>>Can we stop with the drinking references? Mike's drinking or lack thereof is not an issue.
>>
>>John, I am fairly certain that Mike was drinking when he called me a racist. If you look at his history here, the only time he makes nasty and stupid comments like that has been when he is drunk. Notice that he did not deny the fact that he was drinking.
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>>Personally, I think that if people around here notice that Mike's posts indicate that he is drunk, they should call him on it instead of sitting back and enabling him.
>
>I'm beginning to agree with you on that one. It is clear when he is drinking. He doesn't see it of course, but it is pretty obvious to many. He brought his drinking into the UT conversations himself many times. He persists on returning to the bottle. That is his decision. IMHO he needs to check himself into a rehab center because nothing else has been working for him. It's his life though. It is not an excuse for his behavior but to engage a drunk in conversation is futile. He should be called on it everytime when he is sober again. Anything else is enabling. I have never mentioned this, but when he is drinking he sometimes sends me disgusting private messages which I ignore. He comes to his senses when he is sober again, but there is no excuse for that. No apologies will excuse it. That is the life of an alcoholic who keeps drinking. I lived with an alcoholic in the past and I won't enable or escuse that behavior. I've had enough of it. Anyone who has had to deal with alcoholism knows that it needs to be called out immediately everytime. I've refrained in the past, but not anymore. Ignoring it (especially since he posted publicly about it here) is not helping him or his family.
>
>Mike, I've copied you on this specifically so you know the ground rules have changed. When I know you are drinking and you post angry or rude or nonsensical comments or even worse - send me disgusting private messages via the UT, I'll notify everyone here that you are drunk. If you don't want that to happen, then stop messaging me when you are drunk. The only other option left to me is to use the TWIT filter and block your email address or to leave the UT to avoid it.

Please don't leave the UT because of me.

I apologize to you and everyone else for my drunken rudeness. It has never been worse than this week.