What shocks even me about this blog sometimes is the intelligence of our commenters. It pisses me off, because I like to be the smartest and wittiest one in the room, but man, you guys knock me on my assevery single day. Take the last couple of days, for example, which included comments such as:

“It’s worth noting that the Democrats believe women should have a choice, but it’s Republican social and economic policies that make them choose abortion.” Onthis post.

“I have long believed that the measure of our society is the manner in which we treat the least among us, those who are most vulnerable – the children, the elderly, the sick, the poor, and, yes, the mentally ill, who make up a large proportion of the homeless among us. The others can make their own way – although it’s getting harder and harder here to even do that. The concept of the common good now seems to have been lost in the US. It’s about me, me, me – I’ll get mine and the rest be damned.”Here.

“Tom Osborne CALLS himself a good Christian

Yet he VOTED to TORTURE other human beings

Not a very good act of loving thy neighbor.

Would Jesus Torture his enemy?

“We don’t expect Osborne to be as good as Jesus,

But as a Christian we expect him to not approve torture.

It’s the Least he can do.

“Brought to you by Christians Against Torture.” In reference tothis.

“Newspapers need to decide whether they’re going to remain in the journalism business because journalism is expensive. And if they are going to remain, they need to manage a graceful but permanent decline in profit margins to a lower, but sustainable, level that will allow quality journalism while still providing a decent return for investors.” Talking aboutthat.

I grew up, blogwise, over at thecrack den which, which it might not be a knitting circle, is very much a community of people who share a passion for discussion and debate, who share a sense of humor, a sense of outrage and a sense of responsibility. When we started this blog I had high hopes that we’d establish the same feel here, the same energy. I had high hopes but I didn’t really expect them to come true.

But they did.

What we do here isn’t just about Holden and Scout and Tena and I. It’s about everybody who picks up the phone and joins the party line, even if you lurk, even if you just listen. This would be a much less rewarding and effective blog if it was just me talking to myself every day. You’re all a very real part of what we do here, not the least because of the support you’ve been giving us during this fund drive.

If you’ve already kicked in to support this place, thank you! If you haven’t, please give if you can.

First-Draft.com

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A.