Ya know....I was just going to let this thread die the death it deserves, MAINLY for the reason that many of you here have already expressed...that being that NO MATTER what or HOW each of our opinions ARE expressed, few is any of us are going to change the other's "beliefs".

BUT...after coming back and reading this WHOLE thread yet again, I have noticed that there may be ONE CONSTANT in each of our arguments that I think are very telling as to how some here present POLEMIC opinions, i.e. "the Party Line" and thus contribute to this forgone conclusion as an irrelevant exercise.

If any of you would ALSO re-read this, I think you would see that my earlier "treatise" on my views shows a willingness to look at BOTH SIDES in this debate and cast aspersions upon BOTH Political Parties, my fellow Americans, my fellow world inhabitants AND EVEN MYSELF... BECAUSE if I know ANYTHING, it's that NO ONE is ALWAYS RIGHT, and that WE ALL share in some way the responsibility of why this world IS not the way each of us would care to see it.

BUT, what I've ALSO noticed is that the move "conservative" or "right-of-center" each individual here is the MORE LIKELY to catagorically blame the "other-side" for ALL the ills of society.

This, "It's THEIR fault" or those "wacko Krisna democrats" mentality (and BTW...did I ever associate any of those here with the KKK or "The Aryan Nation" or any other EXTREME right-wing organization? NO!!!), served up WITHOUT a counter-balanced thought presented by the presenter, showing an AWARENESS that in most regards WE ARE ALL culpable to some degree in this REALITY, which I view this circumspection as the ESSENCE of REALITY, is what I lament IS MISSING in many of the arguments presented by the "proud to be a Conservative" continigent, and why I'm proud to say..."I AM NOT A CONSERVATIVE."

As long as people will not see or say that YOUR family, YOUR friend, YOUR co-worker, YOUR vaulted elected official OR YOURSELF is fallable and can or does make mistakes, and not just THEIR family, THEIR friend, THEIR co-worker, THEIR vaulted elected offical and/or THAT OTHER GUY....then a form of "IN-HOUSE POLITICAL CORRECTNESS" is exercised, which I'll BET almost everyone, AND especially once again it seems, our "Proud to be a Conservative" set here has either voiced a negative opinion of in the past OR harbors some resentment of, WINS OUT, AND undermines your presentation.

And if there's one thing I've seen that "PC" ALSO accomplishes is to stifle the free exchange of ideas, and thus ANY ability to reach a solution to the problems facing America and the world.

Cheers,
Dwight
(in other words...NOT that I'M some kind of freakin' "paragon of open-mindedness"....BUT COME ON HERE.....)

(you HAD to know I'd work that "freakin'" word into this thing eventually, didn't ya?!...I'm such an a$$...HEY!...SEE HOW "CIRCUMSPECT" I AM!)

Yep! Just like a good Single Malt Scotch, you might call me "an acquired taste" TOO.(among the many OTHER things you may care to call me, of course)