I usually forget Atrios, too. I used to read him regularly and I loved the preznit/turkee gag – it became a running joke for a while. But I rarely check his site now. Instead, I rely on my feed reader. My feed reader includes two “big” lefty blogs – Dkos and Balloon Juice. I normally only browse the headlines of either, though I’m more apt to read the full posts from BJ – because it’s better, less knee-jerk partisan, and more thoughtful. I read several righty blogs, and apart from the horrid Red State, and the too-far-right AoS, I applaud quietly as often as I sneer. Here’s the full list of what I read:

Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne
10,000 Monkeys and a Camera by Alice (!)
3QuarksDaily
A Simple Jew
Above MediocrityMy cousin from my hometown in Georgia
Ace of Spades
Ancient Hebrew Poetry
Balashon – Hebrew Language Detective
Balloon Juice
Bartholomew’s Notes on Religion
Ben Witherington
ACLU’s Blog of Rights
Calculated Risk (economics)
The Chattablogs aggregator
Cocktail Party Physics
Codex: Biblical Studies Blogspot
Cosmic Variance
Daily Kos
Ecce Homo
Economics and Similar, for the sleep deprived
End Times Prophetic, Prophecy, Visions, Dreams, Revelation, Chris
Euangelion
Eunomia*
Evidence Based Thought
Evolutionary Novelties
Evolutionblog
Facing South (I sure do miss South Knox Bubba!)
Faith Blogging
FaithInterface
FourEightFour (Chattanoogan)
Front Page Stories
Front Porch Republic*
GarrettBartley.com
Glory to God for All Things
Grabbing Sand
Grasping Reality with Both Hands (Brad DeLong)
Greta Christina’s blog
Guitar & Indie Music
Hesed we ‘emet
Hirhurim – Musings
Hypotyposeis
I’m Just Saying! (Chattanoogan)
In the Field
Irresponsible Journalism (Chattanoogan)
Jlue’s Weblog (mom)
John F Moss
Julia Sweeney
Kung Fu Monkey
Learn Card Tricks
Les Jones
Lie to Me
Little Green Footballs*
Living the Scientific Life
MArooned (Jay G)
Meanwhile
Midwest Christian Outreach: The Crux (drivers for Covenant Transport)
My Quiet Life
Nealz Nuze
New Testament Studies
No Silence Here (but I’m not sure the feed is working)
Nonprofit Land
normblog
onegoodmove
Origins
peripatetic patter
Pharyngula
Post Politics: Political News and Views in Tennessee
Postcards From Myself
RealClimate
RedState
Religions of the Ancient World
Riehl World View
SayUncle*
ScienceNOW
Scientia
Shuck and Jive
Skepticblog
Skeptico
Skeptic’s Play
Southern Athenaeum (1 & 2) (high school bud)
Starts with a Bang
Straight White Guy
Sunlight Foundation
Tennessee Ticket
The Busybody
The Cleft of the Rock
Teh End Times Blog
The Forbidden Gospels
The Intersection
The Long Now Blog
The Loom
the mindful mission (Hippy Dave!)
The New Testament Roundtable
The Oval: Top Stories (USA Today)
The Panda’s Thumb
The Public Interest (Chattanoogan)
The Secular Outpost
Toys in the Attic (I think this feed *must* be broken)*
Transforming Sermons
Two Powers in Heaven
UUpdates aggregator
uuworld.org: latest stories
Wandering Hillbilly
xkcd.com

* In my utopia, every conservative would think like one or more of the authors of these five blogs

The statement “In a better world, their lives would now be forfeit” is not altogether out of sorts, since you agree at least somewhat with the sentiment when taken within the same EXACT context that the writer allowed (when our soldiers are being fired upon their lives are worthy of forfeit), it’s just “dumb” when the writer is obviously puffing their chest out while typing that text in an “oh so manly” sort of way.

Second, when there isn’t a real-world life and death situation, cartoonish & over the top rhetoric can sometimes be artful. One assumes the case of Terri Shaivo, was not one of those situations. Or, the case of Scott Beauchamp making up stories (life in Iraq was life & death during those days, after all). Art is, after all, in the eye of the beholder. Or….well, I’m guessing that cartoonish & over the top rhetoric is more applicable – just a guess, but an educated one since I’ve been reading a lot more lefty sites in the last 5 months – when directed at the “enemies” on the right.

Which leads me to a conclusion that is being more verifiable with each passing day: there is abject hatred of conservatives amongst the glitterati of the left-wing-web. Not disdain, not dislike, not disagreement; hatred. One of the reasons I like reading you is that you often set aside entries where you adhere to your liberal (or progressive, if that’s what you prefer, I do not intend to be offensive so fill in with the preferred term) beliefs and you often post instances of why you do or where you think there are injustices to y our ’cause’/ideology.

Now, go scan a few of your favorite sites.

Tell me if I’m wrong in what is present: with our nation’s economy on the brink, North Korea firing missles, federal spending becoming more like Monopoly the game than USA the reality, each day for lefty writers on the web,or on television (Letterman, Maher, Stewart*) begins with researching that which pisses them off (conservatives) followed by a seething screed about how evil Republicans are & (this is the most important part) how they should have no credibility.

Nancy leads the House.
Harry leads the senate.
Obama leads the executive branch.

But leadership isn’t the optimum topic of any particular day; personal destruction of the ‘real’ enemy is item #2 on the to-do list (number one being ‘get filled with rage about the enemy’). I think President Clinton was the person who brought the phrase “politics of personal destruction” into the nation’s vernacular – which is ironic since he had Begala, Carville, Lensner, etc., doing just that behind the scenes, but that’s an aside since politics is a dirty biz & everyone participates – and for about 9 months that was the talking points catch-phrase. Now, it truly is the M.O. for the ‘big’ lefty web. Seriously, try to remove yourself from “partisan smijer’, go check the big sites or watch some of the shows and tell me what percentage of what you see is advancing your cause/politics versus – or entertainment if it’s television – that which seeks to destroy individual conservatives/Repubilcans.

[Note: yes, I'm aware that "my side", which seemingly is tougher to define since conservatives are wading through the abyss at this time, can be just as guilty and I'm not playing the you-guys-are-worse game. Just keep in mind that this discussion pertains around AOS putting forth an opinion on a topical story & you pointing to BJ reacting to the righty opinions around the web. For all intents & purposes most big blogs, and using that site as an example fits, don't use their space to advance their agenda. Rather, they are blogs about other blogs. Oh, there'll be a "let's get card check passed" entry every once in a while (the daily Andrew Sullivan gay marriage entry is a given), but I'd venture a guess that the majority of entries are built around the premise of (a) finding out what someone on the 'right' has said about something; (b) seeking to destory them based on what they said. Favorite resources for those entries, by the way, are media matters & Josh Marshall.

Am I wrong in my conclusions?

I surely didn't expect "hope and change" because I knew that was just political rhetoric, but I surely wouldn't guess that the overwhelming time-user would be "let's find some way to get pissed off about Republicans". Not just sometimes, most of the time. Were we on the right like that? I know we all find things that denigrate the institutions & beliefs that we hold dear & we want to react, that's human nature (and about 90% of Rush Limbaugh's empire) but for so many to go out of their way to smear that which has no power whatsoever, and to do it on a continual basis, tells me that it goes beyond political disagreement. It's hatred. And, it's presented with buffoonish & cartoonish rhetoric that not a single one would actually read while sitting across from the target-of-the-day (except Cramer, who rolled over & died for Stewart).

Okay, take me apart.

[Sorry to hijack, were I still blogging I'm sure I'd go even further into detail intead of doing one of those 'stream of consciousness' things on your site, but I'm not blogging & Jay doesn't have a recent topic that is even close, so....you're the victim, I suppose. ]

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* I remember back when Jon Stewart (who I think is hilarious) was presented as an “attack all sides comedian”. Also, thanks for the link on the “preznit” entry, I’d forgotten that atrios existed….I also recall him replying to conservatives complaining about Olbermann years back by giving the “Keith is just speaking truth to power during those special comments” retort. Talk about cartoonish rhetoric when looking back….wow.

I don’t see anything wrong with wanting a quick death to those who fire on our soldiers – before they succeed in harming our soldiers. I don’t even see something wrong with a visceral desire for sudden death to such a person after they are no longer capable of harming anyone (though I obviously don’t think the latter is the right way to go about things). But I do see something wrong with puffing one’s self up with attempts to sound noble about either. In fact, it’s sad that these guys put themselves in that position and eventually that they got themselves killed. You can find it prudent to kill someone firing on your person without finding it glorious to do so, or effete to refrain from it.

That’s all they are, an enemy?
Because I can tell you with confidence, if I were to scan huffpo, dailykos, Cole, etc., based just on the links that I see on the various sites I actually DO read, I’d see that they consider ME an enemy. Sarah Palin is an enemy. Limbaugh is an enemy. That week when Rahm Emmanual wanted Jim Cramer to be an enemy, the troops acquiesced and accepted him as such.

The people doing those acts aren’t “enemies”, they’re legitimate international terrorists, kidnappers and thugs.

In my world, I see nothing wrong with wanting a quick death to those who fire on our soldiers. I’d think the same thing were someone to fire on our president – which was a statement a lot of “grown ups” (examples listed above) wouldn’t be so quick to support during the years 2001-2008. Now, one can disagree with “my world”, but it’s hardly “stupid” to think it prudent to kill someone who is firing upon your person.

BTW, if you’re against cartoonish & over the top rhetoric, I must ask what else in the world does one happen upon at balloon juice?