Mason

You kicked out Alger and left eLROY alone?

DITTO!!!

Well, Dan Hanson is gone, Chris Alger is gone, and Ray Springfield remains. What is wrong with this picture?


One thing about Mason; he doesn't seem to get along very well with people who have different views than him, whether it be poker or politics.

whatever happened to Dan Hanson? He was one of the best posters on theis @#$%%$# forum!

I don't recall the exact situation, but he had made a comment that in some respects it might have been better if Hitler had won WWII. I THINK (you can check the archives) he said this with respect to the cold war, since I guess he thought Germany would not have been as menacing a cold war adversary as the Soviet Union. One of Springfield's friends ("matt" I think is what he posted under) accused him of being an anti-semite and started harrassing him. Eventually Hanson got fed up with it and left. Interestingly enough, "matt" stopped posting as soon as Hanson left.

Actually, my original comment was even less offensive than that.


The whole issue started as a mathematical point - someone claimed that the Earth had survived an incredible longshot in that ANY other outcome of WWII other than the exact outcome we had would have resulted in a horrible world. I took issue with this, and said that there were lots of other ways that it could have ended, both sooner and later, that would have had little or even beneficial effect. As an example, I said that if Germany had been slightly stronger, then it might have weakened the Soviet Union enough that we would have gotten rid of BOTH of them during WWII. Considering all of the pain and destruction that happened in the cold war, that might have been a better outcome. I also pointed out that the war could have ended slightly sooner, and that would have prevented the Soviets from occupying half of Berlin and a number of Asian islands that they grabbed in the waning days of WWII.


At no point did I suggest that it was even remotely desirable to have Germany survive the war as a Nazi power. And in the next message I left to attempt to clarify what I said, I made it clear that I thought the Nazis were an evil, despicable power that needed to be eradicated from the Earth at all costs. That, apparently, was not good enough to prevent 'Ray Springfield' from launching int a yearlong attack on me that ultimately forced me to leave both for my own sanity and for the good of this message board.


Springfield reminds me of the classic definition of a fanatic: Someone who won't change his mind, and won't change the subject.

Just to make sure Mason isn't getting blamed for something that's not his fault, let me just say that Mason had nothing to do with my leaving.


We have agreed and disagreed in the past, but Mason has always been exceedingly polite to me, and a big help both to my writing and my understanding poker.


I thought he made a mistake by not banning Springfield a long time ago when it became clear that he was a poisonous presence on this board, but it IS his board to run, and such choices are his own business.

I'm surprised to hear you defend the "it's my ball and I'm taking it home with me" attitude. Mason was instrumental in your leaving by not enforcing the rules of etiquette he himself set down. Yes, it's his forum and he can do what he wants with it, but if he was the only participant it'd be a pretty sad place. Maybe you Canadians are kind of used to divine rule but this is America and just because Mason owns the site he still has moral obligations to those who participate and make this site the quality forum that it is.

You are missed more than you know, Dan, and I blame Mason for not stepping in soon enough to insure your continued participation.


Love your site, BTW.

Sammy, I was specifically responding to this:


"Well, Dan Hanson is gone, Chris Alger is gone, and Ray Springfield remains. What is wrong with this picture?


One thing about Mason; he doesn't seem to get along very well with people who have different views than him, whether it be poker or politics. "


The probably unintentional implication here is that I left because I couldn't get along with Mason. I just wanted to clear the record - I have never had a personal problem with Mason, and in fact he has been very nice to me even when I said things that he disagreed with. That's all.


Thanks for your nice comments on the site. It's been fun to do.

Alger posts under psuedonyms. Anybody that states the Nazis should have defeated the Russians is a Nazi. Hanson is an old German name with a long line of history with generations holding anti-Semitic views. The Nazis, you must understand, equate Bolshevism with Zioinism. It's the Zionist conspiracy, international banking cabal that these far right wing nuts put out caused all the world's problems.

Matt Blecha got fired from his job.

Hanson called Albert Einstein a "Jew Scientist", Hanson discussed the Zionist conspiracy international banking crap. Hanson is of German descent and he hates Bolsheviks and Jews. He thinks that they are one and the same.