Our school district needs more funding.
We need to pass this referendum. If you would like to help work for the campaign committee please respond.

**** me.

Hey, Everybody —

I’m going to hate myself for poking my nose into this, but northsider’s posts and the reactions to them have sent too many otherwise serious and important topics off on distracting tangents.

And your friendly neighborhood administrator has had enough, already.

People, you’ve been had. It’s a joke! One that has gone on too long without a punch line.

Remember All in the Family’s Archie Bunker? Played by actor Carroll O’Connor? In real life O’Connor was a liberal, but he played Bunker as a brainless conservative... a stupid buffoon who was a straw man for Meathead.

Most of the audience got it. But there were some right-wingers who took the character at face value and cheered, “You tell him, Archie! Meathead needs to hear that!” They thought Archie was real.

Same with today’s Stephen Colbert. In real life he’s a progressive liberal... but on TV he plays the arch conservative host as a buffoon. In making his alter ego look stupid he works to make all conservatives look stupid. Even so, there are viewers who — once again — take this character at face value and cheer, “You tell ’em, Stephen!”

Which brings us to northsider... a poor man’s Bunker or Cobert who is still learning the subtleties of reverse psychology. The wit and polish of a Norman Lear or of Stephan Cobert’s writers aren’t quite there, but (as I’m sure the real northsider would agree) we’re only Glen Ellyn. We can’t afford the best.

So, ah... “clearly” northsider is simply playing the role of a pro-turf, pro-tax, pro-referendum, pro-etc. buffoon. Why? To make arguments so ill-informed, so out-of-touch, so stupid that they will drive away any reasoned person who might otherwise be open to the idea. Which is to say, over to his or her real anti-turf, anti-tax, anti-The Children etc. point-of-view. It’s a reverse technology technique that works especially well on the undecided or otherwise uninterested.

It’s gotten to the point that if northsider owned a liquor store he’d use unsubstantiated facts and stats to explain why prohibition is a good idea, just to drive us all to drink.

He’s done his job well. There was a time when some on this board might have considered artificial turf as a possibility... or better teacher pay... or even The Children... but after his inane “arguments,” no one will ever agree with any position he (supposedly) holds. He has pushed most of us to the other side... which I believe was his intent from the beginning.

Sadly, not everybody “got it.” It took me a while. Then I sort of found a bit of humor in watching him push other people’s buttons. For a while.

But the time has come to stop wasting bandwidth and disk space, and for everyone to stop going down this designed-to-be-annoying tangent and focus again on intelligent and reasoned discussion of the serious issues we face.

It was a joke. Sorry to “out” you northsider, but enough is enough. Statistics prove that there are five Popes per square mile in the Vatican, and that the average American has one breast and one testicle. Have a good laugh and move on. —Ted E.

(Oh — and northsider — don’t even think of posting an, “Oh, no; that’s not true... it really is for The Children” message. “Free Speech” means you can start your own message board... not that you can say anything you want on this one.)

I thought this was a given.

thanks ted...but i did like clam's response...

Hey DTM,

I told you Northsider would get banned before I did.

You might be giving Northsider too much credit for thinking it through, Ted. They could be someone pissed off at the prevailing sentiments of GEBB posters on these topics and seeking to piss them off / rile them up just out of spite. Which would paint the sad picture of someone who is pro-turf, etc. but doesn't have the desire/ability to argue the point, only seeking some sort of vengeance.

As with All in the Family (I don't watch Colbert) or Homer on the Simpsons, the real disservice to the debate is the failure to provide genuine points on one side of the argument and at the same time encourage a sense of intellectual superiority on the other.

Well, in any case, s/he went way over the TOS entry of “You agree, through your use of this service, that you will not post any material which is knowingly false and/or ... inaccurate ....”

I did not block him/her from the board until earlier today when he/she attempted to create an additional username, which was the straw the motivated me to exercise the “we reserve the right to block access to the board by any user for any, or no, reason” clause.

I suppose the entire TOS dissertation could be replaced by the single line, “Don't piss off the Administrator more than once.” —Ted E.

I love you, Ted. Always will.

I, for one, shall shed no tears for our dearly departed northsider. Leave the crying to FAn.

Light and dark. Yin and Yang. Without evil, how can we hope to define good?

Your moment of Zen...

William

Tis truly simple to define that that is evil



and

Oprah is Northsider?

And clam is aligning himself with Chavez in proclaiming Coke Zero a threat?

I don't know which one is more of a stretch...

William

We all know that Oprah is evil...and how can one not follow the word of Chavez? He says it is bad...it is bad.

FWIW, Chavez loves our president.

quote:

Originally posted by Ted E.:
I suppose the entire TOS dissertation could be replaced by the single line, “Don't piss off the Administrator more than once.” —Ted E.

There goes my safety net...is there a statute of limitations where you may have forgotten the first pissing off and thus a poster may gain an additional one if enough time has passed?

quote:

...is there a statute of limitations...

About 45 minutes. I have a memory like... oh, y'know... like one of those big gray whatchamacallits with a trunk for a nose.

(Amazing. My spell checker accepted “whatchamacallits.”) —Ted E.

quote:

Originally posted by Ted E.:

quote:

...is there a statute of limitations...

About 45 minutes. I have a memory like... oh, y'know... like one of those big gray whatchamacallits with a trunk for a nose.

(Amazing. My spell checker accepted “whatchamacallits.”) —Ted E.

Does this mean I'm no longer in trouble for calling your house at 9:30 am?

Thanks for reminding me. I had forgotten who it was that called at that ungodly hour. —Ted E.

Northsider may have been a little over the top. But I've always suspected that he/she was on to something. Did anyone see the release from D87.

Yes we're doing good with an 11M surplus but next year we can only increaes revenue by 1%.
So some programs may be cut. Sounds like the opening shot in another referendum or tax increase to me.