How About This re: the Liver Flush Debate, et al

In the same way that spam messages are deleted and replaced with:

[Commercial message. Removed by Forum Moderator.]...

Why not give a handful of moderators, when not involved in a thread, the right to close a thread with the following "stamp" or something similar:

This thread has been closed by a Forum Moderator because either A) the discussion has gotten too personal B) the participants are rehashing the same material/spinning their wheels or C) the posters are dredging up material from other threads/rendering this one far off-topic. 

Ever see a boxing match where the boxers are exhausted, leaning on each other and hugging each other (and boring the hell out of everyone)? What does the ref do -- he separates them.

I'm sure those in the camp of Tony, Uny, Wombat, etc would be OK with this since it's unlikely Hv would ever get the last word. On the other hand Hv gets to claim they stopped the thread b/c he was winning. Noone's free speech gets curtailed b/c if there was a statement you really wanted to make or a substantive question you want answered, you could start a new thread with it. Posters would be less inclined to do that (without good cause) once the debate has deteriorated b/c they would appear petty in the eyes of forum readers.

In case you haven't noticed, usually the longer a debate goes on, especially if it abounds with personal comments, the more consequential it becomes (and I don't mean that in a good way) to the people involved. So that at the end many feel drained/slimed/disturbed... It would improve the quality and worth of the threads.