This is some real Mayberry shit over here, except Goober and Gomer are in charge and Earnest T. Bass is off leash and off his meds.

I've been doing this blogging thing for six years and I've never seen anything like it. The harassment of me and others at this site, threatening emails, invasion of my privacy, people showing up on my front porch, reporters and others trying to get me to "out" people -- it's a regular three-ring circus and you can't tell which clowns to trust.

So here's the thing. I'm not providing a playground for the local yahoos to abuse me or other participants at this site, nor am I providing a place for conspiracy knitting circles to play out their vendettas, nor am I providing an outlet for anonymous rumors and other crap that wouldn't pass muster for a tabloid gossip page.

But mainly I am not going to be set up as the point man to take fire for people with an ax to grind who won't sign their name.

We wanted to promote an open forum for mature discussions about issues of local concern. We wanted to promote a constructive dialogue on building a better community. We have some serious issues in local government. Frustrations run high, and we should be talking about polices, not personalities. But that hasn't happened, so the experiment in its current form is shelved for now.

I will continue to post about issues of interest to me and hopefully the community. If you find them interesting, fine. If not, that's fine, too. If anyone has anything they want to say, notices they want to post, complaints they want to air, or tips they want to share, they can send them to rneal@rviews.com for consideration.

Meanwhile, I will be thinking about more productive ways to contribute to a better Blount County, starting with trying to elect better local government.

And no, I don't know where the damn 25 cars are.