I think I've had a life with a lot of contact with a variety of people. Some of them quite unsavory, some very sick, some with world-views and political beliefs with which I could not possibly agree. And yet I believe I've chosen my political beliefs based upon my upbringing (capitalist, patriotic, Christian), experiences (liberal, believer in Christ and not Christians, aware my country is not perfect). I've met a lot of people who don't share those views, and seem to have the ego strength to avoid being proselitized.

How it is that one thinks other people are so weak as to be influenced by everyone who walks by and by everything they read is beyond me. They seem to be folks who follow one ideology or another blindly, deathly afraid that any adjustment for the world as it exists will mean the complete collapse of the world in which they live.

By your standards the liberal "associates police" should condemn me for hanging around a board where the likes of you also hang out. My explanation that you seemed like a good guy except for your screwy political nature would not work - I should have run, not walked, away as soon as it became evident you were a conservative.

It's sad there are those thought police out there. They tend strongly to be Christians and Conservatives, two of the most anxious, fearful groups in existence.

Arf