Idiots Category Map
Why Publish Letters from "Idiots"?
Now and then there's a story or item that brings a nearly violent response from a small subset of readers. Even though they are usually represent a very small minority of my readers, I'll often publish such letters. Why?
It is often a waste of time, which is why I try not to answer moronic complaints directly. I do try to choose interesting letters, or particularly outrageous or relevant ones, to answer in True or on the various pages on this site. But there's a wider reason. Part of it is a matter of principle, but that's not enough of a reason. Part of it is that when a contentious debate comes up, I get a lot of people passing the issues and page URLs around, which helps increase the subscription numbers. That's nice, but that's not really enough of a reason either.
The main reason is readers love it.
Why oh Why2K?
or, Ponderings on the New Millennium
"I would like to take you seriously, but to do so would affront your intelligence." --William F. Buckley, conservative newspaper columnist.
It all started as a bit of musing in my author's note in the first issue of the year 2000. Then, the more comments from readers I published, the more they streamed in. Let's recap. In the issue published 7 January 00, I pondered:
Have you gotten used to writing "2000" yet? I wrote a check yesterday, and only then realized that the check's date area was not Y2Kompliant -- the blank says "_______ 19__". Sheesh: I got those checks less than a year ago, and the bozos didn't know that format wouldn't work for very long?! As I go through my web site and update pages, it looks VERY weird to me to see the "Copyright 2000" at the bottom.
