imported post
Takezo,
Looking at your post history, it doesn't seem like you're a "career" spammer, so to speak, or a troll. But I see that you're a newer member, so I'll give some information about why these kinds of posts aren't welcome on OCDO.
First off, the "General Discussion" forum isn't a "lounge"-type place. The former mods, presumably acting under the guidance of John and Mike, defined this forum as a place to put OC- and gun-related topics that, although directly relevant to the site, don't fit very well in the other forums. If you need to explain how your thread is relevant to OC/guns, it's probably too OT for the General Discussion forum. In other words, if I wanted to ask members' opinions about how far the Second Amendment goes in terms of weapon destructiveness, I'd post that here. Or, if I had some cool videos from going shooting over the weekend, I'd post that here. If I wanted to talk about the pros and cons of gay marriage, I'd go to another forum.
Secondly, OCDO consists of a wide cross-section of individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds. And this includes political backgrounds. You'll find many neo-conservatives here. But you'll also find many classical liberals, as well as maybe one or two contemporary liberals. As such, many of us avoid looking at issues from a left-right standpoint, and more from a more free/less free perspective. I have long argued that the Republicans, even "true Republicans", are no better for gun owners than Democrats, and may even be worse for gun owners. But I think it's fair to say that the majority of the membership here feels that either of the two major parties, even in their "true"-ist modern forms, are an arbitrary hodge-podge of issues that lack consistant principles, and rather sell-out to special interest groups. And I believe that as part of that, you'll also find that a good number of members feel that neither of the two major political parties are truly devoted to freedom... the Democrats only care about your social/personal freedoms, and the Republicans only care about your economic freedoms. As such, many of us feel that "conservatives" are equally disasterous to gun owners' rights as "liberals".
Third, we try to take the high road here on OCDO. That's why we're so sensitive about personal attacks... they are childish, and ultimately serve to do nothing but waste each others' time and make us look immature to outside observers of this forum. As an extention of this, name-calling, "swiftboating", and similar attacks on individuals in politics are generally recognized as irrelevant and propaganda... I'm sure we could find dirty little secrets about any candidate for public office, and really for most people in the country. Especially when many special interest dollars are being spent to uncover and, perhaps, elaborate them. We like to focus on the issues. At least your point about immigration policy, while off-topic and a tenuous argument for its relationship to OC, was criticizing the policy.
Fourth, we like citations. And, generally the more outrageous a claim, the more citations we need. If I say "Open carry is legal in Pennsylvania", I might need to cite the law that only bans unlicensed concealed carry, though it's generally considered common knowledge. If I say "little green men are blowing up the Earth next Wednesday", I better have a damn good list of citations, and citations for those citations. In other words, we need proof. And appeals to force like "This guy will mop the floor with you" and "that red-headis gonna' slap-kick you in the brass" don't really cut it.
I hope this didn't come across as hostile, as that wasn't my intention. But I felt an explanation was warranted as to why we want to have your thread, and threads like it, locked...
