As someone who considers himself a progressive, left leaning Democrat, it is easy for me to point the finger at Limbaugh, Beck, O'Reilly, et al. and ascribe to them the blame for taking us down this road. But that would not only be … [Read more...]
WaPo opens up for comments, frets civility
Well hey WaPo, now you know how we feel. They're opening up their stories to comments, and finding that keeping it civil is not so easy:Washingtonpost.com is one of the first major newspaper Web sites to include comments, which are linked … [Read more...]
The big fat BMG meta-poll!
Ok, I've been threatening this ... With all the discussion about ratings and civlity, etc., I thought I'd get all y'all's opinion on what the editors of the site should actually do to encourage robust, civilized debate and raillery. Under … [Read more...]
Patrick shows The Nice
Well, that was an interesting little eruption between Travaglini and Patrick, wasn't it? And practically over before it started. I was most struck by the sweetness of Patrick's tone in appearing with Trav on Friday (my emphasis):Yesterday, … [Read more...]
More raillery, please
Scot Lehigh reviews Stephen Miller's* book, "Conversation -- A History of a Declining Art":The enticements of the virtual world and a cornucopia of personal-entertainment diversions have pushed discourse to the side.Aided by the Internet, … [Read more...]