Ed,

I found your website before I joined this list, and at the time, I was
quite sympathetic to your main points, although a little sceptical about
some of the technical details. For that matter, I still am. I must
admit, though, that your hostile rhetorical stance on this list has
completely alientated me.

How you think you can infer what my--or any list member's--classroom
practice is from the topics here is beyond me. You can't, of course, and
trying to do so is exactly the sort of specious sophistry that makes me
want to dismiss everything you have to say.

The truth is, the things I teach in my grammar for teachers class are
much closer to what you call for than you seem to assume. But I don't
really feel inclined to justify myself. I'll talk about what I want to
talk about on this list. I refuse to accept that there is a single
question to which this list must be devoted, or that we must all join in
lock-step in adhering to a single grammatical analysis so as not to
confuse the uninitiated. To me, the multi-leveled discussion here, and
the multiple audiences, is a strength of the list, not a weakness.

You've given abundant evidence that you don't really care how list
members react to your posts, but I can only wonder how you hope to
convince people to adopt KISS, or any program at all, when your ethos is
so disastrously counter-productive as to turn a once receptive reader
like me into someone who no longer finds it worthwhile to read what you
have to say.

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