Comment Policy

Some of the right-wing trolls that drop by every now and then may be wondering why their comments were never published on this blog. That's because I've had to put up with stupidity all my fairly long life and I just don't care to do it anymore. If your comment involved nothing more than some name-calling, it didn't get published. If it was racist, misogynistic, homophobic or contained another form of bigotry, it didn't get published.

Now that doesn't mean you can't disagree with me. I have a conservative commenter (yes, that's you Curious Texan) who comments here regularly and almost always disagrees with what I have said. But he is never guilty of the sins listed above, and always at least tries to make a sensible and coherent argument. I have no problem with that and always post his comments (even though he's usually wrong). In fact, I look forward to his comments.

But there is something else I have been thinking about for a while now. I don't get a lot of anonymous commenters, but I have to admit I don't like them. It makes me wonder why a person is even bothering to comment if they are so ashamed of what they're saying that they want to hide their identity. A commenter could at the very least have the courtesy to invent an internet pseudonym and use it when commenting.

So, starting today, I am no longer going to publish any comments from anyone identified as anonymous. You don't have to use your real name -- go to blogger and create an internet identity for yourself. It's easy. And it allows me and the readers to identify your comments and put them in the context of previous comments you have made.

You may not think that's fair. But it's my blog and that's the way it's going to be.