Nice exaggeration, but I didn't say it.

The left aren't loonies. They are well-intentioned misguided minds.

Some have never gotten over Vietnam or the civil rights era and think anything conservative is somehow immoral and anything liberal is by default enlightened, true and wonderful.

It's, unfortunately, much more complicated than that and the left and the right often find themselves exchanging the high moral ground on various issues.

I lament the small-minded views and provincial mentalities that try to assimilate the events going on around the world. Some folks think small and others too big, but most can't seem to find the balance which is so necessary when reviewing actions of folks of varying religions, intellects, environment and experience.

The displacement of Saddam can never be turned into a bad thing just because there is turmoil in his absence. Hitler's demise left German politics in a mess, but only the irrational folks wished he was still there to provide stability.

The left is horribly afraid of success in Iraq. They are horribly afraid of an era where the US can invade a nation and replace its leadership. As can be expected, every third world leaders sees Iraq as a horrible precedent. So in the UN when all these 3rd worlders don't applaud for the US' action and in fact tried everything they could to avert it, it is because they fear what the Iraq precedent means to their power and comfy set up.

If Iraq were a thriving democracy right now with singing in the streets and people kissing US flags and pictures of Bush daily, the left and the media would be doing articles about the "cost of reconstruction", "Depleted uranium poisoning in residents" , "the innocent victims - the untold story" and anything else to turn success into failure and view a nearly full glass with a wide angle lens to make it look as empty as possible.

Partly this is do to a desire to grab power and the other part is done to grab money. Happiness doesn't sell. Some folks can't stand a sappy, happy story. Their eyes glaze and they move on to the tragedy. Blood and guts.

It is human nature for some folks to secretly rejoice in reading about tragedy. They mark their years looking at obituaries and saying "I've outlived them!" and "I've outlived that celebrity!".

Is it any surprise they love to tally casualties and secretly give these somewhat callous percentage of the population a double treat? They make them feel glad they are alive and then redirect their guilt over such a thought into criticism of some politician or party.

Think tanks have analyzed such things to death. (pardon the pun)

Human nature is predictable and there are behavioral patterns and emotions that are exploited to strengthen loyalty to a notion or a political agenda.

The left are the victims of this emotional redirection and exploitation. The cynical, smart ones exploit the less sophisticated ones and channel their survival guilt into directed hatred. Palestinians do this after every sucide martyr they honor. Survival guilt is channeled into hatred of Israel and of Jews, as if they had anything to do with the individual's martyrdom.

BDS is a manifestation of this complex emotional manipulation of the public. Perhaps due to the left's desire to be "enlightened human beings" they are easier to emotionally exploit. US soldiers die means you must hat Bush more. Don is doing this each time he posts, but I doubt he even recognizes what he's doing.

I could right a book about it, but to give the HZ another exclusive I've coined a new word to describe this emotional manipulation:

Guilteousness
adjective

Definition: A state of righteousness induced by conscious or subconscious guilt feelings. A state normally associated with media or political manipulation of liberal minded individuals.

Origin:SDAI-Tech1 from Guilt and Righteousness. Used first in 2005 on Habitable Zone BBS (and its proprietary immortal transcript code)

Usage: His invective was pure guilteousness exemplified, but he didn't realize it until it was too late.

Many here are filled with guilteousness. It doesn't make them bad people. It simply makes them exploited people.