... to indicate that the "mommie" has stopped caring for the kittens, or that the kittens are looking to "society" to support them or even that the boy IS caring for them. For all we know, he could just as easily be a republican holding the kittens against their will.

So tell me, Stu, is it really your position that society NEVER has any obligation whatsoever to provide support for those whose "mommies" have stopped doing so? If an unwed mother abandons a newborn in a church or hospital, should we all just stand there and watch it die, rather than be thought too "liberal"?

If you think societal kindness to and care for those who have no one else to provide it and cannot care for themselves -- whether too young, too weak, too sick, too elderly or too disabled -- is somehow too "liberal" and therefore inappropriate, then you've moved beyond republicanism and conservativism to barbarism. And I assume that you're prepared to climb on an ice floe when you get too old to care for yourself.

----- jim o\-S