Michele at a small victory had a great response to the hate mail that she’s been getting.

I think it’s quite amusing that you Ashcroft-fearing people run around the streets screaming that the sky is falling because the Republicans are coming, the Republicans are coming, and you scream that our privacy is gone and the government is going to tell us how to live now, but god damn it people, what the hell do you think you’re doing with your slapping stickers on SUVs and throwing red paint on fur coats and frightening little children by telling them their milk is poison? Your disdain and snobbery at people who aren’t just like you is frightening. You think we should all drop the meat out of our mouths and stop having children and trade in our SUVs for gas-efficient but devoid of storage space tiny little cars and if we don’t we are the anti-christ. I got news for you, sweetheart. You are the scary ones. You are the ones who will make the sky fall someday. You, who think more of animals than people, who think more of terrorists and madmen than you do of the innocent people of your own countries, you who have become the useful idiots to the scary regimes of the world.

I’m in total agreement on this.  I’m constantly appalled by the horrible, meanspirited, nasty things that these people direct at anyone who doesn’t agree with them.  I try to keep a calm head on these things, but there’s a limit to my patience.  I was in a discussion about this very topic with a coworker today and I made this same point to him.  How often can you stand being called a murderer or being accused of being complicit in murder or teaching children to kill before you give up on trying to have a discourse with these people?  It’s unfortunate, because without respect or some common ground it will be increasingly difficult for the various factions to live with one another.