After re-reading yesterday’s thread about Kris Tapley‘s capsule reaction to Up In The Air, Actionman noted that “it’s a pity what HE has recently become…so many angry, bitter people with apparently zero sense of pure LOVE for film. Everyone ragging on everyone else, making cracks at how an actor or actress dresses or looks, how shitty a film is, etc. It’s all so tired, boring, easy and cliched.”

All the snark has been bothering me more than Actionman or anyone else may realize, and I think it’s time to finally grim up and get tough (i.e., something President Obama seems unable to do) and really do something about it. By this I mean it’s regrettably become necessary to unsheath that terrible swift sword and get rid of certain people. And they know who they are. I got rid of a bunch of conservative righties in August ’08 and now it’s time to get rid of the snarkheads.

As I said earlier this morning, I’d rather have no one posting on this site than read smug cheapshots that add nothing and only take the conversation down into the swamp. Put a modicum of intelligent thought into a post or don’t post at all. And if you insist on being flip and cutting and callow in a post, at least try and address the substance of what’s being said, for God’s sake.

Except it’s gone beyond that point, I believe. No more urging certain posters to clean up their act. They’ve had their chance and they don’t listen. If this means fewer people will comment on stories henceforth, fine!

Let me just repeat my words from my August ’08 posting (with a couple of re-wordings to address the present situation) and trust that a majority of readers will understand.

Interesting, thoughtful, well-phrased opinions of any kind are eternally welcome here. But the uglies, mark my words, are getting the boot. They can call this the Night of the Long Knives if they want, but the house is being tented and the bugs will be killed.

I believe in beauty, redemption, catharsis and the daily cleansing of the soul. I live for the highs of the mind — for the next nervy retort, impertinent crack, witty turn of phrase, turnaround idea or wicked joke. And I know — we all know — that blunt-gruff reactions and persistent lowball snark works against the flow of such things.

To the extent that I am responsible for creating this climate, I profusely apologize and abase myself before God and the readership in hopes of forgiveness. I am trying to turn the tide, change the atmosphere, and spray some air freshener around the room.