In a message dated 08/03/2000 1:33:57 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [log in to unmask] writes: << This may be the gist of your complaint: You do not want to discuss Pound at all, or the issues I bring up. So instead you want to divert attention from the real issues, and instead make ad hominem attacks. >> you're free to cast whatever aspersions that you choose -- but what I don't intend doing is to discuss Pound with someone who seems intent on labeling everything Pound said or did as just another proof of his fascistic enthrallment. I think you should look up the meaning of ad hominem; in my judgment my criticism regarding your lack of sincerity is based on what I've observed here on this list. as for the political parties you've listed, the most one can say about them is that they're irrelevant to the political process in this country; the greens may be an exception to this remark, but that remains to be seen. what is certain is that if the greens -- or any of the other parties you list -- should pass beyond the threshold of irrelevance, they will be co-opted by the moneyed interests, just as the major political parties are -- that is, they will become stooges enacting and enforcing laws and policies that ensure that these interests will benefit. as far as backchannel messages are concerned, I think one should be able, particularly when one is saying something personally critical, to choose how one communicates this. as a matter of fact, I would prefer that this message be a private one, but since you have repeatedly demonstrated that you do not honor such wishes, then I have no choice -- if I'm to respond to you at all -- but to do so publicly. jb....