OK.  So there has been a lot of blustery talk about how I am a problem for the site.  I want people to post here and give me their honest assessment.  Has my recent behavior or my behavior overall been a problem?  Am I driving people away as BR claims?  Do I truly provide no value here?

It’s been mentioned that it would be a good idea to learn about the non-political interests of Swords Crossed members. I agree that it helps to foster more good-natured debate when you realize that your adversary is a real person with many interests that may coincide with your own. In that spirit, I'm starting off with a primary interest of mine that is most likely to be shared, at least on some level, with other SCers: beer.

I just wanted to take a quick moment of the membership's time, to apologize explicitly to those of my fellow participants here at Swords Crossed of whom I may have antagonized in the past, or otherwise been guilty of some out of order behavior.

I've been hoping for the past six months that I would be able to find more time to devote to SC, but unfortunately that does not appear to be likely for the foreseeable future. At the same time I've become increasingly tired of online political discussion in general, which now feels repetitive and predictable. I very much support the mission of SC and would like to see the site continue to grow, but I don't think I'm currently in a position to be an administrator/editor/contributor. 

George Carlin has died at age 71.

Fuck.

And I use that term very deliberately given that Carlin's "Seven words you can't say on TV" ultimately became the focus of a Supreme Court case about obscenity and censorship.

Back when I was contemplating a Political Science minor, I took a few upper level poly sci courses. Posted below is one of the essays I wrote in PLS 462 -- Comparative Revolutions. It's a long read, but it might interesting to the SC crowd. If anyone is interested, I can email them the full PDF. For copyright purposes, this can be considered public domain.

I am me...my own person, and I live for the life that I was cut for and educated to lead; my silversmithing, piano tuning, and many other things I do in life. Admittedly, I'm not someone who takes setbacks and adversity with a lot of aplomb and grace, and never have been.

Promoted by Brendan

I think this story helps to illustrate what's wrong with the medical insurance industry in this country, and why/how we should change it.

I have been traveling through Second Life checking out all the political sites and events, accumulating a lot of photos that I have yet to sort and categorize. But last night's meeting was well attended and FUN (after an hour plus of chat on the patio, we moved to the dancefloor and chatted some more), so I figured I'd just throw what I have ready so far into a slide show and post it. Lots more to come.

This slideshow version will stop if you run your cursor over it.

A recent comment about my Wikipedia userpage led me to the idea of asking everyone where else they have online presences. I know Second Life is somewhat popular in these parts. At what other websites do you have an account?

Obviously, if you aren't comfortable divulging anything, please don't. Google and a few bits of info can get the home addresses of just about everyone.

My green-eyed girl turns 13 this week.

May God have mercy on my soul.

She faces a different world than I did when I turned 13 (1980, *gasp*). In some ways better, in others worse.

She faces a world where she can get ahead, where glass-ceilings are fewer and the ones that still exist are becoming easier to break through. She has a mother who is a successful career woman and has that role model to pattern her life after.

She thinks she can make a difference, and I hope she's right.

When I turned 13, there was still a certain set of expectations for women in our society - and those have mostly fallen by the wayside for her.

This is a strange subject to be my first SwordsCrossed diary... but so be it.

The current "Second Life" craze sweeping through SwordsCrossed has been very amusing to me.

You see... I joined Second Life more than a year and a half ago. In that year and a half, my relationship with "SL" has been an off and on love affair.

When I joined in October of 2005, I created a male avatar and went about exploring my new universe.

One thing I found as I began to travel around was that there was definitely a difference in how the various types of avatars were treated.

The avatar types can be broken down into 5 basic classes:

Before today's poll, I'd like to see how effective the neutral approach has been. Based on how and what I've written, is the Purpleface persona a

White male
Black male
Hispanic male
White female
Black female
Hispanic female

I'm following Ender's lead here, because this isn't really front page material. Still, some of you might find this interesting:

No, this isn't going to be one of those diaries about how my Republican father has suddenly seen the light, nor will it be about how he repeats crazy FOX news talking points while my brother and I laugh and tear them to shreds. Instead, this is just a portrait of one guy who still considers himself a strongly conservative voter, faced with what he knows is a declining Republican party.

We talked for about a half hour, covering the Presidential campaigns and the situation in New Orleans. Here are a few of the more interesting points:

Crossposted from DailyKos . I am leaving this as a diary because it's not FP material. It was politely received on dkos.

I wrote this diary in response to perhaps a not well stated, and even an offensive question. It is not often that someone is very blunt about this but it gives me an opportunity as an American Jew to express some of my feelings on the matter.

This was the original comment that prompted me to think and write about it:

I have a serious question, one that has been on my mind for the longest.... Why is it that Jews in America, ones that were born here and no connection to Israel have more of a loyalty towards Israel than America at times? I'm a Black man, and care more about America than what happens to Africa. Just a question that I have been thinking about for awhile....

I have now had two people refer to me as being "galling" or having "gall". Who they were is unimportatnt from what I want to discuss. Whether they intended such or not, I take not particular offense. But since it is now a recurring theme, of sorts, I thought it might merit some time to reflect on this point a bit and then solicit the opinions of others.

First let's understand the primary term gall[1,noun] :

Main Entry: 1gall
Pronunciation: 'gol
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English gealla; akin to Greek cholE, cholos gall, wrath, Old English geolu yellow -- more at YELLOW

Proust in his epic, In Search of Lost Time , discusses the idea of identity. One of the themes that becomes apparent while reading Proust is that identity often emerges not from some self-creation, but from what others construct about you. In other words, your identity is not so much about what you think of yourself, but of what others think about you. Your identity is built upon the construction of details, qualities, and characterizations others impose upon you. (Kundera also explores this issue in his novels Identity and Immortality .) This idea is shown more clearly in biographies of historical figures. Biographers must pick and choose events in another’s life they feel are most pertinent and frame the identity of the person around these specific events. Often times there will be contradictory accounts. For example, Napoleon was often condemned shortly after his exile and death by many biographers for ravaging the greater European continent. More recent biographers tend to focus only on his military strategies and view him in a more positive light. Napoleon did not have as much input about his own life compared to what others said about him after his death.

Over 80% of Americans consider themselves Christian. The one thing I read, that strikes me as truthful, is that if most Christians really truly believed in God and the Bible and Heaven, you would see a very different moral climate in this country with people tripping over each other to do good deeds, go to Church, and aspire to Christlike life instead of just mouthing empty convictions (on both the Left and the Right) and applying them to various pet issues: poverty, death penalty, abortion, homosexuality, etc. This faith, though stronger than in Europe, is so diluted and ritualized and normalized that many people don't give it much serious thought except for when they perceive one of their pet issues being threatened. Then all hackles are raised and the process of defending the faith, either via selective application of the Bible or an emotional religious appeal, begins.

Annoyingly enough, these hypocrites, of whom perhaps 5% lead fairly morally consistent (at least according to their perceived morality) lives, claim that it is only through Religion can one be moral. Well then what is morality? Morality is the knowledge of "good and evil" or the more sanitized "right and wrong".

Read on...

(Oh goody, a holiday message diary. An early gift, as it were. Could be worse. Could be fruitcake.)

We'll be unplugging for the holiday season and I know (yes, I do) how much my comments will be missed ;} We're escaping to the country with no phone, no internet, no cable or satellite TV, and lousy cell phone and broadcast TV reception. Whatever shall we do with ourselves? I have a few ideas hehehe. . .

Anyway, don't have too much fun without me. I wish everyone here the best of the holiday season (whatever you celebrate this time of year) and a happy and prosperous new year. Try not to argue with the family too much. Deep breathing and champagne can work wonders. See you in 2007!