Hi Larry,

You asked:
>"Is, as you state, "ALL life is precious to me", really true?"

Yes and no, depending on the quality of life and what we must do to defend ourselves against evil, or those who would DO us harm.

<"You see, your "ALL life is precious to me" sounds noble but it's the path of cowardness."

I'm hardly a coward....I don't know where you got that from, other than you're starting to use perjorative terms to insult me and make me look bad.

>"It takes courage to stand up against those who would kill, maim, or enslave others. You don't have to worry about ever having that kind of courage because others have stepped forward to do the necessary dirty work for you."

I also believe in law and order and justice.
I also believe in the death penalty.
What we are getting into here are semantics and....like the word "terrorism"...the word "enemy" is hard to define.
I guess it depends what side you stand on, what you have to defend, what you have to gain, or who you want to impress.
Mankind is a bloodthirsty lot.

>"ALL life is precious to me" makes for a nice slogan on a tee shirt or bumper sticker, but it's a foolish and cowardly notion in the real world. "

Life as a CONCEPT is precious to me.
Is world peace still a pipe dream perhaps?
But it is NOT cowardly, foolish, self-righteous or being a "hypocrite of the highest order" to even consider it.
I think you took my words out of context.

I am a woman.
I don't have the testosterone that makes me want to kill or seek revenge.
Cavemen and modern men go hunting and secure their possossions or steal other's possessions at will.
Women, on the other hand, throughout the ages, generally stay near the hearth preparing food and protect and nurture the young.
This is not cowardly, foolish, self-righteous or hypocritical.

>"Here's but one example out of countless ones I can provide to show how wrong your self-righteous philosophy is. .....over 500,000 innocent people were killed in an ethnic genocide. We did nothing to stop it. Had we tried, perhaps we could've saved most of those people. However, that would've meant stopping the other group, perhaps killing quite a few of them in the process. You can't say that "ALL life is precious to me" and then allow these things to happen. To do so is to be a hypocrit of the highest order."

True. We can't stop all the world's problems but we could start by stop selling them arms, which go into the hands of rebels, who in turn, prey upon the weaker, unarmed aspects of society.
And even then we wouldn't be able to solve many problems.

In the larger frame of things, I guess we can validate killing and maiming innocent civilians if it serves our purpose. Some of those interests are self serving, and not all are born out of "defense" either.

But rather than get into a protracted discussion with you about my "cowardice", I shall end by saying that I nurture life and encourage it to grow wherever I am safe to do so.
And I have no disdain for any member of our military who defends our Homeland.

I think you obviously misunderstood me.
Would you call your wife the same names if she found any of the pictures you or I posted offensive?