Newsgroups like alt.fan.noam-chomsky and alt.politics are a good places to get a feel of what the mood of the politically loud-mouthed is.There's a fair bit of rhetoric, much jockeying for position, posturing, pontificating and rampant back-pedalling attacks. Really it's all just a big pissing contest. Still, in the storm of ego and self-conscious witticism--and I am often no better than most of the participants if I stick around in these things too long--there are some good points made. But mostly I go back for visits to refresh my distaste for the adversarial forum. And to fire off shots from the grand stand.