Thanks for the thoughtful post, RobVG, and I understand your concern, but there was a reason for the rant. The post got off to a great start, and former rivals got down and started discussing and examining the issues I bought up. Everyone seemed on their best behavior. I expected discussion and disagreement and debate, and everyone concerned joined in without rancor or traces of their previous conflicts. To a certain extent, this post was submitted to see if this kind of dialog is still possible here on a political topic. Suddenly, out of the vortex comes this calculatingly insulting and taunting little barb, not to point out an inconsistency or error, or to make a point, but just to vandalize the proceedings. It wasn't a post, it was graffiti. And yes, it was malicious.

As for my "ownership" of the post, I can plead guilty to that charge, but not for this particular one. You will recall I wrote an introduction and provided a link, I wrote very little about the topic itself, relying on the article to get things rolling. This is not my usual style. I made no contributions or attempts to guide the discussion, and limited my remarks to technical questions that puzzled me, as they did other participants. I can understand when a post I've initiated falls apart, or even goes over the edge, and if this one had degenerated into a brawl without outside assistance I would have laughed it off ; but this one was pushed over the edge. And I suspect it was pushed deliberately.