Whenever disputes of this nature arise there's a tendency among
non-participants to maintain silence, lest any criticisms levelled at one
protagonist be seized upon and used as ammunition by the other.

Such silence often leads to the belief by the avenging party that they speak
and act for the 'silent majority'.  Rarely is this the case.  With the
exception of a few self-appointed guardians who believe that their concepts
of what passes as good and bad behaviour should be the standard that
everybody abides by, the rest often couldn't give a stuff!

(How many people have we seen here and on Scuba-L who are vocal about
censoring the impolite or abusive, but who then pop up on, say, Techdiver,
and - in seeming attempts to ingratiate themselves with one or two of the
high profile posters - not only fail to register their seeming concerns
about behaviour but actually adopt the exact same characteristics in their
discussion style?)

Lee!  You appear to me to be going down a dangerous track with this current
crusade.  Doubtless you will win much off-line support for your stance but -
in the final analysis - what do you hope to achieve?
1.  Persuade Bob to modify his discussion style?  (Highly unlikely given the
inflammatory nature of some of your own posts and the fact that Bob - by
virtue of his posting history - has already been cast as the villain!)
2. Have Bob banned from this list?  (To save time in the future, you might
as well lump me into any such ban!)
3. Have the list moderated?  (You might as well press for its closure!)
4. What?

If none of the above applies then, it seems to me, that the best that you
can both do is either choose to ignore completely one anothers posts; or
else accept that you will, from time to time, continue to squabble.  If the
latter then do, at least, ensure that both of you are arguing your own
positions rather than using the posts of others as the catalyst!!!!

But please, both of you, don't adopt the roles of either a messiah or a
martyr.  Both cause a lot of collateral bloodshed and are equally
un-entertaining!  :-)

Strike