Stop twisting my words - or don't you know the difference between starting something

and participating? Where did I ask more of anyone than I demand from myself?

Right. Exactly nowhere.

How would YOU know what I have/have not been up to over the years,

perhaps including now? Do you have a magic looking glass of some kind? How arrogant to assume all on your own that I've done nothing just because you might not have. Guilt speak, anyone? I don't owe you my resume. But I will tell you I come from a long line of proud Fenians. We're always up to something.

A relative of mine was there,

a big Irish bruiser who earned a steel plate covering half the top of his noggin from blows received. Knowing him, I'd hate to have seen the other guys! For the rest of his life, that steel plate was just about his proudest possession, next to the 50-yr union pin he left to me for safekeeping. He had one obnoxious brother who wound up as a high level manager at Granny Goose and helped scabs bust unions. My relative knocked him on his keyster for that and might've done worse if the other brothers hadn't stepped in. He knew his brother would try to destroy that pin if he ever got hold of it, so that's why it was given to me. And now it's my proudest possession. Due to its historical importance I'm leaving it to the Harry Bridges Institute; they've expressed interest. Now I'm thinking maybe I should send it on ahead to them for safekeeping. It's in my bank box, but who knows whether my executor will do the right thing?

I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Trotsky.

Especially after I found a hidden copy of his autobiography when I was a child. He got a raw deal.

May I invite your attention to a particularly vexing thread in GD, please?

Try to wrap your head around this:

Saying - truthfully - that something reflects poorly on someone doesn't NECESSARILY mean you 'think less of' them than of another. That might be a temporary error on their part. But when people refuse to recognize the deal they've made with the devil, they become complicit in the results. That I can never excuse because it's ultimately bending over the wrong way, and BTW enabling the plutocrats to continue in THEIR wrong ways. They'll point to their contented slaves and say slavery's fine, look how happy they are!

By delaying the tipping point and making the eventual revolt even worse, those who comply now actually have a great deal of fault in whatever happens later. Hopefully the next revolt will be less bloody and violent, but that would go against historical precedent. Anyone who truly cares about anything but his own comfort and convenience had better help put the brakes on now by fighting for justice before the rest of suffering humanity simply blows up and the whole damn world goes blooey.

Which is harder or worse, getting your back up NOW while there's still a chance of peaceful resolutions, or waiting until the rest of us have to fight for our lives? You don't seem to realize the pitchforks are already coming out. I don't want to see that - but we all will if more people don't stop this hand kissing shit.

It reflects badly on poor folks too, when they let themselves be made doormats!

My jaw dropped when I read the headline.

If I lived there, I'd like to see them make me crawl in the back door off an alley.

Can anyone else see lawsuits coming???? I'd make sure to try to have cameras rolling when I barged in the front entrance. If a doorman tried to bar my way, he'd be on the evening news. Maybe they'd throw my ass in jail, but they'd pay big enough for the privilege to rethink their ways.

Sorry, but they're just so damned easy to fool, they seem to beg for it.

You can guess how far I'd get with that on either Coast.

Not that I think you needed or expected clarification, Jack.