A pause to breathe. This blog is all about open, free and unfettered discussion. You all know that censorship is at its bare minimum although comment moderation takes up a lot of my time these days. Today we have had over 1200 1,463 (as at 22:31) visitors and many choose to leave comments. I don’t censor most although I do read them before printing them.
Now I need to ask all of you a favour. Remember what this blog is about. Respect the idea of the forum. We discuss and above all we disagree. No one gets cut out because they disagree – no matter how much they disagree. Do try to moderate your own behaviour. Avoid the insults. Avoid the personalisation of an argument. I do not ask you to subscribe to the same ideals I have – maybe it is too romantic an ideal.
On the other hand i do expect a modicum of respect for one another. This too is an important step in our political emancipation. Adjectives and pejoratives do not have their place in a civilised discussion and I am fully confident that all the readers here are capable of understanding that.
The elections will come and go. For my part I hope that the main thrust of this discussion – the need for change – will remain long after the dust has settled back in the ballot boxes. No matter how much we disagree the majority’s common line is that performance of current politicians is fettered by the mechanisms and institutional framework they work in. I hope we will all be willing to work further on that once the election fever has settled down.
Otherwise it will be a loss for everyone. For the sake of St Valentine if not for anything else… moderate yourselves and keep your tempers down.
Kisses to everyone
Jacques
P.S. Since this post has a bit of navel gazing content – a little trivia note. On 10th March 2008, J’accuse turns 3. It all started here when life in Luxembourg was still only a year old and elections were ages away.
j'accuse 
Maybe you should pay me for ratcheting up your ratings. That would give them something to cpnspiracy-theorise about.
What can I say? I too thought of the “Daphne Effect” as a possible explanation to the hike in hits. Just like a Bocca mention on the Times a while back had made J’accuse reach the “dizzy heights” of four hundred something. Thing is the statistics clearly show that the internet buzz in general has shot up once the election was announced – and not once DCG joined the fray.
This is in no way intended to detract from the Daphne Effect but only goes to show that although we often choose to ignore it … we are all parts of a much bigger picture. But what the hell… guess I owe you a glass of wine when I am back… though I am more the type to offer you tea in a glass at the Victory Band Club in Mellieha.
Tea in a glass would be fine.
poisoned please