This particular example involves the services provided by Google.

Not only is Google the best and most popular World Wide Web search engine, it has also recently kicked off a sister site that hosts literally tens of thousands of "discussion groups." Now, this is certainly not a new idea; Yahoo has had "clubs" for a long time now, and MSN offers various "communities." But Google's success lies in the fact that it has been able to assemble so many different groups and literally millions of users even though their site has only been up and running for a few months or so.

I stumbled upon Groups.Google.Com and was immediately hooked. I was intoxicated by the sheer depth of subject matter that their service offered, as well as the wide variety of contributors and personalities that were available to converse with. One of my biggest concerns is the spread of Communism in the United States, and so I quickly found a politics group to discuss this subject in.

What follows below is a record of a conversation that I had in that Google Group. (Google calls this a "thread.") For your convenience, I have cut and pasted all of the relevant new text from each Google Group post in a linear fashion so that the conversation is clear and easily readable. Here it is, but be warned; the language used by my detractor is edgy. I have taken the liberty of editing it to conform to Adequacy.org standards, but some of these profanities may be decipherable nonetheless.

• 70% - Is everybody as concerned as I am about all of the Communism that is in the United States these days? It seems that we have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory; we might have knocked down the Berlin Wall, but we have become a quasi-Communist country in the decades since. :-(

• mossboy - what the f**k are you talking about?

• 70% - Hello, mossboy! Please keep a civil tongue. What I am talking about is the fact that we have armed government taking money from moral people and redistributing it to others who have not earned it; look at programs such as welfare, Medicare, and Social Security. Not to mention that the First Amendment essentially institutionalizes atheism as the state religion of the United States; this is a fundamental tenet of Communism.

• mossboy - what the f**k kind of d**khead are you?? last time i checked there was a f**king church on ever corner of every town in this country, also what the f**k are you going to do with people who are unemployed, let them starve you f**king a**hole!!

I have to admit that at this point I was a bit taken aback; though I think it is clear that my point is perfectly valid, I was not expecting such open hostility. In particular, I found the extreme profanity to be most unfortunate. Profanity is the last refuge of those who are unable to express themselves in more meaningful and eloquent ways. It is uncouth, and it is indicative of an inferior mind. But such is Groups.Google.Com; when you put together a worldwide community of millions of people like Google has, you have to expect some riffraff.

But I digress. I was not about to abandon this debate, particularly when I was clearly winning. "Mossboy" was obviously being a sore loser, but far be it from me to let that stop the truth from coming out. Let's continue with the thread, shall we?

• 70% - Hello again, mossboy. Again I would remind you to try to keep the tone of the debate as civil as possible. Yes, you are correct that churches of Christ can be found in many places in this country, and that is a good thing. However, you fail to mention the fact that churches of atheism (public schools) are just as common. Furthermore, while the armed government does not force you attend a Christ-based church, it does force you to attend the afore-mentioned atheist churches. This is consistent with Communism. Furthermore, with regards to your question about the unemployed, let me respond with another question: is it my fault that they are unemployed? If not, then why should I be forced (at gunpoint) to pay these people out of my pocket? Thanks.

• mossboy - boy you must be some kind of a f**king a**hole to say such b*llshit. you f**king d**kheads really make my day. my grandma gets a f**king social security check every g*d d*mn month, without it she would starve, you want to see f**king old ladies starve you self-righteous j*rk!! p*ss up a flagpole, by the way f**k off!!!

• 70% - Mossboy, Mossboy, Mossboy. Is this hostility really necessary? One would think it would be possible to carry on a rational debate about this subject, free from the rancor that you bring to the table. On the subject of your grandmother, have you asked her to look at who's signing her checks? Perhaps the signature belongs to a man named Josef Stalin. Chairman Mao, perhaps? Teddy Kennedy? Does your grandmother own a sugarcane garden? If so, does she have that little Elian Gonzalez boy tending it at gunpoint, in leg irons?

All right; the Astute Reader may point out that I may have gone to far in my sarcasm in the last reply. I must plead an unequivocal "guilty" to this charge, but truth be told, I couldn't help myself. Communists such as Mossboy are easy targets for this type of material, and what was I to do? I am only human, after all. Unfortunately, I was ill-prepared for what he did next.

Mossboy threatened to murder me.

Now, I have found myself at the receiving end of all sorts of abuse while engaged in these sorts of debate. If there is one thing that I am sure of, it is that morality is not popular among lots of folks these days. That's a shame, but at least most of them are able to express their shame without resorting to death threats. I have been called every dirty word in the book, I have been accused of "Nazism", and people have suggested that I take my own life. But never before have I gotten a comment such as this:

• mossboy - okay, thats it a**hole, YOU ARE GOING IN MY KILL FILE, how it will pleasure me to never have to f**king read any of your cr*p again, have a nice day ;)))))))))

I don't know what I find most disturbing:

1. The fact that he threatened to kill me, or
2. The fact that he plans to kill so many people that he has to maintain a file of their names in order to keep them straight, or
3. The fact that he considers murder an effective way to silence his opponents.

This much I know: if Mossboy wants to come at me, he'd better be ready. As a member of the moral community, I am heavily armed and am more than capable of defending myself. Furthermore, as a law-abiding citizen, I have reported this threat to Google, my ISP, my local police department, and the FBI. Finally, I have no plans to stop infusing Google Groups with the truth. If Mossboy and those who think like him believe that death threats will stop the truth from coming out, they are laughably wrong.

So threaten all you want. All you will do is steel my resolve. I (and those like me) will continue to fight the war on violence in American society. There is no middle ground here, friends; either you are with me, or you are with the violent ones. Call me a hopeless optimist, but I firmly believe that civility can be restored to American discourse. We will not fail.