Dimensions of character---and culpability---are implied in the words we use.

" . . squealed like a little rat" implies that I erred by asking Dave to "take a look" at Jim's post counselling to kill an American citizen for saying "disgusting things."

Granted Jim had been under emotional strain i.e. claiming school massacre a hoax and pestering Connecticut police---but his twin admitted he lied to protect him.

My notion of citizenship is seeing your duty and doing it, not claiming IMO as a mitigating factor for hate speech, in a country aflame with violence, born in revolution, preserved by one of bloodiest civil wars in history, police mowed down last month like 10 pins.

(A Nova Scotia university medical student was charged yesterday two counts uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm, one count of engaging in threatening conduct directed at a person, after telling his psychiatrist he wanted a gun to kill his professor and her daughter.)