Ummm. So yer telling me that what I have seen since 'beaming up' is not status quo? This is nice to know, and I will believe it when I see it.

Aw gee, now I'm feeling nostalgic. The site went on the air July 2001, so we had a summer of relative calm before "9/11 Changed Everything". We used to have collegial discussions of political theory that rarely descended into ad homineum attacks and flame wars. Defense of Rightist dogma hadn't yet become confused with defense of America; that tendency among Rightists has always been present, of course, but the distinction hadn't yet collapsed through the confluence of a terrorist attack coinciding with a hardline Rightist occupying the Oval Office.

I slogged through Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations" that summer so I could discuss politico-economic theory with Tom. Other favorite topics back in that lost utopia were universal sufferage, education, taxes and the budget, media bias, election strategies, foreign relations...all the things that people used to think about before 9/11 and Bush's declaration of a war on terror without end constricted our world down to the present siege mentality.

Sigh...on balance I guess I should thank you for reminding me of better times. The Zone, just like the outside world it reflects, hasn't always been this way.

Tilting at conservatives *is* akin to tilting at windmills- now that I think of it. They are both mechanical, predictable, change direction based on the direction of the wind, and go around-and-around in endless redundant circles no matter what you do.

Thanks, I needed that!

--Robert