NogaNote:

I have just returned from a little tour of my favourite websites and group discussions. I am always amazed at the way persons who cannot contain their bile carry on disjointedly, irrelevantly and smugly. And they are completely unaware how .. inelegant they appear when attempting to curl their lip sneeringly, in the archaic manner of British aristocrats straight out of a Georgette Heyer regency romance.

James Lileks, a favourite of mine, who leads an enviably interesting life as a househusband in charge of a six-year old girl, while his wife goes out to work everyday, gets it just about right in this piece here. He has "some rules for being an idiot on the Internet. Clip 'n' save":

The good news is that you, too, can ... rant as you please in unmoderated comment sections. But you have to ask yourself, punk: Do you have the chops to truly make a fool of yourself to disinterested observers? Well, do you?

Make Up Funny Names. If a right-wing figure's name starts with K, like Kate, by all means call her KKKate. Everyone on the right probably shares the values of the Klan, anyway.

Swear angrily. Not just the classics, but the ones relating to excretion and genitalia. Nothing shows you're a serious thinker like a torrent of obscenities.

Hyperbolize everything. Granted, everyone punches a little too hard sometimes; everyone throws too deep. Feisty debate is energizing.