Since it appears that my last article has gotten me into some hot water with some of the people here, let me just state, loudly, clearly, and definitively:
I LIKE IT HERE!!!
I like blogging here. I'm happy here. I like the debate, I like the discussion, I like the fact that it's never boring.
This does not mean that I forfeit the right to criticize if I see fit. The last time I did this, someone graciously suggested that I go blog elsewhere. While I thank that gracious individual for their charitable suggestion, I believe I'll pass, because I like it here.
Telling me to leave, simply for pointing out something that I believed to have been handled incorrectly, is akin to telling people who criticize the government to leave the country. Sorry, but the fact the I dislike the president or his actions does not mean that I dislike the nation. Hard as it may be for some people to believe, George W. Bush is not the United States, and similarly, neither the moderators here, nor their actions, one of which I criticized, are JU. I took exception to one, I repeat ONE, incident. I still like it here.
Let me go ahead and tell you another reason I like it here: The fact that most people here realize that the way you make your argument says as much, if not more about you, than the argument itself. I like being able to go at it with people on one blog while agreeing with them on a different one, all at the same time. The same person telling me to shut up in one forum has encouraged me to develop an idea I had in another forum, and I like that. I like the fact that, for the most part, the people here realize that we can argue loudly, vehemently, and even violently, while still remaining friends and maintaining a mutual respect because I do not take any shots at you if you do not take any shots at me. We recognize our disagreements, we fight them to the intellectual death, and at the end of the day we go get a beer because we realize that, as people, as human beings, we're really not all that freakin' different.
And I like that.