Insults directed at posters or other commenters are taboo.
I just had to zap two comments. If you call another commenter, or a poster, a moron, your comment will be deleted regardless of its other content. Same for other insults. Ditto if you use a bad word that might get us filtered out by some electronic nanny. If you do it twice, your account will be banned.
We all value the diversity of the RBC comments section. But that’s a reason to be on your best manners. Do as I say, not as I do: try to disagree without being disagreeable.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman
How about a flame thread where those who want to go all Don Rickles on somebody can do so?
That exists, Mike T. It's the comments section of every blog on the New York Times and Washington Post. (And CNN. And MSN. And Yahoo news. And every single local network affiliate's website.)
Mike T, you silly person. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries! Now go away, or I will taunt you a second time.