Comment Rules

You will need a WordPress username to comment (in order to keep the spammers under control). If you don’t have one, don’t worry, they’re free, just sign up here.

We welcome reasonable commenters from the left side of the political spectrum. Just be sure to follow all the rules below, and we can have a good debate.

A quick word on the spam filter: It ain’t perfect. Sometimes a legitimate comment might be sent to the spam bin, especially if you’ve included several links (multiple links are very typical of spam). Don’t worry, we’ll be monitoring the spam folder and will release legitimate comments as quickly as possible.

With that said, here’s the rules… being a conservative, I’ll try to keep them short, sweet, and limited to just what is necessary for the smooth functioning of the blog.

First off, don’t spam. If you’re not sure if it will be considered spam or not, ask.

Beyond spam, anything that is disruptive to a good discussion is not permitted. Four things, specifically, are “crash and burn” offenses, meaning you can be banned for them immediately, with no warning required and no appeal allowed:

• Sock-puppeting.
• Returning after a ban without permission (with or without a different username).
• Insulting any of the bloggers.
• Threats of any kind against anyone, blogger or commenter.

Threats may also be reported to appropriate law enforcement agencies.

The management reserve the right to edit or remove any comment or commenter for any reason. But, don’t be afraid, we’ve got better things to do than mess with acceptable comments.

The management also reserve the right to change these rules at any time.

One final FYI (not really a rule): The blog is set to close all comments a month (30 calendar days) after it’s originally posted. Extensions can be granted (by changing the date on the original post), but a debate has to be something special to merit that. Please be aware of this so that you can complete your discussion and make all the points you want to before the comments are closed by the software.