As long as people are polite and don't violate the TOS, there's no reason for the thread to go away as long as anyone cares to keep posting to it. Tired of reading it, don't click on the links in the ebots. Aagain, a simple answer - don't want to see it, don't click. Rio, I appreciate your thoughts. Ypu've neatly summed up the issue. I really see this as no different than smoking or loud music or any of the fractious issues people in a community deal with. Usually after some (often contentious) debate, they reach some kind of compromise - smoking/non-smoking, no lud music after 10 pm, etc. I think that's the way things should work. As a "liberal" (your characterisation) on the issue my ONLY problem with the "conservative" side is that their idea of compromise usually means not reasonable regulation or restriction but banning that with which they disagree.

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken