[gitmo]

Excellent call. I am proud to tell people I am a FReeper, and encourage my friends and co-workers to visit FreeRepublic whenever a topic comes up that would likely be covered on FR. That doesn't happen as often as I would like, rarely over 10-12 times a day.

But sometimes I cringe, worried their first introduction to FR will be some flame war. I told them it was a serious discussion of conservatism, liberalism and who knows what else. And I told them to expect a lot of friendly teasing and joking. But if people stumble into a bunch of us treating each others like anal sphincters they're going to spread the word that FR is NOT a place for serious discussions.

[af_vet_rr]

But sometimes I cringe, worried their first introduction to FR will be some flame war.

Introduce your friends/family to the political newsgroups on usenet. FR will seem like the bridge club at the old folks home after that.

That said, I think a lot of us worry about immigration (specifically illegal) because of the national security implications (lawbreaking aside) and because at times these issues seem to be an effort by the administration to court liberal voters. I don't like the issue for those two reasons.