However, I did notice that you managed to characterize people you associate with here as vandals and people who pee on things. Nice.

It's all very fine to be high-minded and shake one's finger at someone who's just put a fishhook in one's eye, but hardly effective.

Oh, go ahead. Suppress one. It's called "tact" in some circles. (OK, so that was a little flame. But, oh boy, the disclaimer just kills me: "I don't want to do this, but someone is twisting my inner arm, so I will anyway." Sheesh.)

This is the power of the word. It can change the world, even if some minds are so closed that they will never be changed. How does swallowing one's real feelings and beliefs and saying nothing, the embodiment of carpethood, help one to grow?

But we have diversity here. If we start to eliminate the weeds and their unpleasant effects, we will lose the birds, and the aromatics, and the rest of their benefits. We will create a neat and tidy monoculture that will dry up and blow away the minute that the rain patterns are disturbed.

OK, I'll take your word for it.

If there is a dearly held principle involved, or if the other person has made a scurrilous remark or unsubstantiated slur, not to come out with at least some show of force is not courtesy but cowardice.

OK, I'll take your word for it.

Your beliefs, when presented as science, infuriate most people here (and embarrass the rest) because the one thing that most of us have in common is an understanding and a reverence for the scientific method. We know that it has limits and rules, and that your beliefs are not pertinent to any of them.

Was there a poll I missed?

It's especially galling for me to see you apply scientific accessories to your beliefs in the area of social relationships to allow you to make moral judgments with legal applications based on "scientific" evidence, because so much evil has been done in precisely that way to so many people for centuries. I have given up expecting you to recognize this either: emotional denseness, however, is not to be confused with innocence.

This is the power of the word. It can change the world, even if some minds are so closed that they will never be changed. How does swallowing one's real feelings and beliefs and saying nothing, the embodiment of carpethood, help one to grow?

Thank you Mary Anne. Mine eyes have been opened and I've tried to take your words to heart. You may want to throw some lawn seed around though...what with soil erosion and the environment and all?

;-)

PS
I'm not trying to be too cute here, despite what Fox may think. Despite my straightlaced reputation, I'm still entitled to have fun some fun at the HZ too!