Richard Miniter responds.

Dick Minter responds:

So I bit surprised to learn that there is a little attack on me up on Instaputz, combined with an old photograph taken in Brussels. Perhaps they are doing a bit of blog-climbing, trying to attack their way to higher ratings. If so, best of luck to them. But check out the attack on me because I think it reveals what is wrong with the national conversation today.

First comes the inability to read carefully. In the Code Pink post below, I wasn’t making fun of the Code Pinkers weight per se, but illustrating how their bodies and their clothes did not match. In other words, grandmothers dressing as their granddaughters. Next, I contended that this kind of arrested development seems to infect their thinking about the war.

Again the problem of reading comprehension reappears. I never said one had to go to Iraq to have a viable opinion on the war. But if you are going on national television and run a national advocacy group devoted to any position on the war, one needs to be sure one has a firm foundation for one’s views. Going to Iraq and interviewing the decision makers is one way. Meeting and talking to American and Iraqi politicians and military officers when they visit the U.S. is another way. Reading a lot of history and official reports is another. Just reading the newspaper and watching tv doesn’t cut it , at least for a serious person.

Instead of engaging these points, Instaputz twists my words to make some cheap shots. And, notice the anger and the bitterness in his voice? Instaputz could be a partisan of the left or the right, it doesn’t matter. They both do this. Poor reading skills, mixed with anger and cheap shots. It doesn’t portend well for the future of the country.

I'm sure we're all very impressed with your concern about cheap shots, Dick after you devote an entire post to ridiculing people's physical appearance and clothing. I guess "swollen watermelon tummy" and "dried up stalks" were meant as compliments.

And since you've branded yourself a Serious Person, do Serious People link insurgent chlorine attacks to imaginary stockpiles of Saddam's WMD?

Do Serious People suggest that New Yorkers need to be reminded of 9/11?

Do Serious People keep pushing crackpot theories about connections between Saddam and al Qaeda?

Do Serious People blame the United States' failure to achieve victory in Vietnam on the nightly news?

Now why don't you go write some more books blaming everything on Clinton and praising the Great Leader. Then maybe you can lecture us more on how our shrill, partisan tone is hurting the country.

Asshole.