Hello to all... you guessed it, I'm new here...

I'll try to keep things brief initially, as judging by the subject matter covered here, I'm certain that I'll get into plenty of quality discussions of greater depth with many of you. I've been kind of lurking at ATS for a few weeks now and find it very interesting.

A very little about me...

Occupation: I'm a self-employed television producer in my late 20s. Why television? Because I believe that the "video arts" are the key to communicating in our lifetime. I work in the mainstream for the time being for the sake of honing my craft so that am able to produce pieces and films of richer content down the road. The invention of television is as significant as the invention of the Guttenberg Press, and we're only roughly 50 years in.

Politics: The all-encompassing "independent". Social liberal with liberterian leanings. I believe in balanced budgets, helping those in our society who are defenseless, etc. However, those who know me would never accuse me of being a bleeding heart. I plan on voting for John Kerry as the "lesser of two evils" in spite of many reservations. If one of these two pricks is going to end up as our President, I would prefer him over our current chimp.

Stance On Conspiracy/deception theories: I have an open mind but require a good deal of empirical evidence to entertain them past the initial arguments. I am certainly closer to the "mainstream" than a good deal of the people on this board, but that's only my guess. I personally feel like my acceptance of a lot of the wider conspiracy theories would only be a defense mechanism to hedge against fear of failure.

Hobbies/Random: I am an avid guitar player and songwriter. Favorite filim is The Shawshank Redemption, though I am a student of film history and semiotics. Favorite music is American Rock, the favorite artists being the Black Crowes (hence my handle hahaha) and Pearl Jam, however, I am an enthusiastic fan of all kinds of music; these include (not exclusively) blues, R&B, country/western, reggae, jazz, classical, hip-hop and soul. I enjoy beer, liquor and wine in great moderation, as well as left-handed cigarettes, though I am attempting to ween off of the latter temporarily for the sake of my personal health. I am a huge fan of most sports, mainly baseball.

Reading: My favorite magazines are The Atlantic Monthly and Reason, both of which I read cover to cover every month. The vast majority (99%) of what I read is nonfiction. My favorite authors are Hunter S. Thompson, Jack Kerouac, Al Franken, Nietzsche, Mark Twain, William Grieder, Neil Postman, Noam Chomsky, Robert McChesney and David Halberstam.

So much for keeping it brief, but I hope this gives y'all an overview of where I'm coming from.

If you made it this far, I look forward to some quality discussion, and thanks for reading.

...lefthanded cigarettes....

Welcome Aboard ATS. Hope you enjoy your time here.

If you have any questions or require any assistance, feel free to message a Staff Member. Links to message us directly can be found on the lefthand side of the main Forum page...just click on one of our names.

Much appreciated, alien. I'll do my best to be good.

Most eloquent intro I have seen in a while.

Welcome aboard!

What do you think about the release of Mark Chapman?

hey welcome to ats its a cool site lots of interesting posts and yeah welcome

Greetings, Captain_Amorica. Feel free to U2U me if you have any questions.

Originally posted by MaskedAvatar
Most eloquent intro I have seen in a while.

(Blushes) Just a product of too much time on my hands. But thanks

Originally posted by MaskedAvatar
What do you think about the release of Mark Chapman?

I thought he got denied?

Honestly, I was so young when the murder happened that I don't even really remember it apart from my mother's reaction. Part of me feels like people can be "rehabilitated" or whatever, particularly those like Chapman who obviously suffered from some sort of dementia.

On the other hand, he took John Lennon away from us, and there is part of me that wants him to rot in jail for that regardless of the circumstances.

But I'm not one of those crazy Beatles fans who wants to kill him if he gets out or anything. Mostly I feel like at this point, it's probably enough for him to know what he did and have everyone in the free world that he comes across know what he did, and he has to live with that whether he's incarcerated or not. As long as he doesn't make any money off of his crime, I'm mostly okay with letting him go if he's deemed rehabilitated (which doesn't seem to be the case).

Welcome to Ats, Captain_Amorica

Any questions feel free to u2u me
enjoy the site have fun.

se7en

Welcome and enjoy your stay here at the great ATS!

I appreciate the welcome, y'all. Best welcome I can remember on a message board - people don't normally go out of their way to welcome n00bs like that, particularly people with a crapload of career posts.

I will say - I am quite intrigued by the "debate tournaments" that occur here, though I think I should probably wait a bit to get myself involved in that respect.

Cheers.

Welcome to ATS.

If you have any questions fell free to U2U me and check out the "Answers to FAQ's" thread in my signature.

See you around the boards.

Most excellent Chomsky quote, Gools.

It's been a while, but that's from the 12/01 conference speech, is it not?

Thanks. I'm a fan of Chomsky's.

I've read several of his books and I am a Znet Sustainer so I have access to Chomsky Chat. Not sure where I copied the quote from but I think it was on the Znet site.

Here is another I often use:

"The victory of arms leaves the issues where they were, though the triumphalist cries of vindication should serve as a warning for those who care about the future." Noam Chomsky - 2001

This one is also from the Znet site ( www.zmag.org... )