I think many people read this blog not for my sometimes verbose commentary but also for the scathing criticism that some of my most devout readers direct at me (as well as the TWN NoteTakers Scott Paul and Sameer Lalwani). They are well-meaning folks, most of them.
But do know that I also appreciate the friendly, civilized, thoughtful comments that often come more by email than on the blog (!).
One of my commenters — POA (short for “Pissed Off American”) — has pushed me to the edge a couple of times, and each time, we’ve been able to hammer out an ‘understanding’ regarding how high his cries of outrage can go. There are several government officials from countries like Iran, Syria, and Cuba who occasionally email me asking if I need a refuge to escape from my well-meaning attackers. . .seriously. But for POA’s reasonableness after we ‘chat’, I thank him.
That said, he’s been harassing me for a couple of weeks now about my inability to distinguish elephants from gophers. I disagree, but perhaps he knows that I’m more tuned into Weimaraners and mountain goats.
The Mountain Goat above is a distinguished looking lad that my fellow hikers met while hiking the Cascades with me in early August. I was ahead on the trail, they behind and the mountain goat in between. In fact, I was moving so fast that they thought I had turned into that mountain goat.
This is a friendly way of saying thank you to all of my commenters — and POA — who make TWN a rich and usually semi-safe place for mostly reasonable discussion. But do watch out for the sharp edges on occasion.
For others, you will note in the left column of my blog a box called “RSS Feed/FeedBlitz”. If you sign up for that, you’ll get a neat looking email everyday notifying you of the roster of posts that has gone up. Many of you request to be on my email list — but that is the most direct and clean way to do it.
And as always, to those of you who want to PayPal a donation to the blog (upper right hand corner of blog), you have my thanks and appreciation.
— Steve Clemons
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