Kirt wrote:

> Hoping there will be a happy ending. :/

 Kirt,

        Here's hoping for a happy ending.  When I wrote Todd privately
to ask that he keep posting, he wrote back,  "When I get back [from
vacation} I'll see how things get sorted out, in terms of list
guidelines."  Might I suggest a quick guideline update from our
listowner?

        It's annoying to waste time talking about what we should be
talking about, rather than that which brought us together in the first
place, the paleodiet as outlined in Ray Audette's Neanderthin.  And I'm
annoyed with myself for having been drawn into such a discussion.

        On a different list long ago, someone posted something on the
life-to-death stages of the average mailing list.  I may go look for it,
as it was funny and this list is approaching stage-seven meltdown

        I have a couple of suggestions for such a guideline list:

        * Posts should refrain from attacking the central tenets of a
paleo diet, as described in Neanderthin.  Posts questioning issues
peripheral to Neanderthin -- I place Todd's posts in this category --
should be welcome.

        * Whether or not a post meets the list guidelines should be the
exclusive province of the listowner.  Complaints should be made
privately to the listowner, (with a copy to the original poster?)
leaving it to the listowner to chastise the original poster, or not.

        * Polite disagreements should be posted publicly to the list,
furthering discussion.  Anything even *hinting* of flame should be sent
privately.

        Whether we like it our not, there's a certain element of "faith"
or "dogma" attached to any diet (or way of life) such as Neanderthin, or
Veganism, or any dietary "philosophical" system.  I know I am too
uneducated to make completely informed judgments, based on nothing but
clinical evidence, on my own.  I doubt than anyone other than a medical
doctor, with specialized training in nutrition and endocrinology, would
be able to make such a claim.  Unless it is someone who has devoted
years of study to this very issue.  As it is, I make my philosophical
(dietary) choices be accepting those arguments which meet my
pre-conceived prejudices, hoping that I can keep a somewhat open mind
while doing so.

        Posts like Todd's help me convince myself that I am keeping an
active mind on the paleodiet, the complete details of which are not
graven in stone, not even in Neanderthin.  This is opposed to posts
which question the central tenets of Neanderthin, which, by attacking
those prejudices I take more or less on faith, do nothing but aggravate.

        I hope our list owner steps in here.  I, for one, vow two
things:  (1) to post no more public messages on what should or should
not be posted to this list; (2) to post no more public messages that
might be construed as a "flame," even in response to "flames" I find
irritating.

Cheers,

Robert