Well, you're right, it's not easy for either camp to walk in the shoes of the other.

Case in point, you found that "little essay" to be pleasant and idyllic, with a strong whiff of nostalgia for a lost golden age. And yet you didn't notice the theme of retribution, of settling scores and punishing those who haven't gone along with our wishes. Or the strong current of schadenfreude imagining the terrible things that will happen to people whom we deprive of our friendship and support, and the flip side of self-righteousness imagining that America alone is the source of all good in the world.

Need help with a famine? Wrestling with an epidemic? Call France .

"Yeah, you can just go and die"...you don't see that as mean-spirited?

Thirsting for a gutsy country to terrorize? Try France or maybe China

What kind of person would take pleasure in imagining the deaths of thousands of people at the hands of terrorists, even if they are Frenchman?

I can't bring myself to spend a whole lot of time rereading what is, to me, the slime of that "essay", in order to point out each and every manifestation of anger and bitterness and hatred. But do you see what I mean? It's there, yet it slipped under your radar.

In the last couple of years, Frank, you've become visibly more angry and bitter yourself. I appreciate your posting now because you've generally posted less, and the reasons you've given for staying away have evidenced anger and bitterness. I mentioned how Mr. and Mrs. Atilla the Republican don't notice their own feelings because, I think, they've become "normalized" through familiarity, and your perceptions of the tone of the essay suggest that you too have normalized the anger.

I wish they and you weren't feeling that way. I wish there weren't several million more people feeling that way, and not just out of Liberal compassion--it's destructive to America. But I'm damned if I know the answer, because every time I ask the question, the answer I get is unconditional surrender. How can I find common ground with people who equate compromise with their fellow Americans as betrayal of principle?