My wife called me on that years back where I over did the "good natured" kidding too much. She basically said there's truth to all kidding and as I started watching the things my warped sense of humor came up with I realized she's right and even the silliest comment had the real potential of hurting someone or putting them down.

Your Republican humor was triggered by the irony of finding out the medical profession is made up of good and bad like any group and it hit that little button that linked it to socialized medicine. I do understand the impulse to let fly - if it's used occasionally but you use it every time there's an opportunity. You don't see the attack but there is a clear one against anyone in favor of universal single-payer health care.

That issue is not just a topic for conversation and jokes to some of us. It's one of those issues that if not resolved will guarantee a huge economic and health crisis in this country. I'm faced right now with thousands of dollars in medical bills for procedures my wife had to have that no planning could have foreseen and I have "great" coverage through my employer (a major health care insurer). We just fell into a programmed gap that pitted her insurance against mine and we're stuck in the middle of it all.

Now I can weather this no problem because our combined incomes put us in the upper middle class and we're responsible people. Very few families in the US however make that kind of money and many have health plans with much larger gaps. Those folks face financial collapse every day and it's all a joke to you or an opportunity for political gain when you see the opening.

Pit that against this far fetched possibility of Big Brother taking over and it's not even worth the discussion.

There, are you happy now where your post went? Did you think you could just get away with hijacking your own topic and everyone would just smile and say "Oh, that's Tom. He's really harmless. Just ignore the snark."

That's the old days pal before you began promoting the people that caused this very split and animosity. Here's the result of your choices.

Art