Read a few posts in the political threads. Started to reply a couple times. Then stopped myself. No single issue seemed important enough to get into a back & forth about

so I cancelled out. Or wimped out, depends on your perspective maybe.
But I've seen enough flame wars to know I don't want to step into them. I'm also highly Liberatarian in my views. Both sides of the left & right centerline on various issues. I'm OK with what others might view as inconsistent positions. To me, they're not inconsistent. They're just what I think. Which is subject to change over time, but I can say for sure that what someone else posts on a web forum won't be what changes my positions. Rather, it will be facts which change over time which will lead me to adjust how I see thngs. Or flip flop if you prefer. But I ain't running for office!
The one thing I think everyone needs to consider is that you lose "tone of voice" online. Something might be said half-joking, and it can come off as a slam. Non-verbal cues are unavailable in the purely written word. Adding smileys doesn't help much either. Fact is, most of us don't really know each other personally to know when something typed is just ball-busting versus really dropping the gloves for a fight. No doubt the things I started to type and cancelled could have and would have been read differently by everyone. Better to just leave it be & go back to the motorcycle threads.
So now I don't even look at the politics threads. And maybe that's just my approach but if those areas get your blood boiling, better to just ignore them. No way should politics be banned -- I think people who want to get up on the old

oughta be able to do so as long as it remains respectful of the legitimacy of others views who might not be in full agreement. Didn't see yesterday's thread (yet) but I'm guessing from what others have written that this approach did not prevail. And one of our forefather's guiding prinicples - the right of the minority view to be held, stated, and respected - appears to have taken a day off.
Hope that TC returns. Don't know what "side" he's on & don't care really. He did have a good history of posting on this site's primary mission, sharing helpful information about CVO's.