Other peoples’ thoughts they ain’t your hand-me-downs
Would it be so bad to simply turn around
You cook so well, all nice and french
You do you brain surgery too, with a monkey wrench


In my life experience (which admittedly is a lot more than some, a lot less than others) I've noticed that those folks who squeal the loudest on issues are often trying to drown out someone else. These same folks often appear to have a very difficult time dealing with those individuals whose beliefs differ from their own.

Our President is no exception. The Bush Campaign tightly controls who gets into his events and who questions the President. In fact, some Kerry supporters have been arrested for wearing antiBush tshirts to Bush events. By contrast, Kerry's events tend to be open, with Bush supporters often in attendance..attempting to heckle the candidate. Kerry is accessible. Bush is not.

When Kevin and I first started blogging, I checked some of the right leaning blogs. When commenting in a dissenting way on these blogs I was always careful to stay on topic and not go ad hominem in any way. Yet every time I would return to comment another day, I would be banned by these blogs from commenting.

I read a lot of liberal/moderate blogs and with the exception of Atrios, dissenting comments are up for all to see and folks aren't banned for descent. There may be some right leaning blogs that don't ban descent and if anyone knows who they are, please let me know. I'd love to go there.

This overarching theme of "shut up and take it" seems to be a real infection in conservative circles at the moment. For awhile, leftists did. But it would seem that those days are now over.

Update: A big thanks to Rob Salsman who pointed out my stupid spelling error: dissent, not descent. Boy is my face red. Thanks, Rob.