It's a finely nuanced position, or at least, I think it should be; in America it's permissible to hate people, even whole races, as a matter of policy. You can despise others in your heart as long as you TREAT them as equals, don't discriminate or encourage abuse. Of course, it's one thing to police actions rather than thoughts and quite another to allow indoctrination of children, but that seemed to be the issue, whether they were "just" white supremacists or teaching their kids to actively persecute others (though it's ultimately a matter of semantics, since one group can't be "better" unless the rest are "worse. " ) I think the authorities breathed a huge sigh of relief when they found something to which they could unambiguously point as undeniable harm but, as I say, turning your kids into social misfits ought to qualify. There's a great many things America will tolerate without condoning (another fine point) but that doesn't necessarily mean it's right. And with kids, well, it's OK to believe in a flat earth, too, but teaching impressionable kids to do so might be going too far.

Right, and sorry if I seemed to take you to task too harshly; you had the misfortune to provide what seemed the best place to add my two cents (adjusted for inflation. ) There are standards, and they're there for a reason; you don't have to educate your kids in public or even private schools, you can do it yourself in the living room--but you DO have to educate them, and I think that's a positive and reasonable requirement. Meet the state requirements, one way or the other; I don't even insist a persons kids necessarily agree with the accepted views (and at a detailed level they're debated even among those who accept many general premises) but they should at least understand them well enough they aren't objecting for lack of an unbroken descent from chimps to humans (to use just one of many examples. )

I've only done Vent once, and I MUCH prefer Skype. My one time on Vent everything was in channels, including people none of the wotmaniacs convening knew, because it was just whoever showed up, and for some reason one of the "mods" or whatever decided to keep moving people around from channel to channel for amusement. Plus, as simple as it was, I did need a little quick coaching to get through the initial setup so I could talk; with Skype I just download, install and ask people I know to add me. I went from "start download" to "Hello...?" in about 5-10 minutes, no setup required. The chat works like a normal chat, the calls like normal calls and the group calls like conference calls (meaning no one shows up unless the host agrees. ) You can find me by name separated with an underscore if you like; I have no idea how to get you on Vent, but I suppose I could try. Fiancee doesn't have it though.

I totally hear you about the past couple weeks; I spent them trying to convince my companys FML carrier not to get me fired due to a mistake by them that they ultimately admitted to my employer (their client. ) Hope things are getting a little less stressful for you and you get some time to relax with mindless computer games soon.