I seriously think we are seeing the beginning of America seperating into two or three countries.

[coalition_unwilling]

220. Shit, I've seen equivocations here that would make 16th-Century

Jesuits blush.

Just yesterday, someone was kind enough here to point out to me that he didn't understand why everyone was so worked up about Romney not releasing his tax returns, b/c Romney at some point had to have showed them to someone, i.e., 'released' them. When I replied that Romney had never released comprehensive returns for any public campaign, he responded, "I meant released them to his accountants or financial advisors."

So I'm agreeing with your point about owning both the denotations and the connotations of our words here. On a psychological level and speaking from personal experience, I find that I make statements whose full implications I may not have realized initially. When someone here rightly calls attention to those full implications, rather than acknowledge and retract (if appropriate), it's far easier to slip into the equivocation mode.