No Hypocrisy At All...

As many of you have noticed, the blogosphere is split into quite a few smaller groups, and you don't see much interaction (other than name-calling) across the "borders". Here in Idaho, I've tried to "reach across" to the more progressive side by linking to them and leaving comments in their blogs, and I've had some thought-provoking exchanges as a result.

Some blogs, though, aren't as good about encouraging this type of interaction. 43rd State Blues, which seems to be one of the more popular progressive blogs in the state (although you can't really tell, since their SiteMeter isn't public) seems to have a policy of not allowing non-liberals to comment. That's their right -- it's their blog. I really don't have a problem with it, until they start complaining about the commenting policies of other blogs; then it seems hypocritical.

Such was the case when my favorite 43SB contributor, "BinkyBoy" (who said I had "tiny squirrel balls" for not physically attacking Fred Phelps at the Carrie French funeral, even though that would have played right into asshat Phelps' hands) mentioned in a post about Adam's Blog that: "...you might notice that little Adam only accepts registered commenters because of "spam". Isn't that what all of the martyred right-wing sites claim?"

I thought that this was hypocritical, so I looked for ways to engage BinkyBoy in some good-natured discussion of the issue. (Adam also pointed out that it seemed hypocritical at the time, and said so again today.) BinkyBoy added a comment to his post today defending 43SB's policy, thusly:
"Because our site has a distinct policy stated in a very prominant "leftish" position on the page, my stance has been misunderstood in multiple instances. We make no excuse on this site, we are not trying to filter "spam", we have stated our policy unequivically and if you don't like it, tough."

As Adam points out, BinkyBoy seems to be saying: "Yeah, I accused you of making it hard to comment, but it turns out that it's even harder to comment on my site, but since we aren't trying to filter "spam", but instead minimize debate, that's OK."

And BinkyBoy wonders why people aren't buying into his political philosophies...

Anyway, I'm pretty sure the reason BinkyBoy updated his post was because of a comment I left over at Sara's place where he had just commented, and I figured I could get ahold of him that way. I asked if he thought that 43SB's commenting policy made his previous post seem hypocritical. He responded (spelling as found):
"The blog owner has decided that people such as yourself arn't welcome and I have decided not to question his policies at this time.
"As for kicking me off the blog, they have also determined that your juvenile and pathetic attempt to "call me out" isn't worthy of consideration."

I was really confused about his reference to "kicking me off the blog"; nowhere in my comment at Sara's had I mentioned anything that could be construed as an attempt to get him kicked off of 43SB. Then it hit me -- he was another one who didn't get that my SPUD-LIB initiative was supposed to be humorous! I guess if you're sitting around stewing about how Bus-hitler is going to personally listen to your phone calls then you really don't have any room for humor in your life. Anyway, BinkyBoy, I didn't want you kicked off 43SB, even though it would have been funny. (I did call on them to "denounce" BinkyBoy as the price of joining my ultimately successful SPUD-LIB crusade, but didn't intend for "denounce" to mean "kick out".)

Anyway, BinkyBoy, you're welcome to comment here at TSSBP -- we could use the laughs...