Re: "sentient being":

LH--you really need to make it a high priority to hear Micca sing his great song:   "Hyperbole".

Ch: "I never meant to be taken literally/ I never thought (he) would/.   If (he) can't understand hyperbole/ It's damn near time he should"

There's a poster here who loves to wax lyrical on the "$ystem". The difference between me and this poster is that I know when I'm using hyperbole. The other poster in question however actually seems to be dead serious in believing in an omnipotent and oppressive "$ystem", when to quite a few readers it seems clear his depiction of the political situation is classic hyperbole.

I do like the phrase "sentient being". But not by quite a bit as much as the poster in question likes to talk about his "$ystem".