Well, Lindy, I wish you'd come back. There's nothing personal in any of this. Nothing. If there were, I'd be roasting on a stake, upside down, with some of the Texans throwing on B-B-Q sauce before feeding me to the wolves.

Or, I'd read something from eb or FrankC and throw myself off a bridge.

The relative anonymity of these boards make it easy for folks to get snotty, including me. All our keyboards are about the same size, fortunately, it's a relatively level field. Thank God folks can't shoot through the monitor, or they'd have us.

And, I've gotten carried away, much, much too hostile, and had to apologize a few times. I try to do that graciously, with some degree of aplomb, but it galls me. The only thing worse than apologizing when I'm wrong is not apologizing when I'm wrong.

Now, I'll tell you a secret about me. The only things that really bother me are the ones I suspect are true. The ones which are wrong I am amused by.

Look at what you'd miss. So help me, one guy asked me if I was aware I irritated people, and if most folks disagreed with me!! Wondered - if - I - was - aware - that - most - people - disagreed - with - me! You wouldn't have seen that.

You wouldn't see eb poke his nose into the exhaust pipe and start free associating. Thank God he passes out before a lethal dose.

Everyone gets a bit frustrated here. I do, as the brilliance, logic and humor of my arguments, my well reasoned, open-minded positions are met with mean-spirited, illogical preconceived nonsense.

Or is it the other way around? My mean-spirited - - - - Hell, I don't remember, right now.

Now, this board needs another person who believes in people more than dividends, that arsenic is bad even if it comes from mining, and doesn't have a slavish devotion to all things. Not people. All things.

You're only as big as the people who can get you down. And you're bigger than that.

Is Publius a person? I sort of assumed Publius was the pseudonym of a group of students who would log on occasionally from a philosophy seminar. Has read too widely and retained too much for one person.

I've had great hopes for "Publius" as soon as I got him/her/them squared up on the Israel-Palestine problem. Now, he's wrong there. Or he's right. But either way he disagrees with me, and one of us will have to change. I have more faith in his ability to do that than I have in mine. He seems more open-minded and able to reason effectively.

Now, your coming back would be a mixed blessing. While it does get lonesome here on occasion, I get a bit nervous when someone agrees with me. They could get chewed up, and if they take it personally they might have problems. It's not personal, even the personal remarks.

Hope you come back as a regular poster.

Arf