Posted on 03/29/2005 8:58:34 AM PST by Long Cut
We, the Witness Protection Program For Freepers, aka the Wild Turkeys, aka the Coalition of the Sane, have through mutual discussion and rigourous thought, determined that:
1. The discussion threads regarding Terri Schiavo (hereafter referred to as "TS") have become too full of innuendo, rumormongering, hyperbole, hysteria, namecalling, paranoia, and general poor behavior to warrant participation.
2. Said threads have degenerated into "echo chambers", wherein the same, common thoughts are continually posted again and again, and the same old disreputable, unconfirmed and/or false urban myths are propagated.
3. Anyone who joins in said theads with alternative viewpoints to the most extreme posts are routinely driven away with slander, accusations, and vile namecalling.
4. No data or evidence contrary to the "prevailing opinions" are accepted, considered, or discussed; and in fact are rejected outright in most instances.
5. That the continued calls for armed insurrection, military or paramilitary involvement, impeachements of politicians and judges, and death threats are embarassing, stupid, shortsighted, doomed to failure, and contrary to most if not all conservative thought prior to this case, as well as damaging in the extreme to FR and the conservative movement as a whole.
6. That such emotional, hyperbolic, and propaganda-driven hysteria is in fact contrary to all conservatives USED to stand for.
7. That the holding up of swastika and other Nazi imagery towards the police and the Bushes, the use of children as political props, and the disruption of the peace at the Woodside Hospice can only reflect badly on conservatives in general, and should be discouraged.
8. That the pursuit of this issue to the exclusion of all others by the GOP has damaged, perhaps beyond repair, the pursuit of other important issues as well as the reputation of the GOP, FR, and conservatism.
The WPPFF is NOT of one mind as to the case of TS or its correct outcome. In fact, wide disagreement exists within our little group. However, we are united in our wish that reason and sanity be respected in the discussion, as well as the rights of all parties involved or participating. We wish to discuss this as adults and intellectuals, as conservatives and as FRiends, not as children screaming past each other on some playground of hysteria. We wish for facts and evidence to be provided, discussed reasonably, and considered fairly.
We reject all accusations of Naziism, "death cultism", or other slander as methods of debate. We reject the practice of "spamming" multiple threads, of posting unending vanities, and the posting of propaganda and calls for violence. We reject, in fact, all unseemly and childish behavior which has come to characterize this case on FR.
We DO invite others to come and reasonably discuss the issue. We have no problem with FReepers who wish to debate in a rational and fair manner, and with due respect for their fellow FReepers. We have NO problem with those whose views are formed by religion; however we reject "preaching" or "being beaten with a Bible" as legitemite debate tactics. Not all of us are Believers, and such tactics only cheapen the source.
If a FReeper finds this an acceptable meansd to discuss this and other issues, they are welcome to join in and participate. Those who find pleasure in attacks, flame-baiting, slander, stalking, and personal atacks will be ignored, and their egos will go unfed.
We assume this thread to be a zone of sanity in an overheated atmosphere. Thus, a general amnesty is in effect. If posters conduct themselves within the guidlines above, we will be happy to discuss and debate with you. If a poster wishes to apologize for past slips of the tongue, or for possible "over-the-top" statements to another, it will be graciously accepted, and your company welcome.
Please bring a sense of humor; we feel that too many have been taking themselves too seriously lately.
Let the discussion begin!
Signed,
The WPPFF, aka The Wild Turkeys, aka the Coalition of the Sane.
A) Mother Teresa
B) Adolf Hitler
Most would agree the answer is B. Then again, I could post your picture, since you claim to have been called a Nazi 1000 times in the last two weeks most would understand the point. :)
They predicted the morass we have today and saw throughout the Schiavo case.
George Washington - "..And let us indulge with caution the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion... Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail to the exclusion of religious principle."
John Adams - "Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
James Madison - "We've staked the whole future of American civilization not on the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future ...upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God. The future and success of America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which this Constitution is founded."
Noah Webster - "No truth is more evident to any mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people."
Sign me up - I just read this and agree with everything you've said!
Hey, here's a wacky idea - how about if you don't post any comparative picture, and just go find evidence of that person doing bad things? That way, you can prove the point you're trying to make, that the person in question is a bad person, and you can do it with some modicum of intellectual integrity. I know, I know - you have to, like, work to make your case if you do it that way, and it's certainly harder than just making some sort of goofy off-the-wall smear by comparing that person to Hitler, but it really does the job, and it doesn't make you look like a nut in the process. Whaddaya say? Could be it's just crazy enough to work...
I agree. I also think my post #4426 and the answers in posts #4427 and #4428 answered alot of questions too.
You may be right but I don't want to speculate. We can never truly know what peoples' motivations are unless we know them personally. And sometimes not even then. We can, of course, project our own feelings onto them and hope that's how they feel. I hope that what you believe about them is true. I can tell that is how you would feel. But I just can't discuss this any more. I'm not being rude. I guess I'm just very tired and weary. Good night and God bless.
Wanting to dehydrate a person unto death without a rehearing is extremism in action.
Me too! It would have done a lot of good. I was hoping ole Jesse Jackson would try it....would they have tazered him?
This would have been so satisfying on many levels, eh?!
From one old timer(lurked since LD Brown spoke at the March for Justice on CSPAN) to another - FR will survive. There may be some changes in the posters, but it'll survive. It survived Elian. It survived 2000(And I was a 3rd party leaner until I got my absentee ballot and voted with the NRA). It even survived losing its top enemy in Bill Clinton. It's even survived cases of "office politics", which is the meanest type of politics I've ever been a part of(with a different org). It'll certainly survive the departure and posts of a few drama queens with the Nazi BS smears from many on one side and religious bigotry by some on the other.
A month, two months from now, this story will die down, and things will get back to normal slowly, until salvos fired off with the next big issue arrives, as these things happen until it's election season when FR peaks.
Some will stay, and some will leave, but FR will still be there.
Did they ever!
I tell you what. I'll meet you in heaven and we'll go ask God. What is worse Lord? Killing a woman in a persistent vegetative state when you know no human being would want to live that way .... year after year after year after year OR ... Keeping her in that state for political purposes?
Too many incorrect assumptions in your post to unpack tonight.
Yeah right. Spare me.
The evidence is all of the rulings against Terri Shiavo's family and interests.
You attempt at being witty bombed big time!
Did you just come out of a coma? You just realized that? WHAT DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND IN THIS STATEMENT?
As a conservative site, Free Republic is pro-God, pro-life, pro-family, pro-Constitution, pro-Bill of Rights, pro-gun, pro-limited government, pro-private property rights, pro-limited taxes, pro-capitalism, pro-national defense, pro-freedom, and-pro America.
And what if God's response is this:
"She wasn't in a persistent vegetative state. She did want to be healed someday. She did hope she would be. You judged wrongly. You should have erred on the side of life so you would not be in the position you are now. Bye, bye! ZAP!
The ultimate ZAP!
IMO it was a conscious effort to find and post Hitler with the labrador retriever.
LOL
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