I meant this to be a reply to the thread about Mrs. Obama's trip. Wish there was a way to edit or delete a post, sorry...

Just because that's the way of the KT...that's why.
Always has been and always will be.

IMHO, there is no way you can start a thread about a politician (or the spouse, child, etc. of a politician) without it eventually becoming a politically-oriented discussion. I mean, even if the subject starts out being about their choice of clothing, vacations, etc. it will always 'degenerate' into politics.

I think it is rather sad and can just about predict when a post will have 'crappy' replies, and like you said, will turn political.

The thing is, there is a site for those who feel strongly about their political positions, over at the Hot Topic site. I guess it depends on what color we are red - blue, or shades in between, if we think the replies are crappy or not, but even so, I don't think the Kitchen Table is the place to get into these discussions. JMO

peanut butter is great on a spoon

So after all of the years I have been a member here, I have to ask, where is the Hot Topics? Is it a Ivillage forum? I think there must be a broad definition of what "turning political" is. I am not being naieve here, and have seen my share of dustups, but this just seems overboard. IMHO, of course.

Hot Topics is on the Gardening side, not the Home side of the website. And I agree completely with Dotmom, I don't like to see it here on KT, or any other forum except HT. I like to have perfectly nice fun conversations with people without ever knowing their politics. I enjoy political discussions just fine, but in the proper place.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hot Topics

Oh yeaaaahh peanut butter on a spoon! Occasionally on a wild and crazy night, chocolate sprinkles on the peanut butter!

LIL

Thanks for the link. I'll check it out.

Yo!

Peanut butter on a BIG spoon is the BEST! Had not thought about the chocolate 'sprinkles'. Would chocolate chips work?

sooey
who has a big ol' bag of chocolate chips at the ready...

MMM Peanut butter on a BIG SPOON is wonderful and with most anything is great. I've tried the peanut butter and bacon snacks, (not bad not great IMHO). But after the peanut butter if it is Chocolate IT WORKS!!!!!!!

The deity blessed us with George Washington Carver, the inventor of peanut butter, Milton Hersey, the inventor of milk chocolate and Harry Burnett (H.B.) Reese the man who had the great intelligence to combine the 2 and make peanut butter cups.

LIL

Why not SOB?

Just be very careful when eating a big gob from a big spoon. Recently I choked on a big ole gob...didn't know if I should call 911 or my neighbors (who would have called 911) or what. I tried to remain calm, and took small sips of warm water until the 'clog' passed.

Sue

Sue-that's why you never give peanut butter on a spoon to a little kid.
How about PB topped with Nutella?I tried that last night and it was
GOOOOD!

Is that peanut butter on a BLUE spoon or a RED spoon? (Sorry, couldn't resist adding some heat to the topic) :P

I don't understand why you're ridiculing vicki's post and making fun of her/it. Why not just leave it alone, or contribute something worthwhile, instead of being disrespectful of her?

Vickie, I agree with you. Unfortunately, it seems that if someone likes a politician they defend him/her to the end, and if they don't like the politician they will criticize. It'd be so interesting to know what the stands would be if the politicians were reversed.

Yeah I agree, if you don't have anything to add to a post, what do you get out of being rude? It is easy to scroll right by to something that does interest you.

...and because a discussion about peamut butter is about cerebral as you're going to get.

....see.. cerebral...not..peaNut butter.

See what I mean?? It's all in how one interprets what has been written.
I don't know about everyone else who mentioned peanut butter but I was only trying to change the subject before things got messy (which they sortta did)! LOL
I certainly was not ridiculing or making fun of you Vickie,and if it sounded that way to you I am so sorry and I apologize.

this is serious......I like to freeze some peanut butter and then
scrape it...................lasts longer, yummy

vicki7
If this offended you I apologize as well. The peanut butter is a diversion and meant only to keep the thread from going to a bad place. Although it seems someone has to find fault anyway. BTW I agree with your opinion of mentioning anything about a politicians anything. The topic will eventually go sour. It seems even posting an opinion of a political post will generate a sore spot somewhere along the line. Bummer.

Sue,
I'm very glad you kept your cool and didn't succumb to a glob of peanut butter. Thanks for the warning I'll be most careful doing the spoonful of peanut butter from now on.

lindakathy,
LOL! peamut butter vision of Mr Peanut's little peanut dog lifting his leg.

paleblue,
Will scraping frozen peanut butter with the teeth cause brain freeze, like biting ice cream or slurping a slurpy too fast?

Have a great night.

LOL

....how classy.

I'd like to add this thought. If you don't want to join a discussion, then IGNORE it!! Some people may want to discuss something that they find interesting. If the thread becomes heated, so be it. Hijacking a thread with mundane posts is beyond rude and juvenile.

I was going to scroll on by, but I just couldn't resist picking a fight...

I think peanut butter is far better on waffles than on a spoon. And it has to be smooth, not chunky!

Sheesh...some folks just get their feathers ruffled too easily. Chill out.

I agree with you Lindakathy.

Unfortunately there are a lot of people who think it's their job to decide who can talk about what and what they can or cannot say.

This thread was not about anyone in particular but about discussing politics in general. If you don't have anything intelligent to add, SOB. Coming in and posting about peanut butter with the express intent of hijacking the thread is just as LK said, "beyond Rude and Juvenile". It's really not your all's decision what is discussed. Start your own thread.

It's a control issue and it's really old.

People, people. This is simply not the forum for political discussions, period. There is a forum for that and the explanation at the top explicitly asks that there be no religious or political discussions. Hot Topics is really fun to read sometimes! Go there and post, you may enjoy it. Pretty much anything goes, except for profanity of course.

Unfortunately there are a lot of people who think it's their job to decide who can talk about what and what they can or cannot say.
Actually it is GW that has spelled out the rules pretty clearly in the forum instructions here. It is sad though that anything innocently said about the First Lady usually turns into a bashing thread, usually by the same posters.

{{gwi:28822}}

Then I suggest that we let the GW folks decide what is an acceptable conversation and what is not, rather than the resident forum police.

And I don't believe GW put any of the posters here in charge of enforcing those rules.

The "you can't do that" and the "why hasn't this thread been pulled" forum police and tattle tales gets really old. The ones that open the thread, the thread that they are wanking about, 10 times just to scold everybody who is responding is comical!

Once again, who put you in charge of what is discussed? That is GW's job last I heard.

Anyone remember those snitty girls in junior high school who would gang up and pick on others and make fun, and then when other people called them on it and asked them to stop and be polite, were even more fueled and took delight at keeping it up, in an ill-fated attempt to make themselves look cool?

Deja-vu all over again.

Wow, so many replies! As I said, my intent was to just reply to the thread about Mrs. Obama's vacation, but somehow in my distractedness (if that is even a word) I ended up starting a thread. As soon as I saw what I'd done, I wished I could delete it and put it in the right place, but apparently there's no way to do that.
I appreciate all the kind words, but I didn't feel offended or disrespected at all.
Vicki

Vicki7, you posted an intelligent and thoughtful subject, within the guild lines of KT. I guess rudeness of hi=jacking, is the acceptable mode of expressing one's displeasure or boredom of a subject. Thank you for letting us know, I'll remember that.

No wonder the forum says to avoid subjects like politics and religion. I don't want to step on anyone's toes. Too many friends here.

......"distractedness"...........

Vicki
I don't really care if it is a "real" word or not I like it. It has a certain ring to it and completely defines some of the patterns of my thought processes on the busy days.
I'm glad you are not offended about the thread going off the wall or hi-jacked as it has been called. Those in the rigid world of the post police are offended/upset enough for you. I think when you posted the disclaimer how you meant it to go to anther thread it just became a fun place to pretty much agree with you by getting silly and deliberately not talking politics. Its been fun.

BTW how do you like peanut butter ? ;)

LIL

And who is fueling the fire, the ones who thinks this belongs in HT or the ones who don't???

LIL,

Well put!

And who is fueling the fire, the ones who thinks this belongs in HT or the ones who don't???
What??? This thread? Why?

I hate peanut butter!

Distractedness: It is a word! LOL
From freedictionaryonline.com

Dis`tract´ed`ness
n. 1. A state of being distracted; distraction
Chemocurl-Love that little chicken dance!

Actually, peanut butter is my weakness. Especially if I'm dieting, for some reason I crave peanut butter. Straight out of the jar... yummy! I had some on a chunk of fresh Italian bread just before sitting down at the computer.

Here I'm at the library ... no peanut butter within a half a mile!

Actually, the head of our third party said years ago that the difference between the other two was about like Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee.

It seems to me too bad that a number of our politicians seem more loyal to their party than to the country, itself.

I used to like my peanut butter chumky ...
... back when I had teeth.

Used to like peanuts, too - but peanuts and plates don't go well together.

Cashews are O.K. (when the plates are out). And peanuts are passable, then, too - if you have time enough to soak 'em. Like in a car on a long trip, with no companion to talk to.

Let's take ourselves a little less seriously, shall we?

ole joyful ... who enjoys peanut butter ... and political discussions, (religious ones, as well) when people discuss some real issues from a much less partisan point of view

When I want peanut butter I want peanut butter not nuts. When I want nuts I want them whole and solid or will just come here to find them.

Not naming names, but certain people so enjoy adding to threads like this and make it their THANG

Four days past the original post and I cannot think of anything to say either meaningful, clever or tacky.

Let's see didn't Elvis like peanit butter?

"Not naming names, but certain people so enjoy adding to threads like this and make it their THANG"

Glenda, I thought it was you who brought up peanut butter in the first place????

LOL Glenda! Who's thang should it be?

I suppose we can drag it back to a discussion of opinions of political posting if we try hard. Do you think discussions of politics are as sticky as peanut butter?

LIL

The only issue I have with Hot Topics is that it tends to draw a different kind of poster. People who like to win an argument rather than have a discussion.

It can be intimidating if that's not your motive - to up someone.

I've never understood why the topic can't be discussed amongst a different group of people with a different intent.

And I have to agree - the whole peanut butter thing was just rude. This discussion didn't need distraction - it was doing just fine.

"... and political discussions, (religious ones, as well) when people discuss some real issues from a much less partisan point of view"
Well said Joyful.

People often cry foul (or occasionally fowl) when they don't agree with something, and quote the politics "prohibition", ignoring the simple fact that although politics and religion are encouraged to be avoided, it's seldom pulled therefore it's condoned by the webmasters. Religion is another topic stated to be avoided, but that little "prohibition" is ignored often here and I seldom see people complain about that. I doubt that a day has gone by in a long long time without religion coming up. Interesting, isn't it?

There's a thing called "netiquette". Like the forum "rules" aren't actually rules, but guidelines. Essentially says, among other things, that it's bad taste to hijack a thread and the like. Threads often go off topic. It happens. Sometimes it goes back on topic or they might post a new thread. To me the peanut butter thing wasn't offensive. Perhaps slightly rude, but just seemed more childish to me. Probably well-intended that went sour? Let's face it, it happens.

Politics, religion, sex, abortion... all topics recently discussed here, and often discussed whether we like it or not. And there's always complaints, hijacks, an occasional heated discussion and otherwise to keep things lively and entertaining.

To me what's offensive is when someone makes a legitimate post and then is made to feel bad about it because some with thin skin object to it. I'm not criticizing people who disagree and say so, that's fine.

Cynic, when you say religion is discussed here all the time, I wonder what you mean. Nobody is badmouthing anyone's religion but political discussions always end up that way, including this one. The peanut butter "discussion" was a kind way to gently dissuade political banter; I thought it was cute. Feathers are ruffled when political and religious OPINIONS are discussed, without fail. Lack of these threads is what keeps people friendly on this site, in my opinion.