From time to time I get annoyed by comments which many other bloggers would simply delete as the product of left wing moonbats (or something like that).

My view is that unless a commenter uses foul language (which can get me blocked by the various filters), launches a pointlessly insulting personal attack against me, or insults other bloggers (which is worse, as they're not here to defend themselves) I'll just put up with the comments. There are two reasons. One is that I believe in free speech and the uninhibited airing of differences, and the other is that commenters are my readers. If they've gone to the trouble of reading through my long-winded posts and want to comment, that's fine. Unless I suspect there's something else going on like spamming, or blatant trolling to promote another blog, hey, commenters can say pretty much anything they want. That doesn't mean I'll address it or even read it, but it will usually stay there.

What prompted this was reading a remark from a supposedly intelligent former (and current) government official which is probably more inane than the most inane comments I've ever gotten here. Eleanor Holmes Norton accused the "gun lobby" of deliberately seeking to have more children killed:

Here's a version in quotes, via the Washington Times:

"They're trying to see to it that more children get killed," said D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat.

It is my belief that people are delighted by remarks like Holmes Norton's (at least, those who disagree with her are) because they are so self-discrediting. And so genuinely funny.

Laughing at moonbattery, of course, is hardly limited to the right wing, because moonbats are not limited to the left wing variety. John Hawkins (hardly a left blogger with the name "Right Wing News") recently linked to some of the funniest remarks I have ever seen attributed to a "conservative" (assuming this Neal Horsley character qualifies for that label). Here (from Right Wing News) is the actual radio dialogue between Neal Horsley and Alan Colmes (on the latter's radio show):

Colmes: "You had sex with animals?"

Horsley: "Absolutely. I was a fool. When you grow up on a farm in Georgia, your first girlfriend is a mule."

Colmes: "I'm not so sure that is so."

Horsley: "You didn't grow up on a farm in Georgia, did you?"

Colmes: "Are you suggesting that everybody who grows up on a farm in Georgia has a mule as a girlfriend?"

Horsley: It has historically been the case. You people are so far removed from the reality...Welcome to domestic life on the farm..."

If it's warm and it's damp and it vibrates, you might in fact have sex with it.

HorsesAss.com has more discussion of this moonbat, complete with pictures of some very cute looking watermelons grining coyly during Mr. Horsley's discussion of sex with, um, vegetable matter. (Horsley's point in saying all of this and more appears to be that Jesus "saved" him, but I find myself wondering whether Jesus himself might take umbrage at such a gratuitous personal attack.)

What I'd like to see now is a public debate between Norton and Horsley. On Moonbat TV. (They really need to add a show like that, because I know I'd watch it, and I'm sure others would too.)

Interestingly enough, Horsley was sued by Geraldo Rivera over remarks the latter made on his TV show accusing Horsley of being an "accomplice to murder" for publishing names of abortion doctors for others to kill. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals stated in part:

Defendant/appellant Geraldo Rivera appeals the district court's determination that a statement Rivera made to plaintiff/appellee Neal Horsley during the course of a television program hosted by Rivera is not protected as a matter of law by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution nor by applicable state law. Rivera asserted that Horsley was an "accomplice to murder." Because we find that Rivera's allegedly defamatory statement is absolutely protected as rhetorical hyperbole by both the First Amendment and applicable state defamation law, we reverse.

(Yes, Eleanor, I have an inside tip that the NRA headquarters is readying a big McDonalds-like movable numbers sign reading OVER 50,000 CHILDREN KILLED SINCE 1979! Planned Parenthood is working on a sign with a much bigger number of "fetuses murdered so far." All of this leaves Operation Rescue in a quandary because the actual number of murdered abortion doctors looks embarrassingly small. So they're trying to perform a "head count" on the number of mules that went missing.)

UPDATE: PLEASE note that I am neither saying nor implying that Eleanor Holmes Norton is the moral -- or mental -- equivalent of Neal Horsley. She's smarter and much kinder than Horsley! (And smarter -- as well as sexier -- than his mules.)