corranged is one of very few non-parent, frequent posters I like on Parent Forum/Cafe.
^^^ Agree!
I agree with that too. ^^ Also HGFM.
Aww, thanks guys. 
I didn’t even know corranged was a youngun!
^^ That’s why we like her.
corranged is young, smart and one of the nicest, most informative posters on the University of Chicago forums.
Maybe there should be a Politics Cafe forum separate from the Parents Cafe forum!
Since jym626 is the first to mention something about a “low” in this political season, we mark today’s, consolidated comments, Sept 1, as the low mark, that is until it gets lower.
Just let me know when we are in the mud.
C’mon–posters interested in politics don’t bother the sinners in the alley. They don’t post threads calling for the merging of all renovation threads, all lunchmeat threads.
Arguably, the CC political threads often have the highest intellectual content. There is tons of pablum, but there is also history and political science galore.
I don’t get this whole desire to censor. It’s anti-intellectual and disturbing on so many levels.
It’s not what CC is about. It’s not what the Internet is about. It’s not what parenting College students is about.
In my book.
I agree with you. I find the merged threads annoying and unwieldy. I’ve never unnderstood the problem with having more than one thread on a similar topic. I like the idea of a Politics Cafe as long as it remains under the umbrella of the Parents Forum.
I agree with you F.O. LTS and jazzymom. I completely lost the threads when they were merged. I do think of it as a form of censorship- someone didn’t like all the focus on this candidate. I don’t see how a few topics on the vp candidate is a bad thing. There were several on Obama when people were trying to get their minds around all the issues, as well as McCain. What’s the problem? She’s new to the scene, and people are trying to get a handle on what this might mean for our country.
I’d bet my house, my 2 cars, and what’s left of my 401(K) that in the last 24 hours Bill Clinton has nonchalantly asked a staffer, “Hey, ah, how many daughters does this Palin gal have?”
The issue at hand is not to censor- it is to recapture some common courtesy and discourse. Discuss-- fine. Mudsling, insult, offend?? Why?
** As an aside-- The original post was merely a polite request for civility and courtesy, and to tone the venom and rhetoric down. If there was a thread somewhere requesting that the multiple threads be merged, I must have missed it. The idea of a separate political forum is fine by me.
In the beginning the separate threads were all discussing separate issues. Before too long, though, the conversations were all on the same topic (Bristol’s pregnancy and Sarah Palin’s choices/judgment). I even saw some posters copying and pasting the exact same posts in multiple threads. It’s always been the habit of CC to merge threads that are on the same topic.
Folts, are you suggesting we merge the lunchmeat threads? What the heck?
TourGuide: LOL!
Tourguide–
Was that you or someone else who used that joke (or a version thereof) in the Palin thread? (and what does it have to do with the plea for civility in this thread?)
I want to promise to be more civil, especially out of respect for you Jym, but when the MySpace pages of high schoolers are now fair game for presidential political analysis and critique I’m afraid my BP will go up and I’ll break that promise. 
Anyone is naive who thinks that the Internet sites of relatives and fiances of relatives of candidates for national public office won’t be scrutinized. As many of us have repeatedly posted on CC and warned our kids, Internet sites are public information and what one posts (including on boards like this) can come back to haunt you.
The stupidity on the boy’s site is typical of the dumb things that some teens post.
What makes the My Space relevant is that it’s more evidence that McCain and his staff are either stupid or lack the ability to vet, and the page and ramblings on it also reflect Palin’s family values (apparently, she thinks it’s OK for this typical, immature-seeming guy to marry her teen daughter) and her ability to prepare herself and her family for a campaign and a VP position that would involve international attention.
Palin didn’t even tell her kids – including pregnant D – that she was going to be the VP candidate until after the family arrived in Dayton. At the very least, her family needed to know what kind of microscope they’d be under, and how to withstand the pressure and present themselves best. I particularly feel sorry for the D, who is being skewered on many Internet sites. I haven’t seen the D skewered here, incidentally. I have seen, however, sites that are calling her the kind of names that make “tramp” seem like high praise. I also have elsewhere seen posts by people calling themselves Christian who are making very derogatory statements about Bristol, Palin and Levi. Just because some of the highly visible Christian ministers are saying wonderful things about Palin and her family’s decisions doesn’t mean all of the rank and file Christians are. As is the case with all groups, there are some Christians who are judgmental, vicious, small minded, cruel, etc. There also are Christians who think that because they are Christian, their own families are perfect, and anyone whose family isn’t perfect must not be a good Christian or a good parent.
To blame all of the vicious Internet smearing on Obama followers is naive. I doubt that the original rumors that Palin faked her pregnancy came from Obama followers. Sounds like the typical rumor mill that exists in small towns (I’m from a place that had only 2,000 more people than Palin’s town) and that also attacks public figures.
I think that probably all of the parents who are posting here – including those who are Palin supporters – would have taken the time to prepare their kids for such a big change in their lives. Many of us are working mothers. Most of us probably prepared our kids before we took on demanding new jobs even though it’s unlikely such jobs put us in a national/international spotlight.
This reflects horrendously on Palin’s judgment. She seems to simply leap into situations assuming things will work out. I don’t think that she has any idea of what she has signed up for, and I don’t think she’s prepared for the campaign or to be VP.
I also expect that more surprises about Palin will come out in the next few days because it seems that the vetting team thought that as long as she was a woman, everything would be OK, and they seem to figure that McCain is guaranteed to live out his term in good health. I don’t think they were taking their task or Palin seriously.