welcome

It has been heartening to see the number of "reads" on this blog grow steadily.

For my next trick goal, I would like to see some healthy discussion of issues get started here. But I am not about to waste time fending off trolls.

One of the more sensible comment policies I've seen is that of the Des Moines Register. The essence of that policy is the distinction between an offensive opinion and and offensive APPROACH. I suspect that if you bothered to click the link and read this particular page, you are likely to be a person who comments responsibly. But on the off chance you are not, here is my personal comment policy:

Blog-city enables me to moderate comments, so none will be published until they pass muster with me. If you've read much here, you should have learned that I don't have a lot of rules. In fact, there is only one rule (with corollaries) for comments here: be civil. Specifically

• If you call me an "idiot," "fucktard," or any other insult, you are toast.
• The only person who gets to drop the F-bomb on this blog is ME. And I reserve it for special occasions. If your comment is otherwise cogent, I might edit it out, but if I am busy, depressed, or just in a snit about something, I may simply delete the comment.
• You are welcome to disagree with me, but I expect you to provide supporting examples.
• I will not be used as a conduit for crackpot conspiracy theories
• I reserve the right to be entirely arbitrary. As Emerson put it, this blog is "my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world." There are plenty of free blog sites where you can make your OWN barbaric yawp. On my pages is not one of them. There are few enough places in this life where a man has complete control; this is one of them. If you want to make something Freudian out of that, go right ahead, but keep it to yourself.

Now: write!!!!