Let’s get rid of a few bits of dreck, for the sake of mental hygiene:

1) Women don’t answer to you, or to the government for having sex, and being forced to have a child is not a fit punishment for what you perceive as promiscuity. Leave other people’s genitals alone.

3) At this point in the “debate,” if you can’t cite SEVERAL peer-reviewed articles in legitimate scientific journals I’m not interested in your “contrarian” opinion about climate change. The science is as in as science ever is – catastrophic climate change is happening, we’re causing it, and it’s going to be a very serious problem, even if we do something about it. What we’re talking about now is whether it’s going to be catastrophic or apocalyptic. Go flatten your Earth or something.

4) Donald Trump is a dangerous, egomaniacal idiot, and his appointees range from incompetent to terrifying. If you are still supporting him at this point, you are no friend of the Republic.

5) It simply isn’t possible to cut taxes, increase spending and decrease the debt or restrain the deficit. This should be obvious to anyone who can handle simple addition and subtraction, but somehow the idea that slashing government revenues will lead to explosive economic growth WILL. NOT. DIE. Mostly because it casts a vaguely intellectual veneer over what is actually sheer selfishness.

6) Private charities are not sufficient to help the poor. If you think they are, look at any place on this planet that does not provide sufficient public assistance. There was a time when we believed that the proper way of helping the poor was private charity and religious works – read Dickens for a tour of that golden age.

7) Censorship is the refuge of the intellectually and culturally inferior. Only the weak fear being exposed to material they disapprove of. And claiming your prudishness and fragility is for the sake of the children is contemptible. Hiding behind kids because you can’t cope with modern life is despicable.

8) Again, and finally, leave other people’s genitals alone. Other people’s sex lives are none of your concern, and you don’t get to treat them like second-class citizens because you are “uncomfortable.” News flash – other people aren’t in the world to see to your comfort. If you can’t cope, if you can’t deal with people who are different from you, don’t blame others for your inability to adult.

9) The only reason we don’t have a functioning health-care system is that unlike every other advanced nation we believe in the “right” of rich douchebags to charge as much as, and more than, the market will bear. We believe in allowing insurance companies to build huge, bloated empires at the expense of the sick and desperate. And we believe that some people (namely, rich people) are more “deserving” of health care than others. It’s just plain, unvarnished, smells-like-what-it-is greed.

—-KIT THORNTON