ERB,
Now that I have had time to think it over, you are right. I should not have issued such a personal bombast at you. I have tried for the last year to two to avoid making such purely personal attacks. So if I am going to stay true to such a principle, I should even do that with you and your posts, no matter how exasperating you can be or how well you cast the bait. There are better ways to address such annoyances and I will endeavor to find such an alternative in the future. I have been laid up with my oncology roller-coaster and have had more pain than normal the past two days. That is not a valid excuse, but it is what it is. It made me short and irritable. Instead I am going to work harder not to let such irritants lead me over to what I often see as the dark side. And such behavior toes the line of "passive aggressive," which no one admires.

I hope you will accept my apology. This doesn't mean that I will be asking you to the prom, but at least I'll try to be a little more civil, even though I will fight you when I see you go the extremes that you have on this thread on any other.