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Friday, February 13, 2004

My friend Jody posted a mini-rant on her site yesterday regarding the Bush White House's tactics in addressing the questions about his National Guard service during the Vietnam war. As rants go, I found it pretty "fair and balanced." Read it and judge for yourself.

Her main complaint was that President Bush and his spokespeople seem, in her opinion, to be acting like six-year-olds trying to hide something behind their backs. She also observed the hypocrisy of an administration which brought us the invasive Patriot Act being dodgy about the facts of the President's past. Not exactly knee-jerk, bed-wetting Lefty stuff.

So I was more than a little surprised to see comments from two of her regular readers complaining about the post. One was dismayed that politics had entered into her blog at all, and announced that she would not be back. The other was sorry to see Jody engaging in "liberal rant crap."

Are folks so easily offended that they can't swallow a little substance with their diversions? Are we now so skittish as a people that we bail out at the first sign of a viewpoint with which we don't agree? If the two folks in question had challenged Jody on the substance of her post, that would be different. In my opinion, there's nothing better in this world than a free, frank, and respectful exchange of ideas. And in that same vein, there's nothing more annoying than people loudly bitching as they plug up their ears and leave the room.

There's very little in this world that I see in black and white terms. This is one of those things. If you disagree with an opinion, challenge it respectfully and stick to the facts of the case. If you don't want to do that, feel free to leave. But don't slam the door on your way out.
Posted @ 1:02 PM



 


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