Sun
Sep 30 2007
04:21 pm

First of all, whenever I hear anything described as a heartless assault on our children, I tend to think it’s a good idea. I’m happy that the President’s willing to do something bad for the kids.

Bill Kristol

(I knew it...Conservatives hate your children!...And you thought it was just your freedoms they hated.)

This one is out of context, too, WC...

But it's still a stupid thing to say, I think! As that great arbiter of wisdom Forrest Gump said: "Stupid is as stupid does."

Personally, I no more think that a conservative or Republican saying something patently stupid means all conservatives/Republicans are patently stupid than I believe it of liberals/Democrats. That level of generalization is inappropriate, methinks.

RB

But I gave you the link...

I knew that people would want to know just how stupid a noted conservative spokesman could be so I included the link, RB.

It's referenced and given context so that the meanness of the ascendant conservative ideology may be examined at your leisure.

RB

RB,

You wrote, "That level of generalization is inappropriate, methinks."

I wish this forum would not descend into generalizations and name-calling. It can be so much better than that.

We do need a moderator, one without an agenda other than preserving decorum and helping folks feel welcome.

-- OneTahiti

One-T

I guess I need to point out that this site "Has" an agenda, and it is clearly stated:

RoaneViews is a hyper-local community web space for progressive citizens of Roane County to meet, organize, and discuss news, politics, events, and issues of interest to progressives in the community.

Randy Neal has and additional statement on KnoxViews that says "Don't be an Idiot." This is hard to define in exact terms but most folks know what is meant by that.

What I hope we can achieve is a running essay with a theme. That theme is that a mix of ideas is needed and that that mix consists of three parts Liberal and one part old school conservative, and by "old school" I mean to differentiate between the conservatives of the nature of Barry Goldwater and Everett Dirkson and not the vile sort that is running rampant today, which the Kristol quote clearly illustrates.

We've done fairly well so far and I plan to let things go as is for a while and see what happens.

Some training will certainly occur and we'll have to learn the difference between posting an idea and posting an echo.

I count myself among those who will hopefully learn a thing or two.

Cheers

Still dreaming

Of a neutral, welcoming moderator... :)

Don't be an Idiot

As a Knoxviews native lurker, I think R. Neal's line sums it up. In fact, I think R. Neal's page is a great example of a site where a progressive promulgated the rules and then moderated -- not just for decorum but with moderation -- leaving conservatives still welcome and able to contribute to the forum. Knoxviews has a blog culture in which all viewpoints contribute and learn, while the page retains its identity. I think that if we all speak from personal experience and first-hand knowledge (or, as a second-best alternative, attribute our sources with a link), that can happen here.

Whitescreek

Whitescreek,

This is off-topic, but I wish we had a delete button here. Once that "Post comment" button gets pressed, there is no going back! :)

-- OneTahiti

Delete button

I have a big one...send me a PM and I'll take care of things. Folks can use the edit to delete text.

Whitescreek

Thanks for the offer! :)

-- OneTahiti

A great American Populist

A great American Populist statesman once said "The only things in the middle of the road are yellow stripes and dead armidillos." (Jim Hightower) If I go to a progressive blog I expect to find partisan views that mostly I will agree with. I also expect and enjoy disagreeing viewpoints by some of the others that come to visit. If it was all sweetness and light with everyone getting along and being nice I probably would not enjoy it...or hang around.

"Nice" is good

Some of us like everyone getting along. :)

-- OneTahiti

Yes,but...

dull too.

Terry Troll

Civil does not necessarily mean dull! :)

-- OneTahiti

I agree

But folks need to not try and find incivility where it wasn't intended.

Having said that, I plan to post my future wide ranging personal comment at WhitesCreek Journal and keep this forum focussed on local issues, for the most part.

There may be other changes in the way posts are allowed on the front page if it becomes necessary, but I'm fairly comfortable with the way things are going for now.

Peace

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Eco warriors and politics

Science and stuff

Lost Medicaid Funding

To date, the failure to expand Medicaid / TennCare has cost the State of Tennessee ? in lost federal funding.