Jon, I agree with you...to an extent.  The legal and political climate as it
impacts intellectual property (itself a legal concept) and hence Squeak are
of great importance.  Politicians, when empowered to establish public policy
on topics for which they lack understanding is a dangerous thing, and it is
everyone's duty to voice their opinion on these matters (but perhaps not in
this forum).

Should it be allowed to degenerate into an ideological flame war?...no,
that's not productive, but, you are right...it's very easy for that to
happen.  And, it certainly wouldn't be the first time that ideology became a
substitute for thoughtful debate.

- Stephen

> Everyone,
>
> This is the second political-leaning posting to the Squeak list in as
> many days... Issues like this, when discussed on mailing lists have a
> tendency to make good people say stupid things, and flame wars start,
> and in general results in a lot of bad community feelings.
>
> I really don't want to see our Squeak community torn apart by the
> strong positions that people have on political and religious issues.
> If you're a Squeak programmer, I don't care what your political or
> religious beliefs are. I don't want to talk about them or even read
> about them. In person, sure. On the list, no way.
>
> Let's just not go there...
>
> Later,
> Jon
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------
>    Jon Hylands      Jon at huv.com      http://www.huv.com/jon
>
>   Project: Micro Seeker (Micro Autonomous Underwater Vehicle)
>            http://www.huv.com
>