Hello,

I sometimes assume folks know my background, know from which experiences I have developed my opinions, and know what brought me into the realm of political discourse.  But maybe I should restate that information in a concise form...if folks find this repetitive, I apologize.

I was a "geek" before it was "cool" to be a geek.  I graduated Montgomery High School here in Santa Rosa in 1985, after having been very active in the school's computer club and in the computer lab...including making security patches to the software that connected the Apple ][+ computers to a Corvus networked hard drive.

After about a year of school and work, I enlisted in the United States Coast Guard, attended boot camp at Cape May, New Jersey (I-124) during the winter of 1986-87, where I caught pneumonia, which held me back a week, graduating with K-124.

After a year of seamanship at Coast Guard Station Neah Bay, Washington State, I was accepted at Radioman "A" School in Petaluma, California, after which I was assigned to a 378' high-endurance cutter, USCGC Morgenthau. Besides qualifying as a Communications Watch Officer, I also held various collateral duties, including:  Damage Control Petty Officer (DCPO), Automated Data Processing Security Petty Officer (ADPSPO), Ship's systems manager, and editor of the ship's newspaper.

In 1989, we of the crew of Morgenthau crossdecked onto the newly-renovated 378' high-endurance cutter Munro, where I served for the rest of my active duty until April, 1991.

Being very motivated to go back to school, I attended Santa Rosa Junior College, and ended up a student worker in their Computing Services department, which about that time had gotten the campus connected to the California State University Network (CSUNet), then part of what was to become the Internet.  This led to taking a classified position at the school as a "PC/Network Technician", helping to administer and build-out the growing campus network.

In 1992, I became interested in the possibilities of running Unix on 386-class computers, from which came a student project:  building a Linux system, and connecting it to the campus network.  This then became a Unix host, from which students could use the Internet.  From this, we in Computing Services gained the knowledge and experience to operate increasingly-reliable 386-hosted Unix systems and in 1994, I co-founded a company with my best friend and business partner, Dane Jasper.

Circumstances in 1995 led me to resign at SRJC, and go to work full-time for our business, "Sonoma Interconnect", which was later to become "Sonic.net".  It was here that I worked harder than I'd ever worked in my life (which even exceeded the 96-hour work weeks we Radiomen endured while underway on the high-endurance cutters) and in 1998, this pace took a toll on my health.  After a similar "burn out" in 2000, I stepped back a bit from the frenetic pace, and focussed on a mode of semi-retirement, as well as other personal interests.

In 2004, it became clear to me that our 4th Estate here in the United States was sorely lacking, and I began a kind of online activism, calling for reform.  This included participation in online forums, such as Internet Relay Chat channels, from which we've hammered out a lot of political points (and even made progress in some discussions, the results of which have been blogged elsewhere).  Folks that have participated in those discussions have included Americans from many walks of life, Israeli's, Lebanese, Egyptians, Moroccans, Pakistani, and even one student from West Iran.

In short:  When I hear the extremists in our country talk about "real Americans" (in an exclusive way), I have to laugh:  It takes no courage to call people we agree with "Real Americans"; the real test of courage is being brave enough to uphold our most Cherished American Ideals, including defending the right of  people we don't agree with to have their say, as well as being tolerant of other religions and peoples.

Having said all that:  I am a huge stickler for logic and facts, over bluster and lies.  I have a friend who says I use my lists of logical fallacies, cognitive distortions, and so forth like Hong Kong Fooey's "Big Book of Kung Fu"...but however that may be regarded, it is relatively easy for a skeptic who is armed with logic, facts, and integrity to deflate the ill-formed arguments of the extremists and poultroons of this world.  (Easy, yes...but often tedious.)

If I learned anything from my father -- a "Real American", if there ever was one -- it is this:  a person's integrity is their most important possession, and this integrity includes admitting when we are wrong.  As human beings, that is one of the strongest tests of our courage; and our elected officials, as well as our press here in the United States needs to be reminded of that.

Thank you for reading my introduction! :)

 -Scott Doty