I note that BB has lumped me and a whole bunch of others together with what he considers to be "knee-jerk liberals." That shows how wrong one can be when trying to pigeon-hole someone in order to simply dismissing their opinion as not worth listening to.

I used to be a conservative. Not a neo-conservative, but what some have characterized as a paleo-conservative. Then, I became a moderate. Recently I've been regarded as a liberal. And there are those here who, I am sure, consider me to be a flaming, knee-jerk, frothing-at-the-mouth liberal.

Well, let me put it this way:   my political/philosophical position hasn't really changed all that much. But the country has shifted way to the Right. And I know enough history, and can read the signs well enough to know where that's taking us. So if the fact that I object to many of the actions of the Bush administration makes me a "knee-jerk liberal" in the minds of some folks here, then so be it!

Responding quickly to something does not necessarily mean that one is "unthinking." It may indicate that one has thought already. If I respond very quickly (to cite only one example of the many possible) when it's revealed that detainees are being tortured, and the president, instead of rising up in fury, putting an immediate stop to it, and prosecuting those who both authorized and committed the atrocities, he, at the very least, merely mumbles and looks the other way, then I don't think that's because I'm just another of those "knee-jerk liberals."

That sort of thing—and quite a number of others that the Bush administration is not just allowing, but instigating—are not permitted to happen in MY America!!

Angry? You're damned straight I'm angry!!

Don Firth