“[b]itch-slapped the moderator”? Honestly?

OK, things have really sailed through the obnoxious, beyond the pathetic, and taken a sudden, disorienting turn into the totally absurd.

“Bitch-slapped”?

Elaine, do *you* recall what I said when I “bitch-slapped” you? I recall addressing you directly one time, only to wryly commiserate in the lousy position of a moderator. Now that’s a “bitch-slap”? One has to wonder what’s being taught in law schools these days …

I should have seen this coming, I guess, having witnessed how Thalia and Theresa have played this same tired game a few times in the past … shrill and sloppy hyperbole, easy threats, and the insertion of their own words into other people’s mouths, always laced with cheap, insinuated, hit-and-run insults flung like cow dung through a woodchipper in the hope that, if enough insubstantial crap is hurled, maybe something will actually stick.

I could respond to these two, tell them how, despite their sneering insinuation, I have never before been threatened with punishment by Tribe TOS before … or I could explain how the guy who threatened to fly cross-country and kick my ass was a twice-incarcerated ex-con with a criminal record of assault and battery who had threatened more than half a dozen other people in the same tribe over a period of two weeks …

… but why bother our two cousins with real, actual events, when the perception and the misperception of them are so much more fun?

Theresa, you were never a driver in this race, just another drunk heckler in the bleachers, throwing beer cans on the track, rooting for your favorite car and keeping your fingers crossed for a fiery pile-up. Then you started snuffling around in my profile, looking for dirt? Sad, sad lady.

Thalia, if you DO NOT report me to Tribe TOS for all of my alleged threats, you are exposing yourself as an exhibitionistic, self-important bully with no integrity, somebody who has wasted everybody’s time with all of this posing and posturing but no follow-through. Why threaten to monitor me and punish me in the FUTURE? If I have indeed threatened the well-being of so many innocent, helpless people, what could you possibly be waiting for? Strike! Strike! Punish me NOW. Anything less than a complete display of your righteousness, power and greatness is a cruel anticlimax after all that we all have been through.

Using your pat little Obscene or Harassing Use of Telecommunications Facilities Act of 1996 as a set of guidelines for proper, righteous Internet behavior, you and your acidic cousin (and damn near everybody on this tribe and on Tribe.net itself) is in constant violation. I could whine and cry with quivering lower lip about the nasty things that the two of you have said about me, my mental state, my character, etc, and the hostile, annoying, harassing, “threatening” atmosphere that the two of you have created toward me. We could ALL play the victim game and parade our hurt feelings around forever and keep one another in a state of constant charge and counter-charge. I hear there’s even good money in it for some …

Ultimately, of course, Elaine is right. This tedious feud doesn’t have much to do with the stated purpose of the tribe and can’t be very illuminating or entertaining to the other 355 members. Even Winner Winner Chicken Dinner has abandoned the field. Hence, this will be my last post on this thread.

Doubtlessly, Ther and Thal will want to gnash their beaks and snap their claws and vomit the last word and rattle out the last threat, which is perfectly fine. Maybe once they retch that last dram of bile out of their systems, maybe they could actually post something meaningful, insightful, interesting, observant or humorous to this tribe …The only time I ever even see their, ah, “contributions” on HIOP is when they’re swaggering into arguments like a pair of shrewish playground monitors. For such esteemed and long-tiome HIOP members, the last time Ther began a thread on this tribe was in 2006, whereas I wasn’t actually able to find one for Thal.

Thanks, everybody, it’s been a hoot.

Did somebody bring up WalMart?