This must feel like an AU for you, oftentimes.

AU??

Alternate Universe.ETA: This is going to sound unwelcoming as hell, probably, but I don't intend this: Why this board, now? I mean, you're not quite in the same position as the one guy I used to tussle with on "The Wire" board where I thought "Dude...what show are *you* watching?" (I think he used to enjoy baiting all the angry liberals anyways.) But you're not trolling us, and you could probably find more simpatico chat somewhere else...is there a special reason you haven't?

Ummm, yeah. Actually it reminds me of college, where I was a Mideast studies major in a department with a lot of Palestinian ex-pats as professors. (This was Georgetown University in the 1980s.) The post-1920 history they taught was basically 180 degrees from what I had been taught about the Arab-Israeli conflict. Since I'm pretty conflict-avoidant, I didn't argue much in class. What I did appreciate was the fact that usually even if a professor thought I was defending for the bad guys and that everything I knew as true was wrong, he still would show basic respect for me as a person. Helped to keep me from unreasonable rages or permanent hatred of "the other." I'd like to see more of THAT kind of tolerance here extend to politics. (wishful sigh)

I hope Vice President Cheney recovers fully and quickly and I thank him for the role he played in keeping us safe between 9/11/01 and 1/20/10.

Is that inclusive because he did a shitty job of protecting us on 9/11/01. The worst terrorist attack in American history did happen on his watch.

I don't really know what he did during that decade other than flit to black ops sites around the world overseeing torture. I do know he did that, and I don't think it made us safer and I do think it suborned the American values that are most important to me.

To set aside my long list of grievances with the Bush administration for a second and just address the Republican Party, I will note that the official party platform is to deny marriage to gays and actively take away abortion rights from women. So...I think that's bad and wrong and people who support that are wrong and doing bad. Actively contributing to the suffering in the world.

So I'm going to have to be unrepentent in my hatred of Cheney. He cannot suffer enough in this world to match the suffering he is personally responsible for.

But if it makes you feel any better, I'm not particularly happy with the Democrats right now either, and I'm disappointed in Obama.

Then again, he's not actively promoting torture so he gets a little more slack from me.

But you're not trolling us, and you could probably find more simpatico chat somewhere else...is there a special reason you haven't?

I don't come here for the political talk. I originally came to hang (lurk) among people who loved Buffy and Angel. I got to like the people I saw here, learned about their lives, met their new spouses and kids, met Nilly. (Thought sounds vaguely stalker-ish and I don't mean it that way!)

I have learned tremendously from the people here, even if they represent, in many ways, things that are way to the edge of the particular universe I inhabit day to day. That's one reason the political rants are so irksome; they cause me to dislike people I've come to like.

Edited to correct spelling.

Make no mistake...I wasn't looking for a polite way to tell you to get the hell out, or anything. I don't know, sometimes I find my politics hard to separate from my appreciation of art(yes, I think TV can be art) or the way I relate to others. And I know you didn't name me, but since I have actively volunteered to drink Olbermann's bathwater and tagged the Chief of Staff(that's what she said!), I'm guessing I'm at least an "et al' here. Yes, you have a right to your beliefs and I will try to keep that in mind. Not sparing much consideration for Cheney, though, as he would consider much of what I write to be treason and I'm kind of pissed about that. To put that mildly. But I think it's a fundamental worldview split we're talking about, just like not talking about my disability online didn't make me not have one...we can work around it, but we can't ignore it. But we can talk about Buffy and chocolate cream pie and shit like that.

people who support that are wrong and doing bad

There are Republicans who share (or come closer) to your view on those issues than the caricature so often held up.

Is that inclusive because he did a shitty job of protecting us on 9/11/01

Do you blame Roosevelt for Pearl Harbor? And me, I'll take "enhanced interrogation" (and that is NOT torture, despite the hype) over another 9/11. (Torture is pulling out fingernails, not sleep dep, but let's not digress. If sleep dep is torture, I have a bone to pick with my children.)

I'm incensed that the foreign national "Christmas bomber" was given Miranda rights, which are rights held by Americans, after which he shut up, instead of being told that he would be handed over to the US military; the threat of that alone would have kept him giving actionable intelligence for a while. Terrorism is not a criminal affair, it's unconventional warfare and should be treated as such.

Sorry to drop a stink bomb and run, but now it's time to go pick up the kids. I'll read any responses tomorrow - over lunch, if I'm feeling strong. (waves goodbye)

P.S. I still like you. Take that as you will.

t starts talking about Salad Shooters

I like the grating attachment.