I've never been shy about expressing my views on the CMB, but I miss the days when I was able to be firm and clear without being belligerent. There's such a thing as respectfully disagreeing and, while I'm not directing this at you or any other individual, picking fights is frequently symptomatic of the second thing I referenced in my own thoughts on the article: Society will never tolerate an individuals vandalism, antagonism and even violence against others. When the parental response is to protect their little darlings and assure them that's a flaw in a society that doesn't appreciate their "self expression" it both condones anti-social behavior and feeds existing rejection of social mores that lead to alienation. Put another way, it not only approves anti-social behavior, but indicting the social structure actively ENCOURAGES such behavior as an alternative to social mores deemed misguided.

So, yeah, speak your mind, fully and freely, but if disagreeing with me doesn't make you an ignorant evil SOB, disagreeing with you doesn't make me one either. Some of my worst (and, regrettably, most recent) arguments have come from dismissing people with the assumption they've taken their position based on limited and/or skewed data. The truth is, most of the big controversies exist because they're complex and uncertain enough that strong rational arguments with copious observational data can be presented for BOTH sides. That's not to say there aren't still plenty of people on both sides who form their views based on a casual examination of the evidence, but few of the truly passionate ones do; people have a habit of researching the things about which they feel strongly, even if it's tempting to simply look for more evidence we're "right" than actually examine the facts to FIND OUT what's "right".