I have been a member here for twelve years this very minute.
"But why, oh wise and gentle A HERETIC I AM? Why, oh why? 12 years is an exceedingly long time for a delightfully intelligent person with an incredibly short attention span, such as yourself."
Why you ask, incredulously?
I'll tell you why.
You guys fucking crack me up, THAT'S why. And when you aren't doing that, you make me scream at my computer screen such that spittle rains down upon my keyboard(s) and blood rushes to my cheeks.
Yup....12 bleedin' years. I'm by no means one of the originals, they are easy to spot because when you look at their user names, you can see the gray around the letters. Also, their profile pages don't have a date of joining, just the year - 2001. There is only a few of those left, of course. The rest of you wankers are fucking newbs. So there! I look at anyone that joined after Shrubs second inaugural as a newb. Sorry, members of 2005 and forward, you're just not old school enough for me. Well....some of you are, anyway.
So we lose a few now and then, some go out with a big old "SEE YA, YOU ASSHOLES" type thread, others just stop posting. When I leave, it will be the latter. Most likely I'll be bleeding to death at the bottom of a ravine. Ahhhh...one can only hope for a glorious departure such as that! There won't be any 300 post threads calling for my return, of that I can assure you. Maybe a one or two post thread about the unknown trucker, dead at the bottom of the ravine, coffee cup in one hand, DU opened to GD on the phone in the other.
I was living in California at the time I joined and was looking around the intertubes (back then, we didn't even have the luxury of making fun of a clueless congressperson) for a place full of like minded nitwits like myself. I stumbled on this place and joined after reading for only a short while. Maybe an hour or so.
It was difficult fitting in, trying to find a place to land, so-to-speak. Being an Atheist and a self admitted Heretic, I danced about in the Atheist group and the Religion areas, but frankly found the same old arguments there as I had been having for several years elsewhere on the web, and after a few false starts, just mostly read those posts without responding. Some of the most staunch defenders of religion on DU have nothing new to add, really. It's the same old, boring tired bullshit I had been reading forever. The Lounge was very cliquish (still is) and there were only a handful of other groups that grabbed my attention. Anyway, I decided discretion was the better part of valor and decided to NOT fit in.
I have succeeded beyond my wildest dreams.
So who is this monster dickhead called AHIA?
For the edification of those of you unfamiliar (that would be most of you) here are my liberal bona fides;
Pro-Choice (the opposite is NOT "Pro-Life". Those people are simply Anti-Choice, as most of them are pro-death penalty and just love the military when it is blowing the shit out of brown people far away) primarily because I am a man and can not get pregnant. It is no god damned business of mine what a female decides regarding her lady parts. Any man who differs from that opinion is a fucking douchebag busybody who needs to get his mind out of the uterus of women he does not know. Any woman who differs on that opinion needs to stop listening to the men.
I am for an appropriate progressive taxation schedule. Almost the entirety of this country's financial and economic woes can be traced back to Ronald Reagan lowering the top marginal rate from 70% to 28%. If you think I am wrong about this, well....fuck off, YOU are wrong.
I am for an appropriate social safety net. You shouldn't have to lose your house or your car or not eat because you lost your job or got cancer.
I am for a single payer health care system, similar to the model used by every other major industrialized democracy. Health Insurance should be available only to those who desire to spend their own money on it. Otherwise it should be phased out for the unmitigated bullshit profit taking it is. I don't need a pencil pushing bean counter, looking to pad the bottom line of his company, in between me and my doctor.
I am for an effective but SMALL military. There is absolutely no need to spend almost 3 billion dollars a day for nothing more than giant dick wagging apparatus. Close the foreign bases and bring them all home. We wouldn't need such a large "Offense Department" (the idea of calling it the "Defense Department" is laughable on its face) if we stopped making enemies around the world. I agree with Michael Moore who said in one of his books "Let's give the world a glass of clean water". THAT'S what our military should do. Make lives better, not kill people and children in lands far away who have no means to do us harm.
I think religion has no place whatsoever in the public school system and even less in rational debate on national issues. "Keep thy religion to thyself" as George Carlin put it. Why the hell a modern, rational, thinking person still clings to iron age mythology is beyond me, but that's another thread. We need a robust, rational, secular public school system in this country. We need to model it after the countries in this world that get the best results. It is a scandal that we have the graduation rates and the poor literacy skills we do in this country. It is my opinion that if you are religious and want to teach your children at home and instruct them that the earth is only 10,000 years old, fine. But they can not work in any industry which requires the mental capacity exceeding a planarian nor can they hold public office, elected or not. Let them go into car sales or religion sales (ie: be a preacher).
Having said that, I am Pro-Science. We need to increase the NASA budget by a factor of 20 at least. We need to place a colony on the moon and begin construction of large space colonies as envisioned by Dr. Gerard K. O'Neill (a brilliant visionary who died too young). We need to restart construction on the Texas Super Conducting Super Collider The fact that we have given up on our desire to lead the world in research in this area as well as others is shameful.
Leave Gay people the fuck alone. They have as much right to do the same things as anyone else does. As has been said before, people aren't "Homophobic" because a phobia is a fear of something. People like that don't fear LGBT people. They're just assholes. If you want to use the bible to justify your point of view, please do so while stoning your unruly teenager in the town square while you are not eating shellfish or wearing that disgusting poly-wool blend, you fucking hypocrite.
I think the second amendment means what it says, that people have the right to keep and bear arms. But I also understand context and I don't ignore the first clause of the amendment. I find it immensely amusing that when I encounter a staunch 2nd amendment type, he or she rarely knows what the 3rd amendment says. Context is everything. I also understand that there are reasonable limits to the keeping and bearing. There is a reason hand grenades aren't sold at Wal-Mart and there is a reason why you have to jump through a bunch of hoops to own a .50 caliber machine gun, as it should be. There is a reason why you can't go out and buy a fully equipped F-16. I am for responsible, reasonable gun control. The Brady Bill is a good idea. Close the private sale and gun show loopholes.
I think the war on drugs is a farce. The government has no business telling you what you can or can't put in your own body, ESPECIALLY a product made from a plant you can grow with virtually no effort in your backyard. Why is it that people can grow their own grapes, hops, barley, rice and wheat and make their own wine and beer but can't grow some decent doobish? It's fucked up. (I know the real reasons, so please don't think I am ignorant of the history of the laws)
I think the police departments in this country are largely out of control. They have become a force unto themselves and the members think they are literally above the law. Any organization that has the ability to kill without concern AND has taken upon itself the ability to investigate itself is seriously flawed. Ditto prosecutors and judges. The entire criminal justice system is broken and needs repair. NOW.
There's more, but I am beginning to bore myself.
So...basically your average liberal, I suppose. Not as liberal as some, much more liberal than many.
There has been much said over the years about how DU has changed. Yeah, I suppose, but it has in many ways stayed the same. Some of you are for X and others are for Y and never the twain shall meet! That's OK. Makes for lively debate. Some of you need to do some serious lightening up though. Sheesh. It's just the internet., for fucks sake!
Including this post, I have 14,761 posts in 4380 days as a member. That's an average of 3.369 posts per day. I am not a prolific poster, by any means. How the fuck some of you manage to amass 50,000 posts in 3 years or whatever is beyond me! Don't you ever shut up? Don't you ever read? DON'T YOU EVER GO OUTSIDE?!?
And for what it's worth, DU does not, in spite of what many might think, represent the entirety of thought of the Democratic Party. What it represents is a small sampling of liberals and progressives who like to post on message boards. I'll bet the vast majority of registered Democrats have never heard of this website.
So, anyway....so much for the vanity post to beat all vanity posts. Keep on keeping on, DU. And stop the bullshit poo flinging (or don't, I don't care!) that serves no purpose other than to make me laugh. We have a Democrat to elect in a year or so.
Let's get on with it.
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[hr][font color="blue"][center]Precision and concision. That's the game.[/center][/font][hr]
I stick with hats like this;
Damn the time flies...
After delving into that World for a while I realized...Damn- Look at these fucking crackpots around me 
One of my FB friends was proclaiming that his van broke down, and praise God, he got a new van - for free.
So there's God, watching 8,000 children a day die of malnutrition, and he cannot be bothered to lift a finger, but hey, for some people, he gets them vans.
But I was praying you would get a higher post count, and I see my prayers have been answered. Praise the Lord!!! 
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please give us more information.
I have recently read a post of yours and was taken aback: only 14,000+? Because, of course, I do remember many of your posts.
So glad to know that you are still around and continue to bite.
Oh, I joined in 2004, right around the Iowa caucuses..
and I rarely get into long conversations in threads...so....
Still around. Reading more than posting!
Backatya!
DU 1 or go home!
Kudos.
(At the end of the day, there isn't anything wrong with having a lot of posts, I just find it amusing, that's all)
So ppppffftttt
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Great post!
If you're ever in Texas...well, you know. Always welcome at our house
Shall I? For those readers who never saw the thread?
Put up the link? Our meal? My paragraph structure? Backwards? Is it not?
lol
Okay...we need to be FB friends! I posted our whole journey there--with pics. We moved the end of April to central Texas. And you are ALWAYS welcome here. We live on a lake. I hope you like to fish
from Abilene. Probably 3 or 4 hours north of I-10 or San Antonio. We were in Austin this past weekend--around 2 or 21/2 hours. It is literally the "heart of Texas". Brownwood. Near nothing except the lake
You'll just have to come for vacay then! And yeah...you should post the "meal" link. I think many here would appreciate the Hillary references 
You're good. You can cross the Bridge of Death!
Welcome to Democratic Underground! and then look at their profile to find they have been a member for 5 or 6 years? LOL
OOPS!
That's some engaging prose, HERETIC. Awesome post.
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Not to mention I own a time machine.
Thanks!
Apparently, there is no beer icon. So these are the best that I can do.
But for whatever it's worth, I think this is the first time I have ever used an emoticon in one of my posts.
Let's what I can find:
I know I've seen more than is there now, some people must have skills I lack, hehe
Nice to meet another low-count long-timer!
Yep, I'm still more of a lurker after all these years. I don't have the time to risk getting enmeshed in long-winded discussions, but I like to drop my 2 cents in here and there. lol
Oh -- and here's the beer smilie: You gotta click the little |...| button at the end of the main smilie screen.
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So I'm not the only one glancing at SalmonChantedEvening's Sunday LoL Cats whiles't piloting my Big Rigg down the Virgin River Pass.. Disturbing to know..
Oh I walk 20K a week
and I'm still trying to fit in. But thanks for the many smiles. I've always enjoyed your posts.
I'm a very selective poster and don't feel a whole lot can be achieved through arguing on the internet. But I'm still addicted to this place!
Nice to meet you too StevieM!
Old timer!
FREAK!
Any lover of Boston's is a lover of mine! Keep on truckin'!
So I took a swim
Then had a nap
Then went out to dinner
It was a swingin' good time!
and as you can see don't post a whole lot. lol
I can't see myself ever leaving DU. No matter how things are going I still feel this is my refuge.
I like beer.
I didn't learn about DU until early 2004, when it was recommended by a friend. It was EarlG's wonderful "Top Ten" that brought me much joy during the very dark Bush-Cheney years and on election night in 2004, DU was one of two websites (the other was Democracy for America) that literally helped pull me through.
As an expat, it was so reassuring to find that there were lots of citizens living in the US who felt exactly as I did. That was not the picture that we were getting from US MSM - not at all.
I lurked for many years and didn't actually begin posting until 2008, so I definitely am a newbie compared to DU "pioneers" like you.
Loved your mention of being happy to bleed "gloriously" to death at the bottom of a ravine, although it sounds painful. I have informed my own close ones that I just want to be left on a mountain ridge with a bottle of good quality red wine. I may topple into a ravine nonetheless, but with any luck, I'll be feeling no pain.
You make a lot of sense.
I can't find anything to disagree with, except I am fed up with the Gun Cult in this country and have grown to believe most of those people are flat out stupid
I started standing on street corners, holding signs, and protesting the Supreme Court decision to STOP counting the votes in Florida the day after the SC decision. (before it was cool or popular..had a few beer cans thrown at me, but nothing I couldn't handle.)
Time will one day heal the wound to that confidence that will be inflicted by today's decision. One thing, however, is certain. Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's Presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law."
---Justice John Paul Stevens
I KNEW something was BAD wrong.
Looking around the Internet for more information and like-minded people, I found Buzzflash,
and from there to the DU "Hate Mailbag".
I was stuck ever since.
Good Times: Meeting regularly with the DUers in Minneapolis in the dark days.
Bad Times: When I can't convince the entire Democratic Party to think like me and Franklin Roosevelt.
