One might not be able to support it, but yes, one can say it.
This board is not biased toward the left, but toward *fact * and toward reason. When the views of one segment of the spectrum amount to simple pouting, of which the last 2 posts are examples, is it really so hard to conclude that that part of the spectrum is deficient in facts and reasoning? Should the stubborn maintaining of such a view in that light *not * be scorned?
No, he only pulls it on weaselly pathetic shits like you. Don’t delude yourself, you whiny little ignoramus. You’re not picked on because you’re a conservative, you’re picked on because you’re dishonest, stupid, and proud of it.
When Bricker posts a conservative opinion, he sometimes gets slammed by some for being conservative. Fair enough.
When Bricker posts a politically neutral legal opinion, he sometimes gets slammed by some for being conservative. WTF?
Unfortunately, there is little that mods could do with this problem, for it is not a mod’s job to run about officially warning posters that their opinions are stupid, particularly when the mod is not a legal authority.
Nor is a backlash of stupid conservative flames a useful solution to the problem of stupid liberal flames.
The solution is rather circular, for if more rational and well spoken conservatives, such as Sam Stone, were to participate on the Boards, then stupid liberal posters would be marginalized, just as presently the stupid conservative posters are marginalized, but for this to happen, the Boards must be more welcoming to rational conservative posters, and this will not happen until the stupid liberal posters are marginalized. It’s a bootstrapping problem.
I think that the best we can do is to try to be attentive to a poster’s arguments, rather than that poster’s general political bent.
In that respect, I think that the mods do a very good job, for although some of them participate vigorously as posters on political issues, they are careful to not let it conflict with their actions as mods, and more to the point, when they participate as posters, they tend to discuss arguments, rather than blindly attack (Manny excepted).
I would not want the mods to be prohibited from posting. That would remove some of the most articulate and rational posters from the Boards – just the sort of posters we need if the Boards are to welcoming to posters of all political bents.
Oh, sure, Hentor gets all the good abuse! All the lefty chiquitas hanging on his arm, “Ooooh, Hentor, you’re so snarky, **Shoddy ** really *hates * you…” God, he is such a slut!
Its just so unfair!
I think it would be a terrible idea for the mods to try and balange the debate by urging input from “conservatives” or “liberals”. There’s no reason that the person who starts a thread can’t do that, if he or she wishes. Hell, there’s no reason that any poster participating in a thread can’t try and encourage more particiapation from one side if it appears lacking. But the mods often get accused of political bias as it is (wrongly, IMO), and having them participate, politically, as mods would make that even worse.
One can. One already did, in post 37. But your contribution is also nice, too.
I have no idea how one might operationalize these terms in order to make any empirical comparisons, so I can only grant that Crotalus, and in his footsteps, you, might be correct. Obviously I disagree with him.
All I can do is hope that you and your cohort participate more actively in the threads that interest me, which are generally the political ones, that I might partake more regularly of your insights.
I believe that your first paragraph perfectly sums up the status quo and the problem, to the extent that there is a problem. How many people here really have a problem differentiating between tomndebb the poster and tomndebb the moderator? The concept doesn’t seem very difficult to me. I know that there are a vocal few who make noise about this periodically, but do we really need to change rules, that appear to be working well for most people, to make life easier for the obtuse or obstinant few?
What makes me laugh is that from my perspective, as a left leaning Canadian, the SDMB is not a left leaning board. With the odd exception, y’all are a bunch of righties – some more so than others. 
When I first joined here there the board was much more evenly balanced between left and right. Gradually over the years it’s been drifting left.
But I don’t think that it’s the result of the lefties hounding the righties out of existence. Back in the day both sides gave as good as they got.
I think what’s happened is that over the last six years it’s grown harder and harder for thinking conservatives to hold defensible positions on certain issues.
For example consider a debate over the proper scope of the government. A few years ago you could have a decent political argument between the lefties saying “bigger” and the righties saying “smaller”. But the Bush administration and the Republican Congress have buried that debate. Anyone plumping for smaller government these days isn’t talking about something that’s actually possible in the United States right now, but rather as a vague hypothetical. And on a board that values real-world cites that’s a much weaker position to argue from.
Or consider the Iraq war. Early in the conflict it was possible to have a principled debate about the merits of invading. But over the last four years so much information has come to light that undermines the conservative case that it’s very difficult for a intelligent conservative to continue to defend the war. (Lack of WMDs, American torture, the mounting insurgency, etc.)
I could go on (privacy rights, fiscal responsibility) but I won’t. My point is that over the last six years the actions of the Bush administration and the Republican Congress have directly undermined many of the core principles of modern conservatism. And without a solid core of beliefs to anchor your argument, it’s much harder to sustain a rational debate in favor of a particular position. You can’t defend the indefensible.
So the intelligent conservatives get quieter and quieter. And eventually it’s the irrational voices from the right that come to dominate – the Don26’s with their brain-dead parroting of talk radio talking points.
Oh, get over yourself, you’re totally a slut too, girlfriend.
WTF? That guy is *still * anticipating the discovery of Iraq’s WMD’s, and *still * insisting the Swiftboaters were right, and he’s one of the *more * rational? Well, the sad part is you may be right.
Bricker is commonly slammed, yes, but for a combination of bizarrely-narrow and cramped views of morality, often commingling the concept with the mere letter of the law, for extreme and transparent rationalization of his fundamental loyalism, for excessive nitpicking in lieu of admitting his error (although he can do so under duress), but not for conservatism as such.
Look who’s talking, bee-yotch! You always getting your feminized nickname thrown back at you and all the attention for your catchphrases! Swear out this warrant!
Maybe their modding posts should be in color, with different colors for each intended level of rebuke/warning/clarification.
Please note that I am NOT seriously suggesting that…
Parfait. Think parfait.
Just a guess – those folks, regardless of political bent, would never be satisfied, either for being called on their stupidosities by other posters, or for not being protected from being called on their statements by other posters.
Exactly, it’s much easier, and even enhancing to one’s sense of self righteousness, to believe that criticism means one is being persecuted for one’s beliefs, rather than simply having one’s lack of command of the facts or use of faulty reasoning being shown. We see that all the time here, and not just from the GOP loyalists, either.
You know what else everybody likes? Parfaits. Have you ever met a person, you say, “Let’s get some parfait,” they say, “No, I don’t like no parfait”?
That wasn’t deliberate then? Drat! I found it an amusing bit of self-mockery. Now it’s just sloppy editing. I’m so disappointed. 
Me teach English? That’s unpossible!
My neighbour’s German Sherpard and my housecat like to lick each other. Don’t you two start – that would be just plain nasty.
You mean you’re a parfait gentle knight?