Bate:

Mike,

I'm usually discouraged from ever participating because of the blatant candidate advocacies using fixed facts, cherrypicking, and ridiculous interpretation. There are arguments somewhere out there, and, while reasonable people can disagree, they can also be persuaded, though usually not by ham fisted hack jobs.

And name calling etc...

Bate:

I generally prefer building reliable institutions to giving direct aid,

"give a man a fish & he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish & he'll eat all his life." Actually, that ain't quite true...Teach a man to fish & he'll sit in a boat and drink beer all day. :-)

Bate:

Of course, those slight differences make have much more notable differences, taken to the level of the whole society.

Not to mention, there is no "silver bullet" to solve these problems...most of them have to be solved over the long term by chipping away at the edges. Of course, when you are one of the victims, it's (understandably) hard to be patient.

Good chatting w/you.

Mike