Yeah, but it is all in good fun you now. I don't take any of it too seriously.<br><br>Sorry to hear you voted the way you did. Now mind you, that is not a flame, just a statement of how I feel about anyone that voted for that bunch of thieves.<br><br>I just can't help it, but when your country has been hijacked by these rat bastards on the extreme right, I feel I have a right to discuss and criticize.<br><br>

and you just proved my point right there! You just made 2 very inflammatory remarks.<br><br>It's one thing to say what you did...and then you could have said it a lot different and yet got your point across. Why do you have to resort to using such inflammatory remarks?<br><br>Here is my one and only lesson, cause I feel you are old enough to know better:<br><br>you said: Sorry to hear you voted the way you did. Now mind you, that is not a flame, just a statement of how I feel about anyone that voted for that bunch of thieves.<br><br>What you should have said: I respect your choice of who you voted for, that's your perogative and why it's nice to live in a democratic society, though I feel that the election didn't go in my favor and felt that I was cheated. (and then an explanation on why you felt cheated).<br><br><br>You said: I just can't help it, but when your country has been hijacked by these rat bastards on the extreme right, I feel I have a right to discuss and criticize.<br><br>What you should have said: I just can't help my feelings, but I felt that the Republicans won by unfair means. (then you list/explain why you felt it was unfair.)<br><br><br>Now, I could have easily chose not to post the above and instead respond by putting this:<br>I'm sorry that you are still harboring ill-feelings towards the Republican party by living in the past, Mike. Get over it...noone cheated or hijacked anything. Even the newspapers (Gannet and others) did a recount only to find that Bush won Florida. <br>I'm sorry you voted for a person who served with a lying cheating bastard. Glad he lost!<br><br>But that would have been inflammatory so I chose not to. I just used it as an example of how political threads can degenerate into name-callling and ill-will. So please don't respond to my "what I could have said" section as it's only an example!! <br>This is what I truly mean:<br>Mike, while I respect your choice of political parties and ideologies, please keep your inflammatory responses down to a minimum as they are pointless and cause nothing but ill-will. Even if you do have a right to discuss and criticize. Do so in a respectful tone please.<br><br>

you think there are examples in this thread of people not listening? you don't say. so, if i were to say that the political threads were highly entertaining to some (often, i am included in this group) and that i learn from these discussions from time to time (e.g., daryl_holly brought up new information to me the other day when discussing fingerprinting bullets...i had never heard his point of view on the topic, and especially appreciated his POV as he is a cop...i feel much more comfortable having this discussion if it comes up in the "real world") someone like MachOne could come along and tell me that i am wrong and that these discussions are unintelligent and that he is sad that i don't see the futility. i have already conceded that these discussions are futile to many, and i have heard you concede that there is sometimes entertainment value associated with such threads. this, to me, sounds like we've made some progress and are finding areas of agreement. hooray, it doesn't have to be futile if people enjoy the process. many people are claiming that only the debates that turn to "yes it is"/"no it isn't" stances are the bad ones. you won't get a lot of argument from me, but that is a bit vague...if the yes it is poster adds new information that causes me to go, "hmmm" then i appreciate having read that POV. if it's just a bitter "yes it is/no it isn't" then i would fully agree with the majority here. the justification for stopping all serious discussion where there can be more than one side to a particular issue is that they *can* get mean-spirited. i try very hard to ignore those discussions myself. i feel like intelligent people can overcome that dilemma. i really enjoy civilized discussions where everyone shows a little respect for the person they are debating (e.g., what we've done in this thread). i find this thread entertaining, and...judging by the hits compared to other threads in the last few days...i am guessing that a few other people enjoy these discussions, too. i would love to have more like this in the future. heck, i don't know that we were that far apart to begin with...in fact, most of us are pretty close in that we just don't like the mean-spirited talks. so, if we ignore those posters when they post that kind of stuff, it will go away. same could be said for trolls, but it never seems to work. <br><br>thanks for the intelligent discussion to all. i enjoyed it. <br><br>[color:blue] -sean</font color=blue>

I don't see them as being inflammatory, perhaps a bit harsh -- but I make no apologies for what I feel. It's just that I can't respect your choice of who you voted for that's all.<br><br>Inflammatory would have been if I had called you nasty name and told you to go fsck yourself. I didn't do that, but I did state what I feel.<br><br><br><br>

I think this whole thread has gotten out of hand.<br> When Daddy posted<br>Rule #1: NO POLITICS<br>Rule#2: See Rule #1<br>It was ment to be taken light hearted,and that is all.<br>there is and was never no such rule.<br>This whole d@mn thread has been blowen out of proportion.<br>Post what you want it's fine me as long as the threads don't get out of hand like this one.<br><br><br><br>

Obviously some people took it literally, and away we went...<br><br>See, though, you've already set limitations on posting- 'as long as it doesn't get out of hand- maybe some people WANT threads to get out of hand'...<br><br>Don't be a hypocrite now... <br><br>[color:red]Hold on...it's time for a</font color=red><br>

swatcat, DaddyMac !!! This for you both. <br><br><br><br><br><br>

It's not over until the fat lady sings<br><br>This thread will now self destruct<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Swatcat on 10/26/02 12:46 PM (server time).</EM></FONT></P>

My eyes..my eyes. Run away...run away!<br><br>Too Easy!<br><br>

I think that picture alone is worth clamping a big old lock on this thread and throwing it into the river...<br><br>[color:red]Hold on...it's time for a</font color=red><br>