<Liberals are compassionate and would prefer to see a better distribution of wealth AND care, not only in their own countries, but in others as well. You might even use the derogatory word "socialist".

The word "distribute" automatically implies taking wealth from one person and giving it to another, no consent required. Sorry, but real "compassion" is "distributing" your own wealth, not somebody else's. Any jackass can be "generous" with a pipeline to another person's wallet. I just had this out with Bowser.

Socialism and totalitarianism are the reasons most poor and oppressed nations are poor and oppressed. This doesn't fit neatly into the leftist worldview, though, so some way of blaming colonialism and the West has to be found, or invented.

Now, if relief workers ASK me for money to help others, I'm ready to listen.

As far as time and energy goes, this actually takes very little time. I do this in the background while I'm working. I am extremely good at finding info on the Net, and can usually scratch up documentation on just about anything in about ten minutes. The trick on the Net, of course, is separating the horse manure from the diamonds. Unless I am familiar with the source, I sometimes have to take extra time to double check facts, i.e. see if the information is available from different sources. This time around, I cheated. If I find a particularly useful link, I save it for later use. I have posted links to the Reason Iraq article before, and had the link handy.

I'm more interested in getting the facts in front of everyone than I am in scoring "points" on people, although sometimes the latter is fun too. Too often things that "everybody knows" just aren't so.