"I visit and participate in several music related boards, and this one is the worst by far when it comes to the condescending "tone" in some of these posts."
If you find the "tone" on this board condescending, you must have a limited experience of discussion forums, music related or not. The tone on many, many boards is positively vitriolic. One requires asbestos britches to venture into them. Some are replete with, in the words of the great John Cleese (re Sarah Palin's sentence structure) "unparsable flapdoodle" - love that phrase, btw. Most Lightheads are kindness personified. We all have our moments, of course.
I am an American married 28 years to a Canadian, and have no idea WHY the 2008 election is expected to cost $5.3 BILLION. Forget limits on campaign finance - limit the time spent campaigning, which will itself limit the costs. And reduce the sheer aggravation, which spirals down to boredom and indifference.
Have a nice day!