I have amazing friends

[pecunium]

The Nielsen Haydens (Patrick and Teresa) Nielsenhayden.com keep an ecclectic sort of company, which means their blogs are a swell sort of salon, which means just about any conversational topic you can think of, can be discussed there with a fair amount of both passion, and reason. For that reason alone you ought to go read, and take part.

Last week Patrick posted a one sentence (with two links): An interesting answer. Matthew Yglesias argues with Mark Schmitt (see below).

The conversation (which was still going as of Saturday) started as a question about social justice, became focused on gay marriage and has in it a stunning example of fair mindedness and intellectual honesty; coupled with a splendid follow up of actual deeds.

Kudos to Dave Luckett

Comments

[allucquere.livejournal.com]

I didn't think a conversation could go that long on the internet without devolving to spitting vitriol and calling each other nazis. Amazing. Thanks for the link.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I have cool friends.

Teresa has a trick (which I've not got the traffic here to support, but will use, should it come to that) which is a sort of pillory/stocks.

If someone gets abusive (not harsh) she disemvowels them.

It's pretty shocking, and needs be done rarely. Even less rarely to a regular (though regulars get a bit more slack... I have courted it a few times [or at least it seemed so to me] because I was furious and not willing to bite my tongue completely. I have never had it happen, despite saying some fairly intemperate, for me, things).

One can decipher the disemvowelled post, but it takes work.

Other than that, she has a hands off policy of moderation (and all is done ex post facto, so the conversation tends to range far and wide. "Liberty Hall, where one can spit on the mat and call the cat a bastard"

Between libertango saying my wartime writing ought to be published, and the interaction over there, I have become the blogger I am.

TK