Maybe we could just assign numbers to issues, as in the old joke about a prison maximum security block.

(New guy in prison laying on his bunk hears, "10", and laughter. Then, "81", and laughter followed by "19", and more laughter. Another person yells "56", and there is an obvious silence.

He turns to the guy in the next cell and asks what that's about. Guy tells him that they've been there so long, heard the same jokes so many times that in the interest of efficiency they have just assigned them numbers.

"Well why didn't anyone laugh when they guy said "56"?

"Some people just don't know how to tell a joke.")

Anyway, "Bush is a liar" could have a number, as well as "media bias - to the right" and "media bias - to the left", "Bush went AWOL", "Kerry is a coward", "I just made this up but it sounds dramatic", "I need attention so I'm saying something obnoxious", etc.

Some posters could have numbers. For instance, the lower case people. No need to know anything more than that they posted, so they would just post their numbers. (That, unfortunately, often includes me though I'm not a lower case poster.)

People would have to be limited to, maybe, 50 posts a day. Since those would be numbers, though, it would save bandwith and memory.

Just a thought.

Arf