"Mark Houlsby" wrote in message
ups.com...

The Historian wrote:

Ange1o DePa1ma wrote:
"Taylor Kingston" wrote in message
ups.com...


On Dec 23, 4:33 pm, "Mark Houlsby"
wrote:
Vince Hart wrote:
If Tom Klem were still around, you would get a vigorous defense of
the
theists' position, the logic of which is well demonstrated in this
debate concerning the relative merits of Islam and Christianity:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCxsn8DYMBA

Mildly funny. I haven't seen that much circular reasoning since the
1975 movie "Rollerball."

Sadly, Tom is no longer with us. I know I am not alone in
considering
his loss a significant blow to the group.

Agreed. Klem was staunch in his beliefs, but not overbearing. He was
quite willing to listen to others' views and accept disagreement
without taking offense. A gentlemanliness often in short supply here.

That's not the Tom I remember.

Nor I. Nor the one that emerges from postings in the newsgroup
archives.

We had a horrendous disagreement back when
Bill Goichberg was the only thing discussed in this group.

Mention of St. Bill's conflict(s) of interest remind me of the good old
days of rgcp.

But hey. De
mortibus nil nisi bonum.

Mr. Klem was a deeply troubled, poisonous man. I hope he has found
peace at last.

Very interesting, Neil. Evidently I didn't know him so well. I played
him a number of times on ICC, and we had some conversations here, but
never did he strike me as "deeply troubled," or "poisonous".

Perhaps Angelo and you knew him better, or you're more perceptive than
I am, or both.


A couple of years ago Tom was among a group of vociferously anti-Goichberg
posters. I was among Bill's defenders. At the time I didn't realize it's a
mistake to defend anyone in this newsgroup. The person you're defending
almost never acknowledges your efforts, and mostly all you're doing is
adding fuel to the fire.

One of the more idiotic arguments at the time, believe it or not, was how
well I knew Bill Goichberg. Whenever I defended Bill I was accused, by a
several posters who had never met me, and didn't know a thing about me, of
being in cahoots with him.

Since high school I have seen Goichberg exactly twice: Once at Foxwods in
the late 1990s, and two years ago at the USATE (where, by the way, he
thanked me for defending him in this newsgroup!). I spoke to Bill on the
phone one other time, I think, during my brief and utterly uneventful tenure
on the USCF membership committee, and he has emailed me a couple of times. I
stated this several times but the "kill Bill" crowd would have none of it.
At one point I made an offhand, obviously facetious remark to Tom about
murdering him and he threatened to sue me for something. That was the
beginning of my first hiatus from this newsgroup. By the time I'd returned
Tom was posting as a "woman."

My impression of Klem, overall, was close to Neil's characterization, but I
must say towards the end we were cordial.

BTW, my only contact with Tom was in this newsgroup.