Having burned karma in the past few months in defending my views on President Bush, the war in Iraq, global warming, stem cell research, and other subjects on which I hold minority opinions, I got discouraged and moved over to digg.com. There are many features about the slashdot system I miss. Direct links to all comments, friends and foes, and even this journal. What I despise are the story submission process and the moderation system, both for the same reason. Slashdot is run by an unaccountable elite. I assume it is the folks in the "Hall of Fame" and a few hundred of their fascist friends. The quality of story selection and editing has declined dramatically in the past 5 years, and a liberal group think has come to dominate the moderation system. I can't say what it takes to get mod points but I haven't gotten any in 6 years, even with an excellent karma. All I know is if you are the wrong side of the issue and get modded into oblivion without having your postings be fairly judged by a wider audience. And there is nothing you can do about it.

Things are refreshingly different on digg. The open moderation system gets rid of the elites. The moderation system allows your comments to reflect their true value to interested readers, not just the aristocracy. Moderate all you like, but once per comment. Also, there are a lot more submissions so the site is a more useful summary of the news that matters. (How often have you shook your head at the eclectic trash that appeals to the Slashdot junta.) So visit digg.com and create an account. I will be happy to refute my foes there openly and fairly.

The slashdot junta as taken a page from the islamist fascists and put me in the penalty box again for conservative thought crimes. If I have offended anyone...good!

My viewpoints tend to be right of center. I present them with seriousness, crystaline clarity, and brutal honesty. For this the leftie poo-bahs who mismanage this site have revoked my posting privileges. I'll be back soon, so don't grow complacent!

July 1 the Space Shuttle Discovery will lift off to the International Space Station, the beginning of a 17 flight series to finish the station and to retire, we hope.

By NASA manager's own admission the shuttle has a 1 in 100 chance of catastrophic failure and loss of crew. The odds are about 1 in 60 if you consider past performance. In 17 flights there is a 17-25% chance of losing the shuttle and an abrupt end to 7 astronauts shuttle program, as well as space station construction. For what is supposed to be a safety driven program after Challenger and Columbia I would expect better odds than Russian Roulette.

Due to excessive bad posting from this IP or Subnet, comment posting has temporarily been disabled. If it's you, consider this a chance to sit in the timeout corner . If it's someone else, this is a chance to hunt them down. If you think this is unfair, please email moderation@slashdot.org with your MD5'd IPID and SubnetID, which are "aea3ad606f964cb4b710951d75318d6a" and "1891c2a094156c527212d3a9f7ea37a4" and (optionally, but preferably) your IP number "132.189.76.18" and your username "amightywind".

The jackasses that moderate this site have suspended me again. This time for expressing an opinion that 67% of US citizens have: supporting government international phone record data analysis. By supressing serious dissenting opinion over the years Slashdot has become a slimy orgy of discredited liberalism accented by Microsoft servitude. Why are you afraid serious opposition?

Seems the slashdot priesthood has decided to drastically reduce mod points on the site. Yay! This is a big improvement given the extreme volatility of the previous system and the tendency to have serious, but edgy commentary downmodded by those enemies of free speech with too many extra points to spend. Amightywind is pleased because he will be suspended from posting less often and his important message will be read more often.