"None of the examples I used are specific to you or I. .... Please replace "you" with 'one" in my examples. You want to make my statements personal about LAN or TRAV. They are not. They're generic."

I understand and my comments were generic as well. You made a claim as to who was Catholic and who was not. I merely pointed out that only American Catholics will decide that, not outsiders. Perhaps we'll get to witness something exciting like a modern day schism! The Anglicans are considering it. Wooooo-Hooooo! Could be fun. My comment about fighting in battles applies to all Chicken Hawks.

"If a group has specific tenets that are used to define the group and members of that group vigorously contradict those same tenents, I can only come to one conclusion. That if the group as a whole doesn't sanction the contradicting members, then the tenet must be a lie and the entire group are hypocrites. To be credible, they must police themselves."

Many on the right who complain the loudest about the poor level of political discourse are also the ones that drag it down to the lowest level - Coulter and Horowitz are two that come to mind. These are very popular authors that have made a lot of money by making outrageous statements, even supporting terrorist activites. Right wingers support these folks enthusiastically, but also have a fantasy that the left is supposed to accept whatever they dish out and take the high road without complaint. Somehow not taking this road makes the left hypocritical, but not the right. Yes, the standards should be higher on both sides, but I don't see it happening...

Perhaps some of this comes from a misunderstanding of tolerance. Tolerance means recognizing the right to hold an opinion, but doesn't imply acceptance or approval. A racist has the right to certain opinions as long as he or she is not verbally abusing another, precluding them from obtaining a job, or blocking them from buying a house, etc. Intolerance does not recognize the beliefs or differences of others - it seeks to prevent them from taking certain jobs, owning certain property, marrying certain people and so on. It is not intolerant to call such a person a racist or homophobe.