anything that damages the credibility of blogs hurts us more than it does them.

What your're saying may be true in the short term, but in the grand scheme of things, truth DOES matter. Don't forget that every time that Deborah Howell or Howie Kurtz clears their throat, there's a swarm of commenters on hand to offer their interpretation. In such an environment, it is rather easy to tell the participants from the hacks.

(look how quickly ChillyDogg devolved to a profanity spewing moron with just one criticism)

What is a "beltway pundit" in the first place?

Well that would be someone who isn't a journalist but does play one on TeeVee!

Is it any wonder that they would respond to projected appearances at the expense of reality?

graduated from Memphis State University 1964; received J.D. degree from Vanderbilt University 1967; admitted to the Tennessee bar in 1967 and commenced the practice of law.

On the bright side, at least he didn't let those student deferments go to waste.....

knows that from a male perspective, serial marriage is almost as effective as polygamy. It may not be culturally conservative, it may not represent family values, but it is archetypically masculine.

But of course, all that "family values" crap is just window dressing to cover patriarchy anyway.

I found that curious too, but it's entirely in keeping with the MO. Argue with the cartoon, not with the person.

While it's always entertaining to expound on someones psychological makeup and even more fun if you can label it "abnormal", the fact remains that what we are dealing with is human nature writ large. There are various strategies we humans can use in dealing with others of our kind and there are also varying degrees to which various strategies can be associated with gender. Our current situation can be summarized thus.

Most Americans are pretty much fed up with being assholes and are ready to try a new approach. Most pundits are still assholes. The Republican candidates appear to be in a race to see who can be the biggest baddest asshole of them all. Enter Fred Thompson......

Modular arithmetic is simple-minded--and it's an incredibly valuable way to simplify the world. But it works by ignoring complexities.

It's also, unfortunately, very easy to exploit. Just think of how much truly despicable behavior has been inspired by our inability to draw fine distinctions OR to view ourselves from the same persepective that we view others.

I'll simply cite the inability to distinguish between Iraqis and members of Al Qaeda for a single example but of course we can all think of hundreds of others.

I've occasionally wondered why you react so strongly when the subject of Libertarianism comes up. Now I have some better insight. I personally see libertarian arguments as being a useful way to convince conservatives that GW is not one of them. When you mention Arkansas of course you bring up another important issue. That of "libertarian" arguments being used to justify overt racism usually under cover of "states rights" or "freedom of association".

That being Pro-family just means being able to bash anyone you don't like but ignore anything you do.

Divorce is OK because it's convenient but gay marriage isn't because there are still enough people who are squeamish about it so we can make it a winning issue.

Moral relativism at it finest!

What I find so amazing is that most of the people who inhabit this forum understand the point of the post with no prodding whatsoever. "We should not become our enemy" simple - obvious -almost goes without saying. But many people seem to have a moral blind-spot. They are not capable of the level of abstraction necessaty to look at their own attitudes from the outside.

I personally think that violent amorallity is pretty evenly distributed throughout the world's population. We, as Americans however have institutions put in place by some very smart people designed to channel that force into doing the least harm. In the meantime, the 30%'ers are trying to destroy the very institutions that constrain them from living out their violent fantasies.

This idea that we have of ourselves, that we are more virtuous than the rest of the world, and are therefore anointed to set it right at our convenience, was always a blasphemous presumption

It is often said that the victors get to write the history. But in doing so, they also get to erase the sins. Coming out of WWII and having real examples of monstrous evil reasonable close at hand to contrast ourselves to, made it easier to create the exceptionalism that has carried us through to this point. By the time I was becoming aware, (about 12 years behind) it was becoming clear that the US was indeed also capable of evil. It taken quite a while for that realization to be reburied, and the vitriol that the Kerry candidacy and the Swift-boat controversy brought forth reminds us that the body is still breathing.

For further reading I reccommend:

The End of Victory Culture: Cold War America and the Disillusioning of a Generation

http://www.amazon.com/End-Victory-Culture-Disillusioning-Generation/dp/1558491333

Consistent with my conservation of craziness principle I will side with the idea that every country has levelheaded folks and complete fruitcakes, the unique culture and political structure of each nation determining which group generally occupies leadership positions.

http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=8239

In our case the "unique culture and political structure" is provided by our constitution. Which is of course why it is under direct attack.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0524072torture1.html

Whatever the motive for creating the drawings, "training" is not among them. To anyone who digs violence, it actually looks more like pornography. Certainly they were created for emotional effect as opposed to having any instructional value.