Reader Emails/Comments, Obama Teaches Sex, &c.

As many of you noticed, I shut down comments a few weeks back. I did this for a couple of reasons, but mostly because I did not feel that the discussion there was productive on any level. Typically I would post something, some of you would try and discuss it (Berns, the Pendulum Politics guys, Matt (B. & L.), Spikers, Reasonable Raisin, non-apoplectic BT, etc.) and then the haters would hi-jack it by making spurious & scurrilous attacks on me. Some of you played an unfortunate game of Jekyll & Hyde.

It wasn't so much the attacks themselves that bothered me as much as it was the fact that these attacks completely derailed the dialogue and scared away thoughtful and reasonable commenters.

So I thought, "you know what, there are lots of truther message boards out there, OL&L doesn't need to be one. Let the haters exercise their free speech elsewhere." Unlike what Columbia University did for Ahmadinajad, I feel no need to provide a platform for vile anti-intelligence. Let them roll in the mud over at dKos, Democratic Underground and Huffington Post. They'll feel more at home there anyway.

That said, I may occasionally open up some posts for comments, though they will be strictly monitored by me or others, designated with a special assignment to root out stupidity and asininity.

Thus far, my bet seems to be paying off, as my readership stats have climbed steadily since this change. I won't say correlation=causation, but, absent a better explanation, I'm going with it.

The other positive benefit has been the good emails with tips and comments I have received. Keep on sending them.

Victor S. wrote, regarding my post on the Mankiw list, which showed Barack Obama and other Democrats to have received large campaign donations from Fannie/Freddy:

Did you go down that Mankiw list a little further? You didn't have to go very far to find Utah's own (I first found out about your blog on byutv) Bob Bennett at #6.

It's true, Bennett & other Republicans have received donations from Fannie & Freddy--but none of them are high on the list--meaning, none of them have received nearly as much as the Democrats at the top.

And, since I first took a look at the numbers, another important detail has come to my attention: Whereas the rest of the list have been in the Senate for a number of years, Barack Obama has only been there 4 years. Thus, despite his short time in Senate, he has managed to climb to the #2 spot on the list of Fannie/Freddy donations. Why might that be?

If the MSM has any conscience left whatsoever, they will investigate Obama's role in looking the other way while Fannie & Freddy got themselves into trouble.

Finally, the reason you're probably reading this post to begin with: Obama teaches sex ed. Why? Because it's funny.


If you have tips, questions, comments or suggestions, email me at lybberty@gmail.com.