About your spam problem...

Likewise, I get hundreds of spams for only very occasional comments.

I use 'Spam Karma' - which is amazing. Literally thousands of spam comments caught, and it's never let one through, nor (as far as I can tell, and I did check for a while) blocked a legitimate comment.

I don't believe homosexuals are a separate or distinct class of citizens entitled to recognition, because I do not believe that sexual tastes constitute a form of human identity.

On the one hand, you're absolutely right: your sexual tastes should not be a part of your "identity" because they're NOBODY ELSE'S BUSINESS. (Also because, when the shouting dies down, they're really not a reliable or relevant guide to your character.)

On the other hand, sexual tastes have BECOME part of our "identity" simply because there are so many hateful idiots making a public issue out of other people's private lives. Imperfect though they may be, laws banning discrimination against certain sexual tastes are a response to people, and communities, judging people's worth based on their sexual tastes (as they "understand" them, at least); and committing unjust and sometimes violent acts based on such judgements. If those gay-bashers could keep their noses (and whatever other parts) out of other people's sex lives, the anti-discrimination laws would not be necessary.

PS: Regarding your spam problem, you may try showing a distorted graphic and requiring commenters to type the letters they see each time they post.

PPS: I entered my handle, email address and URL, and checked "Yes" to "Remember Me?" but the form didn't "remember" my information and I had to retype it all in my next response. Your comment form used to remember my info. Is this a glitch, or a response to the spam?

Kip and Bee, thanks!

Kip, I don't think Spam Karma works with Movable Type.

Bee, I agree with most of your comment. A lot of people forget that the "homosexual" category is largely a 19th Century creation, and that the gay movement is a reaction to persecution of homosexuals who only became an identity group because they were singled out in the first place. Whether people should continue to perpetuate this process is a question I've posted about many times.

Regarding the mechanics of comment posting, while the spam has increased tremendously, the glitch you mention also happens to me now -- only since I upgraded to the latest version of MT. I'm going to look into why, as I don't know.

In any case, I don't like being forced to add features which hassle commenters, but I might have to....

in summation: you may be a bigot yourself if you call someone else one. makes sense to me. remember when we used to say "it takes one to know one??"

I was never bigoted until I moved to Melbourne -- which is 40% Anglo-Saxon and 60% every culture under the sun.

Really, I don't think of myself as bigoted so much as 'culturally intolerant'. I try and be fair and target my intolerance to particular subcultures, for example I get on great with the Greeks and Italians in the neighbourhood, but I can't stand the 'wogboys' (their own term), those groups of macho and obnoxious Greek and Italian young men (Mate, until you've shared a busy road or freeway with them...).

They say bigotry comes from misunderstanding. If so, why is it that the greatest strife (eg. English/Irish, English/French) exists between cultures who understand each other extremely well?

As to "bigotry," remember the lovely line that whoever first mentions Hitler, loses.

"That I made a couple of observations in no way obligates me to explain anything, as this is not a debating forum. I wrote my post and "Raj" (whoever he may be) left a comment. I can say whatever I want, or nothing at all. I don't know where anyone would get the idea that I have to respond at all -- much less matching detail for detail. Raj or anyone else can post whatever they want in their own blogs, and just as I would not be obligated to leave comments or respond to their posts, neither would they be obligated to allow me to comment or respond to any comment I left."

Raj is not an unknown hazard, Eric. I think there are a fair number of bloggers who have banned him; he's a smart guy, but etiquette isn't his strong suit. In any case, you've stated your case, and you've allowed him to state his counterargument on your property. Now what each of you wrote is there for readers to evaluate as they wish. I don't see why you should give a second thought to accusations that you're not doing enough.

Be careful with the spam filters filtering out real comments.

There's another blog out there that I used to enjoy reading -- I won't name names but let's just the two guys who host it are both gay and patriots -- that decided that my one comment every day or so was spam and the software stopped letting me post there. I don't know what I supposedly did. I didn't comment all that much. None of my comment posts were about miracle cures or sex-crazed Russian teens or buying prescription drugs from Latvia. But I was labelled "spam" and relegated to the comment garbage bin.

I didn't comment much. I don't mind blogs like instapundit that are comment-free either. But I hate when there's a conversation and I'm the only one excluded from it. And I read enough blogs, so one less to check in on was no big deal.

Unless, of course, classicalvalues.com ever were to become the "one less blog." That would be a huge and terrible deal.

Raj doesn't seem to have a blog of his own (at least not one he links to in comments) so I am betting he is that creature that I refer to as the Blog Leech. Since he doesn't have the skill to set up a blog and drive traffic to it, he leeches views off of more skilled bloggers in thier comments.

My own practice is that if it is going to be more than four or five paragraphs (unless I am an established member of a commenting community) I make it a post on my blog. But I'm not going to leech off someone else to get my ideas out, which is what blog leeches do.

Twistys Presents: Erica Campbell