You're right, Lepus - the political discussions can be fascinating here because of who the posters are and because of their interests. However, if the posters don't use names, how do you know who they are and what their interests are? If they communicate only by throwing cut-and-paste articles at each other, how do you know what their own ideas are?
It's true that links die after a time. That's why I ask people to post both a link and a summary of the article they cite.

Then there's this idea of the huge number of threads that get started, that make such a hodgepodge of our discussion. They make it a matter of "survival by verbosity." Those of us who think before we write, have no chance against the compulsively verbose people who want to take over all political discussion here.

I live with a wonderful wife, her 13-yr-old son, and my 88-yr-old mother-in-law. Oftentimes, it's difficult to carry on an "adult conversation" in this house because two of the family members don't know how to participate in the flow of conversation, to follow ideas as they develop and wait their turn to have their say. I think it's quite the same with our compulsive thread-starters here. They don't know how to have an adult conversation, so they keep departing from the flow of ideas by jumping out to start new threads. That way, you end up with a conversation that no reasonable person can follow.

-Joe Offer-