Marc: this part
'As I grow older and more careful regarding how I choose to spend my limited time, increasingly, my choice with such individuals is to ignore them and to avoid situations where it is necessary to interact with them. For better or for worse, with an occasional exception (whether well- or ill-chosen) this means generally avoiding any interaction on Aikiweb but the most basic transfer of inarguably objective fact.
I'm hardly alone in this. Indeed, I know a number of very skilled and knowledgeable practitioners who simply don't post here at all because doing so exposes them to endless streams of mindless rejoinders from ill-informed, poorly trained, and notably unaccomplished practitioners who are suffering from meta-cognitive failure to such an extreme degree that the result calls to mind the old proverb about the inadvisability of wrestling pigs.'
...in particular, spoke to me.
I think I was banned for a few months, or something, for posting this clip in exasperation at what I perceived as repeated 'mindless rejoinders from ill-informed, poorly trained, and notably unaccomplished practitioner':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAOxY_nHdew
The ban was good, to be honest, as it allowed me to see from the outside, how much many aikidoka like to talk, and 'ponce about' - and how little they like to actually do something of worth.
Many of them hide from questions of the effectiveness of their practice, behind mealy-mouthed excuses, and quotes from O'sensei - a man who proved the effectiveness of his practice, time and time again - because, I suspect, they have egos (the very thing they claim, with a high brow, not to possess) that are too fragile to bear the stress of any sort of actual challenge, that would give them the chance to improve (I actually contemplated issuing a challenge to one board member, ha).
So I wouldn't take it personally: 'A guilty dog barks the loudest.', as they say.
Good luck.
