First, Cybermom, if you are going to be a conservative you gotta have a thick skin. Not a day goes by that we are not called bigot, homophobe, racist, nazi, blah, blah........ But if you are right, you are right. Stick to your guns. I was called a troll my first week here, so I know how intimidating that is. This was in the middle of an arguement. It took me back for a second but then I jumped right back in. I am now one of the troll hunters here. The toad that was so rude to you and others had good reason to be suspicious, but he was tremendously ham handed in his handling of the situation. We get a lot of trolls here and sometimes people get a little on edge. While you were dealing with this thread I was dealing with a troll on another thread. They have been heavy during the weekends. Don't take it personaly.
You might want to ask Dixiechick2000 and trussell to show you around, they are good gals. There are a lot of "unwritten rules" here. This that you posted is called a "vanity". These are generally frowned upon. If you need to post a vanity you must be willing to, at the very least, be made fun of.
The main reason vanities are frowned upon is that this site mainly concerns itself with news stories and current events. We take these things seriously and vanities clutter up the mechanism.
Stick around. There is a place for every conservative here. Just pick your spots well and make yourself comfortable.
No, he didn't.
A new FReeper is not automatically a troll. She posted a vanity--which is NOT explicitly mentioned, much less forbidden, on the welcome page. She even opens her thread admitting it is a vanity. She posted it in Chat, right where it should be. She didn't do anything remotely trollish.
I said it before and I will say it again: All you fearless, noble troll-hunters are doing the forum a disservice if you consider all newbies to be guilty until they prove themselves innocent. Wait until the true trolls show their real colors, then ZOT them. They can't do any harm, anyway.