It took me a while to try and read what you wrote. I don't think I got it all, but I got the gist of it. I can no longer read well, nor write even less in Greek. It has been a very long time for me. I was never fluent, but I did learn enough in Greek school to be understood by the Greeks. My wife was Greek, and I had to learn it, attending Greek school, before she would marry me. Of course having a live in dictionary helped. :lol: So you can see how much I cared for her.

kukla means doll. That is what I always called my youngest.

I have been called many names, by 'professional' name callers, so it no longer bothers, nor affects, me. I just consider the source and proceed on my way. :lol:

I'm waiting for one of those gurus to come up with the idea of "give away" high school diplomas. Everybody knows that lack of a high school education causes increased poverty, crime and other unpleasant things. So, sooner or later, some doofus is going to insist that these problems will be solved by ensuring a diploma - no matter what you do, or don't do. You wouldn't even have to show up for classes, just come by, pick up your diploma, and all your problems will be solved.

These boneheads have such a disconnect from real life. They cannot understand what a disservice they are doing to these kids and as a result, the entire country. Being highly educated is not the same as being highly intelligent, but you'll never get the highly educated to see that.

I have been a lurker, here, for a while. I have watched quite a few of the discussions develop over a period of a few weeks. I find one can learn a great deal from quietly watching. I thought I would register and leave a few observations. But first we need to define what an internet troll is.

I like Wikipedia's definition. In Internet slang, a troll (/ˈtroʊl/, /ˈtrɒl/) is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a forum, chat room, or blog), either accidentally or with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.

That is a good definition, but it does nothing to explain the purpose. The purpose of the troll is to stifle dissenting opinion. They want to stop any conversation where ideas which differ from theirs are expressed. The reason is to dominate the political arena by shutting up and out any differing opinion.

I do not know who manages this site, but my guess would be it is one of the left wing ideologues who try to dominate and ultimately shut down debate that disagrees with them. There seem to be quite a few folks (Tasine, Ginny, Old Gringo, oldroy and others) who attempt serious, fact based discussion. These people will present factual information with serious supporting links.

Which brings us to the trolls. I regularly see the likes of Kevyn, Brian Devon, Armegeddun, Hungry Freaks, Raylan Wolfe, retired669 and a couple of others try to shut down discussion with profane, off topic rants. Or they support their positions with a far left opinion site, such as addictinginfo or mediamatters and no real fact. They then call the opponent all sorts of vile, profane names.

Which returns to my point, that this site seems more oriented to shutting down comment from right wingers, than supporting an honest exchange of ideas. The question in my mind is, was OPP developed as a trolling site, to stifle Conservative speech, or did it devolve to that?

Yeah, and who ever heard of the essay being optional? But then, if you can't read, you're not likely to be able to write either. Now days, even in elementary school, if you can read, write and do arithmetic, they want to put you in an advanced class. We scratch our heads as to why our kids are so much further behind than other nations kids and then do crap like this. I think our "experts" need to spend some time in the classroom teaching and less time patting each other on the back for being so "smart".