Open Thread

Wow, DT yields 9.4%. Good one DIBS. I wonder what the odds are that everyone in Germany will suddenly stop making phone calls?

“benson brings a very learned and impassioned
perspective to the table.
it often makes for compelling debate.”

Agree. He’s a great writer and has a lot to offer to many debates. He is passionate about a lot of things, which is a positive trait. But his tendency to see personal attack in opposing viewpoints can often lead both sides towards invective. Benson really strongly believes in the things he says here – and when a strong belief is part of one’s identity like that I think it can be hard not to see an attack on a belief as an attack on self.

Lech;

I’m back.

I take your advice to heart, because I know that it is well-intentioned.

I ask you to again look at Wasder’s opening statement:

“What is unfortunate about the mosque thing is that it is a case of people trying to push the envelope of free speech and in the process they just piss people off and cause otherwise reasonable people like benson and legion (and god knows how many thousands of others) into reactionary mode. Its a shame that some people see the need to do this but at the same time, you can’t go the other way and seek to place restrictions on things that are not in line with our constitution.”

You claim that he started out in the middle, but I don’t think so. He mis-speaks what we were advocating (“Restrictions”) and then just labels us as reactionaries.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have got so hot under the collar and just kept my ground, but let’s not pretend that he started off the discussion “in the middle”.

Can’t we all just get along?????

Seriously, I’m holding back today. Not going to mix it up. Too many looooooooooooong posts, too much yelling.

[Besides, my long two-para response to legion got knocked out by a bogus “submission error.” I don’t feel like retyping.]