I've been asked to be a mediator, by Jack Lynch (seconded by 
Danny) re: RK.

Brother Edmund; please understand I am writing as a 
"brother" = "colleague"/whatever mediation committee member.

If you (personally) have been asked to be a mediator, that has yet to
have been confirmed by *both sides of the dispute*, If RK has indeed
asked you to mediate, I beg your forgiveness, but I hope you understand 
that explicit acquiescence at the very least, from both sides of the 
dispute, would be very nice.
This is going to be hard.

First, I might wind up recusing myself early on because my 
"interest" in Israel might make me biased. I invite those who 
know me well (and who have earned my trust) to contact me
privately /immediately upon/ seeing any signs of bias on my 
part that may tend to sabotage the mediation.

Second, there haven't been enough specifics presented. I hope 
people will either post diffs as links, on my user talk page so 
I can see EXAMPLES of what they're complaining about.

Indeed, may I again ask my brother/colleague to rein in his enthusiasm?
The institution of mediation should not bend over backwards to accommodate
complaints that are merely of a trolling nature. Maybe you may have a
prejudice that makes you take any complaint against RK seriously, but the
first order of business should be to determine whether the complaint has
any merit whatsoever. After we (the mediation committee) determine 
there is a reasonable case to be answered, we as a committee should 
confer, and decide who of us should take the case on (or alternately
of course Jimbo can make the determination and appointment).
Third, I am sometimes pretty contentious myself, so I might 
turn a blind eye to someone else's contentiousness and 
troublesomeness.

This might be easy.

First, I am aware of a lot of my limitiations, and publicly 
acknowledging them will help keep me honest.

Second, despite my weaknesses a lot of people trust me -- 
possibly /because/ I rather freely admit to these weaknesses, 
rather than trying to hide them.

At least one person on each side of the current conflict (the 
world vs. RK ;-) has written me some very nice personal e-mail. 
Without revealing confidences, I can say that the contents of 
these e-mails inspires me the hope that a quick and lasting 
resolution is within our grasp.

Ed Poor, aka Uncle Ed
A member of the official Mediation Committee

P.S. Gosh, I wear a lot of hats!
Jussi-Ville Heiskanen (aka Cimon Avaro)

P.S. If I am totally offbase here, I hope I can be as free in acknowledging
my error as Ed habitually is.