Hello, I am an online editor. I have been interested in politics all my life and have been involved in getting out the vote since before I could vote. I am very concerned with extent of influence today's Corporations have over public policy. Political spectrum wise, I fall a little to the left and a little toward government control. I know there are no simple answers and I am appalled by both MSNBC and FOX. Most mainstream news is garbage about things that aren't newsworthy. I have little respect for opinions that aren't founded on hard and verifiable evidence. I look forward to some lively, and hopefully informative, discussions.
Welcome. Enjoy the discussions! Your last sentence could use some clarification. Are you saying that you don't respect people's beliefs? Beliefs are not supposed to be founded on hard and verifiable evidence.
There is a difference between "belief" and "opinion". People are free to believe what they want, those beliefs may be based on hard, verifiable evidence or they may be a matter of faith in some intangible value. Opinions, however may be based on varying degrees of evidence. I place much higher value on opinions based on hard verifiable evidence than on those based on belief. For example If Joe tells me that the painting is beautiful and Sam tells me it is ugly. That's a matter based on belief in the intangible, in this case "beauty". However, if Joe tells me that the painting is done in blues and Sam tells me the painting is done in greens. That can be confirmed one way or the other through a color analysis. The answer may well fall somewhere in the middle. Joe's opinion, not based on color analysis is or no greater value that Sam's opinion, not based on color analysis. However if Joe comes to me with a color analysis demonstrating that the painting is done in blues and Sam provides no such evidence. Then Joe's original opinion is proven correct.
laboratory - any place, situation, set of conditions, or the like, conducive to experimentation, investigation, observation, etc Life is a lab.