I did something few on the Right or Left have done, and that was to open guest blogging to my blog to people from the opposite side.

You mean like I did? I had Jeralyn from TalkLeft guest blog. Twice.

I offered Norbizness the chance to guest blog.

You want to stop the poisoned rhetorica and ad homimens? Make an argument. I replied to Mighty Middle because he made an argument. I responded to Joe Gandelman's argument with an argument.

But if you think your fuse is short, imagine what mine is like: I get 20x your comments, and I get a lot from progressives whole troll my site. And I answer them and answer them and answer them until it becomes useless to do so anymore.

What you don't want to do, however, is write a post like the one you did that started this, then expect me to treat you with any respect. Show it and you get it back. Here's what an actual hard lefty had to say about me -- someone who's been reading my site since before I went on an 19-month hiatus. And because he's read me regularly, he has a clearer view of how I handle dissenting opinion.

I hate blog feuds. They're silly. But at the same time, just like you probably don't like reading nasty shit about yourself, I don't either. So I respond.

Jeff, well said. Let's just bury the hatchet and agree to disagree on some things. And I did not know you let a Lefty guest blog, that is a cool thing to do. I apologize for getting personal with you. I still feel strongly about some of your positions, but there is no call to get personal. I can take it as well as I dish it, but I draw the line at Nigger and talking about my kids, who are just as likely to grow up Conservative as they are Liberal.
Thanks for taking the time to respond.

I don't hate anyone, not even Jeff, or the people who come from his blog and make racial slurs about my children, hurl insults, etc. I have let some of those comments stand, because they make my point better than I can. Even partisan anger can be expressed without getting personal or bringing a person's family into it.

I, for one conservative, easily believe that you don't hate anyone, at least not on a permanent basis. It's hard not to have some hate flare up when they, as you state, "make racial slurs about [your] children," but you're not the sort to let something even as vile as that change your nature. My personal life and work demands have kept me from reading your blog as regularly as I used to, just as it has kept me from updating my own blog, but I'm glad I missed those insults on your family. I fear I might have done something intemperate.

It is true that I have stopped being the diplomat I once aspired to be.

Yes, and more's the pity. I'm not blaming you (or absolving you), but the world was a nicer place with David the Commie Pinko Liberal Wacko Lefty took that extra step (or ten...or 100) to accommodate us conservatives. And (jumping around a bit)...

I did something few on the Right or Left have done, and that was to open guest blogging to my blog to people from the opposite side. I made no demands of them, did not censor their material, or even criticize it on the blog. This offer stands to this day. I have never seen a Right Winger invite someone with STRONG opposing point of view to guest blog.

...

I still offer my blog as a place where anyone can express their viewpoint, regardless of whether it agrees with mine...

I agree with your self-defense here 100%, David, and I commend you for your efforts. I can vouch for your claims, since I've posted here a few times with absolutely zero interference from you. You don't even comment when I post (which I have to admit disappoints me a bit, but I understand).

Getting back on track and picking up from where I digressed...

My ideas have not changed, but frankly I grew tired of reaching out and having people spit in my hand.

Yes, some have done this. Others (myself, Jay Tea, and several others whom I admit shamefacedly I can't recall right now) have continued the discussion/debate/argument without descending into ad hominem attacks or other diversions. Just good ol' Liberal/Conservative debate. But maybe some of us (especially me) haven't been around enough to dilute the idiots, and there are just as many conservative idiots as there are liberal ones.

I am angry, and it does come across that way on my Blog. I am angry about the lack of compromise. I am angry about the lack of moral honesty on the part of some people.

Well, yes, but there are still those of us on the Right who compromise when we feel it's appropriate, and pride ourselves on our moral honesty. Just as we commend you for yours.

Now, I have to call you on your claims. You're letting your delusion run away from you.

It is now a FACT that the Administration has failed us in many ways.

You have to recognize that just by using the phrase, "failed us in many ways" prevents the use of the word "fact." It's certainly a strongly held opinion, and you no doubt have many points to support your contention, but it's still your opinion. Not a fact. In fact, I would agree with some of your specific points addressing the Bush Administration's failures (far from all of them on your laundry list, though), but it's still my opinion. It's not a fact.

It is also a fact that they have put political expediency above morality at times, in pushing their agenda.

Oh, puleeeeze! We're talking about politicians here! Any politician of whatever stripe that doesn't bow to political expediency is doomed to become a non-entity in the political world. It's supremely disingenuous to single out George W. Bush on this point. Merely as a recent case in point, Bobby Kennedy, Joe Biden, Dianne Feinstein, Chuck Schumer, et al weren't trying to jump on the "political expediency" bandwagon last week during the Roberts hearings? Give me a break, David.

But let's get to your closing sentence for that paragraph:

My anger, if anything, has come from an inability on the part of some on the Right to see and acknowledge that.

Not all of us, David. Not all of us.

I have been in too many pissing contest lately, and today made me ask myself, WHY? I am not changing any minds, and they certainly are not changing mine. I have real work to do. I have to focus on putting food on my families table, and advancing my business.

Quite right. To some degree, you're joining my club here. One has to have priorities, and unless someone's earning their living from blogging, it's gotta be one of the first things to be sacrificed when time gets crunched.

The days of the Moderate David are gone.

The perfect evidence for whenever I want to call you a liar.

I just don't feel very moderate any more.

Well, I can certainly see your point there.

...some would rather practice the art of insult, rather than debate, and I realize, belatedly, that I was becoming what I detest. Despite my failings, I am better than that.

Yes, you are. You certainly are. Even if you are a Commie Pinko Lefty...well, I'll lighten up here.

Hang in there, Brother (and I mean that literally, in the sense of King Solomon and his Temple, where we have both received valuable instruction). Fatigue sets in easily, but in times like that, you need to remember the positive things and just flat forget about the negatives. And of course, open your mind to The Supreme Architect. He makes things a lot easier to deal with when things get tough.

I love you, Bro.

Damn man, you got me all choked up over here Hiram, and I mean that (not a drop of sarcasm). And I sure as hell love you man. You are one of the best friends I have ever had, and we have never even met, something I hope to rectify very, very soon. (I need to spend all that loot from Guatemala on something!)

Thanks Boyd for being a friend, for understanding and for your two years of support. YOU are one of those people that I blog for. Your friendship is what makes it all worthwhile!

Somebody's bound to tell us to get a room. :)

And I just wrote Jay who I rabbidly dissagree with, often, but who it took your comments to make me realize what a good friend he has been.

We will, it will be called a BAR, down here in Costa Rica, where our "nieces," will make sure our glass is always filled! Hehe!

Yes, some have done this. Others (myself, Jay Tea, and several others whom I admit shamefacedly I can't recall right now) have continued the discussion/debate/argument without descending into ad hominem attacks or other diversions. Just good ol' Liberal/Conservative debate.

I'm going to have to protest yourr point/defense of Jay tea here, Boyd. He hasn't done a thing.. Diplomatically, I guess you could say.. To help ease tensions between bloggers on he left and the right. Or maybe I just have a biased viewpoint of this because he makes posts on Wizbang which are baed on baldfaced lies about yours truly, but... If Jay Tea is being held up as an example of the right side of a "good ol' Liberal/Conservative debate", then it's no wonder such debate is currently in the toilet.

Well, tas, I'm not going to get into the middle of any debate you may have with Jay, especially since I haven't been a faithful reader of any blogs (ISOU or Wizbang alike) over the past few months, but I have to say that you haven't been the epitome of reasonableness over the time I've "known" you, so your accusations fall a little flat.

But I'm in a good mood, feeling love for everyone this evening (despite the defeat of my beloved Cowboys by those despicable Redskins), so I'm going to stop with that. Even us "hard-hearted conservatives" can feel the glow of friendship and brotherly love.

I find myself reluctantly having to agree with tas. I hardly consider myself an exemplar of the Liberal/Conservative debate. I've defined myself as a militant moderate for decades, and find a good chunk of the Conservative agenda utter bunk. I just happen to find the Liberal side far more deliberately, offensively clueless. Further, I've let myself succumb to the quaint and local customs of tas' site and engaged in far more vitriol and hostility than is my custom.

Fortunately, I don't write for tas' site, and therefore don't have to abide by such as a matter of habit.

And Boyd? Good to hear from you! It's been so long since you've updated, I was a tad concerned. But if you had, indeed, pulled the plug, that Ted Kennedy piece was a wonderful thing to leave up.

J.

Well, I haven't read what you've written on tas's site, Jay, and besides, I was primarily addressing what you've written here, as well as at Wizbang. If you've been naughty, I'm sure there's some nice liberal Massachusetts girl that'd love to come over the border and spank you.

Sorry, didn't mean to get you excited. Here, let me fix that.

If you've been naughty, I'm sure Ted Kennedy would love to come over the border and spank you.

Jeff Goldstein = Hitler

Can I gag yet? :)

There have been times I thought you were the biggest butt kisser I have ever met, David. Especially considering all the "commie pinko" comments that have went unanswered ... that really just turn my stomach ... even if they are in jest. Sorry, but I would feel the same about you calling them "Right-Wing Nutjobs." I don't like that whole "Moonbat/Wingnut" thing either.

Anywho ... lately, I have found you to be quite unreasonable and ready to attack anyone ... friends included. Which has meant that I have commented a lot less around here.

It is good to see you getting your act together. Even if I think you should have eaten Jeff G and his ilk for lunch after some of the things he has said ... but then I also felt you shouldn't have picked that fight too. But, you know what I say about pissing contests. :)

And, Boyd ... it is good to see so much from you. I was starting to think you just didn't like us around here anymore. :) I have missed ya.

Oh, BTW ... there was a reason I put all the blogrolls and the TTLB on your right sidebar. When they hangup, they keep your post area from loading ... when on the left sidebar. Anything like that really needs to go on the right so even when they won't load, your posts will load.

Now aint we one big happy family again! LMAO! I wish I could say that the whole thing with Jeff was just a plot to bring you guys out of the woodwork, but that would be giving myself credit for more smarts than I have. I am happy to see everyone talking again, now we are just missing Beck and the Commissar. LOL!

BTW, Angel, I hope you weren't referring to my "Commie Pinko" accusations, and that you know that's a way I poke fun at David.

Man, I hate having to say that, since it kinda spoils the fun, but I just wanted to be sure.

Boyd, I know you do it in jest. So does The Commissar. I personally don't like it. It grates my teeth everytime I see it. It comes across to me as very condescending. But, that is just me. What David likes and what I like are totally two different things. One of the things I have noticed since we have both had blogs is just how different we are. :)

What David likes and what I like are totally two different things.

Boy, you can say that again! :D

Vive le difference!

a hox on both your pouses

A disagreement with Jeff Goldstein? Get over it!

There are much bigger issues at stake...

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