Yes, Life has rules and laws, but discussing a political or religous view does not pose a threat or endanger a life like doing 70 miles an hr in the middle of town and running red lights or yelling "FIRE" in a crowded room for that matter!

I signed up on this sight agreeing to abide by the rules set.

And finally, there have been several comments of my references to the constitution taking completely out of context and will continue as by removing that portion of my post, people cannot refer back to it!

discussion and debate of BOTH politics AND religion is exactly how the USA began its birthing process, it took awhile, but the founders came to a conclusion and went on from there.

Nice try Cord. Yes, Life has rules and laws, but discussing a political or religous view does not pose a threat or endanger a life

But as the years went on and I saw how some threads were allowed to go on and others nipped immediately I began to question why the rules applied to some threads and not others. When these threads come up, do you and the other mods confer with Mr. Calie, or do you just say "WHOA! Thats against the rules"! And if its the latter, why some go on and others do not?

Early on in the life of the 'general talk' forum the mods decided to give greater leeway to the life of non martialart topics, so that should they tread political paths, they would be given room to right themselves.

In that spirit, some political topics have been let loose, dependant on the judgement call of the mod who happens to see them.

Unfortunately, many people--and I think this is particularly true of people from the US--are extremely averse to conflict. They loath it. They run from it. They don't see that the heat of conflict can often generate light; instead, they see conflict as having no value whatsoever. If given the chance, they will often censor people as a means of avoiding conflict. They'd rather stifle people altogether than risk having anyone say anything upsetting to anyone else. It is utterly undemocratic, but there it is.

Having said that, there are times when moderators need to shut discussion down. Too many boards end up being hijacked by a handful of loudmouthed cranks with endless time on their hands. A few years back, I saw grandemesa.com, a board created by an immigrant right supporter, completely overwhelmed and and destroyed by a handful of militant xenophobes. Their non-stop, Mexican-baiting, racist diatribes drove everyone else away. In the end, the haters were the only ones left. The creator had to shut it down.

So suddenly, being against illegal immigration (supporting AMERICAN LAW) means you're a loudmouthed crank and a racist? Thanks bro real nice. I bet they weren't racist, I bet people jumped to that because nearly all illegals happen to be from Mexico but that's not really the issue, it's just something overly liberal people like to say to divert attention from the real issue.