Hello all. I've been lurking here for a little while and downloaded the podcasts of the radio shows so I decided to join. What I really like about AD is that there are quite a lot of informed debaters that present information I probably wouldn't find just by reading the papers and my regular news sites.

So, anyway, I should probably introduce myself. I'm a seventeen-year-old high school senior from New York City. Politically, I'm extremely liberal on social issues and economically centrist to conservative. I try to keep up with most issues, but I gravitate toward certain specific issues (education, obviously, and the war). Oh yes, and I'll be able to vote this year, look forward to that.

Some non-political stuff: One of my favorite hobbies is music -- record collecting and playing keyboard (albeit poorly, but I started playing only recently). I've collected a ton of progressive, experimental, and art-rock, interspersed with jazz, classical, and folk. I'm an avid reader. A few other interests: philosophy, psychology, history, and computers.

I look forward to debating with everyone here.

Welcome!

It sounds like your political philosophy will fit in well with many of the Libertarians here.

I am super-liberal on social issues and centrist to liberal on economic issues.

Nice taste in music! I tend towards "classic rock," alternative, and classical.

What kind of stuff do you most like to read? I'm the resident science fiction buff.

Thanks. I find libertarian views to be a little too economically conservative for my tastes, but I wouldn't say I'm very far away from them on the political scale.

My taste in music is usually a bit too esoteric for most people, especially the really "out there" stuff, such as Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Edgard Varese, Mr. Bungle, John Zorn, etc. I usually get complaints from anyone I play music in the vicinity of.

As for books, I don't follow one genre. I like to keep a good variety. One of my favorite authors writes SF, though, Orson Scott Card. A few of my favorites (novels) include Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett, 1984 - George Orwell, Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card, A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole, A Man in Full - Tom Wolfe, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams. I've also read some philosophy -- mostly Bertrand Russell (I must have read at least 1,000 pages of him by now) and John Dewey, and recently, Wittgenstein.

Welcome to , Neb. Just a resident cranky debator and cat lover sayin' hello. Hope your stay is long and all your posts agree with me!

Welcome to ! It's great to have another liberal aboard. You seem very eloquent in your introduction and I look forward to seeing you debate. Enjoy!