Because my views where written about I feel it is necessary that I set the record strait.

1. I do not believe "this all takes place courtesy of little Internets tubes." Whatever that means. You try to poke fun at my intelligence because I don't believe in man made global warming, yet you don't even ask to see my sources.

2. When I answered the question about the role of a nations military, you couldn't tell if I was a Republican or a Democrat, even though I have the Republican Elephant emblazened across my chest. Obviously your observation skills need work.

3. "but if he's an American he either thinks Iraq is magically ensuring 'tranquility' here, or he ought to be a Democrat" - I do not think Iraq is ensuring our domestic tranquility. In fact, I think Iraq is and was a mistake. That doesn't make me a Democrat because my reasons for not supporting a foreign invasion of Iraq are conservative in nature. Though I do believe in a nation's inherent right to invade other nations, I don't think it was necessary this time. This wasn't a discussion of policy this was a political theory discussion, which is probably what confused you.

1. To be perfectly honest, no, I'm not terribly interested in your sources - I know there are a handful of scientific sources that conservatives use to discredit the huge number of sources which indicate that global warming is clearly human-caused, and I'm not any more interested in them than the scientific sources that claim that the Earth is 6,000 years old.

2. *shrug* I didn't get a close look at your T-shirt.

3. Sure, it was a political theory discussion, but it's sure hard not to view it through the prism of certain policy decisions. Actually, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that you're a Ron Paul supporter, which would actually garner you a few cool points.

Oh no! Benson has opened a wormhole!!!

No virtual protesters? I am SO there next time.

wow. all that can be said.

Ugh, virtual Republicans are breathing our real air. And giving our blog virtual herpes.

Sort of related, the NY Times Magazine had a pictorial spread on people and their avatars today. You can see the slideshow here:

http://tinyurl.com/38sbs4

Hihi,

Somebody just pointed me to this page which is obviously two months old. But I had a few things to say about it. =)

1) I'm the "attractive silver haired female avatar" who owns CattyShack. My name is Summer Seale in SL. =) Thanks for the compliment, doubly so coming from the "other side". =)

2) I'm not a libertarian per se. I'm probably the worst nightmare for a Democrat because, you see, I'm really a social progressive on many fronts. I'm an anti-theist (a la Chris Hitchens) to the *core*, I support gay marriage, and I'm an ardent feminist (even tho I play a slave girl in SL - but that's my choice). I am a Republican because of the war, and some other issues (such as gun rights).

3) I was there to represent the "Conservative" view, even though I don't completely fill that role. But I was helping out my friends because I thought it would be a good debate. It wasn't, and it had nothing to do with the other side. Both sides agreed that the format was terrible, and then they switched the format mid-stream! And while they told us we were supposed to be there for an hour or two, they upped that time to four hours which we just were not prepared to do (some of us have RL commitments and we didn't want to stay at such a boring debate for four hours, thank you). So we left after agreeing with the other side that we could no longer tolerate these sort of surprising (and rather infuriatingly slow and boring) changes.

I love debates. I debate all the time in SL, and I welcome you to contact me in SL to debate me anytime you want (and when I'm not busy working, but feel free to IM me anytime!)

4) I know that some evangelicals are offended (or mostly amused) at my outward sexuality and stuff...that's fine. I don't really care. They don't own the Republican party. They have influence, but it isn't the same thing. And I fight their intolerance even within the party.

Also, I know some evangelicals, and they aren't as "bad" as you think that they are. Some are even accepting of the way I am (being a slave, stripper, former escort, etc....). But the fact is that even with most of the "worst" of them, they're not about to cut off my head for walking around in slave silks, mostly naked, and being in relationships with boy guys and gals. The difference is, they'll talk to me about it, and they'll argue about it, and they'll debate about it. But if I were to try that in a Muslim country, you'd see how long I would last.

That's something I wish the Democrats would understand. I'm a classical Liberal, in a sense, and I'm proud of that. The real difference is that you can come from the Muslim world to this "Christian Nation" (I hate that term, don't you?), dress in a burka, and nobody will kill you for it. And should somebody try, the law will prosecute them completely.

But you can't go to the Muslim world and dress the way I do in public, with a tummy-tee, and booty shorts, and high heels. And not only would people on the street kill you, but they law would do nothing about it - ever.

And until that changes, that will be my #1 fight in this world.

I used to think that Democrats cared about that sort of thing but I was, by and large, mistaken (at least for the moment). That's why I'm proudly pro-war, and couldn't give a rat's ass about respecting people's religious sensitivities when it comes to calling for my death.

But if you want to talk more, come say hi in SL. My name there is Summer Seale. =)

You sound like another Republican I talked to once - insanely pro-war (he seriously wanted us to bomb Cuba), but also militantly left on social issues. I think on balance you're both in the wrong party (you certainly ought to be voting Democratic on the state level), but rock on anyway - someone's got to neutralize the really dangerous folks on the other side, I guess.

Huh, that avatars one is pretty neat. Most people that had sufficient choice (using WoW is kind of crap because you are kind of constrained by the storyline of the game) made some interesting ones. Most weren't trying to change their identity, just be a bit thinner, more muscular, whatever. More like what they might choose if a genie asked for wishes rather than have some big meta-expression of their personalities.