I don't drop in here everyday and so I guess I missed the thread that asked about me and Dale's continual haunting of dbis (which now seems to be in some contorted configuration at the bottom of my 10 day view.) I doubt anybody goes down that far so I'm posting my response here for db and anyone else that wants to respond. I promise I'll look back in for the next few days.

First, to answer David's question as to why I keep haunting and do I do this as a practice at other left leaning sites? No (to other sites) this is the one and only left leaning site I go to. But it's a good place to keep my finger on the pulse of the other side.

I think many of (if not most) the participants on this forum were probably members even before me when I posted my first post here in late 2001 (november I think) so I won't re-tell in it's entirety, but in summary I had to come here because of my experience on 9/11 in NYC.

I was very familiar with db's music from Boomtown and Bedtime Stories (so yeah DAvid, I'm a fan of your music too) and on a whim I picked up Triage in a used CD music store for like a buck or two just a couple months prior and was pretty fascinated with it. I loved the music from a catchy turn of the phrase and professional engineering standpoint, but the anger was pretty extreme and I didn't think that was quite me. At first anyway.

But on 9/11/2001 much of that idea changed because I was staying with a friend in mid town Manhattan when those planes hit the towers. Nobody knew who did it at first, but we knew that the Palestinian's were prime suspects and their embassy was right across the street from her house.

Guilliani must have known this too and so he sent 50-60 of NYPD's best down to protect them from angry New Yorkers. They closed her street and stood guard all over the place.

The land line was out, but I knew I had to get a call out to my parents to let them know that I was ok and I went out into the street to get a signal on my cell. I was the only one on that block except for all those cops and I noticed a lot of very frustrated guys. They were hearing all of what was going on on their radios and their buddies were dying and there wasn't anything they could do. And they definately didn't want the Palestinian detail.

I don't know why "Nobody" came into my mind that day but it did, and it wouldn't go away, yet it had a strangely soothing effect on me at the time. I have quite a few law enforcement type people that are friends (cops, military etc) and I just felt for those guys that day. I respected the song and I respected David for writing it because it played out right in front of me.

So here I am! I've paid my respects for the song and David a few times now, but that doesn't mean I have to cater to the hatred that gets thrown about here towards those that don't tow the party line in it's entirety. Namely the 3 Musketeers..Pat, Dale and myself.

Everybody here (at least those on the left) wanted me to apologize for the little kid thread...or even delete my post. But why would I? How was it any different than all the crap Pat or Dale or I have to put up with? The reason we don't just up and leave is beacuse, like congress or the senate, we have to come to a compromise. Well, at least I do. But as Dale pointed out, there is no getting through to you guys, so we might as well just toss some molitovs once in a while.

Do you really believe that me posting up a 1 line message title vaguely linking db to some ghetto kid spewing some gw smack down talk was going to bring the CIA to HIS door? If so, I hold more power than I thought! Man I can get a random kid to make that connection a lot more believable.

I won't apologize, but I will refer you all to the time that I gave Reg the theater 101 lesson a few years ago. Dig in the archives if you didn't see it originally...it was classic and that makes it fun sometimes. A suspension of disbelief...I just can't believe db fell for it too.

Once last thing. David reminds me of my favorite uncle who is almost exactly like David in nature...albeit somewhat older (and more handsome). A highly succesful left leaning west coast (Seattle) business man that seems to constantly go at it with my very religious and conservative mother (his sister in law) over political issues. It never goes any further than politics with them though, because they are both very civil and care for each other a lot, but the banter has always been fun to listen to and now, after so many years, it's a family pastime for both of them. He doesn't ever turn down a chance to take on her whole family of conservatives at once, but I'm the lone centrist of the clan...so he and I can be paripatetic alone together and I can calm him back down if it gets to fierce.