Some great points have been made about what's going on at the moment. Obviously a possible war is such a big topic that it's bound to take up some space. That said, I can understand people getting pissed off with the sheer volume of mail on this subject (and I am aware that I'm one of the people who has weighed in a fair bit at different points). And I'd guess it's not just people who would prefer to keep political discussions to a minimum who are getting fed up; I slipped away from the list a while ago because of the nature of some of the posts about war.
My suggestions for making such times more bearable have all been made already: use the delete key, start your own thread, and so on. I will add one thing that I've found particularly helpful when I've been able to stick to it: there are a few listers whose posts I automatically delete without reading. It sounds a bit drastic, but I'm sure I have saved myself much gnashing of teeth and raised blood pressure; and I've saved other list members from having to wade through what would have been my responses and retorts and counter-claims. In other words, it's about choosing to avoid conflict. I can take myself out of that situation very easily, and nobody loses out anything. I am against any limit on numbers of posts per day or any kind of censorship. Personally, I am not worried about the future of the list; I am sure we will weather the current fractiousness and harmony will be restored, because there are too many people on this list who want that too happen for it not to. Now, if Joni could just make a decent record then everything would be alright ;-) Azeem in London NP: Richard Thompson - The Old Kit Bag (the master's latest, slowly growing on me)
