Perhaps, in the absence of an active moderator, the following offers a clue to how to cope with the Forum crazies:Some years ago I chaired a Crown Court jury. The accused male was charged with hitting a woman in the head with a large glass ashtray. We retired to the jury room and 11 of us immediately came to the conclusion that on the evidence, which included some gruesome photographs, he was guilty - except for a young woman who was "unconvinced" because he had "a nice face". We tried for over an hour to get a unanimous result, but the woman kept on repeating "not guilty". The rest of us were all getting fed up when suddenly I had a wheeze. I suggested that we should all stay silent for 15 minutes "to reflect". After 5 minutes the woman suddenly burst out: "Guilty - I can't stand this silence".In short, some people just love to get a rise out of the rest of us. Subjecting such characters to silence works wonders. On the Forum, if tempted to respond to a nonsense, I suggest holding your horses. Do nothing. It won't curb their freedom of speech, so they can't complain on that score, and after a while they are likely to give up and go away.(Incidentally, it turned out that the man with that "nice face" had a long history of assaulting women.)
Alexander MacLeod ● 1371d