This is worth being a sticky

[clawnz]

All those who keep birds do need to read this. I have posted you the whole artical.
But you may not think it practical to post like so.
In saying that more will read it if you have the whole item as a sticky, not just a paragraph. Then a link.

Quote:
Thinking on the Wing
by Steve Hartman / The Parrot University

At the first hint of danger a bird normally takes to flight. During the hundreds of defensive short flights, flighted birds take each day, they are quickly assessing potential dangers and deciding if they need to keep flying to avoid a real danger. These short flights require immediate and appropriate decision making abilities. We call this process 'Thinking on the Wing'.
The Parrot University has spent 20 years researching what makes a parrot “a parrot”. Our 20 year flighted parrot experience includes over 800 flock oriented pet parrots, and over 4,000 flighted baby parrots from more than 50 species. Cumulatively this amounts to over 7,000 bird years of hands on experience. As a result we have found the number one characteristic that defines a “parrot” is its ability to fly. Flight is fundamental to every component of a parrot's mind and body.
Learning to fly well is the most complicated and important task a parrot can learn. Flighted parrots are healthier, more active, more coordinated, and have much better vision. Flying promotes higher intelligence, self-confidence, self-esteem and ultimately makes a more social long-term companion.
[SIZE=+2]Can a parrot, designed by nature for millions of years, be truly mentally and physically healthy without flight?[/SIZE]
Serious preparation for flight for the average parrot begins at about three or four weeks old.
Neuropathway development in the coordination centre (cerebellum) of the very young parrot is the first step in preparation for flight. This process begins the first time the baby starts to move around in the nest and is substantially complete by six months. Every new type of physical activity programs more neuropathways in the cerebellum.
The cerebellum, which is at the bottom of the back of the brain, stores the program for coordination and ultimately supplies motor skills for flight. Neuropathways are the brain's electrical connections that allow information to be transferred throughout the body.
Since more experiences and activities lead to better motor coordination by creating more neuropathways, it makes sense that learning to fly adds an incredible number of neuropathways in the cerebellum.
Babies learn best when multiple senses are stimulated simultaneously (i.e.; sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell). The best opportunity for a parrot to learn is when a combination of senses are experienced at the same time. The senses of sight, sound and touch take on a very different nature during flight. When a particular skill is being developed or experienced by different senses at the same time a different neuropathway is reinforced for each sense creating a much stronger neurocircuitry for that skill or knowledge being learned. Flying offers a greater variety of situations that parrots need to utilize for optimal mental and eventual social development.
The parrot brain develops on a pre-determined schedule that has been 'finely-tuned' by evolution for millions of years. Each one of the senses, as well as mental and physical skills develop over a period of time, but not at the same time. Some of the development phases are symbiotic, meaning they need information being developed in another area of the brain for their own optimal development. For example, vision develops best when the baby can move around and see things from different angles and distances. Conversely, coordination develops best when the visual cortex can provide information on distance and perspective. Without this symbiotic relationship of vision and coordination, it is difficult to develop three-dimensional vision.
Two of many important brain functions required for flight are coordination and vision.
Coordination and vision develop in different parts of the brain, but are essential for the other's optimal development and critical for flight skills.
Coordination develops in the cerebellum at the back of the brain as the baby moves around and repeatedly tries new and progressively more complicated activities. The parrot's visual cortex, which is quite different from ours, connects with virtually every part of the avian brain. A baby's vision, at hatching, is a jumble of blurred shades, shapes and movements. The baby has the basic program to recognize these light rays entering his eyes, but needs to learn how to interpret the basic images so they can be directed to the appropriate part of the brain for interpretation.
Motor skills and vision are in some ways so integral to each other that it is difficult to separate the two. As a baby flies towards a tree, he will begin to associate the visual changes with the closing of the distance between him and the object. As his motor skills develop, he will begin to anticipate an impending crash and learn how to slow down. The faster he flies, the faster the visual ability needs to be and the faster the brain learns to process the information, and the faster he will be able to fly. Teaching the brain to process information faster and on higher levels, promotes faster decision-making and fewer mistakes in all areas of mental, physical and social competence. This combination of skills is significantly more important in parrots since they are a prey species and constantly need to be ready to 'think on the wing'.
Compensating Networks
Now that we understand how important symbiotic neuropathway develop is, we can look at how other areas of development and personality are affected when normal brain development is interrupted.
When the brain is not able to process information fast enough it creates 'compensating, networks'. Compensating networks develop to make quick decisions when education and experience are not sufficient to quickly produce an educated decision.
Basically, when a situation calls for a quick decision, there are usually several variables that need to be considered. Highly functioning individuals quickly analyze every variable and make an educated decision. Lower functioning individuals often use compensating networks to jump to conclusions when they cannot think fast enough. This often occurs for two reasons: the bird wants to bypass a frustration situation, or for defence reasons does not have the time to work on the problem.
'Applied Learning' is the ability to utilize accumulated knowledge to figure out new situations. This ability only occurs after the birds' brain meets a minimum threshold of learning. Low functioning individuals that are unable to 'think on the wing' often use compensating networks. One of the most common is the 'bite first ask later' 'compensating manoeuvre'.
." Quote.

I have consent from Steve Hartman The Parrot University to use his material and enclose a copy of the email back from him, and how he thinks you could post.

Email.

Hello Clive, O apologize for not getting back to you sooner. The best option is to copy the first paragraph of each article and post it on the forum along with the title. At the end of the paragraph you can put a link to the article on my site. We have a new article that just went up a couple weeks ago you might be interested in. “Imping; Replacing Mowglie's Clipped Flight Feathers” Best regards, Steve -------Original Message------- From: Clive Date: 09/11/10 16:07:39 To: [email protected] Subject: Re posting your material Hi! I have to say I am very impressed with your site and find details very accurate, to the point I would like to ask if I can re post your site on two forums I am on? Especially the artical on Why flight is so important to a birds health. And how clipping can impact on the birds health This may just stop a lot of those who Do Not Know, so clip as a matter of convenience Not understanding why a bird should be able to fly.x I would ask mods on site to make this a Sticky, so everyone can referance it Regards Clive Willgoss

 

[clawnz]

Article continued.


[SIZE=+2]Six main areas where flight is important to a parrot[/SIZE]
Sight
The pea sized visual cortex in a human is very tiny compared to the size of our brain. Our visual cortex is comparable to a warehouse that collects visual inputs, sorts them, and then distributes them to be processed in appropriate parts of the brain. A parrot's visual cortex is huge as compared with the birds' brain, and works more like a drop shipping distribution centre than a warehouse. Multiple major visual neuro connections throughout the parrots brain continually sorts and redirects information without the delay of sitting around in a warehouse. This significant dedication of brain power to vision is necessary because as a prey animal, on many predators lunch menus, parrots need to respond to visual stimulus much quicker than humans.
Information received through the eyes travels over many different neuro-highways to many different parts of the brain simultaneously. The more these pathways are used and reinforced through experience the quicker the overall response to visual stimulus will be.
Proper response to visual stimulus should take as little as a few thousands of a second, but the process is delayed when 'compensatory networks' intervene and may take several seconds to sort out, or process.
Parrots with poor visual skills take longer to assess visual stimulus which may cause the bird to need to react aggressively until the information is processed. For instance, a new person entering the room or someone reaching out to touch may provoke 'a bite first ask later' response while the circumstances are being processed.
Flying birds quickly learn to process visual inputs faster as they develop and reinforce new and improved pathways for routing visual stimulus at high speeds in a three dimensional manner. This educational process cannot take place without flight.
Defense
A parrot's primary means of defense is flight. Any time a parrot even suspects danger he takes to flight while sorting out the facts (Thinking on the wing). Parrots fly away so freely and readily that they rarely feel scared in the wild.
Feeling threatened or concerned, and being scared are two distinctly different emotions. As humans we can feel threatened by standing in the middle of a highway; however we need not be scared since we can easily walk to the side of the road to avoid danger. This is how parrots experience threats. They can easily fly away and rarely ever feel scared. Because they can be someone's lunch at any time, they become VERY scared when they cannot immediately avoid threatening situations. Flightless parrots quickly loose the ability to choose between flight or fight (flight or bite in a parrot's world). When a parrot cannot remove himself from a threatening situation, he will default to the second line of defense; BITE. Parrots with no ability to escape danger, or even perceived danger, become paranoid and tend to develop the “bite first, ask later” method of defense. Their defence response system operates so fast, they respond automatically when scared and often unexpectedly bite their owner by accident. Ultimately, most of these adult birds become unpredictable and lead very restricted lives.
Flight is necessary for the 'Retreat and re-approach' behaviour that is very important for baby birds. When concerned, and unable to retreat from a possible threat, babies become scared and unable to learn during those episodes.
Safety
No parrot ever jumped out of the nest in the wild and knew how to fly. Babies fly into the side of trees, miss their landing sites and end up in a bush or worse. At The Parrot University we have watched thousands of babies use these same experiences to learn how to fly well. By experiencing these near tragedies as developing babies, they have honed all of their senses and will automatically avoid those situations in the future. A juvenile that learns the limits of his physical body, and how to stay out of trouble, will be more confident and easily learn to fit into a domestic human- bird flock as an adult.
“Flightless parrots are safe parrots” is the advice often given by less experienced bird behaviourists. Our 20 plus years of experience working with over 4,500 flighted parrots at The Parrot University have proven that hazards are significantly greater for flightless birds because they are less able to avoid dangerous situations. Not only can they not get out of harms way when necessary, they rarely know where danger lies because they have very limited life experience.
Some common arguments in favor of clipping wings include:

The bird may fly onto the stove or into a boiling pot of water.
Birds learn more quickly than us where danger is. In just a few minutes a parrot that has always been flighted can easily be taught that a stove is dangerous. If he finds himself accidentally headed in that direction he can easily hover like a helicopter and fly in another direction. Clipped birds that become airborne have very little control over which pot they land in.


When a bird flies onto another bird's cage, in a multiple-bird household, he will get into a fight.
Birds in a natural situation rarely get into fights. At the first thought of danger, one of the birds backs down and flies away. A clipped bird that accidentally ends up on another bird's cage will often get hurt because neither bird has the option to back down. It is very easy to teach parrots in a multi-parrot household to get along and respect each other's space, if they can fly.
Flighted birds can get to the floor and get stepped on or eaten by the dog.
When a flighted bird accidentally finds himself on the floor, he can easily fly to a safe position. You must watch clipped birds very closely because they can only walk when they want to go somewhere and often fall off the perch. It is common for dogs, cats and human feet to injure birds that cannot fly.
Clipping wings will make a parrot easier to handle.
This reason has some truth to it. If a bird was not raised properly when young, and becomes an unruly adult, rendering him flightless will limit his 'retreat and approach' options. This eliminates the ability to get away and can result in dependency on the owner.
Flightless parrots are constantly exposed to situations where they feel afraid and out of control. With no control over their life parrots often develop paranoid schizophrenic behaviours. These individuals lack the ability to trust others. This syndrome is a significant factor in the development of the 'one person bird'.
Birds are unable to learn not to fly into windows and walls.
All young birds and children walk/fly into walls and windows, but not forever. Flighted baby parrots learn very quickly. In the middle of Hartman Aviaries indoor nursery hangs a large window for the babies to practice flying through. It takes a maximum of 72 hours for a baby parrot learning to fly during their 'sensitive period' of flight development to realize they can see through glass but cannot fly through glass. This 'sensitive period' occurs when the average parrot is 8 – 10 weeks old.
Most parrots that are rendered flightless as a juvenile end up regrowing enough feathers to gain lift. These uneducated birds repeatedly fly into windows and consistently crash land because clipped birds are unable to develop flight motor coordination during the sensitive period of the cerebellum development. These disabled parrots are generally unable to 'think on the wing', and perpetuate the myth that parrots are too stupid to learn to fly in a home. This lack of coordination causes a kneejerk reaction by many humans to clip even more of the wing and worsen the problem.
Exercise

A parrot in flight for just a few minutes receives more exercise than an active flightless parrot receives all day. A healthy wild parrot does not pant after flying a long distance yet very few pet parrots can fly across the room or aggressively flap their wings without an extended period of panting.
We all know the mental and physical benefits of exercise on all aspects of life. If a parrot is healthy it can concentrate and focus its attention, learn faster, and is more easily trained and will probably live longer. Young parrots must gain the maximum advantage from exercise to assemble billions of neuropathway synapses and achieve its potential IQ to become a high-functioning adult while its body and brain are still developing.

 

[Von1983]

Cal is unclipped and that is through observation, choice and setup. I agree with some points in the article, others not. Each bird is individual and it's a bit "blanket" to suggest a parrot will not fly into an unscreened window or mirror and break it's neck for example. We all know this has happened too many times before. My friend in Ireland had it happen just last week in fact to her baby cockatiel...very sad.

Having a flighted bird cannot apply to everyone though and I think it's unfair for you to suggest "all people who keep birds need to read this".

I think if you listened to reasons other than the frankly, glossed over headers in the article from some real people you'd understand better.

If a bird is loved, healthy, safe and above all, delighted with life then that's all that matters.

It's possible to convey your opinion and be respectful too.

I hope some of the members with clipped birds can educate you so you know both sides of this great debate which isn't reeeaaallly a debate at all. It's just individual parronts trying to do the best they can for their fids. Who can disapprove of that?

 

[clawnz]

Yes I still think everybody needs to read this. That's if they care about the birds they keep.
And I fail to see where I have been disrespectful?

Do you disagree that a birds metabolism is compromised by taking it's flight away?

Birds die from all manner of things! I know this as we handle close to 4,000 birds a year.
Yes I also know of birds that have died from flying into things. In the wild they even fly into tree trunks. It is not a perfect world. They need to be given the chance to learn, which is most cases they will. Unless clipped at a very early age. Like a child who stands up and runs. Would you stop that child from running because it fell over and cut it's head open?

Henry has hurt his wing twice falling off the Gym and getting tangled in the lower limbs, should I take the gym away?
I hope you can see my point here.

What you are saying, you are willing to take a birds flight to stop this?
It is fact that most Keel bone damage is done to clipped birds, that crash land. Or cannot fly well.

I want my Teils to live a long and full life.
They cope with life in a Flight with over 60 panes of glass. They were not young coming here, so had to learn to think on the wing.
Yes they have made mistakes. But they do fly in and out of the conservatory and around the three adjoining rooms. They even crash into each other sometimes.

I am looking forward to being educated as to how clipping can be healthy for a bird? There is no scientific evidence that clipping can improve the health of a bird.
Giving a bird flight exercise will does more for that bird in 10mins than you'll ever do any other way.

 

[Von1983]

My bird isn't clipped as I said. That's a personal decision based on opinion, experience and circumstance.

What I'm saying is, you can't just come on to a parrot forum with lots of wonderful parronts who only want the best for their birds and tell them they are wrong for clipping them.

You can come on and say, "Hey, what do you think about this?" But to come on and say essentially and absolutely clipping is wrong without finding out the reasons why some people HAVE to clip is a little disrespectful. I'm sorry, you can't budge me on that.

 

[wicked demon]

Interseting article, good read.
I have dogs, we cook on the stove all the time, my kid stands in the door way with it wide open (we are working on that), and my bird came clipped. I have not clipped him, and have noticed a learing curve, but he is getting MUCH better, and he know danger pretty well, so I will not clip him.
I agree a bird that cannot fly will get little/no exercize, shortening their life, and making the quality of their life substancially worse.
I also give my dogs people food (not a lot, just a treat here and there), I look at it like this, would you want to be a bird that cannot fly? or a dog that gets only crappy brown kibble EVERY day? HECK NO!!!! Why keep them at all if we are going to degrade their life to the point of simply existing for our amusment? I make their life as good as I can while keeping their best intrest at heart.

 

[Dj tweet]

Your article has definatly given me things to think about but I agree with the other member also a your way or the highway approach is not correct
as the saying goes different strokes for different folks we each have our own reasons to clip or not

 

[clawnz]

The idea of a forum should be to help those we play God to, and help give their pets the very best they can.
Not gloss over things that could be done to improve their life.
How many times have you heard "It does not do any damage to a bird, clipping it?" This is totally wrong and article's like this help inform those who do not know. Why it is wrong. And the damage they do.
You will never change the mind of those who will always know better and do what ever they like. I feel for those poor birds.
I came on here to help the caged birds in this world. After all they cannot speak for their selves.
I firmly believe if we keep pets, we should go out of our way to make their life as good as we can. They are not a convenience.

Where do I state "essentially and absolutely clipping is wrong???
It may well be! But I did not say that. Read into this what you like.
I am stating that they need to read article's like the above before they clip. It may stop you from hurting your bird. And that is why it needs to be a sticky.

I am on another forum where we have 56% of those there, do not clip their birds.
And you can go read all those who state. "Their birds are doing so much better now they are flighted."

My bird isn't clipped as I said. That's a personal decision based on opinion, experience and circumstance.

What I'm saying is, you can't just come on to a parrot forum with lots of wonderful parronts who only want the best for their birds and tell them they are wrong for clipping them.

You can come on and say, "Hey, what do you think about this?" But to come on and say essentially and absolutely clipping is wrong without finding out the reasons why some people HAVE to clip is a little disrespectful. I'm sorry, you can't budge me on that.

 

[Bobby34231]

I too believe that you come off very condescending, maybe the other forum your on appreciates being told their wrong because they don't believe as you do, on this forum its quite evident that they don't.

 

[Auggie's Dad]

Different strokes for different folks is surely true. It is also true that one can often be expected to be treated as they treat others.

There may be some good nuggets in this article, but I always like to check out a source - and I must reiterate what I often point out: Just because someone CLAIMS to know what they're talking about doesn't make it so.

I read this on the parrot university site:
"Today with gene mapping it is known that personality is at least 50% dictated by genetics and most scientist believe they will find the number is closer to 60%."

I nearly peed myself laughing at the stupidity of that completely made up assertion. In fact that's the polite way of saying that it's a lie and the author is full of crap. Oops ... I guess that was the less polite way of saying it.

)

 

[Auggie's Dad]

I checked this thread out as it asks to be a 'sticky' ... and I'm left tempted to say precisely where one should stick it.

 

[apatrimo94]

Oh boy, here we go again........

For the past few weeks, I finally had my birds have their flight feathers grow back for the first time in a long time. Wasn't exactly a good idea. As bird safe as my house is, I don't want to risk having them flighted.

S'mores used to fly when I first got her but I started toclip. She flies way too high and hits the ceiling. last week, I almost lost her when she flew out of my sight and then suddenly disappeared before I could turn around to look for her. I got into panic mode, but her calls led me to her. she got stuck on my mounted deer head (It's not real, it's a cartoon stuffed head)

Bartleby on the other hand, never flew before so when I let her took her first flight, she did beautifully for a beginner but she has problems landing. she just cannot make a perfect landing without tumbling or falling down. Plus she almost hit the wall a few times.

So now it's back to clipping. All I'm going to say is, do what you feel like you should do. For the safety of your bird. I don't care if you're birds are clipped or not. But don't go to people who do things differently from you and say they're wrong and your way is the right way. That greatly annoys me. I'm going to stick to clipping.

Here's what I'll do, I'm going to start a fund. Each time someone (not just on this forum, anywhere) says that birds have to be clipped/not clipped, and their way is the only way, I'm putting a dollar into the fund. In a few years, I'll probably have a $1 million.

Also, for those who want to clip but are worried about your birds not getting good exercise; here's a simple activity. Hold your bird on your finger. Very gently, but firmly, with your thumb, hold both of the bird's feet down (For bigger birds, one is fine). Then gently wave your arm up and down fast enough to get your birds to flap their wings without taking flight. There you go: simple, fast, and easy.

 

[nofearengineer]

Clawnz, this is the kind of self-righteous crusade that always ends up alienating the crusader from others.

I think I have said before, where does it end? With us all setting our parrots free in some non-existent safe forest somewhere? Because that is what some non-parrot owners would like to see.

I understand, and maybe surprisingly, agree with some of the pro-flying argument. But I can say for certain, that while my African Grey was quite capable of flying, he simply chose not to. Maybe that is not the right kind of behavior to allow; i.e, it is like letting your human child get fat, lazy, and weak. But I will tell you that my Grey was the happiest bird on the planet.

And parrots definitely have a longer lifespan in captivity, compared to wild birds. They simply trade death by predator for fatty livers and PTFE dangers.

Yes, we are all sort of "playing God". But in the grand scheme of things, I don't think we are hurting these sweet creatures.

P.S. They really seem to enjoy us too, when treated well (even un-flighted birds).

 

[apatrimo94]

Truthfully, I am APPALLED.

Not by the OP, but by the replies. Especially by the moderator(s) who replied with such immaturity. I would certainly expect more from mature members, especially from a Moderator! As Moderator, one would think that you'd comment on the ARTICLE (moderate to get the thread back ON TOPIC!), not make an immature reply such as you did!

Not to get on your bad side Ripley, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with what AD said. To be honest, I would've peed from laughing as well because that fact is a load of bull. And this thread is useful, but it's not something that will be reliable to some parrot owners.

And everybody has the right to speak how they want and say what they want. At least no one is being disrepectful and profane, or disobeying the rules.

 

[apatrimo94]

Really? So nothing is wrong with a Moderator posting immature posts that continue to derail a thread that's already ventured into off-topic-land? Wouldn't you think that as a Mod, AD should have made a CONSTRUCTIVE post?

And, I disagree, there's a LOT of disrespectful posts in this thread, directed towards the OP, including AD's.

AD was just expressing his thoughts on the subject. Maybe it was a little immature but I agree with him 100%.

And to be honest, clawnz did state that everybody "NEEDS" to read his article.

 

[nofearengineer]

Yes I still think everybody needs to read this. That's if they care about the birds they keep.

As I said, I agreed with a lot of the article. I just thought for him to use the guilt trip of "if you don't read this, you don't care about your bird" was not wise.

 

[Bobby34231]

The idea of a forum should be to help those we play God to, and help give their pets the very best they can.
Not gloss over things that could be done to improve their life.
How many times have you heard "It does not do any damage to a bird, clipping it?" This is totally wrong and article's like this help inform those who do not know. Why it is wrong. And the damage they do.
You will never change the mind of those who will always know better and do what ever they like. I feel for those poor birds.
I came on here to help the caged birds in this world. After all they cannot speak for their selves.
I firmly believe if we keep pets, we should go out of our way to make their life as good as we can. They are not a convenience.

Where do I state "essentially and absolutely clipping is wrong???
It may well be! But I did not say that. Read into this what you like.
I am stating that they need to read article's like the above before they clip. It may stop you from hurting your bird. And that is why it needs to be a sticky.

I am on another forum where we have 56% of those there, do not clip their birds.
And you can go read all those who state. "Their birds are doing so much better now they are flighted."

I myself didn't weigh in till after post #8, I don't know about you, but I don't feel I play God to any of my pets, nor do I feel that because I choose to clip my birds wings that I don't love or care for them, he may not have said in his original post that clipping was wrong, but in continuing to insist that your read the article and in following posts he does state its not only wrong, but damaging, and to bring up the fact that because a number of people on another forum agree with you, you must therfore be right and everyone else is wrong, I'm sorry to me that is the definition of being condescending, you have your opinion, I have mine, agree or disagree thats what forums are all about, and to say that all replies should be deleted defeats the whole purpose of an open forum as well as taking away everyones right to free speach, not trying to assume anything but the OP is in New Zealand, and unless he's Maori I'm pretty sure english is what he speaks, I'm not here to start world war III, I'm just voicing my opinion as you have yours, this topic has been and probably always will be controversial, it all boils down to one of personal choice, good, bad or indifferent thats where we'll have to leave it lie ....the opinions expressed are my own and in no way reflect those of the forum or its sponsors.

 

[Auggie's Dad]

Really? So nothing is wrong with a Moderator posting immature posts that continue to derail a thread that's already ventured into off-topic-land? Wouldn't you think that as a Mod, AD should have made a CONSTRUCTIVE post?

And, I disagree, there's a LOT of disrespectful posts in this thread, directed towards the OP, including AD's.

This thread has been off topic from the beginning, there really is no topic to stay on. If there was you have done a far worse job of staying on it.

We occasionally get people coming on these forums posting absolutely foolish things but doing so in a manner that suggests they know what they are talking about. I see it as an important task to illuminate the qualifications, or lack thereof, of anyone giving such strict prescriptive information.

Further, as I said in my first post here, one can expect to get treated based on how they treat others. Certainly I could have just deleted the OP and/or the whole thread, but I prefer to err on the liberal side and let people say their piece - but if one says something stupid they should be prepared to be called out on it. No one wants bad advice to stick around unchecked.

I never did attack anyone - I presented facts that are relevant to assessing the original authors qualifications. I think the facts presented call his 'expertise' into question (huge understatement there). But of course YOU ripley have now attacked me calling me several names.

Perhaps you are right and I have allowed too much leeway - perhaps I should boot you off the forum. Or perhaps I'll stick with my general plan of allowing people to express themselves in their own way.

I was initially under the impression that this was the OPs own work he was re-posting here, but apparently that may be wrong. If it is not the OPs original work there really should only be a link or a statement of permission granted by the original author.