RHOADES LESS TRAVELED:

Well, it’s nostalgia time, soon to be supplanted by goal-setting and crystal-balling for 2008.

Today, you’ll see above the fold on this page the Daily Pilot’s portrait of the year: a beauty, really, and, in the days after, the news photo of the year, the newsmaker of the year and the top 10 stories of the year.

You’ll read about the movers and shakers and celebrities of Newport-Mesa culture.

You’ll even read about the tales we told, such as the guy who O.J.’d the sea lion, of dubious distinction.

What you won’t get, except in this space, is that which didn’t make the headlines in ’07 because it wasn’t newsworthy.

More to the point, it was despicable, delirious and downright deleterious to the ideal of constructive debate.

But, to those of us in positions to see beneath the proverbial rock, it did prompt pronounced bewilderment.

I’m writing, of course, about web postings, and more specifically, about the wackos, for they have their stories, too.

Here’s one that made the e-mail rounds and never, thankfully, got the publication OK, much to the chagrin of the Phi Beta Kappa member who got firewalled:

“[Expletive] you Daily Pilot. My comment was a legitimate rebuttal to “Local Resident’s” meandering diatribe of self-righteousness. I seriously doubt he or she is a paragon of virtue to begin with. Are you [expletive], stinking communists or something? You are pathetic. I thought only the [ethnic slur] censored content on the Internet. Why don’t you post my comment you [double expletive]? I hope you all die in a fire P.S. Hi Mom!”

I took out the actual expletives.

And I won’t give you any more examples. Enough is enough, right?

But bear in mind that we get these types of rants on a daily and sometimes hourly basis.

So why print one in a column?

It’s a valid question, one I wrestled with before writing this. At the end of the day, I thought readers should know two things: 1) We do screen postings, and deny more than you might know; 2) Beyond doubt, these people are among us, separated by mere walls, windows and blinds. My best guess is that their comments are, for the most part, indicative of their feelings and thoughts.

So while they are not fit for publication, except in an occasional, watered-down way, they are real, which means they manifest in one way or another in our community and, like it or not, we’re forced to deal with that.

Also, in an off-the-track kind of way, they affirm, three days after the big holiday, the need for the Christmas spirit of love and tolerance by demonstrating its opposite.

And while I’m at it, I’d like to thank the thousands of readers who care enough about the Newport-Mesa community to weigh in on issues of importance on our website and Forum pages, and do so in a spirited but civil manner.

It should be noted that they outnumber the Neanderthals by a good number. My hat’s off to them.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get back to my tattered copy of Marx’s “Communist Manifesto” ...

BRADY RHOADES is the Daily Pilot’s managing editor. He may be reached at brady.rhoades@latimes.com or at (714) 966-4607.