After reading Ayschlay’s excellent post on our pre-conceived notions of the major media today I went to the New York Times to see what was free on their site and to look at some of the articles that interested me.

Since I’m not much of a television viewer I noticed an article talking about the guests on this morning’s network news talk programs.

It seems all of them will be talking about Iraq.

I then went to the comments section, and instead of talking about the news shows people started bashing Cheney for wanting to go to war in Iran.

It disintegrated into this:

4.June 17th,
2007
2:55 am A rare treat is in store for those who abandon the pew for the arm chair this morning.The backslidden can watch Mitch [ Mitchell ] Mc Connell on Face the Cretins, aka face the Nation.
Mc Connell who looks like a crew man on the Flying Dutchman of Caribbean Pirates fame is with out a doubt the most unctous villian in all politics. He is the most partisan of all republicans. He never deviates from the White House line. He opposes any kind of campaign finance reform
not because of any deep seated constitutional foreboding but because it would harm the stranglehold the republican party has on the nation. If they can`t throw big business money around they can`t hood wink and scare the sheep people of the red states into locking stepping freedom down John Crapper`s invention.
He has not a single redeeming social skill that I have ever heard of. He is arrogant, boring, and condescending; in short the perfect reason Kentucky languishes in the back water of reality. His number two, a pretty decent guy, Jim, no-hit Bunning, has to go along or the Mc Connell juggernaught will bury him on some Fisheries and Brothels committee.
When you watch him you can almost see the smoke of Baghdad circling around his fat face like the smoke from his state`s number one agricultural product that he maakes certain will have government support. We should have an anti-Mt. Rushmore somewhere on an abandoned building in some rotten ghetto that he helped create. His but ugly puss should be right there next to Justice Taney, Charles Manson, Al Capone, and John Wilkes Booth.
Charles B. Tiffany
Kissimmee, Florida

— Posted by Charles B. Tiffany

This is the kind of reading I would expect from any of the far wing blogs on either side, but not published in a major newspaper.

This is nothing but an ad hominem attack, mostly on Mitch McConnell, and has no place in the public discourse.

This is a prime example of why our country is so divided right now. People cannot argue without making it personal, and they do that only when they really have no point to make.

It reminds me of a five year old saying, “You’re a poo-poo head.” It accomplishes nothing and contributes nothing to the debate, but it makes the writer feel better that he has publicly opened his thoughts and confirmed what people who know him probably already know.

We are a small blog trying to bring our country together as a people. We disagree on the methods of governing and even on the priorities of our government, but I can proudly say not one of our readers’ comments has had to be censored due to this kind of discussion or any other reason except to clean up some profanity occasionally.

This is a credit to the people who engage in dialog on this site and to the bloggers themselves.

This blog is a little experiment to see if liberals and conservatives can have discussions and debates over the issues and still walk away from the discussion with respect and friendship of the others.

We, as a whole, are not ideologically pure in the sense we are an echo chamber for one side or the other.

I deliberately set out to find liberals as well as conservatives so we can publish both points of view in one place for people to read and discuss.

I’m very proud of our blogging team and I’m very proud of our readers who have kept this site pleasant to visit. It’s a breath of fresh air compared to some blogs I’ve visited.

Every blogger on this team is a person who loves our country and wants only what he or she feels is best for it. We are all patriots.

And that is what this blog is.