From a fine rant by my brother Craig:
It all reminds me of something I noticed during the short time I lived in Texas. In Texas arguing is a sport. To win a Texas argument you don’t have to be right — in fact that is a disadvantage. To win a Texas argument you simply need to be the loudest, most strident and most unrelenting. Pulling bullshit out of your ass is actually a good strategy as it will stop a thinking person in their tracks as they try to figure out just how to respond to your claims of Winnebagos on the moon.
Well, being a native Texan, I have a lot of experience in arguing with rightwing fruitcakes. I think the best approach, when you are faced with an outrageous lie, is usually an even more outrageous non-sequitur, something that comes in at an oblique angle, which stops the show.
Whatever you are arguing about, you can interject something like “you know, not only did Tom DeLay kill his father, he’s a closet homosexual. How can you trust a man like that? What do you think those lobbyist-paid junkets to Egypt were all about? Girl belly-dancers? I don’t think so.”
Your fruitcake probably already knows that Tom DeLay did in fact pull the plug on his father and has some kind of rejoinder ready, but something he knows is true followed by crackpot logic will at the very least screw up the rhythm of his bullshit, which makes it lame, and he will know that.
personally I was more proud of the “blogs are like opinions” thing…