Great reply and you are not alone as far as I'm concerned. I've just checked and I figure I have been going to the VA hospital for at least 25 years, Had 7 surgeries including 2 cancer surgeries and if it weren't for the VA I wouldn't be here and the doctors I had were great. I have a neighbor that talked about the VA and I finally got him to sign up and told him if he didn't like he could stop going and guess what. Every time I see him he tells me how glad he is that he joined and that he has gotten better service then he did from the civilian doctors and I have to agree with that....Rich

I have to disagree with you, Jerry---not on the subject of ad hominem attacks and name-calling, both of which seem to prevail here, but on your statement that "no one is going to make a conservative a liberal or vice versa." My disagreement may be based upon my profession: I'm a lawyer, and persuasion is a large part of a lawyer's task. Is it hard to change an individual's point of view? Of course it is. Especially when the subject matter is politics, guns, religion, or sex. But it can be done. Never through name-calling (one usually resorts to ad hominem attacks when there are no more arrows of logic or fact in the quiver), but through assembling facts and logic and making use of those good 'ol tenets in the world of science (propounding theories, then testing them, discarding them if they prove wrong, keeping them and building upon them if they prove correct), sometimes people's minds are changed. Sometimes many people's minds. Just look at the remarkable change in the American majority view of the LBGT community and same sex marriage over the last 5-10 years. A startling reversal. People do change, and often for the right reasons. Both my parents were ardent Republican consrvatives during my high school years. They voted enthusiastically for Nixon in 1960. But their views have "evolved" over time, too. They're now registered Democrats and voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. (I see this as a remarkable advance in their thinking; there are many here that would opine that they lost their way . . . different points of view, reasonably and civilly expressed, are what makes this country great.) I'm inclined to believe that that is what will happen when it comes to climate change, too. Gradually, and through pure science and examination of fact---not histrionic political positions or self-aggrandizing commercial agendas embraced by Big Oil and Big Coal---I believe the majority of U.S. citizens will accept the fact that climate is changing, changing to the detriment of this country and to the planet, and changing in large part because of man's infusion of enormous quantities greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. So there is hope, Jerry. There is hope.

I hate to see what has happened to this country in the Universe of the Fox News/MSNBC dichotomy. People seem to feel it's like a sporting event: you're either playing for one side or the other. It's become so vitriolic now that reasoned argument, debate, the presentation of differing points of view is nearly impossible. But only "nearly." Not completely. Voices of reason do occasionally make themselves heard over the din of partisan shouting. So I won't completely abandon the hope that we can return to a reasoned airing of differences. And that, occasionally, we can change people's perceptions and positions. It can and does happen, Jerry. And it's a damn good thing, too. . . .

I have to disagree with you, Jerry---not on the subject of ad hominem attacks and name-calling, both of which seem to prevail here, but on your statement that "no one is going to make a conservative a liberal or vice versa." My disagreement may be based upon my profession: I'm a lawyer, and persuasion is a large part of a lawyer's task. Is it hard to change an individual's point of view? Of course it is. Especially when the subject matter is politics, guns, religion, or sex. But it can be done. Never through name-calling (one usually resorts to ad hominem attacks when there are no more arrows of logic or fact in the quiver), but through assembling facts and logic and making use of those good 'ol tenets in the world of science (propounding theories, then testing them, discarding them if they prove wrong, keeping them and building upon them if they prove correct), sometimes people's minds are changed. Sometimes many people's minds. Just look at the remarkable change in the American majority view of the LBGT community and same sex marriage over the last 5-10 years. A startling reversal. People do change, and often for the right reasons. Both my parents were ardent Republican consrvatives during my high school years. They voted enthusiastically for Nixon in 1960. But their views have "evolved" over time, too. They're now registered Democrats and voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. (I see this as a remarkable advance in their thinking; there are many here that would opine that they lost their way . . . different points of view, reasonably and civilly expressed, are what makes this country great.) I'm inclined to believe that that is what will happen when it comes to climate change, too. Gradually, and through pure science and examination of fact---not histrionic political positions or self-aggrandizing commercial agendas embraced by Big Oil and Big Coal---I believe the majority of U.S. citizens will accept the fact that climate is changing, changing to the detriment of this country and to the planet, and changing in large part because of man's infusion of enormous quantities greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. So there is hope, Jerry. There is hope.

I hate to see what has happened to this country in the Universe of the Fox News/MSNBC dichotomy. People seem to feel it's like a sporting event: you're either playing for one side or the other. It's become so vitriolic now that reasoned argument, debate, the presentation of differing points of view is nearly impossible. But only "nearly." Not completely. Voices of reason do occasionally make themselves heard over the din of partisan shouting. So I won't completely abandon the hope that we can return to a reasoned airing of differences. And that, occasionally, we can change people's perceptions and positions. It can and does happen, Jerry. And it's a damn good thing, too. . . .

Being a determined non-liberal/progressive, I cringe sometimes when some UHH people whose core values run pretty much with mine resort to ad hominem attacks. That is essentially lowering ourselves to playing on the field of THEIR choice.

This article has some interesting points:

http://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2014/06/02/dont-argue-with-liberals--it-only-encourages-them-n1845401/page/full

Here's the wrap: " If you're trying to win an Oxford Union debate with a liberal, you’ve missed the point. This isn't about the Marquess of Queensberry’s fussy little rules. This isn't about some sort of extended-pinky exchange of ideas over a fine glass of port. This is about fighting for our way of life and our fundamental rights against the intellectual heirs of Stalin, Mao and Hitler.

Attack. This is about winning. First prize is freedom. Second prize is tyranny. "

Conservatives have such a different world view from the rest of us that we have difficulty making sense of each-other. I've been trying to make sense of the conservative point of view for years and I'm not much closer now than when I started. But your link about sums it up: To quote from the article you linked to, "conservatism is an ideology" and that is a quote from a conservative.

But from that observation it concludes the reverse of what I have observed. My own thinking is that reason plays at best a minor role in any ideology. It is true that non-conservatives (what conservatives call liberals) do too often depart from logical reasoning, my own observation is that it is conservatives who can't ever seem to focus on a logical argument and who quickly resort to angry shouting, personal attacks and making confusing non sequitur changes of subject.

But no doubt where you are sitting makes a big difference in what you see.