a "Members Only" section for being "antagonistic." I never said it was "deleted," I said it vanished, and I worked very hard not to be antagonistic, but apprently failed.]

You see, just because no one is elected doesn't mean no one is in charge. Someone has the power to throw the switches. The very ones who railed at the oppressive censorship are now in complete control of even who sees what goes on, let alone what actually does.

Any group formed solely on the basis of common disagreement will eventually disagree with itself, not have the maturity to resolve it, and split again. Revolutionaries always become the establishment against which revolution is necessary. Deleting any hint of disagreement and keeping targeted people out will certainly limit dissent, but it's a slippery slope. Once you start, you have to keep it up.

I wish their group well, I really do. The sad fact is, almost all of these folks are really nice people...in person. I hope someday the members of our two organizations can be friends again, and work together toward the common goal of promoting our hobby. But if so, it will have to be because they held out the olive branch in our forums. I can't see theirs.

Edited to add: The other forums I referenced are now [mostly] publicly visible, and I commend them for it. I have also learned that the forum rules which I said were copied from the our forums were themselves copied from another, older forum site before our site had them. I apologize for the confusion resulting from my own incomplete knowledge of the source of the rules.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Respect. n. Esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person, a personal quality or ability, or something considered as a manifestation of a personal quality or ability.

One of the greatest idiocies modern psychology has foisted upon western civilization is the idea that respect must be earned. This idea, carried to its logical conclusion, gives license to any sort of disrespect at all, and has created the culture in which we now live, where individual rights are paramount even to common sense. Think about it. Whose kids are passing through our court system right now? “Never Trust anyone over thirty!” Well those people are now over thirty, and their kids don’t respect them. Why? Because they saw that their parents had no respect for grandma and grandpa. Respect can indeed be lost, but a measure of respect is, contrary to what a friend of mine posted in a forum today, innate. It is the respect of position and/or of personhood.

First, let’s look at personhood. Life has value. All life. Not equal value (sorry PETA, a child is more valuable than a large mouth bass), but value nonetheless. Human life has particular value. This was recognized by our founding fathers by the phrase “they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.” Once respect for life is lost, there are no more boundaries to cross. To live in a civilized society is to necessarily and voluntarily limit my own personal freedoms in order to preserve the dignity of yours. My rights end where yours begin. Civilization further assumes a certain measure of courtesy to be afforded to one’s fellow earth-dwellers, that’s why it’s called “civility.”

Second, there is the respect of position. Parent. Teacher. Police. Judge. All positions that can be, and in many cases are, occupied by some pretty sorry individuals. But a certain respect inures to the position's holder, that is due simply because of the position held. My favorite example is William Jefferson Clinton. It’s no secret, Mr. Clinton and I disagree on just about every position on which two people can disagree. I have little respect for the man. However, I have a great deal of respect for the office of the Presidency of the United States, an office to which he was duly elected and held for 8 years. Therefore, in the unlikely event that we should meet, I would smile and shake his hand, affording him the respect due to the office which he held. Given the opportunity, I might respectfully ask certain questions or state certain contrarian viewpoints, but I would do so with humility and grace, seasoned with a little backbone.

As we’ve seen here in this blog before, one can disagree without being disagreeable. If one truly wishes to bury the past, it takes a lot of work to shovel the dirt. Insults, indifference, distance, anger, bitterness and resentment make poor topsoil. They may truly place the past out of sight, but nothing new will grow there. The site will remain barren and scarred, forever a reminder that what is out of sight, is not necessarily out of mind.

Felon

Understandably, I'm not admitting to anything here, but just suppose I know someone that committed a Class E Felony earlier this week. A Class E Felony is punishable by 1 to 6 years in jail and/or a $3,000 fine! What did this person do? Walked around and signed a piece of paper in a Tupperware container in a cemetery.

See there's this little law in Tennessee:
T.C.A. (Tennessee Code Annotated)
Title 46. Cemeteries
46-2-105. Crimes and offenses

No person shall willfully destroy, deface, or injure any monument, tomb, gravestone, or other structure placed in the cemetery, or any roadway, walk, fence or enclosure in or around the same, or injure any tree, plant or shrub therein, or hunt or shoot therein, play at any game or amusement therein, or loiter for lascivious or lewd purposes therein, or interfere, by words or actions, with any funeral procession or any religious exercises.
(b) A violation of this section is a Class E felony. ,
Class E Felony 1 to 6 years $3,000
[emphasis added by blogger]

Whatever we call it; sport, hobby, game, etc., geocaching is done for fun, or "amusement" as the law puts it. This obscure little law, dating back to the 19th century, prohibits geocaching in cemeteries. The likelihood of someone being prosecuted under this law? Remote, but that's not the point.

Geocaching, when done respectfully and responsibly, can be among the most environmentally friendly hobbies a person can practice outdoors. Old, neglected cemeteries are visited by outdoors minded people, who frequently pick up trash while they are there. Often, who clean-up events are held in these places, many of which have been long in need of even basic maintenance. The real crime is that the r persons responsible for that maintenance have neglected their charge!

One of the neatest things about geocaching is that it shows you places you never knew existed. For instance, the person mentioned above saw the graves of a Civil War veteran and a World War I veteran on that trip! Many of the headstones were hand made markers names carved into wet cement with a stick. The oldest grave I've seen in West TN was for a person born in 1770 and buried in 1821! Think about it! A person actually born before the Declaration of Independence! Did you know that Shelby and Tipton counties each hold the graves of Congressional Medal of Honor winners? How about the little thirty or forty plot cemetery hidden behind a building on Hwy 64 between Lowes and the car dealer, that holds the graves of some of the earliest settlers in that area, names you would recognize from nearby street names? Or the little family plot of 5 or 6 graves in the woods in Shelby Farms? Or the single marker plot next to a grocery store in Midtown Memphis?

But for now, many of these old sites will have to remain unknown and unkempt, because the very people who want to help the most are forbidden to ply their eco-friendly trade there, or encourage their like-minded friends to do so.

Thankfully, a few intrepid souls have undertaken the task of getting the outdated law changed. One proposal was put forth to simply remove the sentence from the law. However, I think we all agree that some games should not be played in cemeteries. Paintball comes to mind! So the new proposal defines and excludes geocaching from the prohibition.

So what can YOU do? Contact your state representative and ask them to support the bill! The most likely response you will get is, "huh?" It's House Bill 2080 and Senate Bill 1931. The representatives sponsoring the original bills (which will hopefully be reformulated and considered in the fall) were Mark Maddox and John Wilder. You can find out who your representatives are by visiting

Here's a finely crafted letter written by my friend Philip Senn, that expresses just the right sentiments:

(Rep),

I would appreciate your assistance with the bill HB2080 (http://www.legislature.state.tn.us/bills/currentga/BILL/HB2080.pdf) (Amendment to TCA Section 46-1-313). I am a founding member of an organization called "Geocachers of West Tennessee." Our main purpose is to promote the recreational activity called geocaching in West Tennessee. Our website is www.gowt.org . Information about the international recreational activity (I prefer to call it a RASHO - Recreational Activity/Sport/Hobby/OBSESSION) called geocaching can be obtained at www.geocaching.com .

One of the things about geocaching that I really like is the fact that it sometimes takes a person, or group of people, to places that they would not normally be aware of. One such place is the location of the first county settlement in Obion County. It is located at a cemetery SW of Troy.

Many old cemeteries in Tennessee are filled with historical data that is very interesting, including memorials to fallen heroes of our nation's wars. Unfortunately, many of these locations are not on any register so people can look for them. I have recently been in contact with the owner of land that is home to my great-great grandfather's gravesite, and his wife and son. He was also the uncle of Davy Crockett. I am hoping to place a geocache there so that others may learn of the relationship to Davy Crockett. The recreational activity of geocaching could serve as a catalyst in leading people there, and the land owner is very interested in having visitors to that site.

Many of the groups that are involved in geocaching, as well as many of the individuals, try to practice CITO (cache in-trash out). This means that many of these old cemeteries are being cleaned, and many are being somewhat restored, at the hands of those that came for the amusement of finding the cache, then deciding that the cemetery could use a good cleaning of debris.

I know that, based upon the information on the Senate legislation page (http://www.legislature.state.tn.us/bills/currentga/Fiscal/SB1931.pdf), no one has ever been convicted of a felony for playing a game or amusement in a cemetery in Tennessee. However, because our reviewers are very careful, once a law is made known to them, they will not knowingly encourage the violation of that law by approving a cache. I hope you will be able to support and work toward the approval of HB2080, so that those that are interested in finding out about our rich heritage and encouraging the maintenance of those places of interest will not be subject to felony charges.

Sincerely submitted,

Until then, my friend remains "on the lam!" (or would be, if he had actually violated the law, which I'm not saying he did!)

Justice vs. Fairness

A thousand years ago and a million miles from here, I was on a jury trying a drug case. Some idiot had shipped 15 pounds of marijuana USPS Priority Mail. Word of warning: if you ship an illegal substance via the USPS, the “postman” who shows up at your door is likely to be a “Postal Inspector,” and have the county narcotics squad in the back of his delivery truck! I remember one of the defense’s arguments was that the defendant ran because he didn’t know it was the police chasing him, despite the matching shirts with embroidered badges and "NARCOTICS" in three inch letters on the back, plus the "wig-wags" (alternating headlights) on the car that followed him as he drove backwards down the street at 40 MPH! The interchange went something like this:

Attorney (A) “Did you identify yourself as a law enforcement officer?”
Postal Inspector (PI): “Yes, I did.”
A: “What did you yell?”
PI: “I yelled, STOP! POLICE!”
A: “Are you legally authorized to call yourself a police officer.”
PI: “Yes, Postal Inspectors are commissioned Federal Law Enforcement officers.”
A: “But why didn’t you more properly identify yourself as a Postal Service employee?”
PI: “Because yelling “STOP! POSTAL INSPECTOR!!” doesn’t strike fear into anyone’s heart!”

We ended up with a deadlocked jury. There were three people who were absolutely ready to convict, six who were pretty sure, but willing to listen to arguments against it (including me), and three who would not have convicted this dude if they’d seen him do it themselves! The main sticking point was that the three could not get past the fact that there were others peripherally involved in the crime that were not on trial. “That’s not fair!” they repeated over and over again. I tried reasoning with them at one point based on two ideas: number one, they wouldn’t appear in the same trial as this guy, even if they have been charged, and number two, we’re not here to dispense fairness; we’re here to dispense justice.

I illustrated the difference as follows: Suppose all 12 of us were driving on the interstate, single file, at 90 MPH. I’m the last one in line, and if you’re in front of me while driving, and you’re staying there, you’re moving pretty fast! Our little convoy (remember your CB handle?) passes a State Trooper, and he clocks every one of us at identical 90 MPH readings. He immediately gives chase and pulls the last car in line over, ME! The rest of you keep going, since he can only get one of us. Y’all get away, and I get a ticket. THAT'S NOT FAIR! Y’all were doing the same thing I was doing and y’all got away!! But was I going 90 MPH? Yes. Was I guilty of the ticket I was given? Yes. It’s not fair, but it is JUST! Fairness is giving everyone the same thing. Justice is giving each one what he deserves.

A win and a loss

Since this is my space, I’ll take a moment to brag about winning my Yahoo! Fantasy Hockey league. In the last week of the regular season, I was barely clinging to the 6th & final playoff spot, and facing the number 1 seed! Miraculously, my guys got hot just at the right time, and I knocked the #1 seed off, advancing to the 4th seed for the playoffs.

A brief note about seeding for the uninitiated: teams are seeded based on their win-loss-tie record in the final standings. The number 1 and 2 seeds get a first round bye. 3 plays 6 and 4 plays 5, so the higher your seed, theoretically the weaker the opponent you will face. The championship game is two weeks long instead of the usual one week, encompassing the final two weeks of the NHL regular season.

I managed to hang on for a 6-4 win. Only .001 separated my two goalies' goals-against-average from my opponent's which would have given us a 5-5 tie, and he would have won the tiebreaker! This year was my fourth hockey fantasy championship. I’ve been playing fantasy sports since 2000, and have won leagues in all 4 major sports. League winners get the chance to play in special winners-only leagues next year. I am in a baseball winner’s league this year because I won my league last year. In my opinion, Yahoo! has some of the easiest to use fantasy leagues around, and they are free. My only complaint is that the Yahoo! paid leagues do not award prizes to Tennessee residents.

I became a hockey fan in the mid 1990s. [my now-ex-wife] and I went with some friends to a Memphis Riverkings game in the MidSouth Coliseum. It was a one-hit-hook! The game was fast paced and exciting, the music loud, and the team put on a good show for the fans! Well, anyone who knows me knows that I rarely do anything halfway, so I set about deciding on a favorite NHL team. Since at that time we didn't have one within 300 miles, I looked around to see what jerseys were selling, figuring that only the good teams sell stuff in out of market areas. I like the colors of the Colorado Avalanche, and I've always liked the mountains, so I picked them. I later discovered that they were the defending Stanley Cup champions that year, but don't accuse me of being a bandwagon fan, I'm a lifelong Saints fan, remember! A couple of years later, we went to Nashville to see the new expansion team, the Predators, play my beloved Avs. The Avs got their hats handed to them!! Unsung goalie Mike Dunham bested the man who would retire as the winningest goalie in NHL history, Patrick Roy (pronounced "WAH," he's Canadian). The Preds also did the same thing the Riverkings did: worked hard and put on a good show for the fans. I now had a "second" favorite team; I am loyal, if nothing else! [my now-ex-wife] selected the Philadelphia Flyers as her favorite team, thus setting up the possibility of an in-house Stanley Cup matchup. That has not yet materialized, and this year, we BOTH missed the playoffs, though the Predators are the 4th seed (just like I was) and still have a shot!

Sadly, I must also note the passing of beloved “B.C.” and “Wizard of Id” cartoonist Johnny Hart, who died just two days after I made reference to him here (I had nothing to do with it, I swear!). The family says that he died of a stroke at his storyboard, and that in accordance with his wishes, the strip will go on.

Johnny Hart, 1931-2007

So easy, a caveman can do it!

Good Friday. Although who exactly it was “good” for is a matter of perspective. A few years ago, cartoonist Johnny Hart drew an Easter cartoon that depicted one of his caveman characters on that first Easter Sunday morning. Try as I may, I’ve not been able to find an img of it online, but it went something like this:

First panel: Two frightened eyeballs peer over a sand dune.

Second panel: Forlorn caveman walks out from behind sand dune, hands in pockets (or whatever bearskins have for pockets).

Third Panel: Caveman is so wrapped up in his misery that he doesn’t realize he has walked out onto the surface of a lake.

Fourth panel: A rooster pops out from behind a hill and crows, startling Caveman.

Fifth panel: Startled caveman plunges into lake!

Sixth panel: Caveman coughs and sputters onto shore.

Seventh panel: Soggy caveman notices nearby cave, with round stone beside the opening.

Eighth panel: Caveman enters cave, looks around.

Ninth and final panel: Caveman enthusiastically pumps his fist and shouts “YES!!!”

Now, of course, this is a depiction of the finding of the empty tomb, but what caught my eye was something earlier…and deeper.

The little caveman in this strip is named “Peter.” The panel that caught my eye was number 4.

Just for a moment, imagine what it was like for Peter to hear a rooster crow.

Every morning for the rest of his life, to be reminded of his failure. To see again in his mind’s eye the eyes of Jesus, his friend and teacher, whom he had just denied with curses, as those eyes fell briefly upon him before being rushed away by an angry mob.

It’s easy to be hard on Peter. Never at a loss for words, Peter was the man with the plan! What’s the old saying? “Often wrong but never in doubt!” A thousand years ago and a million miles from here, I heard a preacher say “If you had been Jesus, how many times would you have given up and said with a sigh ‘Peter, just go home. You’re never gonna get it.’”

Amazingly, Jesus didn’t give up on Peter. And amazingly, he hasn’t given up on me yet, either. Even when I come to him time and again, asking forgiveness for the same old stuff. Stuff I know I shouldn’t have done. Or stuff I know I should have done and didn’t! Stuff I want desperately to fix, but can't. Words can't be unsaid, deeds undone, relationships aren't fixed by waving a magic wand, and sometimes, there's just nothing else you can do. We all have our "roosters." Maybe it's a place, maybe it's a person, a song, a scent, a time of year. Something that screams at you "YOU MESSED UP TOO BAD AND TOO OFTEN, BUDDY! GOD CAN'T POSSIBLY LOVE YOU ANYMORE!! YOU'LL NEVER BE HEALED! YOU'LL NEVER BE WHOLE! GIVE IT UP, LOSER! YOU'LL NEVER BE GOOD ENOUGH!!"

But ultimately, our faith does not rest on our character but on God’s. Not on our too-often-broken promises to Him, but His unbreakable promise to us. Not even on the accuracy of much translated eyewitness accounts of men we’ve never met, but on the character of a living God whom we have met! Not in the empty promises and occupied tomb of a long-dead prophet, but in the fulfilled promises and unoccupied tomb of a risen Saviour!

Happy Easter!

Daley Distrakshun

One thing that gets on my nerves is people in business who cannot write a coherent sentence. Grammatical and spelling errors, typos that don't get fixed, that sort of thing. Now anyone can make a mistake, and I have too, maybe even in this post, but most of what aggravates me should have been caught by someone somewhere along the line! I saw one on the way to work today. I passed a semi truck that had the company name on the side. I thought it might be a mistake, so I looked up their website when I got to work. This trucking company specializes in service to/from Mexico and the Continental United States. Its name? "Boarder to Boarder Trucking, Inc."

Headlines are another thing. Nothing catches the eye like a misspelling in inch high bold letters on the front page of the newspaper (you remember those, right? Ink printed on flimsy grey paper?). One of my favorites proclaimed:

"MAD COW TRACED TO HEARD IN CANADA."

Still others result from editors apparently not reading the headline before printing it, or else being so clueless as to not realize how it sounds. So for today's amusement, here's a few more:

Crack Found on Governor's Daughter

Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers

Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over

Miners Refuse to Work after Death

Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant

If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last Awhile

Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures

Man Struck By Lightning Faces Battery charge

New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group

Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Spacecraft

Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead

Quotable Quotes, Part I

Sir Winston Churchill once said:
“It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.“

A forum to which I belong recently started a thread for quotes, so I thought I'd blog a few of my favorites. Being a big Churchill fan, I'll start with several of his:

"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak, Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."

“A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.”

“I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.”

“It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required.”

“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.”

“When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber.”

Dave Barry
“I can win an argument on any topic, against any opponent. People know this, and steer clear of me at parties. Often, as a sign of their great respect, they don't even invite me.”

Jascha Heifetz
“No matter what side of the argument you are on, you always find people on your side that you wish were on the other.”

Abraham Lincoln
“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.”

Will Rogers
“The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

Lawrence J. Peter
“Against logic there is no armor like ignorance.”

Bill Watterson
“Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.”

Getting everyone on the same page

Just so we all understand forum etiquette...

"*Yawn*" is picking a fight.

Accusing an organization of intentionally ignoring a member's accomplishment, despite the fact that the member has not attended either of the two events held since the accomplishment, and his award is in the possession of the organization's president, who is his friend and lives in the same general area, is NOT.
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Calling someone a "lying, backstabbing, worthless piece of s#$&!" is simply telling the "truth" and is NOT a personal attack in violation of forum guidelines.

Saying "my recollection of the events is different" is part of a conspiracy to cover up the aforementioned lying and backstabbing, and IS a personal attack.
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Being specifically excluded from membership and "not being sponsored [for membership]" are NOT the same thing!
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Repeatedly pleading for a face-to-face meeting where parties can air their differences and work toward a compromise indicates that one thinks he "owns" the forum.
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Excluding anyone who MIGHT disagree is NOT an attempt to limit dissension!
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Using one forum to promote an alternative forum is perfectly acceptable, even if certain members of the first forum will NOT be allowed access to the alternative forum.
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Geocgraphic boundaries are hard and fast, even if they are arbitrary, unless someone who disagrees lives inside those boundaries, then they are excluded, er, I mean, "not sponsored."
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Having "no officers, no bylaws, and no formal voting" means there are no rules and no one is in charge. No one makes any decisions, and no one has any authority over anyone else, even who gets in and who doesn't.
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And all of this over a game...a game involving Tupperware!