The Liberals world not have me for my libertarian perspectives, the libertarians would not have me for my liberal perspectives, and I would not be caught dead as a conservative even on the cosmically strange event that they would have me.

I often get amused at how folks like FrankC, Ebnelson and Tech-1 love to hurl 'Liberal' at me, even as I blatantly express positions that are absolutely inconsistent with what they (or even liberals) call Liberalism.

I take it in the FDR sort of way- the last great TRUE Liberal ;-)

As for winning or loosing: I am more interested in changing minds and averting what I see to be a national tragedy. Before 9/11 I was quite happy to be a political 'Stealth' entity. I had my views and tended to debate only with those I trusted to be malleable of mind and position- not so that I could change them, but so that there could be a true discourse that arrived at the betterment of both by convergence onto the most rational point of view. I very much stayed away from public debate and debate in general with people from the far right (or far left) side of the political spectrum.

9/11 changed a lot of things (duuuhhh!). I don't believe in public protest- I am not against it, I just believe it is counter-productive in most cases and in the few cases it is productive, it is ultimately self-defeating and inspires a backlash(witness the erosion of Affirmative Action). I am very much against what happened in Iraq, and more so against HOW it was made to happen. I believe only discourse and reason will hold sway in shaping lasting change for our awesome nation (yes, I believe in GREEK democracy), and I believe we HAVE to correct what has happpened, if not with Iraq then in HOW this war started. Thus my 'polemics' here on CE over the past few months.

After my brief time here at CE, 6 months into the war already, and the obvious manifest for whoever wants to see it- I am re-thinking that perspective, humanity, the politics of this nation and (obviously) by point of being here on CE at all. In as much as my aims for being here (rational discorse as a means to reach informed consensus in political ideology), I have not succeeded one inch. Long live the Zone, and glory to this community, and I have no intention to leave entirely(!!), but I am very unclear about if the investment of time here on CE is worth it, specially when the 'boogers' start flying. Although I do find that I am much more organized in my media research if I expect to use what I find here at CE, that much is good. And Tom really is fun to snap on the snout... Thats true too.

As for a political writer, I don't have much ambition there. I actually find this whole thing evoking high blood pressure and temper. No thanks. Electrons are much easier to deal with.... And I will never be thrown in jail for trying to tell a computer what/how to 'think' (programming)... At least Ashcroft has not gone there quite yet ;-)

Davin