Good advice and thoughts
What you say is being pithy is taken by most people as being condescending. I don't know if you are intentionally trying to be antagonistic, but you certainly come off that way.
There are some pretty wild theories being thrown around, but in almost every case those who agree and those who disagree can treat each other with respect. Jumping in when you haven't previously been involved in the discussion, then start slinging around "pithy" comments is rude.
Now, I know that eventually something bad will happen. These AQ folks really hate us. But, I am sure everyone will be here to say, "I told you so." That would be like the Bears who predicted every year from 1994 that "a bear market was coming." Well, of course it was coming. It always comes.
So by that logic, should we just quit looking at the threats? Why bother, we're screwed anyway, right? Some people like to have a little more control over their flow of news than to be fed watered down pablum that comes from the mainstream news outlets. Of course, that means that you have to use your BS filter, no one will deny that. But in my experience with the media, they aren't exactly the paragons of truth either. We choose to look outside the normal channels for news, and that bothers some people.
The AQ stuff is one thing, but this whole Russian conspiracy thing is so bizarre, it not only discredits the thread, but it discredits the site. It's nutty.
How is it any nuttier than the AQ threats? What special knowledge do you have to prove that? As for discrediting FR, that's your opinion. I personally think that the way some of the fanatical "support Bush at all costs" freepers are worse, but that's just my opinion.
Here is trial work 101. Put a man on the stand and discredit his credibility on ANYTHING, and the jury will believe him on nothing.
This isn't a courtroom! What's the saying? Everything looks like a nail to a man with a hammer. Not the best analogy, but I think it makes the point. None of us are on the stand, this is a collaborative effort to find obscure news and find new connections between the data points that have not been discovered. Sometimes, we make mistakes...that's part of life. Most of us have the intellectual honesty to admit that. I will concede that there are a few people who tend to post information that is unsubstantiated as the gospel truth, but that is the exception here, not the rule.
I take it from all of your court and legal references that you are an attorney. Is that correct?
Like I said, piecing together Islamic web posts is one thing. Looking for clues and connections to stories and events, that's fine. (Though I have posted that we would all be doing a better job merely keeping our eyes open for oddities in our own neighborhoods). But some of this old communist stuff. Get real.
Some of us think that communism never died, it just went underground. You think communism is dead and gone. That's fine, but answer me this. Since you are on FR, I take it that you can be generally described as a conservative? If so, what do you think about communist goals from 1963 that were posted? Have most of those come to pass? What about the fact that groups like International ANSWER and moveon.org are backed by open communists? How can you say that communism does not have a huge influence in the US today?
If we want to really help homeland security, let's be vigilant where we live. No one knows his or her own neighborhood better than us. That's where we are useful.
Like I said, I don't think I'm helping Homeland Security by posting to this thread. I'm sure the feds know at least 100 times as much info as we do, so I'm under no illusion that I'm trying to help them. I would say that a lot of others that post here feel the same way. I'm here for the protection of myself and my family. Any heads up that I can get on future terrorist actions may give me a slight edge if something bad does go down.