The Introduce Yourself thread!

[sglaine]

Welcome aboard RONNIE.

[Grey Pilgrim]

Hello everyone I am new to the forum.... just wanted to say hello to everyone and i look forward to being a part of this forum.

Grey

[C.H.U.D.]

Originally Posted by Grey Pilgrim

Hello everyone I am new to the forum.... just wanted to say hello to everyone and i look forward to being a part of this forum.

Grey

I apologize in advance for this.


Howdy, Pilgrim.



And welcome.


_

[Rudy-T]

Found this thread and decided it can't hurt to introduce yourself.

So I'm 25 years old male from Finland. I currently live in Canada where I'm completing my graduate studies. I guess I could say I've been around quite a bit (more than half of the European countries, Indonesia, Australia, Japan, USA). I haven't been very active politically (politics ain't so interesting in Finland ). But I've voted in every election I've had the chance to. And I do follow the news.

Got interested more about american politics (elections mostly) when I moved to Canada two months ago and started seeing lot of this stuff in TV. I guess on your standards I would be far left liberal. I think high taxes are ok, when they give you the kinda of support system we have in Finland (free healthcare, free education, unemployement support). I also care about the environment. And I'm against war, but realistic in the sense that I know it is sometimes what you have to do to make things better (in humanitarian sense).

Oh, and I enjoy gentle comedy (Jon Stewart)

Maybe thats enough about me for now. You'll find more of my opinions from threads involving campaings and war on Iraq.

[sglaine]

Originally Posted by Rudy-T

Found this thread and decided it can't hurt to introduce yourself.

So I'm 25 years old male from Finland. I currently live in Canada where I'm completing my graduate studies. I guess I could say I've been around quite a bit (more than half of the European countries, Indonesia, Australia, Japan, USA). I haven't been very active politically (politics ain't so interesting in Finland ). But I've voted in every election I've had the chance to. And I do follow the news.

Got interested more about american politics (elections mostly) when I moved to Canada two months ago and started seeing lot of this stuff in TV. I guess on your standards I would be far left liberal. I think high taxes are ok, when they give you the kinda of support system we have in Finland (free healthcare, free education, unemployement support). I also care about the environment. And I'm against war, but realistic in the sense that I know it is sometimes what you have to do to make things better (in humanitarian sense).

Oh, and I enjoy gentle comedy (Jon Stewart)

Maybe thats enough about me for now. You'll find more of my opinions from threads involving campaings and war on Iraq.

Oh a John Stewart fan yessss.

[trailblazer]

This being my first post, I apologize if I haven't done this properly. At any rate, here goes.

My real name is Dave, I'm a thirtysomething, and I live in Northern California. I have no children, I've never been married (although I was engaged once), and right now I'm happily unattached. I'm an entrepreneur, but I have also been doing contract work in the technology sector, simply to "hold me" until my business takes off.

The "trailblazer" handle and the avatar come from the new political perspective that I hope will catch on here and elsewhere: I am a truly liberal Republican. Like many Republicans, I was a Democrat for my entire voting life until recently, and I supported Kerry in the election. For the record, I despise George W. Bush as much as anyone else here does.

My hope is that by building a grassroots interest, the liberal wing of the Republican party can re-organize itself and push aside the neocons, which in my opinion would be nothing but helpful for the nation. If this effort is something that might interest you, please let me know: I'll be glad to help you.

Of course, if you want to talk about other issues, that's what I'm here for!

[iamwhatiseem]

Welcome trail,

What's with the green flag?

I have been registered as a Democrat for 23 years, like yourself I actually began to identify with the Republican party around 2001. The far lefters have taken the Democratic party to a place I have no place for, and the Republican party falls short of what I want to support as well.

This election I voted Independant.

[trailblazer]

The main reason I chose the "inverted color" flag was to symbolize my unconventional way of looking at America. (Then again, I have an unconventional way of looking at the rest of the world, too!)

Incidentally, I think a flag like this appeared in Green Day's video of "American Idiot."

Personally, I don't believe there's anything incompatible between liberal ideas and the GOP platform. Liberals can believe in low taxes, limited government, strong defense, and free markets -- and in fact, many of them do.

[Alex]

Originally Posted by trailblazer

Personally, I don't believe there's anything incompatible between liberal ideas and the GOP platform. Liberals can believe in low taxes, limited government, strong defense, and free markets -- and in fact, many of them do.

Those folks are called "LIBERTARIANS". Welcome aboard.

[sglaine]

Originally Posted by trailblazer

This being my first post, I apologize if I haven't done this properly. At any rate, here goes.

My real name is Dave, I'm a thirtysomething, and I live in Northern California. I have no children, I've never been married (although I was engaged once), and right now I'm happily unattached. I'm an entrepreneur, but I have also been doing contract work in the technology sector, simply to "hold me" until my business takes off.

The "trailblazer" handle and the avatar come from the new political perspective that I hope will catch on here and elsewhere: I am a truly liberal Republican. Like many Republicans, I was a Democrat for my entire voting life until recently, and I supported Kerry in the election. For the record, I despise George W. Bush as much as anyone else here does.

My hope is that by building a grassroots interest, the liberal wing of the Republican party can re-organize itself and push aside the neocons, which in my opinion would be nothing but helpful for the nation. If this effort is something that might interest you, please let me know: I'll be glad to help you.

Of course, if you want to talk about other issues, that's what I'm here for!

Welcome aboard and thank you for supporting Kerry.

[iamwhatiseem]

Supported Kerry?
Who?

[trailblazer]

Originally Posted by Libertarian

Those folks are called "LIBERTARIANS". Welcome aboard.

Libertarians' belief in economic freedom stretches all the way to economic anarchy, which is not my idea of a recipe for a better nation...but thank you anyway!

[Gizzey]

Welcome to the forum Trailblazer...

[Twilight1978]

An introduction

As a long-time lurker on these boards, its good to finally say hello to everyone. Not quite sure if this is the correct forum for introductions, but I'll follow trailblazer's example and post here.

I'm from the city of Brisbane, in Queensland state on the Australian east coast. With our booming economy, unending suburbs, sprawl of beach resorts to the north and south, sunny weather, and ever-increasing numbers of interstate and Asian migrants, the region is more or less our version of L.A or one of the other SoCal cities. For what that's worth, anyway Best place to live in Australia, don't let any of that lot from Sydney or Melbourne tell you otherwise!

But I digress... I'm in my mid 20s, not married, hold dual Australian - British nationality, and am currently living back home with my parents so I can save every cent possible towards my current overriding goal, which is to spend a month studying Swedish in Stockholm early next year, and another couple of months trailing around Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia, doing the whole "young Australian abroad" thing, meeting some distant relatives who will probably have no idea who I am, and no doubt getting very, very cold in the process. I have 2 younger brothers, a dog, and a cat. I'm a part-time student at the University of Queensland, building up English and Archaeology majors in a BA degree, I work as a banking and finance industry contracter / temp ( mainly mind-numbing document processing and registration work) when I need the money, and I'm an Army Reservist. I had a good education at Catholic primary and secondary schools, so naturally I'm an atheist - or somewhere near the agnostic-atheist borderline, anyway!Luckily, I've been able to see a fair bit of the world, having travelled to China, Singapore, the UK, Germany, Spain, Morocco, Sweden and Norway. Hope to get to the US and Canada as well in the next couple of years. I speak enough Chinese, Spanish and Swedish to make myself thoroughly misunderstood in amusing ways.

Because of my world travel, I have always had an interest in international politics, especially Asia-Pacific and European geo-political issues. As is the case with a lot of non-Americans, I've mainly turned to watching the US political scene since the 2000 election and the accompanying controversies ( it still hasn't been satisfactorily explained to me what, in fact, a "hanging chad" is, or why so many of them chose to hang in Florida in November 2000! ) I came across US Politics Online about 3 months back, I've been religiously following these forums ever since, and been impressed by the quality of the debate, although dismayed by some of the venomous contempt that liberal and conservative Americans apparently hold for each other . My advice : be nice to each other - unless the Pacific Coast and the North-East decide to secede, you all have to live together!

Politically, I'm a moderate conservative, and I usually vote for the Liberal Party ( which is the mainstream conservative party in Australia, and currently holds power nationally, although the left-of-centre Labor Party controls all the state governments ). In US terms, I guess I would be a moderate Republican in the mould of P.J O'Rourke or Arnold Schwarzenegger : in favour of fiscal conservatism, a lower personal income tax burden, streamlined government, social libertarianism, and firmly opposed to any overt moral or religious agenda. I also firmly believe that conservative governments need to govern compassionately, temperately and with an eye to the future well-being of the country, so I support public funding of the education system, environmental management, and a minimal but adequate health and social welfare safety net. Although it tore me in half, at our recent Australian federal election I actually voted against the Howard government and for the opposition Labor party, for a number of reasons : the war in Iraq ( as a soldier, albeit of the weekend-warrior variety, my opinion is that the U.S, Britain and Australia had no business in Iraq until the question of Afghanistan was properly settled. Imagine what could have been achieved there over the last couple of years, in the real frontline of the war on terrorism, with 180,000 + troops and the monetary resources that are instead being expended in Iraq ), the failure to meaningfully reform Australia's income tax system, Howard's blatant ransacking of the federal budget surplus to spend on electoral pork-barelling, and his use of socially divisive "wedge issues" like incarceration and deportation of political asylum-seekers, banning adoptive rights for gay and lesbian couples, and publically attacking our secular state education system for a nebulous "lack of values" for which he never produced any evidence ( it played well to the religious right, though ). Ultimately, on election day I found the Labor Party, despite selling itself to the Green left, less distasteful than the spectacle of my own Liberals prostituting themselves to our budding Australian version of the Christian Right, the Family First party ( some of whose electoral fliers proclaimed mosques, Hindu temples, Freemason lodges, hotels, and bottleshops to be lairs of Satan ). At least now that the Liberals have a majority in our House and Senate, they can govern happily in their own right and commend the Family First god-botherers, with their single Senate seat, to 6 years of bluster and irrelevance. Hopefully the Liberal party I used to respect and support will emerge from the shadows again. Anyway, sorry for the rant, I get quite worked up about politics since I care deeply about this country and its future.

I like Japanese anime, American and German cop shows, British historical dramas, and Chinese wuxia movies ( Zhang Ziyi is the most radiantly gorgeous chick in the entire world - apologies to all current and former women in my life ). I admire the "macho men" of literature from Hemingway and Kipling through to Hunter S. Thompson and P.J O'Rourke. The greatest figures in the last 100 years are Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein and John F. Kennedy. I not only watch cricket, but understand the game as well. I had a stable, happy childhood and don't blame my parents for anything. Sweden is the second nicest country on Earth, after Australia. Beer is the nectar of the gods, and J.S Bach's music is the balm of the soul.

Damn, I didn't mean for this to be so long. My apologies, its end of semester and I've been churning out a lot of rambling essays.

So that's that, and that's me, more or less. Greetings to all of you on these boards - I look forward to joining in the robust debate here, and expanding my political horizons in the process.

[Philip]

Originally Posted by Twilight1978

An introduction But I digress... I'm in my mid 20s, not married, hold dual Australian - British nationality, and am currently living back home with my parents so I can save every cent possible towards my current overriding goal, which is to spend a month studying Swedish in Stockholm early next year,

Hello. No plans on children, heh? How modern of you.

All that water must be nice to hold down the immigration and let Ausies live in a world of denial.

In US terms, I guess I would be a moderate Republican in the mould of P.J O'Rourke or Arnold Schwarzenegger : in favour of fiscal conservatism, a lower personal income tax burden, streamlined government, social libertarianism, and firmly opposed to any overt moral or religious agenda.

How modern of you.

the war in Iraq ( as a soldier, albeit of the weekend-warrior variety, my opinion is that the U.S, Britain and Australia had no business in Iraq until the question of Afghanistan was properly settled.

Not to mention that the Iraq was was illegal, and that Saddam didn't have WMDs in the first place -- and Bush knew it.

Beer is the nectar of the gods, and J.S Bach's music is the balm of the soul.

See, dig deep enough and there's good in almost anyone.

I look forward to joining in the robust debate here, and expanding my political horizons in the process.

Sorry, there's nothing much to debate. There's what I say and that settles it.