Hello, Raoul,

Thanks for the sage post. It is a kind post from a kind guy.

Regarding Europeans, I really, really don't think that most of the US understands their positions except to think that "since we bailed them out twice" Europe should rubber-stamp American foreign policy; anything else is a blatant lack of gratitude. There is a good reason for that, a lack of information.

I have to admit that though I could see Europe is in a different circumstance than the US and would have different views, I didn't know what the were, or care much prior to the internet. It was just too hard to get at them to understand.

Then a friend of mine resigned his position as a Professor at a local university and moved to Paris something over 10 years ago. When he came back to the States to visit friends he stayed at my house, and we could visit. I came to understand a bit, and the advent of email helped more.

Overall, though, I believe American chauvinism is such that it's too much effort to try to understand the other guy. John Wayne has been a big influence. And I suspect the chauvinism of other countries is similar.

And I don't know how much attention is paid to the differences in Europe. Britain is regarded differently than the continent, Ireland is sort of like Mexico is to the US, and then there's the rest of it. And, really, the information available to people over here does little to inform most folks about Europe except in the context of agreeing or disagreeing with Number One.

There is a Public Broadcasting System program of 1/2 hour a week on European news, which I see about half the time. It seems to try to explain the differences, but it's in the kind of obscure time slot usually reserved for infomercials on commercial TV.

As for my recent issues, I have to admit to not being aware my adopted attitude could so thoroughly manipulate people. Decent, reasonable folks became otherwise, and then it made sense. Once someone is determined to be a "bad guy", anything is fair. Sort of like professional wrestling or American foreign policy. And I was, and am, surprised that people would be willing to be intellectually dishonest, in my opinion, because I think that hurts them, certainly not me. If anything, it bolstered my positions. We all owe it to ourselves to be as honest in our arguments as possible, a concept which was suspended, at best.

That was a source of my frustration, and once I accepted that people would do that to themselves, it became easier to drop the matter.

And, you're right in your implication that I went too far, too fast, too long.

So, thanks again for the middle-of-the-road, gentle and thoughtful reminder that it is not wise to over-react. I appreciate it.

Arf