I'm not sure reading the theory post qualifies as longer, I didn't even know there were any boards or forums at the time, didn't even know about the CMB till I'd been posting on the WoT area for quite some time, just kept stumbling on it occasionally and thought there we trolls writing about non-WoT stuff in violation of the board rules, I think I even ranted at someone for 'bringing politics into a site devoted to a fans of a fantasy series'



Meh, RT seems to think all liberals hang out at DailyKos and confuses comments with articles. I pretty much live and breath news myself, I always have an audiobook or radio on NPR or conservative talk pretty much all day long, unless I have company, on the phone, or am watching TV (also usually news), I just like having background noise, talking not music, even to sleep to. I like repetition too, hearing the same audiobook over again or different pundits reciting the same garbage works well. Even with that I still check google news aggregate constantly and get emailed news from a bunch of different places.



Well, I can't say I know any places that don't flavor, I actually like the flavoring, I like the familiarity of style. HotAir is pretty good if you're trying to get a right-slant, the two primary contributers tend to favor my own sort of highly-partisan but minus the BS and situational ethics approach, ditto Krauthammer or George Will. Radio wise, Jerry Doyle is nice, he's an independent conservative and I enjoy him from his Babylon 5 days, Dennis Miller is great if you want a humorous and intellectual summation from the socially-liberal-right minus the insults and barbs, and NRO and WSJ while obviously slanted tend to be lower on the rhetoric. Left-wise? Salon used to be okay, can't say I ever really got to know most of the authors by name and it went a bit down hill during the blind devotion phase, now that that's mostly over it will probably improve. Outside of politics news is fairly unslanted and you tend to get more or less the same accounts from HuffPo and NRO. Science wise, I don't like the New Scientist, they high on sensationalism and low on accuracy, sort of like SciAm but minus the fact checking. Really PopSci and Sciam are best there. General news, CNN or Fox are best, site wise. But really google news aggregate does a pretty good job, and you can tailor it to filter in news on certain subjects like local or astronomy and get rid of sports or entertainment, in accordance with one's general preference.



Oh yes, and screaming and insults. The total lack of any expectation of people to cite facts. Partially that's formatting I suppose, until the site supports linking so that you can just imbed them mid comment it's tends to break the flavor of whatever you're writing. The vicitm thing drives me nuts too. I keep wanting to shake Aisha every time he posts something and DS get's on her case and people rag on him "You're just as bad as he is, you're just nice when you're not discussing you're pet issues". And it's hardly just her, at least with Shrike and Canolli there's no attempt at courtesy, somehow they don't bug me. But most of them are pretty good, I've found the ones on the RPG board tend to be more courteous when posting to the CMB, just the setup of our games frowns on being out right rude to others and it seems to carry over to this side too. Anonymity is the double-edged sword of the net. Fear of reprisal is a crappy basis for courtesy but God knows it keeps those who don't value it it others and strive for it themselves in line.



Flag burning is a weird case for me, I'm against a ban of course, but I do believe that in theory there can be just laws to prevent such things. I can't think of any practical case where this would be necessary, I don't like the flag being burned, and scorn keeps most from doing it, ban it, and they'll burn it in droves for that reason. Never pass laws if you don't have to that actually encourage the crime.

However, it makes for an nice mental exercise, I always like out of the box solutions to stalemates. If one wishes to punish flag burners, one need only ask the manufacturers of flags to say, lease not sell, 100 year leases with free proper disposal at request, with a hundred dollar fee or something for 'willful destruction', which they could effectively selectively enforce. "Well, we assume it was a legit accident or wear and tear normally but we've got this video of you torching it". I tend to prefer solutions like that over laws. Ideally though, you just make sure people doing it are viewed as petty and immature, not rebels or protesters. This is good too, means to be taken seriously people have to put on the suit and tie and discuss civilly, keeps the angry fringe in check and the youth vote from blindly jamming up behind one doctrine because it's the new cool fad.



Credit where credit is due.



Yes, I suppose it is.



Admittedly a backup firearm tending to be a holdout, basically only accurate if you're having a shoot-out in a crowded elevator, isn't exactly an ideal weapon but I couldn't see why having a second gun would be any different form having a knife. Frankly, the nice thing about guns is that they are LOUD, it's hard to use one without advertising it, even a 'silenced' weapon is pretty loud, and I think one could easily pass a law banning concealed silenced firearms without raising much hue and cry.



It usually is to me, it prevents most of the 'principled protest' stuff like the invariable wave of flag burning we'd have if we banned that. It always comes down to not giving people extra reason to have something. Whenever possible shame and conformity and/or inconvenience are preferable to law, people obey better that way. It's like drugs, there's no need to ban them or legalize them then tax them till they can't be used, the market will do it. "Only GM randomly screens it's employees monthly to ensure your vehicle is total safe" Cut to soccer mom driving kids "Making sure every part of every vehicle we produce is of top quality" cut to sober and hard working factory working carefully scrutinizing precision pieces "Here at GM we believe in safety, for our workers, and for those you most care about" Show kid getting out of car with dog "That's the GM guarantee"... within weeks or months even fast food joints would be screening workers to 'ensure you're food is safe'. No fuss, no muss, cheap and reliable drug testing kits become a gold mine for investment.



Well, I really wish we had less centrists in government, oh, I don't mean I want thing's radicalized but I would like to see more Ron Pauls, Kucinches, and maybe even Traficants in congress. I've long felt that a percentage of reps should be voted on federally, vote for X party and they get so many seats in accordance, say a hundred seats in the house (we definitely don't need a third body), most would be rep or dem initially but then you'd start seeing growth of smaller parties, guaranteed. Out of hundred seats, you'd get a couple libertarians, a communist, maybe even a Neo-Nazi. It would have power because as is our body is regional, not ideological, and that by it's nature encourages centrism because ideology is fairly evenly distributed geographically, there are dems in texas and GOP in massachusetts, and most places are a pretty even match up. We want that centrist tendency, but it squashes third parties and it causes everyone to be middle of the road come the general election.



Well, that's why a lot of places do an election and a runoff, kills the need for party primaries. If we did that here, then your argument is moot, but we don't so it makes sense while at the same time I still can't say I approve.




No, that he isn't. My guess though is he'll be the guy for the next 7 years though, I'm hoping with a more split or GOP controlled congress, Clinton did most of his best work with a GOP congress, LBJ and Reagan both did better that way. NO party should ever be in a position to pass things without a single vote from the other side, it's not good.



Weird thing I never got was why Obama didn't stick to his guns on single-payer, he could have had it if he just said 'it makes sense, it makes so much sense we should do schools the same way', because the GOP wants that for education, and would have at least warmed enough to discuss it, then you have 'education and healthcare, both pretty important, why is one better as single payer than the other?' He'd have had defections from the GOP if he'd promised vouchers to include private schools, preferably in the same bill, and the split-the-bill-into-segments argument would have been damaged.

Ah well, I really have no idea who the f actually advises Reid, Pelosi, or Obama these days, I think maybe we snuck in a few conservative amongst their aides.






A good example, but not really data. I think I may have seen the program at some point too.



Glad to hear that, I only did chat a few times right near the end.



Yes, obviously one can't go around saying 'This country is protest dry, the only designated place to hold rallies is at...'



Kind of a double-whammy, that's what I meant