A person's thoughts are their own and provided they stay that way, no harm is done. There does seem to be a trend these days, because of BeBo or FaceBook or Twitter, for people to 'speak their minds' and say the first thing that comes to them. They also have an unshakable belief that they are right in spite of all evidence to the contrary.

I have no sympathy for the girl. She opened the door marked 'Rudeness'; she must therefore expect others to walk through it with a different opinion. In essence is there any difference between a random verbal attack on a stranger and randomly shooting a total stranger. In essence - none. An attack is an attack, whether it be words or bullets. A person can't sit on their front porch and take pot-shots at people and not expect people to shoot back.

In the first instance, I treat all men as equals; all women as Ladies and all children as polite, intelligent beings. If any of these groups prove not to be as I originally envisaged, then I have to deal with a re-appraisal accordingly.

There is an old saying:

If you sow the wind, you will reap the whirlwind.

Regards

Chas