Smokey Mountain Breakdown

One of the disadvantages of being a Patrician is that occasionally you are obliged to act like one.

Marcus Licinius Crassus(Laurence Olivier)~Spartacus(1960)

I chose this particular quote from the film as my Spartacan declaration, for the very reason that it came from the vanquisher of Spartacus.

Why?

Because even Crassus knew how to act.

Melissa McEwan, Shakespeare's Sister, has been forced to resign from the Edwards campaign after receiving death threats in the wake of vitriol spewed by William Donohue, et al.

I don't care what sort of politics you follow. I'm very open about mine. Being a liberal, I do tend to read more liberal blogs than not, but I'm very tight with some very conservative bloggers as well. It isn't my business what sort of things others post on their blogs. It is their house. Their rules. But the conservatives I do frequent, I consider to be well-brought up ladies and gentlemen with an inner sensibility about civility and manners.

And after all, civility and manners are the concrete that hold the sand of law together. They are what makes life bearable. It really is what differentiates us from the other animals.

I most definitely do not agree with them in most matters and they frighten me at times with their rigid stances. But they most certainly do not issue death threats or such nastiness as this. I would like to believe that they know the difference between an ad hominem attack and an attack on a position (though I'm not entirely certain of this).

....and now for a well deserved ad hominem of my own....

I am forced to conclude that Mr. Donohue, et al are no gentlemen. Mr. Donohue's neo-inquisitorial attacks and fascination with anal sex and antisemitism speak to me of one who was raised by jackals in a vat of putridity. That one can reach the age of consent with such an appalling lack of social graces and an inability to filter one's thoughts dumbfounds me. He obviously was not brought up in the type of gracious Catholic family home I frequently visited while growing up.

This victory was without honor for the right. It was poorly done, tacky, low and common. Professional journalists often don't feel they've earned their "props" before getting a death threat. I've seen them actually high-five each other. Melissa McEwan is not a professional journalist. She was a technical adviser with Edwards' campaign. The attacks on her on her personal blog were akin to burning a cross on her front lawn.

So be careful about crowing about this particular victory. It may say more about you than you would like known in polite society.