Full Version: What I've Learned And Other Musings
Please tell us some of the things you have learned or share your general musings over the past year here at 
I’ve noticed some changes.
When I first came on the board Republicans controlled both house of congress and Bush’s approval ratings were still high. At that point, I think Democrats were a bit more aggressive than Republicans. With Bush’s poll numbers long in the tank and Republican loss of both houses in November, I think that’s changed and it seems only natural that it would.
Labels, whether they are liberal or conservative, have taken on clouded meanings. People who register as private, none, or independent, soon show their true stripes. I have tried to maintain an open presence here. You know what I look like, that I like cats and where I live. BoF the poster isn’t any different than Don –sage of the coffee shop. I understand the need for internet security, but I wish more people would be more transparent.
I have been somewhat discouraged in recent months. We often see things through different lenses. We sometimes misquote or take things others have said or take them out of context. Those are honest mistakes and we need to give each other the benefit-of-the doubt at times. It’s called disagreement. Lately, however, some members have accused other members of lying. Civility, where art thou? I would like to see a specific rule that prohibits members from calling each other liars.
When I first came on the board Republicans controlled both house of congress and Bush’s approval ratings were still high. At that point, I think Democrats were a bit more aggressive than Republicans. With Bush’s poll numbers long in the tank and Republican loss of both houses in November, I think that’s changed and it seems only natural that it would.
Labels, whether they are liberal or conservative, have taken on clouded meanings. People who register as private, none, or independent, soon show their true stripes. I have tried to maintain an open presence here. You know what I look like, that I like cats and where I live. BoF the poster isn’t any different than Don –sage of the coffee shop. I understand the need for internet security, but I wish more people would be more transparent.
I have been somewhat discouraged in recent months. We often see things through different lenses. We sometimes misquote or take things others have said or take them out of context. Those are honest mistakes and we need to give each other the benefit-of-the doubt at times. It’s called disagreement. Lately, however, some members have accused other members of lying. Civility, where art thou? I would like to see a specific rule that prohibits members from calling each other liars.
I have learned and gathered more respect for those posters that stayed true to thier values despite the fact that thier party is in power and not lived up to those expectations.
I've learned that branching out beyound your "warm market" makes all the difference when forming political opinions. I no longer find much enjoyment in colluding with my fellow republicans at church or in my extended family. I agree with much of the content in their arguments but cannot countenance their conclusions or their narrow-mindedness.
Don't get me wrong, I love my subscription to the Weekly Standard and will seek out commradery from fellow like-minded conservatives wherever I can get it. Though I believe much of democratic policy these days (i.e, border reform, execution of the war, health care, and on and on) will render our nation weaker, I'll take a responsible debate from that side of the isle any day over just another tired, old regurgitation of my own party line in the company of unchallenged, "warm market" conservative buddies.
Don't get me wrong, I love my subscription to the Weekly Standard and will seek out commradery from fellow like-minded conservatives wherever I can get it. Though I believe much of democratic policy these days (i.e, border reform, execution of the war, health care, and on and on) will render our nation weaker, I'll take a responsible debate from that side of the isle any day over just another tired, old regurgitation of my own party line in the company of unchallenged, "warm market" conservative buddies.
When I started this posting to this site you'd probably never figure me for a liberal.
Even though I knew the issues of the day were the war in Iraq, abortion, drug policy and the like which were at the time some of my more conservative areas.
I've seen some leftward slide in the first two but the real change has come in the broadening of my debate horizons to areas where the old turnea (the one who thinks socialism gets a bad rap) comes more into his own.
I've developed a healthy respect for liberalism as a comprehensive ideology and the fact that we have few strong liberal policy makers has become ruefully apparent.
A leftist in waiting I have become
In any case on issues like foreign policy, health care and especially education a few years of debate has made the left look more and more comfortable.
Even though I knew the issues of the day were the war in Iraq, abortion, drug policy and the like which were at the time some of my more conservative areas.
I've seen some leftward slide in the first two but the real change has come in the broadening of my debate horizons to areas where the old turnea (the one who thinks socialism gets a bad rap) comes more into his own.
I've developed a healthy respect for liberalism as a comprehensive ideology and the fact that we have few strong liberal policy makers has become ruefully apparent.
A leftist in waiting I have become
In any case on issues like foreign policy, health care and especially education a few years of debate has made the left look more and more comfortable.
I've learned that I can't predict which topics will stir up the strongest emotions.
I've learned that America's Debate is a very important part of my life. Not just my daily routine. America's Debate is a important part of my life.
I believe I have become a distraction on this board.
I don't believe in making "farewell" statements. As a rule, I don't respond to new members in the Introductions thread. The majority post a introduction and then they disappear. They never post again. Where do they go? Back to "visitor/lurker" mode or do they just like joining boards they never intend to participate in?
This is the best debate board on the World Wide Web. Yeah, I said it. It is often my first stop of the day when I sign on in the morning and my last stop of the night before I go to bed.
The best thing about America's Debate is the way it pulls so many different souls with so many interesting perspectives together in a place where they can share them with us all. Some times I smile and shake my head in agreement or grit my teeth and swear in disagreement at what the posters have written. Sometimes even in the exact same post.
America's Debate reminds me of this old bar I used to go to in my college days. After class a group of us (the bourgeois intellectuals) would converge at Larry's. It's the kind of place that is so plain and extraordinary in it's ordinariness that it probably never had a glory day. It's still there to this day. High Street across from the Ohio State campus has seen incredible growth and change since my days there. There is a new shopping area and chain stores where once there were a never-ending series of bars, nightclubs, "head" shops (for those of us old enough to remember that term) and a random clustering of eclectic stores selling items that would never sell to any clientèle with tastes more sophisticated and demanding than your typical college student.
Larry's is still there. I don't know who "Larry" is or if he's still among the living, but his bar is still there. Larry's was the kind of place that never had a jukebox, a stage, or any space set aside for dancing. It was always a place where kids and professors came to talk. There were plenty of other places to go if you wanted to move your feet. Larry's was where you went if you wanted to move your mind. A process enhanced by the many cheap pitchers of beer we pounded down.
I kind of miss those days. I don't have a lot of dear memories from my college days, but the conversations at Larry's are one of them. It's not within America's halls of power in
Congressional cloak rooms or corporate boardrooms where the solutions of the nation's problems are to be found. It's in the barbershops and bus stops and breakfast counters and bars like Larry's where the problems get broken down and the solutions are bandied about.
America's Debate is my Larry's now. I can even BYOB
and come in my bathrobe. Nobody cares if my hair isn't combed and my teeth haven't been brushed. It's come as you are, but have something to say and try to say in a civil way.
Jaime and Mike don't get enough credit for what they've done. AD is their baby and my, how it has grown in the five years I've been here.
There are three types of posters on America's Debate. The ones I read and agree with. The ones I read and disagree with and the ones I don't read so I don't know if I'd agree or disagree with them.
My motto is, "Like a few, despise a few, but respect them all." It's that last part that's been tricky and particularly so over the last few months.
I'm a journalist. Through trial and error I've become a pretty good one. I get paid by the word sometimes so every one of them has to be the right one. I've never had to print a retraction and I've never been threatened with a libel suit. I've written everything from record reviews to hard news stories to award-winning commentary.
But some of my best writing is right here on America's Debate. I've come back here to pull up my old posts and say, "I can use this in the story I'm writing today." Some people have to pull out their wallet to get the best that I've got. I give it away here for free.
Because AD is special. What I've learned from being here has made me a better writer, a better journalist and a better human being. I know it doesn't always seem that way, but
there is a certain cathartic release to entering into dialog with total strangers and making them next-door neighbors.
And like some neighbors, you like some better than others.
My point, (and yes, there is one) is because I like AD so much is why I have begun to believe I am doing it more harm than good.
Elsewhere on the board, my friend Wertz has started a thread about The Race Card and who has been playing it more between The Clinton and Obama campaigns. Wertz started the thread (something he rarely does these days) partially in response to the fierce throwdown he and I have engaged in recently in several threads over the two leading Democratic contenders for the presidency.
Today, I listened to and then read the complete text of Senator Obama's speech today about the role of race and religion on his campaign since the recent controversy over remarks made by his spiritual mentor, Pastor Jeremiah Wright.
As a unabashed and enthusiastic Obama supporter I found the speech to be very powerful. If you haven't heard it or read it, here is the transcript. It is my belief that if you read the speech before the pundits, politicians and talking heads--both pro and con regarding Obama---weigh in and parse the speech down to it's every period and comma, you will something in there for you. Regardless of your race, religion, political affiliation or country of birth.
You won't agree with all of it. But if you are an open-minded and critically-thinking person, you will find something in the speech you can agree with.
I'm not going to post in Wertz's thread. In fact, I'm not going to be posting in any of the threads on America's Debate for a while.
Mike once said (and I'm paraphrasing here), "Nobody HAS to post here." Absolutely right. Nobody has to post here at all.
Aevans176 once called me "the defender of all things Black." I took it as a back-handed compliment. I'm not the defender of all things Black because some of things some Black folks do is pretty indefensible. However, there often are things written on AD about Black people that need defending, clarifying, correcting and setting the record straight on. Taking on that task is one I've done happily. Nobody appointed me. I just saw the need and filled it.
With the possibility more real than at any time in American history of a African-American becoming President of the United States, I am filled with a sense of possibility and yes, a "hope" that something is happening in this country that no one has ever seen before. It is not a overstatement to say we are watching history in the making.
But I'm watching a lot of nastiness here on America's Debate. I've been involved in more than my fair share of rancor-filled debates. I've even begun a few of these "firestarters." However, in the case of Barack Obama's candidacy and my support of it, I've seen fractures in old friendships, strange relationships formed due to a shared enemy and a tone and tenor of debate that generates far more heat than light.
As one of the agent provocateurs at the heart of these firestarters, I've taken on all comers in a Ultimate Fighting Championship in cyberspace. I've landed some pretty good punches and taken a lot of lumps in the process. The shock is when I look to see who's delivered the probing jab, the lethal left hook or the roundhouse right and it's from a name I both like and respect.
If you're not part of the solution, maybe you are part of the problem. I think I'm part of the problem.
So, I'm taking a break from the board. I don't want to go out like Cube Jockey, who got so frustrated by the give-and-take of the political exchange with both allies and adversaries that he threw up his hands, scribbled off a farewell to the troops and took it on the heel and toe. I don't want my support of Barack Obama to be a source of controversy or even worse, a reason for potential supporters to be turned off on him. In my passion to defend Obama, I could be doing him far more bad than good.
I prefer creating light to generating heat. I want to bring people together in support of Barack Obama, not chase them away by being overbearingly obnoxious and beating them up with a racially divisive guilt trip.
"Every goodbye ain't gone," the saying goes and so it is in this case. Like the Governator once growled, "I'll be back." I look at someone like Aquilla who took a vacation from the board and returned as fired up as ever and ready to kick liberal butt and take names. That sounds like the right move to me.
I'll be back when the Democratic nomination is settled. Maybe when the battle between Senator Obama and Senator Clinton is over they can begin the hard work of pulling the Democrats back together in order to go on and lead a united party into what is sure to be a tough fight against Senator McCain and the Republicans.
It's a source of pride to me that in the five years I've been on America's Debate I've won some sort personal recognition or Best Topic award. I'm particularly glad that so many of the board's members have chosen my input for recognition. It's always an honor to be recognized by one's peers and I thank you for it.
There's only one award I haven't won that I've always wanted to. That's the Best Debater award (or the Wertz Award) as I've jokingly called it.
Wertz is the best debater on AD. No slight meant to anyone else, but when it comes to bringing clear, crisp, clean prose, exceptional research skills, biting and sardonic wit, and a reasoned argument, Wertz does it with more consistency, quality and clarity than anyone else. He is among the select group of posters a newbie should measure themselves against. A bad Wertz post is more interesting than a some other's best.
I came to this board from another one that called itself a "kindler and gentler" debate board. It was anything but. Without the strong Moderating team that is one AD's greatest strengths, the amount of name-calling, ethnic slurs, f-bomb filled profanities and other impediments to reasoned and civil debating eventually led to the decline and fall of that board. Today it's just one of a million "ghost sites" on the Internet. A sad reminder of what happens when the inmates run the asylum instead of the other way around.
I wanted to beat Wertz out for Best Debater award but I never have. The closest I came was a few years back when we tied and I lost by one vote.
I've come to accept that it's unlikely I ever will win the Best Debater award. It's not that the quality isn't there. It's the intangible little things that taken individually don't matter too much, but taken as a whole matter a great deal. But I am who I am and at this point in my life, I'm not likely to change.
I don't want to reach a point where Wertz, the man who helped me raise my game on America's Debate, go from someone I like to someone I don't. Particularly over our differing feelings about a specific politician. As it stands, I'm not changing my support of Barack Obama and he's not changing his distaste for him. We will have to agree to disagree and the best way to do that without being disagreeable is for me to take a break from the board.
Keep the beer cold.
To be continued...
I believe I have become a distraction on this board.
I don't believe in making "farewell" statements. As a rule, I don't respond to new members in the Introductions thread. The majority post a introduction and then they disappear. They never post again. Where do they go? Back to "visitor/lurker" mode or do they just like joining boards they never intend to participate in?
This is the best debate board on the World Wide Web. Yeah, I said it. It is often my first stop of the day when I sign on in the morning and my last stop of the night before I go to bed.
The best thing about America's Debate is the way it pulls so many different souls with so many interesting perspectives together in a place where they can share them with us all. Some times I smile and shake my head in agreement or grit my teeth and swear in disagreement at what the posters have written. Sometimes even in the exact same post.
America's Debate reminds me of this old bar I used to go to in my college days. After class a group of us (the bourgeois intellectuals) would converge at Larry's. It's the kind of place that is so plain and extraordinary in it's ordinariness that it probably never had a glory day. It's still there to this day. High Street across from the Ohio State campus has seen incredible growth and change since my days there. There is a new shopping area and chain stores where once there were a never-ending series of bars, nightclubs, "head" shops (for those of us old enough to remember that term) and a random clustering of eclectic stores selling items that would never sell to any clientèle with tastes more sophisticated and demanding than your typical college student.
Larry's is still there. I don't know who "Larry" is or if he's still among the living, but his bar is still there. Larry's was the kind of place that never had a jukebox, a stage, or any space set aside for dancing. It was always a place where kids and professors came to talk. There were plenty of other places to go if you wanted to move your feet. Larry's was where you went if you wanted to move your mind. A process enhanced by the many cheap pitchers of beer we pounded down.
I kind of miss those days. I don't have a lot of dear memories from my college days, but the conversations at Larry's are one of them. It's not within America's halls of power in
Congressional cloak rooms or corporate boardrooms where the solutions of the nation's problems are to be found. It's in the barbershops and bus stops and breakfast counters and bars like Larry's where the problems get broken down and the solutions are bandied about.
America's Debate is my Larry's now. I can even BYOB
and come in my bathrobe. Nobody cares if my hair isn't combed and my teeth haven't been brushed. It's come as you are, but have something to say and try to say in a civil way.Jaime and Mike don't get enough credit for what they've done. AD is their baby and my, how it has grown in the five years I've been here.
There are three types of posters on America's Debate. The ones I read and agree with. The ones I read and disagree with and the ones I don't read so I don't know if I'd agree or disagree with them.
My motto is, "Like a few, despise a few, but respect them all." It's that last part that's been tricky and particularly so over the last few months.
I'm a journalist. Through trial and error I've become a pretty good one. I get paid by the word sometimes so every one of them has to be the right one. I've never had to print a retraction and I've never been threatened with a libel suit. I've written everything from record reviews to hard news stories to award-winning commentary.
But some of my best writing is right here on America's Debate. I've come back here to pull up my old posts and say, "I can use this in the story I'm writing today." Some people have to pull out their wallet to get the best that I've got. I give it away here for free.
Because AD is special. What I've learned from being here has made me a better writer, a better journalist and a better human being. I know it doesn't always seem that way, but
there is a certain cathartic release to entering into dialog with total strangers and making them next-door neighbors.
And like some neighbors, you like some better than others.
My point, (and yes, there is one) is because I like AD so much is why I have begun to believe I am doing it more harm than good.
Elsewhere on the board, my friend Wertz has started a thread about The Race Card and who has been playing it more between The Clinton and Obama campaigns. Wertz started the thread (something he rarely does these days) partially in response to the fierce throwdown he and I have engaged in recently in several threads over the two leading Democratic contenders for the presidency.
Today, I listened to and then read the complete text of Senator Obama's speech today about the role of race and religion on his campaign since the recent controversy over remarks made by his spiritual mentor, Pastor Jeremiah Wright.
As a unabashed and enthusiastic Obama supporter I found the speech to be very powerful. If you haven't heard it or read it, here is the transcript. It is my belief that if you read the speech before the pundits, politicians and talking heads--both pro and con regarding Obama---weigh in and parse the speech down to it's every period and comma, you will something in there for you. Regardless of your race, religion, political affiliation or country of birth.
You won't agree with all of it. But if you are an open-minded and critically-thinking person, you will find something in the speech you can agree with.
I'm not going to post in Wertz's thread. In fact, I'm not going to be posting in any of the threads on America's Debate for a while.
Mike once said (and I'm paraphrasing here), "Nobody HAS to post here." Absolutely right. Nobody has to post here at all.
Aevans176 once called me "the defender of all things Black." I took it as a back-handed compliment. I'm not the defender of all things Black because some of things some Black folks do is pretty indefensible. However, there often are things written on AD about Black people that need defending, clarifying, correcting and setting the record straight on. Taking on that task is one I've done happily. Nobody appointed me. I just saw the need and filled it.
With the possibility more real than at any time in American history of a African-American becoming President of the United States, I am filled with a sense of possibility and yes, a "hope" that something is happening in this country that no one has ever seen before. It is not a overstatement to say we are watching history in the making.
But I'm watching a lot of nastiness here on America's Debate. I've been involved in more than my fair share of rancor-filled debates. I've even begun a few of these "firestarters." However, in the case of Barack Obama's candidacy and my support of it, I've seen fractures in old friendships, strange relationships formed due to a shared enemy and a tone and tenor of debate that generates far more heat than light.
As one of the agent provocateurs at the heart of these firestarters, I've taken on all comers in a Ultimate Fighting Championship in cyberspace. I've landed some pretty good punches and taken a lot of lumps in the process. The shock is when I look to see who's delivered the probing jab, the lethal left hook or the roundhouse right and it's from a name I both like and respect.
If you're not part of the solution, maybe you are part of the problem. I think I'm part of the problem.
So, I'm taking a break from the board. I don't want to go out like Cube Jockey, who got so frustrated by the give-and-take of the political exchange with both allies and adversaries that he threw up his hands, scribbled off a farewell to the troops and took it on the heel and toe. I don't want my support of Barack Obama to be a source of controversy or even worse, a reason for potential supporters to be turned off on him. In my passion to defend Obama, I could be doing him far more bad than good.
I prefer creating light to generating heat. I want to bring people together in support of Barack Obama, not chase them away by being overbearingly obnoxious and beating them up with a racially divisive guilt trip.
"Every goodbye ain't gone," the saying goes and so it is in this case. Like the Governator once growled, "I'll be back." I look at someone like Aquilla who took a vacation from the board and returned as fired up as ever and ready to kick liberal butt and take names. That sounds like the right move to me.
I'll be back when the Democratic nomination is settled. Maybe when the battle between Senator Obama and Senator Clinton is over they can begin the hard work of pulling the Democrats back together in order to go on and lead a united party into what is sure to be a tough fight against Senator McCain and the Republicans.
It's a source of pride to me that in the five years I've been on America's Debate I've won some sort personal recognition or Best Topic award. I'm particularly glad that so many of the board's members have chosen my input for recognition. It's always an honor to be recognized by one's peers and I thank you for it.
There's only one award I haven't won that I've always wanted to. That's the Best Debater award (or the Wertz Award) as I've jokingly called it.
Wertz is the best debater on AD. No slight meant to anyone else, but when it comes to bringing clear, crisp, clean prose, exceptional research skills, biting and sardonic wit, and a reasoned argument, Wertz does it with more consistency, quality and clarity than anyone else. He is among the select group of posters a newbie should measure themselves against. A bad Wertz post is more interesting than a some other's best.
I came to this board from another one that called itself a "kindler and gentler" debate board. It was anything but. Without the strong Moderating team that is one AD's greatest strengths, the amount of name-calling, ethnic slurs, f-bomb filled profanities and other impediments to reasoned and civil debating eventually led to the decline and fall of that board. Today it's just one of a million "ghost sites" on the Internet. A sad reminder of what happens when the inmates run the asylum instead of the other way around.
I wanted to beat Wertz out for Best Debater award but I never have. The closest I came was a few years back when we tied and I lost by one vote.
I've come to accept that it's unlikely I ever will win the Best Debater award. It's not that the quality isn't there. It's the intangible little things that taken individually don't matter too much, but taken as a whole matter a great deal. But I am who I am and at this point in my life, I'm not likely to change.
I don't want to reach a point where Wertz, the man who helped me raise my game on America's Debate, go from someone I like to someone I don't. Particularly over our differing feelings about a specific politician. As it stands, I'm not changing my support of Barack Obama and he's not changing his distaste for him. We will have to agree to disagree and the best way to do that without being disagreeable is for me to take a break from the board.
Keep the beer cold.
To be continued...
QUOTE(nighttimer @ Mar 18 2008, 11:28 AM) 
But some of my best writing is right here on America's Debate. I've come back here to pull up my old posts and say, "I can use this in the story I'm writing today." Some people have to pull out their wallet to get the best that I've got. I give it away here for free.
I'm not sure if you really want a response, but I just wanted to say that I concur that you are a talented writer. I often read your posts because I know they will be top notch and well thought out.
QUOTE
As a unabashed and enthusiastic Obama supporter I found the speech to be very powerful. If you haven't heard it or read it. It is my belief that if you read the speech before the pundits, politicians and talking heads--both pro and con regarding Obama---weigh in and parse the speech down to it's every period and comma, you will something in there for you. Regardless of your race, religion, political affiliation or country of birth.
I heard part of the speech and what I did hear resonated with me.
QUOTE
I'm not going to post in Wertz's thread. In fact, I'm not going to be posting in any of the threads on America's Debate for a while.
I must admit, I find you and Wertz fascinating to read, and when the two of you embrace in an argument it's always stimulating and controversial, which makes for great writing. The funny thing is, I usually don't agree with either of you, but I always walk away thinking about it. That is a compliment to you and Wertz.
QUOTE
I prefer creating light to generating heat. I want to bring people together in support of Barack Obama, not chase them away by being overbearingly obnoxious and beating them up with a racially divisive guilt trip.
Well, I can speak for myself. I have read a lot of your writings here, over the last few years. So I know you really believe in what you are saying, so for that reason, I don't find you obnoxious. I respect the fact that you are willing to speak your mind and argue a position. Isn't that what
is all about. If we all agreed, it would be rather boring.
I've perceived a reflexive tendancy or certain sensitivity that compels knee jerk reactions which then become locked. Usually involving race.
The "how dare you" card has been pulled with increasing frequency and it absolutely befuddles me when someone makes a mountain out of a molehill. If people could remain calm I think the atmosphere could improve. Passion is great but after reviewing the rules more than I care to admit, passion and the rules just aren't going to get along any time soon. I cannot think of any site where it is as regulated as it is here. This isn't a complaint just an observation. Think of it as requirement to get into the exclusive VIP lounge where restraint is used to temper decidedly hot button issues.
So I'll throw in my two cents, and remind people by reminding myself what 'debate' is.
Debate is a method of making sense of the unsensible. It is the live-action form of anthropology where the study of human interaction and their environment is a necessary part of understanding what comes next. Self analysis is a distinctly human trait. Such existentialism may seem esoteric to the layperson, but I firmly believe humans evolved brains so that we could extrapolate and see into the horizon. Seeing what comes next is a survival mechanism. Imagination acts as a bridge when we only have a few pieces to the puzzle. That is politics, the art of restricting information, controlling it and then taking advantage of our imaginations by filling in the pieces for us. This is a place where we attempt to deconstruct, to analyse, and form opinions for ourselves.
Unfortunately deconstructing the evidence in a dispassionate manner is easier said than done. Sometimes it can be very hard. This is the part where emotional inclinations are dead weight. Emotional investments rarely pay off. Emotional people or people given to large displays of empathy do run a risk here. If you can stay in the game you might just eliminate the middleman by understanding the issue, and reach conclusions the punditry may not want you to reach. These are the guys who have something to gain by telling you half the story. Pay attention dear reader or life may take you unawares.
While I can't say I'm completely innocent of knee jerk comments I can say with honesty I've stayed out of the dog house on AD. The trick is to stay calm and um have a bottle of vodka on hand for the rough patches.
The "how dare you" card has been pulled with increasing frequency and it absolutely befuddles me when someone makes a mountain out of a molehill. If people could remain calm I think the atmosphere could improve. Passion is great but after reviewing the rules more than I care to admit, passion and the rules just aren't going to get along any time soon. I cannot think of any site where it is as regulated as it is here. This isn't a complaint just an observation. Think of it as requirement to get into the exclusive VIP lounge where restraint is used to temper decidedly hot button issues.
So I'll throw in my two cents, and remind people by reminding myself what 'debate' is.
Debate is a method of making sense of the unsensible. It is the live-action form of anthropology where the study of human interaction and their environment is a necessary part of understanding what comes next. Self analysis is a distinctly human trait. Such existentialism may seem esoteric to the layperson, but I firmly believe humans evolved brains so that we could extrapolate and see into the horizon. Seeing what comes next is a survival mechanism. Imagination acts as a bridge when we only have a few pieces to the puzzle. That is politics, the art of restricting information, controlling it and then taking advantage of our imaginations by filling in the pieces for us. This is a place where we attempt to deconstruct, to analyse, and form opinions for ourselves.
Unfortunately deconstructing the evidence in a dispassionate manner is easier said than done. Sometimes it can be very hard. This is the part where emotional inclinations are dead weight. Emotional investments rarely pay off. Emotional people or people given to large displays of empathy do run a risk here. If you can stay in the game you might just eliminate the middleman by understanding the issue, and reach conclusions the punditry may not want you to reach. These are the guys who have something to gain by telling you half the story. Pay attention dear reader or life may take you unawares.
While I can't say I'm completely innocent of knee jerk comments I can say with honesty I've stayed out of the dog house on AD. The trick is to stay calm and um have a bottle of vodka on hand for the rough patches.
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