"frankly, went out of his way to push a few buttons. And when I called him on it, I got tossed." 

So you knew that the guy holding a gun was goading you and you went at him anyway. Rule Number One - don't bring a knife to a gunfight. You seem to feel that the short term satisfaction of telling this guy off outweighs the long term benefits of not being banned. If that's the case then all is good I suppose, though it sounds a teensy bit like sour grapes. The internet tends to bring out the pugnacious side of people, I know it does in me, but you have to pick your fights. 90% of the time, it's just ego and BS. It's great that we can communicate instantly with the world, but the lack of the instinctive constraints on behavior that come with face to face communication (including ultimately, the threat of a punch in the snoot) make this a pretty uncivil environment far too often. 

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken