I don’t like your icon – it has silly green tendrils, which make me think of broad beans, which I don’t like.

Also, I have sent a copy of your message to the abusive behaviour complains at your ISP, TPG Australia, at http://www.tpg.com.au. Let’s hope your Mum doesn’t find out! You’d be *so* grounded!

Hey. All respect, but I don’t agree. I don’t think it’s wrong to post a picture of anyone, no matter who they are. I don’t think it’s an insult. I don’t think it’s wrong, nor do I think that my comments are silly or stupid, etc etc. You don’t seem to have really read what I wrote: I didn’t say the Guru was vengeful or vain. I said that since he *isn’t* those things, I don’t think he would be angry with me.

You ask what I would think about people saying things about my religions. As I stated right above your comment, I may not like some things that other people write or say – but that does not give me the right to shut them up! Other people should be free to do and say what they wish. I am not in charge of what other people are allowed to do or say. And, importantly, neither are you.

In that spirit, I am happy to approve your comment on my blog, and let you say what you think. Similarly, if you were writing on your own website, I believe very strongly that you should be free to express your opinions, regardless of whether I agree with them or not. I would be outraged if you wrote something on your blog which you believed in very strongly, such as your religion, but then someone else objected to it and made you somehow take it down. That would be wrong. I don’t believe that anyone should have the power to tell you what you are (and are not) allowed to say.

So I don’t understand why you think you should have that power over me. Worse, you have not even attempted to tell me why you think what I did was wrong. Instead you have only been insulting and disrespectful to me.

I don’t think the comments I made are stupid. To me, they represent something very important, about how people should behave to be respectful and tolerant of each other, in order to build the only chance we have of a peaceful world. In a way, these opinions are part of my religion. You are free to disagree with them, but your feelings and beliefs are not more important than mine. Why do you think you have the right to tell me what to do?

New BSD *or* any OSI-approved open source license of your choice. Liberal enough for ya?

I only overlooked it because when I started out, I didn’t anticipate that the resulting code might be useful to release publicly. Thanks for the prod.

Thanks for putting the time and energy into articulating these details freely for others :D