I'm lucky to have worked in engineering so long. First we tend to verify our truths. And second is that every trade off is as explicit as possible.

Things like: if I raise the weight of an aircraft 1 oz it will cost this much fuel per year and reduce failure probability by Y and a human life (on average) is worth X. Is the improvement worth it?

We don't have any metrics like that for our social programs as they actually function. So it is all opinion.

In my opinion when all you have is opinion you should have lots of them. Not that I expect to sway Katie. But I might snag a few of her readers.

BTW one thing engineers have going for them is that they are not noted for their social skills. They are liable to speak their minds with no thought for the social graces.

I've been reading blogs for 10 years, writing them for seven.

It's been an education for me, to say the least.

Those who know me apart from words on the screen generally describe me as kind, funny, sweet.

Those who know me primarily from my writing on the Web have called me everything from Mr. Spock (in the least flattering sense) to "contrarian", but most often fall back on those old standbys--"a--hole" and "pain in the ---".

I am a logical, analytical thinker. In the real world the folks like me are who people go to with their problems, because we are the ones who use our temperaments to become doctors, lawyers, detectives, engineers, scientists and librarians. We are systematic thinkers who relish looking at a problem from all angles to arrive at the most workable solution.

In the early days of blogging most bloggers were of the same ilk. We gravitated toward this medium because it was a place to analyze problems and situations with others who tended to look at the world in like fashion.

Then the emotional thinkers began to arrive in droves. I blame Dooce. Mothers heard about a way they could get paid to talk about being mommies and that side of the blogosphere exploded. Nowadays its very difficult to maintain an analytical presence in blogging, especially around a blogstorm that is so clearly the property of the emotional side of the universe.

I've been following this whole thing closely from the beginning, because I know that there will be (as indeed there have already been several) cries for stricter drug controls. As a proponent of marijuana legalization and a chronic pain patient under the care of respected physicians at Vanderbilt University I get to be the lone voice of libertarian philosophy.

It isn't fun. But I figure, hey. We can't let emotion continually drown out logic in public discourse. That tends to be the historical foundation of fascist regimes.

The older I get the more I think I'd rather be known for standing against fascism than for being cuddly.