OK, I'll bite. Sides of this issue you might not be considering

I really didn't intend to attack Bruce in particular. I wanted to emphasise that while conditions like Asperger's may predispose people towards certain behaviour patterns that are contrary to how I'd like the community to behave, they're not the fundamental cause and they don't provide an absolute excuse for any offence caused as a result.

My concern is that, as a community, we're too focused on acceptance of anyone who fits our model of what a Linux developer should be and are entirely willing to accept multiple character flaws as long as they don't completely prevent someone from fitting into that model. If someone later points out that they're being discouraged from involvement because of that person's behaviour, we're inclined to argue that since the behaviour doesn't conflict with our model then it's acceptable for one reason or another - they've got Asperger's, they're from a different cultural background, they're just like that and don't mean any harm. And when people like Bruce (who is at some level still identifiable as a community leader) make that argument, it makes it sound like we all agree.

I don't think that's helpful. I think we need to accept that the cost of alienating potential contributors is likely to be greater than the cost of asking the more extreme characters we work with to tone down their behaviour. I'd be shocked if any of them are utterly unable to cope, but I'm also entirely prepared to believe that it may be a slow process involving a lot of explicit explanations. That's something I'm willing to bear if the perception is that people think this is a good thing. But it does mean that we need to stop making excuses for people, no matter how high-profile they are. Let them make their own excuses and then judge them appropriately.