As folks around here know, I don't ban commenters very often. Indeed, I had only one banned individual on this site as recently as an hour ago -- a guy who kept insisting upon posting profanity-laced rants on my site rather than engaging in reasoned argumentation.

And that leads me the decision I made this afternoon.

I've had a commenter who is vigorously opposed to Israel commenting here. Now I'm willing to accept that position as legitimate -- indeed, it has not been too many years since I was a vigorous critic of Israel. I recognize that opposition to Israeli policy and criticism of Israeli leaders need not be based in anti-Semitism, and respect an honest discussion of the topic. I would, in fact, welcome such discussion here.

Unfortunately, the commenter in question, Ken Hoop (revbronco@yahoo.com -- send him as much spam as you want) has crossed the line several times. Not only has he repeatedly made rather disgusting statements in posts, but he also sent me even more vile material in my email. This included links to extremist sites like antiwar.com, davidduke.com, and juancole.com. I can accept such items in the spirit they are offered -- a hate-filled spirit, to be sure, but one which at least makes a pretense of intellectual discussion.

Today I received an email containing various links and graphics from a site called holywar.org. After opening the email and looking at the site, I felt a compulsion to bathe in the hopes that I could remove the contamination caused by viewing such material. I will not even describe it, except to indicate that it is anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic, and laden with a level of bigotry that I did not think that even Ken Hoop could descend to.

Ken Hoop is now banned. His emails are now deleted before I ever see them. I have blocked every IP from which he has ever posted, including at least two public library systems in the Cincinnati area (one in Ohio, one in Kentucky). If anyone has difficulty commenting as a result, please feel free to email me and I will see if we can make other arrangements to allow you to post while keeping the hatemonger off of this site.