This forum is about to get a lot more interesting.

[Shaktimaan]

108. why are you waffling?

You just spent several posts defending rense as having a few anti-zionists (as opposed to being an outright anti-semitic, holocaust denying blog), of speaking the truth (thus garnering neo-con criticism), of being libertarian and not right-wing, etc. Clearly you've spent time there and have a certain amount of respect for its content. On that note, from what I can see, the rhetoric on that website has not changed greatly since its beginning. If that is the kind of place that you get your information from then why not just admit it? Why spend so much space defending it only to then act as though you don't know anything about it.

But if people here are allowed to quote the Islamophobic JP or NYT then it should be proper to balance out the views by presenting articles from Rense, antiwar, or other sites.

So you are comparing the most respected newspaper in America with a truly odious blog, rife with racism, holocaust denial, conspiracy theories, anti-semitism and bigotry? It kind of reminds me of when intelligent design people insist on "teaching the debate." As though it makes sense to pretend that the two sides are in any way the equivalent of once another. This is ignoring the fact that the NYT isn't even on the "other side" of rense. It's certainly not Islamophobic in any way. Is reporting that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in some way controversial? Are you honestly proposing that we should give equal time to people who argue that the Holocaust is a sham, that the Protocols are legitimate and Monica Lewinsky is a Mossad agent? How about people that argue that black people are not as evolved as white people? Once we eliminate any and all journalistic standards then where is the cutoff? If we are going to allow a random blog that has almost no truthful facts in it then isn't EVERYTHING fair game?

Look, you can choose to put your faith in a blog like rense, none of us can stop you. We can't stop those who believe the rhetoric of white supremacist groups either (some of whom rense links to btw.) Personally I find it comforting to know that someone who holds your weird views has been informed from such nauseating organizations. Were you educated in a normal fashion from legitimate sources I would be fearful about how such a thing could happen. But there will always be fringe weirdos who are convinced that THEY have the truth while the rest of the 99% of the country is just brainwashed.