What Tom gives us is not ideas but talking points. I'm sorry if you can't see the distinction. I've always said that I'm more than willing to have political discussions with anyone who will acknowledge the validity of the other side's views and yet you let this guy slide on that all the time.

ER just graced us with a visit and in a post with Tom he reinforced what I'm saying here. Tom has to win. There is no give and take. It's an all or nothing discussion with him. I'm right and you're wrong. Every time one of us have conceded anything he's said, he hasn't reciprocated but instead used it as a battering ram.

I'm sorry but I don't play games like that and I've often said I really don't care if I fit the rules or keep from making friends on here. I don't define my life by this "community" you all cherish. The only part of the community I enjoy is my interaction with particular individuals that I've found I could respect and to hell with the ones that want to use this place as their own little propaganda machine.

Tony, I appreciate you wanting to play peacemaker but peace isn't what I seek in these troubled times. I want solutions so my children grow up in a world that isn't ruled by these fundamentalist authoritarians that are satisfied to have this huge division between the haves and have-nots. This is personal for me. My wife's a school teacher who's been beat down over the last decade by their attack on public schooling. Friends of ours have no health care coverage and are a crisis away from total bankruptcy. My two boys are prime age for being sucked up into some foreign war to have the limbs blown off of them. Those problems can be solved if, and only if that other side plays fair and engages in compromise and can see shades of grey in our national policy. They have shown no inclination to accept anything but their narrow view and will do anything to impose that on us. Tom is nothing more than a propagandist for that goal and I will not allow him to be unopposed.

So, sit back and enjoy the fireworks. I'm not taking any timeouts as long as the human neo-con talking point dittohead keeps plopping his links on these pages especially when he throws out things he knows will inflame in Current Events.

Art