I am probably the fairest man on this forum tbh. Zarf can give me a run for my money but there is one difference.

I have shown, in the most solid of proofs, that I shall never break my promise and reply to my ignore list. My word is unquestionable if I promise, and I have never ever had problems admitting I was wrong.

Now Zarf has never been in a position where he needed to give his word and keep it, though I trust him implicitly. Hell if he was a woman, and I have said this about Chris as well, I would do anything to marry him... err her...

Now I get called on my stuff a lot. And when I am in error I admit it. So a fairer judge he could not get.

I may be the only truth speaking politician in the world. But my word is my bond.

I wear myself on my sleeve as far as truth goes. I may experiment with peoples minds and ideals, I may try unique methods, but I always am truthful.

If someone else puts up money they can make rules. My money, my rules.

If we both put up a grand then a judge would be fair.

I won't change my mind on this with any level of goading.

> Xeno says:

> The first judge I nominate is Simon.

Aww thanks Xeno.

> Flint says:

> I am probably the fairest man on this forum tbh.

What is fair?

> I have shown, in the most solid of proofs, that I shall never break my promise and reply to my ignore list.

Not directly no, I guess. There certainly are posts you've made emphasizing that you don't respond to your ignore list following posts by those on your ignore list.

>My word is unquestionable if I promise

You need a promise for that? So anything you say not followed by an "I promise" is trolling?

> and I have never ever had problems admitting I was wrong.

You can start by admitting the crap you posted in the EPA thread to be crap.

> Now I get called on my stuff a lot. And when I am in error I admit it.

Again, you can start with the EPA thread.
BTW, I know you did not even bother to look at "data" presented in your link because I actually made a mistake.

> I may be the only truth speaking politician in the world. But my word is my bond.

LOL. Remember the climate change thread? You posted a bunch of links as if they supported your view. Somebody went through a bunch of those links and found that none of the links supported your claims. You were questioned on that, and you responded with "I did not even look at the links" (or something to that effect). I guess technically you told the "truth", but effectively it is equivalent to:

Simon: "Flint, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth...and promise?"

Flint: "I think the sky is blue."

It doesn't make you any more trustworthy.

"Re: Xeno you are challenged

Simon the ranks of untrustables in my view is (minus ignore list):

Xeno
Bara
Then you

Yes you are third least trustable to me."

Excellent.  I have chosen my first judge wisely, then. 

I don't understand how the left is always viewed as egotistic and elitist. They just use logical arguments and empirical data to back up their claims.

> V.Kemp wrote:

> Because they're egotistic and elitist. Their philosophy revolves around governments being smarter and more capable than people. They overtly claim to know better than others, even in decisions which only affect the people making them. They justify slavery to the state, as if the state is capable of efficiently helping the disadvantaged. It takes a MASSIVE ego to justify slavery.

The "right" is frequently guilty of this as well, but their opponents usually choose to label them as crazy rather than egocentric and elitist.

And this explains the view and the disparity! You're all a bunch of egocentric elitists. Maybe you don't belong in my workplace, my home, or my bedroom. Think about it?

This is a generalization that isn't exactly accurate. And slavery is quite the overstatement of what government is about. If government imposed slavery, then faith imposes slavery too. Most importantly, however is the percieved disconnect between intellect and the "mainstreet guy". There is no principle that says that intellect and rationality are mutually exclusive from the "other people".

What are the criteria for elitism? Because if I list a case, you'll just call him elitist.

Faith doesn't use force? What about the crusades?

I have seen a whole lot of banter back and forth, people calling others untrustworthy etc, and even things about the money (already been told off about the money already, so drop the whole money issue thing). Talk about elitism, etc, is not on topic, so if you wish to discuss this, please start another thread.

Furthermore, shunning/ignoring people indefinately/certain period of time is pointless. It doesn't help rectify the situation/issues and only seeks to alienate users even more (yeah, keeping them out of the loop REALLY changes their behaviour). If we look at international politics, more recent choices for dealing with foreign states acting in internationally unacceptable ways (Iran, Syria to name 2), is to start trade sanctions in order to put pressure on the country in question. Not only does it not support the problems, but it causes hard times for the countries in question (I believe Syria's GDP did drop due to trade sanctions). When a nation choses to cooperate with the larger community, trade sanctions are slowly lifted. What this does, is creates an incentive to change the behaviour in order to gain from it. Why I mention this, is because the politics forum is interesting because of its diversity, but to that end, everyone needs to be able to debate things in a fair and well sought out manner. So wouldn't sanctions against forum postings be a much more suitable form of adhering to the communities expectations (and this goes for a lot of parties here, Flint, you have dodged questions in the past, or resorted to attacking people's character also). I am not saying that people should be ignoring/sanctioning others or attacking others because of their views, but for the way they argue/act (ie. ignoring questions, name calling, bullying, etc).

SO, in short, everyone keep it on topic, and lets not resort to high school behaviour of bullying/insulting/attempting to create groups (ie. we are the cool kids, and we are all going to shun you if you dont do what I say)...I am watching, and if this deviates anymore I will close it! Get back to the topic!