🚀 go-pugleaf

Joe wrote:
> 
> klaatu <root@earthops.org> wrote:
> 
> >Greater Washington Metropolitan Area. Washington, DC is (again, IMHO) a
> >unique case in that, unlike other cities, this is the Nation's Capitol,
> >and to some degree one can reasonably expect issues of national import
> >to be expressed herein. While certain topics may _seemingly_  have no
> >direct relevance to Metro-Area interests, one can never be entirely
> >certain of the ramifications of those topics, and those topics might
> >well be of interest to more readers than one would think.
> 
> The "unique case" argument is utterly bogus, and it basically means
> that ANYTHING is appropriate for discussion here, which would kind of
> do away with the point of having separate newsgroups in the first
> place.   It's also the flawed logic that motivates losers from parts
> of the country not even remotely close to Washington to spam us with
> crossposts from national newsgroups (this is especially bad in
> dc.politics.)

You still seem to have your own personal definition of the term "spam",
and I assume that anythign that you disagree with is of course by
definition spam. Since, probably, you also define "loser" as anyone with
whom you disagree, of course anyone with whom you disagree is a loser
crossposting spam. FWIW.

> The fact is, though, that Washington residents, the vast bulk of whom
> do not serve in Congress or work in the White House, live normal lives
> like people everywhere else.

And their livelihoods and in fact most probably their industries, are
utterly dependent on Congress doling out the buck$. You do of course
realize what happens to the local economy if Congress gets sick of the
BS and decides to not waste a trillion dollars on cleaning up DC and
environs, and simply goes somewhere else to start afresh? sure they live
normal lives like everyone else...


>  Most of us don't spend our days and
> nights obsessing over Vince Foster, "Primary Colors," and the current
> account deficit.

As for not obsessing about the account deficit, or the national debt,
are you actually saying that Most Washingtonians are actually Stupid?

>   We're more likely to be interested in the quality
> of schools, local crime,  Rock Creek Park, why bluesmaster Robert
> Lighthouse is billed at Madams Organ "every Thursday" but sometimes
> doesn't seem to be there, and where to find a good beer.

In other words, you'd like a newsgroup called dc.local or
dc.trivialities, or dc.schools. Fine. But for things that don't fit some
exact specific category, or whose ramifications rach far beyond the
District Line (things like the impending implosion of the
infrastructure, probably plague within two years, definite revolution if
Welfare is phased out of the two-of-three homes in the District which it
alone supports...) - well, these things are of some admittedly minimal
concern to the rest of the country, who admittedly would probably rather
that DC just sank back into the swamp.

>  There are
> local matters which need to be discussed.   There are also national
> newsgroups for national issues, and there's no reason why people who
> are interested in them can't simply read and post on those groups.
> 
> Rather than monitor posts for content, though, I think the most
> reasonable approach would simply be to automatically cancel any posts
> which are crossposted to any non-DC newsgroups.  It would cut down on
> a lot of the garbage which makes these newsgroups virtually unreadable
> at times.

Ah. An isolationist! But this doesn't sit well with your disdain for
national sovereignity, does it? Or would you rather that people inside
and outside of the Beltway didn't have some cross-discussion in the
newsgroup dedicated to the city of representation?

> 
> By the way, DC is NOT the "nation's capitol."   The Capitol is a
> building.  It's the nation's capitAl -- a phrase which was long ago
> removed from DC license tags in recognition of the fact that it's
> much, much more than just that.

Excuse my tiddly spelling error.

Let's see, what exactly _is_ Washington DC other than the seat of
Government? Well, it's a center of commerce, diplomacy, education, art
and power. It's also, so use someone's words, a stinking cesspool of
corruption, vice and filth.

much much more indeed.

-- 
Be kind to your       | When the going gets weird the weird turn pro.
neighbors even though | http://www.clark.net/pub/klaatu/
they be transgenic    | Now. chock full of uninteresting links.
chimerae.             |-- "How's the weather?" "Kinda, um... spooky."
---- In the Fall: http://www.clark.net/pub/klaatu/infall.html ---------
"Sarah Connor?" All UseNet and BitNet postings are copyrighted.