[budwiesest]

It is pure lunacy, though, to imagine that the vast majority of your American neighbors are as inured and calloused as the ideologues, are going to just shrug at your broken body lying in their gutter,....

Not far from here is a place called Shriners. They treat burn victims (mostly children) for free. What I hope this says is that the private sector and private donors can and are, willing not to let someone's body lie broken in the gutter.

we live in a Christian culture, where each and every human being has immense worth and value in the eyes of the vast majority of the populace.

Yes, we do, however our government has stepped into the act of providing for others while the private sector is being nudged out. I would agree with much that you've attributed to us as a people, yet our charity and compassion in a private sense have been replaced by government mandates that limit our ability to perform as we might in the absence of government controls. Let's not even discuss government efficiency in delivering services.

[Cultural Jihad]

Do you really think that laws are preventing charities from providing services? I haven't seen any such laws. No one is forcing anyone to take food stamps or county health care. President Bush has his faith-based initiative he's trying to get passed, and while funds would come from taxes, and while no one should claim that taxes are theft, the case can be made that faith-based charities are purported to have a much higher success rate than those which are run by soulless leftist bureaucrats and ideologues with a vested interest in securing more and more dependent clients.