Burke had a number of points already against him and his derailing of that thread added just a couple to put him over the top and have to sit out in the "sin bin" (in hockeyspeak) for a while. The mod who issued the warning didn't realize that he was on the cusp of a ban.
I've talked it over with the other mods... I'm going to see if I can remove the warning and lift the ban (a two-step process). However, Burke really is living on the edge with his warnings currently.