Jude, I am tremendously opposed to George Bush's policies, as I should think you would know by now.

I also think that it is far more effective to respond to an unexpected contribution in a thread with a brief joke than it is to fly into an emotional fit of hostility and imagine that the thread has been "ruined" by a post that is outside what YOU consider the "proper boundaries". The thread has not been ruined in the least.

Why give your power away like that? How can one other person derail you or derail a thread? They can't...unless you consent to let them.

Martin is expressing a very different viewpoint to yours. So what? Is it impossible to maintain one's own equanimity in the face of a different viewpoint or a couple of swear words?

It is not impossible. Be the master of your own mind, not the emotional puppet who dangles on someone else's strings.