Daniel M. Upton <75442.1331@compuserve.com> asks:
> The closest thing to an insulting term that I have used is to
> call human opinion "fickle" but if that isn't a proper term for
> the race that produced both Mother Teresa *and* Adolph Hitler,
> George Washington *and* Bill Clinton, Babylon 5 *and* Star Trek:
> Voyager then what is?

Dan, I know you don't understand how one could take offense at
some of this, which is why I've more or less been riding closely on my
reactions. Let me try and explain:

Your statement is that without a "transcendental" outside force,
a deity, to tell us right from wrong, that we have no way of
distinguishing good from evil, Mother Theresa from Hitler. That's what
you *said*. Now, I don't buy into the deity business. Therefore, *by
your definition*, I'm one of those folks who can't distinguish a
humanitarian from a mass murderer.

The problem, Daniel, is that there's so much jingoism in this
argument that statements like the one you made are put out there almost
reflexively, without thinking.

jms