While we agree on a lot of issues, your presentation is a huge turn-off, and helps to exacerbate extreme fighty -ness in posts where fighty-ness doesn’t need any encouragement. I’m also incredibly tired of and increasingly offended by your use of various forms of “ retarded ” to describe people who disagree with you. It doesn’t help move the debate or encourage a respectful exchange of ideas or opinions; it makes you sound shrill and obnoxious and does nothing to increase or encourage respect for your point of view. Please, the next time you write something in a contentious thread, hit “preview,” then walk away from your computer for ten minutes, then come back and hit “preview” again. Rinse, repeat. If nothing else, perhaps this would stop the “umpteen separate comments in three minutes” streak that seems to possess you occasionally.