David Sucher seems to like to have the last word on his blog City Comforts, and as it is his blog, he gets to call the tune and delete comments as he sees fit. That said, his claim that he only deletes comments which do not have real e-mail addresses is simply untrue. Nevertheless, his blog, his rules. Fair enough, we set our comment editorial policy here on Samizdata.net as we see fit too.
I took Sucher to task for what seemed to me to be some vindictive comments aimed at Jackie D, one of the Samizdatistas, regarding comments over on Harry’s Place and on his own blog that were started off by Dick Cheney’s indelicate words on the US Senate floor. My final comment on David Sucher’s blog was deleted, so… this one’s for you, David:
I am, as you point out, a ‘libertarian’ (for what of a better word. I prefer ‘liberal’ myself, or even ‘social individualist’), so the reference to ‘statism’ cannot be put aside. However the fact there are indeed a great many libertarian jackasses is not germane at all.
The use of the term statist in my comment is to demonstrate that I (like Jackie) regard both parties as odious and largely interchangeable thieves, and therefore the issue of Cheney telling someone to “go fuck themselves” is, to me, not a very damaging uses of language in a legislature. I wish all they ever did was curse at each other, but alas they do eventually get down to the serious business of administering looting rights. So for me, it is all rather a non-issue for the same reasons Jackie indicated.
Both here and on Harry’s blog you commented “It’s obviously not the saying of “fuck yourself” which is the issue”… but you are quite incorrect as Jackie makes clear that is *indeed* the issue she is talking about, not Dick Cheney.
As she was defending the use of “Go fuck yourself” when appropriate, rather than Dick Cheney himself, it seems that her disinclination to get into what I have described as a partisan ‘two minute hate’, adding to the chorus of “Oh those wicked Republicans”, was what incurred your ire and intemperate language. We all have tetchy days on our blogs but you do yourself no credit given the length you seem to have gone to to pick a fight with her.
So I am not holding “feeling better” as a standard for public behaviour because for me the issue is *your* behaviour, not Dick Cheney’s.
With due regard.
