As far as the rest of your post to Barak goes, give it a rest. He doesn't get it and he'll never get it.
Maybe not, but maybe so. I'm not completely close-minded. I am susceptible to reasoned, rational arguments--and I hold up as evidence of that statement the fact that I was once a conservative and am now a libertarian. I became a libertarian specifically because of reasoned, rational arguments--namely, the ones that are quite common in the libertarian camp and somewhat rarer in the conservative camp--at least, in the areas where the two camps disagree.
But barefaced, unsupported assertions ("For my money, the time for dissidence is past") don't impress me. Neither do appeals to emotion ("These are no ordinary people. They willingly bear nearly any burden in the effort to keep what we as a nation hold most dearly from becoming a distant memory"). Or government-generated, media-approved propaganda ("By attacking Saddam and Iraq...those soldiers are removing a future threat to the citizens of the United States"). Given that I'm autistic, sarcasm ("Yeah, I know that's why Data Programmers are smarter than Soldiers are") is also largely lost on me. And I'm not intimidated by
ad hominem ("Even one so callous as you to their contribution should be able to understand...") work.
If you've got something I can sink my teeth into, I'll be glad to take a look at it. But if you don't, then my stubborn refusal to "convert to your religion" may very well be at least as much due to your inability to provide "it" as to my inability to get "it."
