An Irritating Way To Start The Day

As usual, Bill Mann has written a thoughtful and wonderfully expressive blog entry ("Monday Musing...Republicans, Polls, Tea Dance and Herring Cove Beach"). He really is a wonderful writer.

Instead of being able to savor it though, and comment specifically to it, I found myself drawn into yet another slugfest with a reader who seems to pride himself on posting offensive, idiotic things. I hate that. I hate getting sucked into that. It's one thing to respectfully--or even heatedly--disagree with someone who is clearly coming from another place, another mindset, another worldview. It's something else entirely to participate in the literary equivalent of a schoolyard brawl, which is what it often seems to come down to between me and this guy.

I also dislike the assumptions I catch myself jumping to about this person whenever we argue--I read his self-satisfied pronouncements and assume he is white and male.

But I've never met or even seen this indvidual and could have no way of knowing that.

Time's a-wastin' as my Gramma used to say; have to stop here. More on all this later.