Well, according to the patrons and pals of this site I'm apparently some kind of irrational asshole for commenting and disagreeing.

I'm not going back...no worries. It's obvious they're a tight-knit cadre who aren't interested in hearing from anyone outside of their immediate vicinity.

Which seems odd, I think. Basically, I wound my way there via Electrolite. Matt had posted a comment with a link back to his site, and often I follow these links to see what kind of page the person has.

So the first post I came across was this one, in which the author was basically stating that he cared about his children, and that there were Iraqi parents who cared about their children, and that anybody who was pro-war obviously didn't care about either their own or Iraqi children. If they would, the piece suggested, they'd obviously be anti-war.

I disagreed with the implication...very strongly. And I posted a comment noting that under Saddam Hussein children are sometimes tortured in front of their parents in order to illicit confessions. I suggested that perhaps one could have compassion for innocent Iraqi children and that forcibly ousting Saddam could be seen as the more humane and compassionate stance.

I was immediately derided for spewing propaganda, of trolling, of invading their little private space. Though no one actually answered the thrust of my points, and no one contradicted the brutalization of many children under Saddam's regime.

Now, it seems to me that if someone has a blog, with an active, open comments section, and they're posting politically-centered, opinionated material, they shouldn't really be shocked and offended if someone wanders along, reads their blog, and posts something in disagreement.

To be sure, the internet and the blogosphere are full of cowardly assholes who post snide hit-and-run comments. But they most often hide behind pseudonyms and fill their posts with expletives and ad hominem attacks.

I, on the other hand, post my full name, links to my e-mail and website, and strongly take issue with the content.

Seems to me, if you're posting controversial political polemics, you either shouldn't have an open comment section, or if you do, you should simply ignore those that disagree with you. But it seems wholly unreasonable to throw a fit when someone posts a comment that disagrees with you.

Ah hell, what do you guys out there think?