Susan - Not to worry. You don't need to call out the cavalry on anyone. I have gotten a few cheap shots, but they were usually from "guests", whom I suspect were one or two mudcatters hiding behind that term...or maybe not...who knows? I was just feeling kind of jaundiced with some of the extreme reactions around here from time to time, that's all. It also troubles me that many people are just not prepared to be rational on certain subjects...their pet hates...but I guess that's life.

Troll, Mousethief, and all - YES, there is a shockingly blatant bias in current news reporting, what is considered newsworthy and what isn't, what gets played up and what doesn't. There always was, too, but the focus has changed over the years. When I was a kid it was standard to portray WWII Germans and Japanese (virtually all of them) as absolute subhumans...and it was standard to portray Russians and members of communist nations pretty much the same way...except it was an ever-present fear of nuclear way that lay behind that.

It is now standard to over-emphasize racial aspects, and gender-based aspects in various situations. Consider the O.J. Simpson trial as a spectacular example of "playing the race card" in a very predictable way. They sure didn't want another L.A. riot, did they?

I find that both liberals and conservatives are stunningly biased, and their biases will conquer their reason more often than not. Nothing new about that. I'm sure I am biased too. It's just getting quite out of hand lately with the news and entertainment media, and people are noticing.

I've noticed it all my life. The favorite styles and prejudices change, but the hypocrisy goes on and on. That doesn't make it any easier to put up with.

One other thing there's been a mania for in the 80's and 90's: rediscovered memories of childhood sexual abuse. Now, I don't doubt that a good many of those are for real. On the other hand, a good many, I believe are not. A dear friend of mine, who is convinced that she NEVER suffered any sexual abuse as a child (she carries no bad feelings about such matters), was repeatedly harassed and told she was in "denial" by a so-called "therapist", whose apparent mission is to prove that EVERYONE has experienced sexual abuse as a child at some time or another. Believing this is what makes this therapist's world go around, it seems. It's her holy grail of therapy. I believe she is more disturbed than most of the people she is treating.

And such an attitude is an insult to people who really have been abused in that fashion too. It turns an important human issue into a sort of mindless propaganda weapon, devoid of understanding or meaning.

- LH