I stop by Ed Cone's blog every now and then to see what's happening in Greensboro. In response to a comment I made today about the Vermin, Ed asked why I "stoop" to name-calling. My wife often asks me the same question, so I decided they both deserve an answer:

Why I'm a mean old name-caller.

Name-calling hasn't always been my style - I used to be profoundly reasonable. But then the neocon cabal came into power. It started with the Hunting of the President (Clinton) and culminated in the Swiftboating of John Kerry. And got even worse from there.

And all the while, the reasonable people on the left steered clear of hitting back hard. They zipped their lips and tried to make logical arguments that would persuade the muddled middle to think things through. It didn't work. The muddled middle slid farther and farther to the right, while a natural tendency toward political correctness emasculated the left. Without the neocon "killer instinct," the left languished, the right flourished. And the mainstream media ignored the intellectual progressives.