Only 24 more hours left! If I was eligible, I would set aside about 30-45mins and write an awesome post about the temperature of todays politics and how it's been affected by the war on terror... just sayin! ...
One more day, one post is all it takes, and the $50 prize can be yours!
“You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is accusing the U.S. of arrogance, Germany doesn't want to go to war, and the three most powerful men in America are named "Bush", "Dick", and "Colin." Need I say more?” - Chris Rock
If I were so inclined, I would address the complete and total lack of civility exhibited by some members of our community, we all know the politics in this country suck, we all know that the war on terrorism is being used as a wedge by both sides of the aisle, there is little to nothing that we can do about that.
On the other hand, we as a cyber community, might be able to come together and do something about the the valuable bandwidth being used for personal attacks, vendettas, sniping, bickering, and back biting.
It wouldn't take much. We all know who the actors are. If we all made a effort to ignore the trolls in question, if we refused to take the bait, if we didn't respond to their meaningless, mind numbing, useless threads, they would eventually get the message and move along.
I understand that we will have disagreements from time to time, that's natural and to be expected. You can't talk politics and/or religion without disagreements, that would be rather boring. But the personal attacks and vitriol are growing to be a distraction I think we could all do without.
The majority of the members here are adults, and most of us behave as such. It's a shame that the rest of us don't follow suit.
"I am allergic to piety, it makes me break out in rash judgements." - Penn Jillette
"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with a lot of pleasure." - Clarence Darrow
"The man who invented the telescope found out more about heaven than the closed eyes of prayer ever discovered." - Robert G. Ingersoll
So... You're saying I didn't win with this post then?
I think hjmick is referring to those flaming. Now on the other hand, my view is that our political discussions could use less, "liberals=communists" and "conservatives want war" and more conversation. Then again, since Washington has lost it, even in the Senate, why wouldn't that be reflective of those of us hiding behind a computer.
We're all the worse for it though. Singularly and collectively.
Many other forums I read use the rule: "discuss the topic, not the member". You get one warning from a moderator, then you're game.
Same goes, to a lesser degree, for off topics and hijacking threads, since anyone can open a new thread if you don't want to stick to the topic at hand, then you're kindly asked to open a new one.
I find really amusing when someone insults me like "are you some sort of black/muslim/gay/communist/weirdo?"
"yes, all of them. Does it lower the value of me as a person, or the value of my opinions? Wanna discuss the topic, now?"
See, it's easy as this, if you don't want insults you simply don't throw them for starters, kids will go away looking for fun somewhere else.
And if someone really insults you bad, just tell the moderators
We are unable to provide a full explanation of the total collapse - NIST
I got to the PEOC and the vice president was already there - US Minister of Transportation Norman Mineta
I wanna nominate this post as least likely to win the bux and most likely to be misunderstood and draw fire.
I'm Phil -- 40 something heterosexual white male, fairly self sufficient, great with my kids, wed 29 years to the same woman, and I firmly believe that ones actions have logical consequences. How much more out the box can you get nowadays? -- MSgt of Marines (ret)
I should have won just out of principal
If you attack the Clintons publically make sure all your friends know your not planning on commiting suicide ~ McCain 2008
Happiness is Obama's picture on the back of a milk carton.