The delete button shall rule once again

I've been debating (with myself) for a while now whether to moderate comments or not. Actually, I did for a week or so, then changed my mind. Hey, I'm a flip-flopper! I firmly believe in the right to express opinions, and I don't mind another opinion, if it's well-thought-out and supported with evidence. But calling me names is not going to work.

I may once again moderate comments, because I'm getting fed up with personal attacks. It's my blog, and I get to make the rules. If you want to disagree, fine. But debate, don't attack like some rabid dog.

If you think Bush "raped" our economy and Obama is merely cleaning up the mess, don't just say: "You're stupid. That's the facts. Deal with it." How about some analysis and clarity of thought?

My recent awakening into the mindset of left-wingers started back in 2007 when I ran across an e-mail newsletter by a guy in Oklahoma named Mel (I let him be anonymous). It was supposed to be a forum for debate, with all points of view. That's what he said. But that's not they way it worked. He only wanted to hear opinions that he agreed with. There was no debate. If I disagreed with something, he attacked me, personally. It's called argumentum ad hominem. When I asked him to take me off his mailing list, he replied with a scathing e-mail, attacking me personally.

Sorry Mel, but disagreeing with your left-wing ideology doesn't make me an idiot, or a savage. This tactic of attempting to discredit the person in order to win the debate is a common tactic among those on the left.

Next, I joined a liberal forum which stated that they believed in freedom of speech. When I attempted to debate some of the issues they were discussing by providing a different point of view, I was shouted down and told to leave. The personal attacks kind of surprised me.

I then started this blog in 2008. Everything was fine, with a few comments here and there, but I didn't expect a wide readership, and still don't have any expectations. But a couple of folks started putting comments on my posts. The first one was on Feb. 1, 2010.

Mr. Steve Olson, from the blog famguytoday.blogspot.com (Old fart, just foolin' 'round.) had found me. Here's his first comment:

I WAS gonna read your blog, but when I saw your first "fact", that the US defense budget is 3.3 billion, I realized you are hopelessly ignorant. That's not 1 weeks' budget for W's wars...

Well, the fact was that the $3.3 billion was for payroll, as I had stated in the first paragraph of the post. So I knew I wasn't hopelessly ignorant. And since I spent 25 years in the military and was very familiar with defense budgets didn't make a difference, I guess.

Then, five days later, someone with the name of ladyj says:

it's senseless to try to reason with a Conservative from this neck of the woods [she's referring to Texas]. Folks out there argue with fence posts and believe Jesus was a Baptist.

I should have moderated comments at that point, but I thought, consider the source. I guess if you either don't know the facts, or can't accept them, you have to resort to attacking your debate opponent.

Here's a sampling of the comments made by Mr. Olson over the last few months (I'll leave out the one in which ladyj calls me a jerk):

Any group of old farts, who live on Social Security and Medicare, then scream about the gov't getting involved in health care, are idiots.

Do you ever remove your head from your ass and come up for air? Didn't think so. You cherry pick quotes and distort reality. Works for you Repubs, huh? Not really...

Hey Steve, one othe [sic] thing. Does your ass get chapped, walking aroung [sic] all time, with your tail tucked up between your legs?

I'll blame Bush until you right wingnuts admit HE is the one that wrecked our economy, and the current administration is just trying to fix it. Pretty obvious to anyone that actually thinks.

Pull your head out of your ass and check out reality for a change.

You don't have a clue, and prove it, post after post...

...to some half-baked spouter of right wing propaganda, who overlooks the facts, so he can say liberal environmentalists are the enemy. Nothing new there, though.

BUT, you goofballs just say the tree-hugging liberals won't let us take the oil out of the ground. Total bullshit, but totally typical crap, from your ilk, cuz it fits yout [sic] agenda. The work/investment has been done, and is NOT viable, or it would be a profit making venture. Doesn't stop your BS posts, though.

Now to be fair to Mr. Olson, I did find in one reply to his and another comment where I called them idiots. But I do try to resist that, because I really don't believe that liberals are idiots, just mis-guided. Calling each other names is like being on a playground in 6th grade. And Olson's visceral hatred for Bush, and it seems anything conservative, makes it even that much harder to debate what is going on now that Bush is gone.

But I guess what really showed Olson's hatred is a post on Mr. Olson's own blog entitled: You want to read something STUPID?

It's called 'View from Mid-America', but it's really a view from Redneckville, Texas...Pretty good view into the mind of a right-wing fanatic, who quotes FOXNews as the source of his 'wisdom'. The scary thing? There's a bunch of those 'jeniuses' out there....

Well, Mr. Olson, if you'd bother to do any research at all, you'd find that out of 197 posts, I used Fox News as a source 9 times (there may be a few more in there, but that's the result of a keyword search).

So if you think so lowly of me and my "ilk," think that conservatives are stupid and assholes, why do you bother to come here?

Personal attacks from now on get deleted.