"Ruined the Thread..."
Guys, I woke up this morning to look at the forum, and had a couple of PM's from people who said that they really were interested in the topic of this thread, but were totally turned off by the political rants....and remember that what seems to be a perfectly reasonable political position to one person is a rant to another.....funny or not! (I went to a comedy club with friends last night, and the headliner's routine was 80% profanity - I'm not a prude by any means, and I stayed for the show, but if it had been on TV, I'd have changed the channel!). I got one comment that these posts had "Ruined the thread, and makes me not want to even get on the forums...)
We are entering a highly charged political season, and there are lots of places to discuss politics on the web. Doug can contradict me if I'm wrong (and I frequently am...), but that is not the point of these forums. As a moderator, I can make things go away, but I almost never use that option, as I think it creates more bad blood. I know I've made posts I thought were funny at the time, but later realized had no place within the rules, and I know that no one wants to go out of their way to offend....but lets remember the forum rules, and try not to chase people out of the tent.