We welcome your participation in our blogs and other discussion areas within the Journal Interactive network. We hope the words our bloggers write will elicit your comments, whether you agree or disagree with them, just find them entertaining, or have additional information or analysis to pass on.

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  Also, take what you find among the comments with a grain of salt. Some people in online communities derive satisfaction from trying to upset others. Ignore them. We'll monitor reader comments as best we can, but we do not necessarily read every word submitted by users of these blogs. If you see comments that don't abide by our discussion guidelines, please let us know by clicking the "report abuse" link on the blog or e-mailing our online staff.

  By participating in our blogs, you agree to abide by the terms of this agreement. We also reserve the right to change this agreement at any time.

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  As a side note, three people who have commented to the various blog sites in the past have been banned.  They have lost their commenting privileges due to repeated "Guideline violations."  They include:  jmark,  sirlaughsalittle,  and bamaphd.  These three have been banned by the livinglakecountry.com administrators. 

  As of January 24th, 2011, we bloggers have been given the ability to delete comments that violate the Discussion Guidelines as well as delete any comments coming in from the three people mentioned earlier.  However, the livinglakecountry.com administrators have informed us that these three occassionally try to "sneak in" using different IP addresses.  However, if comments show a certain pattern or border on the ridiculous (anyone remember the short-lived comments from  "Cosette?"), it isn't too difficult to figure out when we are being scammed.  The administrators can then be alerted and check out the IP addresses and the people behind them. 

  However,  if people are that desperate to make a comment, here's a solution:  ultra-leftie blogger Dustin Klein allows the wayward liberals who found it too difficult to abide by the rules,  to use his blog to post comments to their hearts content.  So, in the future,  sirlaughsalittle, jmark, and bamaphd should take advantage of Klein's hospitality.  These three will not find a home at my blog anymore.  And even though it may take some time for me to check in and see if they have posted, their comments will be removed - as per the direction of the editors of livinglakecountry.com.  

  I would also suggest to others making comments, do not respond to anything sirlaughsalittle, jmark, or bamaphd may say on my blog site.  Their remarks will disappear - whether it be quickly or within a day or two,  and there is really no need to carry on a conversation with them.

  Most importantly, I also will never delete a comment "I do not like."  I have never done so in the past, when we bloggers had this ability a few years ago.  And I will not do so in the future. 

  This now brings everyone up-to-date on what the "Discussion Guidelines" are, and hopefully we can get back to a more civil discourse in the future.  We are moving in the right direction!