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Don't cry for me, Anderson; the Cocklebur is no more
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The Cocklebur is dead.
Please, no celebrating. Bless his heart. We are all Southerners after all. We have manners.
Anyway, before he died – no word on how, although, knowing the kind of reputation he had, anything is possible – he made me one of those morbid videos that come from high-paid lawyers in manilla envelopes.
So here I am with the tricky task of “executing” his last will and testament by, among other things, telling y’all, although I don’t really think anyone will miss him or even know he’s gone.
It’s the Christian thing to do I suppose.
It goes along with sharing an office with someone, ignoring their flatulence, signing office birthday cards, eating their food at potluck lunches and pretending to be sad when they leave.
All of this makes me uncomfortable, to tell you the truth.
I didn’t really agree with him a whole bunch, and you never really knew whose side he was on? Know what I mean?
His hate mail was fun to read. One minute he was being reamed as a high-falutin atheist member of the liberal media. The next minute, he was a right-wing, nut job religious lunatic. His replies were always polite, though.
Except that one time. But he did apologize.
You know, we live in tough times. You’re a columnist. If you don’t believe in a political agenda enough to support it 100 percent and never blink, you need to step out of the way, buddy.
Just my opinion.
Well, I guess he did, in a manner of speaking.
You didn’t really think America’s greatness came from some Frenchified intellectuals do you? Government isn’t some kind of debating society, where we share our thoughts and work on making our society a more perfect union.
Does anyone really think it’s possible to come up with a system, “so people could peaceably live and trade with each other and decide their disputes, so everyone has a chance to live well and live free according to his conscience, without being abused or exploited.”
What do you think America is? Communist?
This world is about survival of the fittest baby! There’s no such thing as “community” or “society.” We’re all on our own, and that’s the way it’s always been. Government just ends up getting in the way because it helps evil people and losers get what they want.
Everyone knows God helps those who help themselves. It’s in the Bible.
Man, this writing thing feels pretty good, doesn’t it? Powerful stuff.
Anyhoo, back to the Cocklebur.
E's passed on! TheCocklebur is no more! E has ceased to be! E's expired and gone to meet his maker! E’s a stiff! Bereft of life. E’s kicked the bucket. E's shuffled off his mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! He is an ex-Cocklebur!!
(Couldn’t resist that. We’d watch those Monthy Python videos together, and they were just so dang funny.)
So in this video, the Cocklebur said — and this is kinda weird — he wants you people to know what The Cocklebur really meant all this time.
Apparently, the word cock-le-bur is really southern for “pain in the butt.”
Surprised to me too.
And that was it.
I guess I’m done then.
Ta Ta Cocklebur. And the best of British wherever you are.
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Goodbye Cocklebur R.I.P
I enjoyed reading what he had to say. (some of the time) He was a polite lad. I bet he would be surprised how many will miss him.
Maybe he was a high-falutin atheist member of the liberal media, or a right-wing nut job religious lunatic. I liked him anyway.
Cherrio Mate
Below is another forum that some fellow Cocklebur posters are posting on. http://tellit.lefora.com/forum/ It’s not posh like Cocklebur, but all is welcome to join.
Oh bloody hell.....
Will his ego fit through the exit door?
I'm going to try to say all this without being a jerk. I hope I succeed...
I assume you're talking about the forum. If not, just ignore this.
I watched Straight Talk fall. It is my opinion, and the opinion of several others, that the beginning of the end with Straight Talk was the fact that a certain out-of-state user joined and took over. He was tolerated by the moderator of Straight Talk, even though the vast majority of the community repeatedly expressed their concern with him destroying the forum. Since nothing was done about him, he opened the door to certain other trouble makers, one of which ultimately was the cause of Straight Talk being closed. The user that ruined Straight Talk then ruined the Cocklebur.
When Straight Talk closed, one of the users started a new Straight Talk. The "out-of-state" user followed and was allowed to ruin that forum as well. It's dead now.
Please understand that I'm not casting stones here. I respect you and I appreciate the fact that you gave us a forum to converse with each other. I just for the life of me can't understand why the moderators of these forums have such a difficult time getting rid of the bad apples. Those forums could have been saved had the admins just gotten rid of the people who were causing the problems. Why wasn't it done?
The Cocklebur forum had been renamed to:
http://www.andersontalkzone.com
That has to be the most hysterically maudlin account of a demise since the death of Little Nell in Dickens' The Old Curiosity Shop. Somewhat amusing, though overall uninformative for such a *significant* event. A 550 word obituary and no reason given for the death. Methinks we may see Nick in a position of greater responsibility at AIM (despite his earlier protetations), one requiring at least the pretense of objectivity. If that's not the case. the reader's are owed a bit more by way of explanation.
That being said, I will miss The Cocklebur, as the quality of the writing was superior to the mundane offerings that typically passed for commentary by other writers at AIM.
in response to Lamanamanumi
Lamanamanumi,
Your observation of the forums you mentioned seems to be "spot-on" and I agree with you 100%. And this is the reason we created the TellIt-Anderson forum. The culprits-of-demise of the afermentioned forums would love to say (and some have) that we are running from the situation, but I beg to differ. Only the Moderators and the trouble-makers themselves can stop the nonsense going on in the forums, but unfortunately that did not happen on any of the forums mentioned. The only choice left is to create a forum in agreement with other posters/members at another location with the promise from the moderators to actually moderate the site and learn from past mistakes. When you have a select few causing problems on 2 or 3 forums and they all end in the same manner, common sense tells me that those past troublemakers will either be barred from joining the new forum or allowed join and watched very closely. I understand that not everyone agrees and arguments are going to happen. In all honesty, this is what makes a forum interesting most of the time. But there is a line to be drawn, and that's where the moderators have to come in and do their job. This is the plan on TellIt Anderson and so far, so good.
Hope to see you there.
http://tellit.lefora.com/forum
The comment has been removed for violating the terms of our user-contributions policy and the user account has been quarantined. All further posts from this account will be manually screened until such time as a user is deemed trustworthy. The user account and all posts associated with it will be eliminated if improper comments continue."
The comment has been removed for violating the terms of our user-contributions policy and the user account has been quarantined. All further posts from this account will be manually screened until such time as a user is deemed trustworthy. The user account and all posts associated with it will be eliminated if improper comments continue."
in response to Spider
The comment has been removed for violating the terms of our user-contributions policy and the user account has been quarantined. All further posts from this account will be manually screened until such time as a user is deemed trustworthy. The user account and all posts associated with it will be eliminated if improper comments continue."
The comment has been removed for violating the terms of our user-contributions policy and the user account has been quarantined. All further posts from this account will be manually screened until such time as a user is deemed trustworthy. The user account and all posts associated with it will be eliminated if improper comments continue."
The comment has been removed for violating the terms of our user-contributions policy and the user account has been quarantined. All further posts from this account will be manually screened until such time as a user is deemed trustworthy. The user account and all posts associated with it will be eliminated if improper comments continue."
The comment has been removed for violating the terms of our user-contributions policy and the user account has been quarantined. All further posts from this account will be manually screened until such time as a user is deemed trustworthy. The user account and all posts associated with it will be eliminated if improper comments continue."
The comment has been removed for violating the terms of our user-contributions policy and the user account has been quarantined. All further posts from this account will be manually screened until such time as a user is deemed trustworthy. The user account and all posts associated with it will be eliminated if improper comments continue."
Nicely put Loftis.
This final (?) article is well done because it's about as self-indulgent and indicative of the megalomaniac NIck is. Love him or hate him, he's always been (and I'm guessing always will be) a self-serving stirrer of the political poop. Perhaps had he actually fit in with some of the inner circles he so desperately attempted to fit into early on during his Anderson tenure, his personal agenda and writing aspirations would not have landed him here, though, and given him the reputation of being "part of what's wrong with Anderson County."
I'm glad his Christian "holier than thou" routine somehow absolves him of any responsibility for his actions and the discontent he perpetuates in our community. Like robmacgreg, I too hope the death of the Cocklebur is also the departure of its writer from the already struggling newspaper.
Unfortunately, people like him are the ones that typically get promoted to oversee the increase of yellow journalism, gossip, and hatemongering that any paper needs when its on the brink of collapse and needs to resuscitate its membership by any means necessary. :( I pray that I'm wrong.
in response to Spider
The comment has been removed for violating the terms of our user-contributions policy and the user account has been quarantined. All further posts from this account will be manually screened until such time as a user is deemed trustworthy. The user account and all posts associated with it will be eliminated if improper comments continue."
I don't know which one of you AIM people did that, but I just want to say thank you. You made a very wise decision.
in response to Lamanamanumi
The comment has been removed for violating the terms of our user-contributions policy and the user account has been quarantined. All further posts from this account will be manually screened until such time as a user is deemed trustworthy. The user account and all posts associated with it will be eliminated if improper comments continue."
Lamanamanumi said nothing but the truth. Sometimes the truth hurts.
It's cool. I'm glad they removed it. There's no sense in kicking a dead horse.
Nick is moving to another leader - the Lord. If the heavenly Father chooses to use him here, be glad and let your hard feelings go. Anger helps no one.
Nick, I truly wish you the best. NewSpring is blessed to have you!
?
All I see is everyone was deleted, so this whole thread is nonsensica at best. Nick tired of it and I wish him well in his new life.
The comment has been removed for violating the terms of our user-contributions policy and the user account has been quarantined. All further posts from this account will be manually screened until such time as a user is deemed trustworthy. The user account and all posts associated with it will be eliminated if improper comments continue."
Bullspit! Why was everything deleted?
Maybe because he nothing important to say. Just a thought.
The comment has been removed for violating the terms of our user-contributions policy and the user account has been quarantined. All further posts from this account will be manually screened until such time as a user is deemed trustworthy. The user account and all posts associated with it will be eliminated if improper comments continue."
The comment has been removed for violating the terms of our user-contributions policy and the user account has been quarantined. All further posts from this account will be manually screened until such time as a user is deemed trustworthy. The user account and all posts associated with it will be eliminated if improper comments continue."
in response to Lamanamanumi
Goodbye!
Funny how a response column regarding the creator of ST and Cocklebur and his plans for the future is nothing but removed posts!!!! Maybe it should only be used for Message-approved-by-McCain political supporters? Lord knows they could use some positive backing.
I can't figure out what I could have said that would call for removal, but oh well. If I said something out of the way to someone, I apologize.
Maybe it had something to do with posting a link to a new forum.
Spider, Nick is far from any of the things that you have mentioned about him. Not wanting you to post may be Nicks way to keep Anderson Talk Zone (formerly The Cocklebur ) moving in a positive direction. Unfortunately Spider, every forum you become a part of turns into nothing but ridiculous arguments.
Good riddance! That (and this is moving that way) public forum had become so inundated with a bunch of crybabies it needed to go. Now, if someone just doesn't like your post, they can ask and will have it removed. Pick a reason, any reason, any excuse and whine or cry about a comment and it will be pulled. A good way to cut your readership, make what they are reading as boring as you can. As another poster stated, "in trying to please everyone, you please no one." AIM needs to just stay out of moderating comments unless they contain cursing or any words you should not be reading in a public newspaper. Content should be up to the writer.
Goodbye Cocklebur (Big Brother is watching you!), no one will miss you!
Who are you saying "good riddance" to?
Everyone: I just want to state for the record that the posts being removed were as a result of a personal dispute between three posters who decided to adjudicate their petty squabbles in this public place. Our user-contributions policy clearly states that we do not allow flaming or personal attacks, off-topic posts or anything that we think is disruptive of the general posting environment. The posters responsible were duly warned and any action taken was based on their implicit or explicit refusal to follow our rules.
in response to NickCharalambous
That is a perfect example of how to properly moderate a forum. Nick took care of the problem quickly and responsibly. Kudos.
Well, I have read all the comments. I will certainly miss Nick and his insightful comments and ideas that sparked interest and made us sit up and listen. However, I will not miss the caustic comments and downright mean comments that others posted that did not contribute to understanding and cooperation.
Good Night, Nick, wherever you are!
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