Maori, aah those amazing magnificent New Zealand people.Once they were warriors and that is what we need to do now. I am here to encourage, And if it brought that to you, well I have done my job. There are macro forces beyond any president's control that the Bush Mess has only made worse. As Radio Birdman sang, the hand of the law is coming down.

Inform and empower yourself on all useful things like the old people who fought in World War Two and protect yourself from an idiot manipulative 'consumer' culture that sees you as a walking profit center and you will be fine. Self reliance is the code of the road it the troubled times ahead.

Canadian Gal, you have a heart the size of Ontario. We can easily reclaim this mess by merely generating an honest sense of excitement about what the world can easily be. We do not need to waste time dueling with every pathetic troll and neurotic that belabors a falling sky.

There is so much amazing stuff going on all around us and we can share our lore around the cyber campfire and the anxious will be drawn in by the very creation of the sense of belonging they long for.

How could this possibly be worse then the usual ridiculous bicker parade we now see. My life is about constructive engagement and I managed to deeply move people who voted for Bush and then regretted it.

I would listen to them and give them actually useful advice about life problems and build bridges to human souls. The idiot progressives just build walls to enclose the 'like minded'.. lazy bastards.. bridges take a lot more work as they argue with gravity.

that you would find this diary of value considering the extremely offensive and sexist attacks on Clinton supporters.  I see no productive value to it whatsoever unless the goal is to further inflame and insult.  

Calling Clinton supporters "skanks" is no different than describing Obama supporters with a racial slur and then telling them to get a sense of humor.

Yeah 'Skank'is a fairly funny word and fits a lot of the crazed GOP fringe to a 't'. Consider Larry Craig and his 'wide stance' problem or McCain's offer of his life saving, career building missus to a biker spectacle? GOP.. look up 'Skank' in a dictionary.

wimpy little cowards who are too scared that they're going to lose in November, so they have to insult people now.

It's like the student who fears he's bad at math, so he doesn't study, then when he fails the test says "I didn't study."

Now Radio.. you are merely allowing yourself to hyperventilate over the conventional received definitions as if linguistics was some granite etched thing. Did you ever make your own coinages or words? Do you understand play? I helped coin a word, years ago..blij...meaningless complexity.

In my world 'skank' is genderless. Philologists haven't caught up yet as they are a stodgy bunch. What a pity that you rely on them. Languages grow like weeds and received definitions change like leaves on trees. Just a point on understanding it all. Before it was written, it was spoken and definitions are slippery and change with usage patterns.. You didn't know?

Is there something about the definition of "skank" that you don't like, spaceman?  It is such an ugly word, isn't it?  That must be why you gave it a zero, to hide it from view.  

stoned Bob Marley fans.

Those types are always raiding the fridge.

Thank you Hollede,

If something I wrote moved you then I have done my job. We need to banish this sad worship at the altar of fear. We must become magical confident people and use the amazing resources at our fingertips to ruthlessly unearth eternal truths and then go and act on them. We must share our lore.

The current scary writhings of corporate oligarchs facing collapse from their own self made messes is not our problem. They will face the consequences of their own avarice. We are here to celebrate their demise and make a better thing from the fragments.

The transition will be at once terrifying and delightful and we must prepare for it as it will happen.

you who are a blogger whom I truly respect, please tell me what you think about diaries that use sexist language to inflame and derogate?  It seems to me that this diary contributes nothing more than fuel to a fire that everyone is trying to extinguish.  Clinton supporters are NOT fully onboard with the Obama camp and diaries like this one make the jump even less inviting.

I hope/wish not, but I have a feeling.

But without help from the admins, with no moderation of consistently content free and insulting posts from - how shall I put it? - a certain species of commentator who only wants to sow division, how can we take it back?

The reality is Jerome that the people who care, the people who have loved and engaged with this site because of it scale, breadth and intimacy, are some of the first to be punished when they call on the site to do something about the vitriolic atmosphere here. Thats all GrassRootsOrganiser did before her account was frozen. It's not a Hillary/Obama thing. The people who are in despair about the trollish behavior here are former Clinton supporters as much as they are democrats.

Tell us how to take it back, and we'll do it. At the moment we're beginning to leave in despair.

You know, we're human beings.  You can talk to us, with actual sentences full of words and ideas.

It's your blog, you can turn it on and off and paint it green if you want to - actually talking to the people who use it isn't going to change that.  It might even give you some good ideas.  You might find folks understanding, maybe even helpful.

But instead we get the odd crumb like this which can be read 17 different ways, and that's it.

I read it as: "Take it all the way back to what it was long ago when I actually enjoyed it.", but I'm just guessing.  Like everyone else.

You started something.  You were early to the game, you put together something that has been replicated and spun off and in whole turned into one of the major forces in the world.  I honestly can't tell what your intentions are or what your state of mind is in regards to the whole thing (maybe just tired of it all?), but I can assure you that for those of us here, now, we are just as willing to talk with you as we are anyone else.  Moreso, in many ways, because you have a broad perspective and a unique history.

But we can't read you mind so we simply guess, and likely guess wrongly.

-be good

-chris

Caroline is not a dope.