Going behind the scenes...

[Sam Spade]

I've been extremely busy this week, and as usual when I get particularly busy, it gives me time to think about the way I spend my time (or maybe more appropriately waste my time).  I have done some of that this week.

To start off, I am generally dissatisfied with this site.  I think it has become overrun by political hacks (about 80/20 leftist idiots), trolls and posters with the intelligence of a 5-year old.  Many of the posters I respect post much less than they used to or don't post at all. (and yes there are some posters here I still respect a lot).  When more than two-thirds of the recent threads in the US General Discussion board are posters giving opinions about elected politicians or jfern posting links to Daily Kos, I instinctively know that the level of discussion has fallen beneath juvenile.

To this end, I am cutting down my participation in this forum to rare (like the steak).  I am not leaving, but I will making considerably less appearances around here.  I admit that I will probably become more interested in this site as election time moves closer.  Also, my participation level may move up if conversation improves and posting quality is better.  Or maybe if I have more time.

That is all, really.

[Sam Spade]

What a pompous lad! 

Coming from you, that's quite a compliment.

I assume you're still mooching off your parents, while living in Thailand and banging Thai men who dress up as women, right?

Hope you enjoy your existence and may many STDs hit you as you move into your senior years.

[Sam Spade]

I'm sorry to see you cut back, but a number of liberal posters are thoughtful.

This is of course true.  I can think of a number off the top of my head: Lewis Trondheim and Beet have always been two of favorite posters at this forum.  And a number of conservative posters clearly aren't thoughtful. 

I think the substance of my post may have been misconstrued; the overrunning of this forum by political hacks has occurred by many "recent" posters who tend to be liberal. 

One could handle jfern, BRTD and opebo when they were the exceptions; but when people actually start agreeing with them and parroting their viewpoints, then we're down a road I would prefer not to go.  For those who can't understand, it would be like DWTL cloned himself about 20 times and put the clones on this forum.

[Sam Spade]

What a pompous lad! 

Coming from you, that's quite a compliment.

I assume you're still mooching off your parents, while living in Thailand and banging Thai men who dress up as women, right?

Hope you enjoy your existence and may many STDs hit you as you move into your senior years.

Such hostility!  Anyway you're out of date.. I've been working for a year 'teaching' in a Thai school upcountry.  As for mooching, if memory serves you're a rich boy even more than I, Spadesy. 

Just because I come from some wealth does not mean that I'm wasting away my life.  I intend to become self-sufficient as a lawyer, marry, have kids, etc.

All the same, I'm glad to see your parents finally cut you off.  It's about time.

[Sam Spade]

Like Sam Spade, I will be leaving the forum only I will be leaving permanently. I have become very disappointed that it has gone downhill with the decrease in quality posters (on both sides) and the increase in hacks (on both sides though mostly from the right). Also, the "apology" I got from dwtl for calling me an eco-terrorist was not sincere, since shortly afterward I noticed yet another attack. It was subtle, but an attack nevertheless, which I tried reporting several times but nothing was done about it. That was the last straw.

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=54426.msg1142310#msg1142310

I am also quite disappointed that we cannot delete our accounts. This is the only forum I know of in which this is the case.

Sorry, you're leaving too, texasindy.  Even though I suspect we disagree on many things, you have always been very courteous to me and on the forum generally. 

I also suspect you might not see what I see happening in terms of the hackery in the forum (perhaps because I remember what the forum was 1-2 years ago), but that's ok.  We're each sensitive to our own versions of what's going on and sometimes we both reach the correct conclusion which is true in this case.

Finally, let me say that I agree 100% with you:  DWTL is quite an idiot, one of the worst on this forum.

[Sam Spade]

Ah, yet another flounce.   You'll be back like an Austrian bodybuilder with political ambitions.

Have a nice vacation.  See you soon.

Didn't see I was leaving.  Just cutting back, that's all.    See you around.

[Sam Spade]

Sorry to hear that...

I hope I wasn't in any way responisible for this...

Nope.  Can't say that you were.  Actually, this is going to sound terrible, but I can't even say I noticed you at all.

[Sam Spade]

Well Sam I am kind of offended. I think I am one of the "leftist" hacks you are referring to, although I didn't join recently.

Not really.  You have usually been fairly nice and courteous to me.  Perhaps you need to do some more study on certain issues when you post, but when I think of a leftist hack from Connecticut with a red avatar, I'm thinking of someone else. 

You must be logged in to read this quote.

That, quite frankly, is my fault.  When I saw the PM, I told myself that I was going to respond once I had some time to think about it, but afterwards I forgot.

I will respond to you tomorrow about that.  Once again, I apologize.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Well, first off, I would frankly tell you that there is no reason to fear right-wing Christian Southerners.  In Connecticut, gays pretty much have equal rights as straights and I can honestly tell you that right-wing Southerners have no interest in going around telling Connecticut what to do.  In return, right-wing Southerners would simply request that Connecticut not tell them what to do either.

You may point to the potential federal gay-marriage ban as right-wing Southerners telling gays what to do, but I can assure you that the ban does not stand a chance of passing unless the Supreme Court does something stupid (a la Roe v. Wade).  I suspect the Supremes have learned their lesson in this regard, as have most state courts.

Besides, the simple fact is that time is on your side.  Young people are more and more gay-friendly.  People look on gays as being abnormal less and less.  The end compromise will likely be across this country:  gays have civil unions, straights have marriage.  It may take 50 years for it to get everyplace, but that's what it is. 

The only thing that will halt this is if studies come out showing negative consequences about gays raising children, homosexual behavior in general, or the stability of gay relationships and possible effects on heterosexual relationships.  Right now, we're in such virgin territory that the answers to these questions scientifically are still not ascertained.  Give about 30-50 years, and we'll be there. (maybe less)

Besides, if you really fear certain people, you should decide to live among them.  I have spent the last 10 years of my life living in the most liberal, homosexual friendly places in the towns that I have resided (Houston, Baltimore, New York).  You learn a lot about other people when you actually talk to them. 

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Maybe.  But I would advise that partisan enjoyment and "yucking it up" does not necessarily create better solutions and it certainly does not create better conversation.  Besides, good times can change awful quickly, lest I remind you where we were in 2004. 

[Sam Spade]

Sorry to hear that...

I hope I wasn't in any way responisible for this...

I doubt it. 

This is just your typical flounce.  Waaah.  People won't echo my opinions and dare to disagree with me.  Waaah.  It isn't fair!  Waaah.  People should tell me what I want to hear, not what they think.   I'm going to announce to everyone that I'm leaving, and I'm so incredibly important that everyone will miss me and realize the errors of their ways.

There are sites which already exist to cater to this sort of attitude (free republic, DU, etc.)

If this place doesn't work for someone, they should just stop coming.  There are reasons why many boards have rules against this sort of childish behavior.

Notice the amount of name calling in the OP.  Were I to play the therapist, I would wonder if this poster were experiencing cognitive dissonance regarding their previous beliefs compared with current events and evidence.   It's hard to be a Bush supporter these days - there is a lot of evidence of not so nice things coming out of the administration - and for some people changing ones mind in the light of new evidence (known to some as flip-flopping) is considered a fate worse than death.  Well, perhaps not that bad, but when someone has invested so much of their self-esteem and self-image in certain beliefs and political views change can be filled with pain and uncertanty - which is likely why some avoid it at all costs.

I've spent about the last 5 minutes trying to figure out what this post is getting at, but I've just decided that I'm going to leave it and assume the poster is just drunk, high or both.  After all St. Patrick's Day was only yesterday.

[Sam Spade]

Sorry to hear that.  I hope you'll consider sticking around in some of the demographic/trend topics -- you have a lot to contribute there, and they're pretty much troll-free.

Yeah. We need you in those topics.

Alright, I promise to make my appearances there. 

I also will try to post on anything Texas that is not troll material.

[Sam Spade]

Good points, although its not just gay-related issues that trouble me, its their wanting to put prayer in schools, Focus on the Family having so much influence; abortion too, even though it doesn't affect me, its religious zealots telling Americans what they can and can't do with their bodies. How far they want to turn back the clock on society is the big question.

Prayer in public schools is not returning, because the USSC precedent on that one is pretty strong on this issue and the votes are not there to overturn Santa Fe v. Dole, much less Engel v. Vitale.  Interestingly, prayer in schools has greater support from many minority communities that vote Democratic moreso than many GOP suburbs (excluding the Fundys, of course, which I should probably remind do not always mean the same thing as GOP suburbs, even in the South).  Every black person I've ever met in the South wants prayer in public schools and I have known quite a few in my days.  Same with most Hispanics.

Abortion is one of the few major social issues (along with gun control) where opinion has shifted right over the last 10-15 years; I really place this change with all the ultrasound technology that has shown us fetuses at younger and younger stages having "human" features and acting "human".  As long as that continues, opinion will continue to move right.  And it is one of those issues, where I suspect you and I agree on different solutions

USSC precedent has not followed public opinion, but I think more of that had to do with O'Connor than anything else. Now that she's gone, the "undue burden" test will be cut back a good bit because that's what Kennedy wants.

In truth, I have long thought the general American consensus (outside of the wackos on both sides) on the issue is phrased in the famous Bill Clinton comment:  "Abortion should be safe, legal and rare."  Basically, Americans want abortion legal, but they want to restrict it down to the point where it doesn't occur very often.  Of course, people in New York and California want much less abortion restrictions than say people in Texas and Ohio, who might want to restrict it down to exceptions of rape, incest and life of the mother.

But these differences are precisely the reason why Roe v. Wade should be overturned.  As it stands now, the two sides who control the arguments are the extremists.  They poison the political debate and have paramount influence over the judicial process.  I continue to hold that this is a terrible incursion and it will not change unless Roe v. Wade is overturned.  Besides, the issue weakens the Democratic party in elections to an extent that any Democrat should agree with me.

Overturning Roe v. Wade returns the issue to the states where it belongs.  If NY and Conn. want no-holds-barred abortions, that's fine.  If Texas wants to ban all abortions except in the case of rape, incest or life of the mother, that's fine too.  If you want to change your laws, use the legislative process and get the issue out of the extremists' hands from poisoning political debate and controlling judicial appointments.

That's my spiel.  Sorry to have to make it.  Anyway, fundamentalist extremists control the game board as much as pro-abortion extremists do on this issue and I agree with you at least on one part of the take:  It is not a good thing.

[Sam Spade]

Sorry to hear that...

I hope I wasn't in any way responisible for this...

Nope.  Can't say that you were.  Actually, this is going to sound terrible, but I can't even say I noticed you at all.

No. That's okay. I just remember posting in the "Texas thread" and made some lame comment about Texas being uncultured a few days earlier. That's what I might have thought... ah, it doesn't matter now.

I doubt a comment about Texas being uncultured is going to particularly "aggravate me".  After all, it's not like the first time I've heard such a thing anyway.