Mean-Spirited Cheap Shots

This will be a short post to help me get something off my chest.

My blogroll represents a sketch of myself. The sites are like the collection of odd stuff I keep in a dresser drawer that I can't bring myself to toss out. No good reason to keep some of them because they seem to have gone inactive, but since Bloglines will alert me if a new post appears, I want to know. Others post so often I don't have time to read them all, but on the chance that I have the time and inclination, it's good to have them there.

A small handful are daily checks. I like to know what's happening with a few people so I check their blogs. Dr. Bob, for example, is someone who doesn't post daily, but I can be sure that when he does, he has put as much time and attention into it as he would if he were taking care of a patient. He's a pro. That's just who he is. He's made like that and he won't change. Bernard Avishai, too, and Tony Karon are sharp thinkers and clear writers. I don't want to miss anything they say. 3Quarks Daily is indispensible. Abbas has put together a stable of contributors that is without peer, with the possible exception of Arts and Letters Daily (which I gave up on...like eating sugar with a spoon...more than I can take via monitor...better to go ahead and read a book, which I quit some time ago...). I haven't heard from Abu Khaleel or Mad Canuck for a long time, but I keep the links because I liked what they wrote and hope someday they will be moved to return to their keyboards.

But that is not what I want to talk about. Without mentioning details, I read a post today from someone whom I respect deeply, a dedicated Christian whose comments and reflections I find edifying, although we do not agree on many issues. But today's post was a tawdry, sub-Christian attempt at cleverness that drew fulsome praise from a string of commenters, but as I read I was deeply disappointed and not a little disgusted by the content. I was tempted to leave a comment, but my remarks would be lost among the others. I decided instead to vent my frustrations on my own blog, try to forgive and forget, and move on with tomorrow.

Unfortunately there is now a crack in that blogger's credibility No, that's not right. The crack is in my level of respect for the person. What was posted was accurate, even cute at some twisted level. But in the same way that racist jokes are not really funny, no matter how well they are told, this post will always ring in my memory whenever I read this writers words in the future. It's sad. It is as though I have caught someone stealing or cheating who I never thought would do such things.

That's all.