Sure the world is going through pretty turbulent times, at the moment. With a war happening in Iraq(right or wrongs of it, notwithstanding), let's just concentrate on what we do best, Electrical stuff!. I certainly agree with the locking out of politics,religion and other "heady" subjects. This would be the first war, where we have had the Internet though.
It is often said that truth is the first victim of war. This time,it was the news groups on the net: the travel NG's are today filled with completely irrelevancies which have rendered them useless and even the engineering and D-I-Y NG's are under fire. Sigh!
Occassionally rec.antiques.radio+phono (a USE-Net newsgroup dedicated to old radio and record player repair and collecting) deviates into politics and a few flame wars...but usually it's pretty placid.