While one hand gives...

...the other hand takes. We've been having a bit of a discussion this easter weekend about Charles Johnson's treatment of the Schiavo story. Those of you who also dare to venture onto LGF propre once in a while will have noticed that he didn't take the right-wing line one would have expected of him. Instead, Charles has sensibly pointed out that a) it's all very well to judge from afar but if you're not in the situation of having to make life and death decisions yourself, you really can't pontificate about how someone else should act, and b) you need to take the hard science into account in this case, and all the available evidence seems to suggest that Schiavo is in an irreversable state and has no higher mental functions left.

For his views (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=15207) CJ has been getting a lot of flak from his fellow travellers on the right, but strangely he has decided that it's the left which normally takes the hardline attitude towards political opinions: that "you're either with us or against us". Where has this man been for the last 60 years? If anything, it's the left's one big weakness that it tolerates so many dissenting views on the same topic. The right is all about streamlining views, groupthink, rigid adherence to basic principles and the stamping out of unorthodox views. To make out it is the left (or more specifically, the Democratic Party) which drives a fascist line is more naive than we thought even a Lizard King could be, but there you go.

Two cheers for Charles daring to go against the flow on Schiavo. Two boos for the spectacular contortions that see him suddenly claim open-mindedness and tolerance as right-wing virtues...