And in New York, it was some terrorists who got lucky. But as far as I can tell based on your previous post, you seem to think that was different. But I don’t.

I’m sorry you feel so insulted and offended by me. With this particular post, I was only trying to defend my oft-maligned city and the many people I know who are continuing to struggle to put back together a life here from what I considered to be an insulting and demeaning posting.

I used to read you when you first started writing a blog through your local newspaper’s online service. You had some wonderful columns about personal redemption and conquering real adversity in your life. You were a different kind of blogger then.

Unlike Hawkins, you at least had the decency to explain to me why you are banning me. I can’t say that I agree with you that my comments deserve banning, but I can respect that you think so and have told me so.

I know I can come across as an arrogant ass sometimes. Apparently, I have gone too far here. I regret that.

Well, I’ve said too much already, so I’ll just leave with a sincere apology personally to you and generally to all your readers for anything I’ve done to offend you so terribly. May you all live happily and find fulfillment in whatever it is that you do in life.

You call John Hawkins a fraud and an intellectual coward, yet the only reason you dislike him is because he banned you from commenting at RWN. You have a stupid, silly, immature vendetta against him and it’s pathetic that you’re still carrying on with it all this time later. It was sad enough that you whined for weeks and weeks on end that you were banned on your own blog, but now you’re bringing that crap to mine? I don’t think so.

Yes, John has helped me tremendously in my blogging. It’s something I’m brand new to, and without his help, I probably would not have been able to do half the things I’ve done. That doesn’t mean I’m his little sidekick, acolyte, protege, or any other variation thereof. If you knew John at all, you’d know that he is willing to help out anyone who needs it. He gives me advice occasionally — sometimes I take it, sometimes I don’t. I don’t swallow every single word he says and then spit it back out on my blog, as I’m sure you believe. He’s always there to answer any questions I might have, and having someone as experienced as he is in my corner is a huge benefit. John’s an incredibly smart and talented man, and he got where he is by working his ass off for years. I may not agree with just about anything that Markos Moulitsas says, but I won’t deny him what he’s done. It obviously took tremendous intelligence and determination to build DailyKos to what it is, and for that he has my respect. It’s too bad you can’t do the same for John. He’s smarter and more talented that you will ever be.

I’ve considered banning you for quite some time, because while I welcomed your debating at first, as time went on you grew more and more annoying and less and less civil. When GothGuy called you pompous, arrogant, and elitist, I was inwardly cheering because his entire post was so right-on. In fact, you bitched and complained about so many of my posts, that I was starting to wonder why you even bothered reading my blog at all. And if you’re going to be insulting me, and someone I consider a friend, then don’t even bother coming back. Civil debate is one thing, but immature name-calling (towards me, towards John, towards other readers, making fun of people’s names, etc.) is stupid and pathetic. Dragging me into your months old grudge over someone who has every right to ban whomever they choose to ban at any time is even more pathetic. Frankly, the only reason I haven’t banned you yet was because I didn’t want to have to deal with your adolescent whining and moaning for weeks on end about it the way you did with RWN. So don’t even bother commenting anymore, consider yourself banned, and I’m sure you’ll have plenty of posts on your blog about this whining about how I banned you.

I. don’t. care.

You’re a hack who can only regurgitate liberal talking points, who can never think for yourself, gets angry because I have someone helping me out, and lately, can’t make a single post without being rude, insulting, or just downright annoying. So just go crawl back under whatever rock it is you came from. I’m tired of your bullshit. I’m sure I’ll be reading about this on your blog soon anyways.

(and LOL at ‘my people.’ That was precious)