No Steve , I am not the least defensive. I am just very tired of the intolerance, on both sides. I find many of your posts to be irrelevant as you seem not to read the posts of others with any degree of insight. You appear to be, I could be wrong, more interested in arguing than in hearing other points of view. This is also true of some of those with whom you argue incessantly. Oddly, you argue in the name of "Tolerance". You are not alone in this and I am sure you will point out that the rest of us need saving from bigots. Very high minded indeed.
You say there is "no badge of merit in being right wing", how bloody pompous can you get. It is not your "left wing" views that I find tedious, in fact I agree with many of them, but it is your arrogant dismissal of those who disagree with you that prompts me to discount you as a debater.