As someone who tunes in only periodically, and has no history with the main players, I am fascinated by this exchange. I think Christian has a point in making parallels between this discussion and ftf interaction, but on a deeper level of how we as humans deal with disagreement and difference. Tolerance tends to lose out. steph Stephanie Jo Kent, M.Ed, CI Group Discourse and Dynamics Consultation American Sign Language/English Interpretation Doctoral Student, Communication, UMass-Amherst kentcon@sover.net http://www.reflexivity. us