[Cicero]

Well, there are two reasons for calling these liberal fanatics "puritans." First, it's one of the accepted meanings of the word, by extension (whether fair or unfair) from the seventeenth-century Puritans to anyone who tries to spoil people's fun and legislate their behavior.

Second, and perhaps more to the point, he calls them puritans because he knows it will really annoy them. What could be more upsetting to your average liberal agnostic or atheist, who probably thinks that Jerry Falwell is the most dangerous person on the planet, than to be called a puritan?

It's a good way to spoil a liberal's day.

[Lizard_King]

"American puritanism - never absent but cyclically waxing and waning - is back again...Somehow, I think those seventeenth-century anabaptists would have approved."

You are obviously correct in asserting that the secular definition of Puritan is just as applicable. I guess even when it is appropriate I have a knee-jerk reaction to double-edged criticisms of liberals (ie Oh yes, those [bureaucrats,feminazis, etc] are terrible...almost as bad as [Republicans, the Religious Right, etc]), especially when they take the ever so fashionable step of trashing Christians.

Ann Coulter really bumped up my awareness of that phenomenon, and it has made a deep impression on me ever since.