Posted 7:20 PM by steve

Over at Patterico, I've been following the rantings and ravings of Deb Frisch, the (now former) professor/lecturer at the University of Arizona who posted some nasty comments at Jeff Goldstein's blog...

Starting with the necessary qualifiers, no, I don't think people ought to be leaving comments such as she did. No, I don't think people ought to be saying or thinking such things as she did. Yes, someone who leaves comments such as she did isn't right in the head. And, no, I would not like someone directing similar comments to me.

That said, this is not a big deal. So she said some stupid things, some of which could have been viewed as threatening in nature. But, let me ask you all this: just how many bloggers - on either side of the political aisle - have been physically attacked by a relative stranger as a result of their political viewpoint? In fact, just how many people in the country have been physically attacked by relative strangers because of disagreements over politics? And I'm not talking about those people who go looking for trouble, like righties who show up to an anti-World Bank rally.

That's right, basically none. One of the nice things about America is that, for the most part, we can disagree with one another - at least over politics - without pulling out the guns. As an aside, I find it interesting that there's lot of violence over such important topics such as who tried to cut in front of whom at a nightclub's restroom... or whether one guy gave a dirty look to another guy. But, on the truly important issues, such as how to fight terrorism, whether to abolish the estate tax, and whether Hillary Clinton should ever become President, there's no violence at all.

So... getting all riled up over this is a good way to use up a lot of bytes. And it's a nice way for the right to score some cheap victories against at least one crazy on the left. The right can claim a scalp, as there is yet one more lefty sitting on the sidelines, having lost their job as a result of their own stupidity. But, as far as something that people ought to be worrying about, it's much ado about nothing.

Because, as we all know, them on the left are a bunch of weenies. Lots of huffing and puffing but, when you get down and look at it, there's not much there.

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