You're making my own point for me, pdq. I have defended people here on the basis of their individual thoughts, not on the basis of whether they are seen in this or that group ("liberal" or "conservative") by most people here. I'm not a "liberal", I'm a radical. I respect the right to own a gun, the right to say what you want on any and all subjects, I do not particularly like the idea of abortion in a general sense (but neither will I decide it for other people because I think that's their decision not mine), I hate government intrusion in my life, and I do not want to pay any more taxes than are needed to run the government (and maintain a reasonable level of health care and normal public services while doing so).

I do not belong to any group. I do not belong to any party. I'm an individual, like you said, and individuals have widely diverse opinions.

But I do take note of the fact that there are a few people here such as yourself, Bearded Bruce, DougR, Slag, and a couple of others who regularly get ganged up on by many other members here merely because you have what they see as a conservative slant. You get ganged up on unfairly in some cases...and when I see that, I defend you.

You know this is so. If you don't know it, then you're in a selective state of denial at the moment because your nose is out of joint over the particular arguments that have arisen in this thread.