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Terms of Use

Comment Policy

“Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, when you do criticize him, you’re a mile away, and you have his shoes.”

Comment sections too often devolve into flame wars, personal attacks and anonymous voices attempting to shout over each other. I keep a tight reign on discussion.

I don’t want to censor. The ability to listen to opposing viewpoints and contrary ideas is essential to proper discourse. But if those viewpoints are not properly expressed in complete thoughts and attributed to someone who is at least partially stripped of anonymity, then the commenter loses the ability to filter his own thoughts.

A commenter that is freed of all societal rebuke is probably too free a commenter.

Consequently, I reserve the right to be both arbitrary and capricious in my editing and deleting of comments. Rarely will I do so simply because I disagree with you. Personal friends and regular commenters may be given more leeway. Or not. I will act as necessary to ensure that the Newburglar is mostly filled with civil, rational and somewhat intelligent discourse.

The Newsburglar is not a public space. I reserve the right to delete and edit comments that do not meet the guidelines set forth herein. By submitting a comment, you grant me a nonexclusive right to post it and at my sole discretion to edit it for spelling, grammar, relevancy and brevity.

By using this site you agree to be bound by these terms of use, as amended, as well as the terms and conditions of my privacy policy, which is incorporated by reference herein.

Comments are welcomed, within the following guidelines.

  • Civil: No obscenity. No personal attacks. No whining and crying just because someone disagrees with you.
  • Legal: No comments which are libelous, defamatory, abusive, harassing, threatening, profane, pornographic, offensive, false, misleading, or which otherwise violates or encourages others to violate these terms of use or any law, including intellectual property laws;
  • Topical: Usually, I will allow a comment thread to twist and wind its way to wherever it goes. Don’t be surprised however if a week or a month or a year later I go back and delete comments in order to provide structure between post and comments so that someone that reads it long after the thread has died is provided an interesting, relevant article. I may close particular comment threads or discontinue my general policy of allowing comments at any time.

If you feel that my editing changes the meaning of your comment, please send an email (address below) and it will be removed. I may or may not contact you if your comment is edited or not published. Please accept our apologies in advance.

The hammer of justice will be swift and mercilous. Those who violate these policies will be subjected to a wide variety of penalties, including but not limited to a good taunting.

You’re my guest. Act like it.

You’re an adult. Act like it.

You’re intelligent. Act like it.

Privacy Policy

Newsburglar does not rent, loan or sell your email address to third parties, and we never email you on their behalf. Occasionally, we may email you about a new feature or update on Newsburglar.

Intellectual Property

All material by the Newsburglar is copyrighted property of Newsburglar Media. Feel free to share, distribute or transmit any of my work under the following guidelines and conditions:

Under no circumstances are you allowed to republish an entire article on your website. Excerpts are permitted, provided that such excerpt does not exceed a reasonable length. I am not going to specify a maximum excerpt, but in most cases such excerpt should not exceed a paragraph or two.

You must attribute the content that you’ve used by including a link back to the content.

If you want to syndicate or distribute the full article on your website, please email me for permission. Permission will generally be denied.

I may occasionally post text, graphics, photos, audio, or video which I neither own nor have a license to use if I believe in good faith that the use of such material constitutes fair use as defined by Section 107 of Title 17 of the United States Code, as amended.

If you hold the copyright to any such work and believe that my use fails to qualify for protection under Section 107, you may request that I remove it from our site by e-mailing me.

I do not own your comments and I expressly disclaim any and all liability that may result from them. By commenting on this site, you agree that you retain all ownership rights in what you post here and that you will relieve me from any and all liability that may result from those postings. You further agree to grant me a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sub-licenseable and transferable license to store, use, transmit, display, publish, reproduce, or otherwise distribute your comments without limitation, as well as to make such additional uses of them as may be needed by me.