As usual. Robin is a remarkable writer and her work improves with each article. She's like a deep cover spy working at the heart of the Reich, sending reports back to London describing and analyzing the mania and latest outrages of Hitler's faithful.
I don't know how she does it. Having an Irish temper I'd have either moved or already left a trail of broken noses and a couple jaw bones in my wake. I suspect one of the main causes for the behavior she describes is a lack of the strap in these peoples' upbringing. That deficiency can be remedied.
I think there are a lot of contributing factors for the behavior she describes. The hypocrisy she describes is rampant among liberals. I know a family who very strongly holds to the basic liberal party line in what they say, and who they criticize. Their car is absolutely covered with the usual stickers (Bush is an idiot, Give peace a chance, War is not the answer, Tolerance, etc., etc.). They have, however, little ‘tolerance’ for those who are the usual targets of liberals (Doctors/medicine, ‘the rich’, those who are ‘too religious’, those who care too much about their physical appearance).
They have been able to send their children to expensive private schools because their tuition is covered by assistance programs. Only one of them works, and that one makes high-end electronic audio equipment at a company that sells to ‘the rich’. In summary, they have a fairly nice lifestyle, only one of them works, their children can go to private school, and they can slam ‘the rich’ whose money supports the private schools they go to and buys the audio equipment one of them makes.
They're oblivious, but righteous.