ET'ers, While I have been grossed out at some of the slanderous responses, I want to share that I have learned alot on these boards, and value the fact that they are not overly censured. There needs to be a place where freedom of speech exists. I used to work for a highly prestiguous academic think tank. Problem was, it was, in many ways too highly censured to allow the best minds to express themselves, and sure enough, they mostly all left. So, bravo to those who have the guts to speak honestly, albeit, insensitively to some.
A few of the Moderators here have certainly been biased and prejudiced and have deleted posts or even threads - not for libellous content but rather for no good reason other than dislike of what has been written. Censorship and censors represent a display of narrow minds over those who at least are trying to show some mind of their own. By preference I would not delete any posts unless I was legally obliged to do so. However some posts and threads are no more than unremitting and persistent attacks on ET member/s and when these posts or threads get deleted it is no surprise. But overall the virtue of ET is that it is lightly moderated. This is very important. It makes this forum relatively successful and Baron deserves credit for his good judgement in this respect. Admittedly within the trading threads there is a lot of inane shit on a lot of threads from apparent no-hopers. But still freedom to say whatever you like is so important.
Just so you know, this is not a place where freedom of speech exists. A private website doesn't have to respect your US constitutional rights. Spend some time on an unmoderated internets message board, and you'll be freaking thrilled to come back here. Freedom from spam is a much more important freedom.