Everyone is under the impression that they are trying their damndest to be objective, Bill. They are. You are not among a chosen few extra-objective people who can speak, therefore, with additional authority. You're just like the rest of us, instinctively drawn by your gut and your past history to whatever suits the way you already think things are or should be, and you have in truth scanty interest in views divergent to your own...except insofar as they provide you with a handy target to fire clever and articulate verbal volleys at, and a downright golden opportunity to again voice your own blessed opinion which you are quite SURE is a very, very objective and well-considered opinion, probably the most objective and well-considered opinion out there...and that puts you in exactly the same spot as anyone else,   exercising your intellectual vanity here. I do it too. We all do it. Everyone who opinionates in public does it.

And what can I do about that? * shrug * Nothing.

Anyone who posts their opinions on an Internet forum is asking for it anyway. It's like painting a target on yourself and walking up and down in no-man's-land in a war. Pointless, really. It just attracts attack from people who don't share the opinion.

It makes me wonder why I even bother anymore. I don't even care if you believe anything I believe. What difference would it make if you did? Would the world be saved?

I think not.