In fact, as I’m sure you know, Mozilla has been rather intransigent on SVG Fonts: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=119490

So, I misspoke, and I’ve corrected my post accordingly. Thanks for the reality check!

I’m afraid I had to remove your insightful follow-on comment, because it wasn’t salient to the topic; for the benefit of other readers of my blog, all 13 of you, I’ll summarize: “Claymore” lobbed some insults at me and my wife, indicated that my high-school friends still living back in my hometown of Jefferson City, MO, all hate me, and that I should never come back to “Flyover Country”… this last bit is kind of ironic, since when I visit every year at Christmas, I don’t fly, I drive there in my smug, self-righteous, pinko Prius (maybe they should have said “Drive-Thru Country”).

So, “Claymore”, why did I bother approving any of your comments, you may ask yourself?

Is it that I feel a need to let all voices, no matter how dissenting, be heard, as some sort of liberal ideal? Nope, I really only value the opinions of those who have actually bothered to think about what they’re saying (pro-tip: parrotting Glen Beck or other pundits, Right or Left, isn’t thinking).

Is it that I find the mystery of your identity so compelling, that I hope you’ll drop a hint as to your true identity? No, I actually have a pretty strong suspicion, based on a conversation about your earlier blog comments with some old friends who paradoxically claim not to hate me, that it’s a conservative colleague and friend of my estranged friend A.C., who I had a falling-out with over that most pathetic of topics, politics. It genuinely makes me sad to reflect on that, because I really liked A.C.’s wit, cleverness, insight, and passion, and it frustrated me to see us growing apart because of the vituperative, venomous rhetoric that national politics injects even into personal lives; I miss playing board games and RPGs with him, and even debating him. And I know this is going to sound one-sided, but… I blame the conservative right-wing press; I feel somewhat justified in this, because aside from my release valve of the Daily Show and Colbert Report (and Nate Silver during election season), I don’t watch or read other liberal media outlets… I try to find news items as close to their source as possible, and discuss topics with strangers who have different backgrounds, and form my own mental models and opinions (I know, everyone thinks that), and I dislike most liberal pundits almost as much as conservative ones; not so, it seems, too many right-wingers, who glory in repeating worn-out, well-oiled, pre-fabricated, misleading fact-opinions readily supplied to them by the dominant right-wing press (like that crap about the “Cloward-Piven Strategy” being applied by Obama, or the choose-your-own pet issue like “cash-for-clunkers”, which they are trying to sell as a failure)… repeat it enough times, and you can make yourself believe it’s true, or true enough. It’s the go-for-points style of debate, where you aren’t trying to arrive at some truth through mutual sharing of information and opinions, but just trying to “win”.

No, the reason that I approved your post is because I like the elegant way in which it draws a distinction between someone who is willing to stand up and share his opinion (right or wrong or silly or off-base or whatever) with the world, and learn from any reasoned dialog that follows, and own up to it with his own name, with pseudonymous, pusillanimous (that’s a liberal-elite word roughly meaning “cowardly”) pot-shotters who fire off insincere drive-by comments that produce nothing of value. Trying to trip up your “opponent” with distractions and non-sequiturs and logical fallacies and accusations is a naive style of debate, avoiding any of the substance of a stated position. If I recall correctly, my friend A.C. was fond of this Emerson quote: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” Recent studies in neurology and cognitive science seem to indicate that the brains of liberals are better able to deal with complex and even conflicting ideas, and the brains of conservatives are more emotionally responsive… which would explain why you’re trying to counterpoint my blog post not with facts, but with emotional arguments… to you, that may seem like the more relevant tack, while to me, it just seems silly… I’m not troubled by seeming inconsistencies. (Which is not to say I fit well in that simple model… I tend to be both adaptive and emotional.)

In short, “Claymore” (and you too, “Buck”), you played yourself for a fool. To anyone whose opinion I care about, you look like the idiot for posting what you did, not me; you’re exhibiting only your most petty, humorless, and superficial side, and I’d bet it makes me look rational and fair-minded, if only by comparison ^_^. And it makes me chuckle when I read your childish attempts to state a rationale opinion. So, thanks for that. If you ever want to man up and put your real name next to what you’ve said, maybe I’ll treat you a bit more seriously.

As an ending note, I’m a bit surprised anyone I don’t know, and who doesn’t seem to have much in common with me (e.g. not a Web geek) would even be able to find my blog, or bother reading it, or bother coming back, or bother commenting. Since I’m not a notable figure, I have to assume that you found my blog through an acquaintance (as I mentioned above), and I’m flattered that you think it’s worth your time to insult me… or maybe you should just get a hobby; may I suggest Arduino, or learning a musical instrument? That’s what I would pick up if I had the time.

Obama is doubling down on installing government programs and idiotic short term spending [cash for clunkers / $8,000 housing credits / subsidizing completely uneconomically sustainable alternative energies, and endlessly extending unemployment benefits].  He is intentionally bankrupting the country to install his own style of government after the current one collapses.  This was all outlined years ago in the Radical Communist Cloward / Piven Strategy to destroy the capitalist system by promising people benefits that will eventually be unsustainable, and result in a meltdown reminicent of the current state of affairs in Greece.  

By the way, kudos for the most racist statement ever written,  ”It would be kind of awesome to have 2 black candidates for President of the United States”.  Nothing like judging candidates by the color of their skin rather than the content of their character.  You are the anti-Martin Luther King! 

We had a referendum earlier this year on changing the voting system to a more proportional one. It was part of the coalition agreement to get the 3rd party onboard. The proposed alternative system was deliberately chosen by the senior party, our GOP, as one that actually wasn’t very proportional & that would maintain the status quo even if it were adopted. In the end the referendum was lost and we’re stuck with the old system for at least another generation. Like most people in Britain I live in a safe seat. The same party has held this seat in every election except 1945. I have no vote. I always vote for the person with the least vanishingly small chance of beating the incumbent – and it never works.

Cameron is likely to be there beyond the next election (due in 2015). He’s busy privatising the health service, his ghastly finance bloke is ensuring that our economy continues to flatline and all the environmental promises are being broken daily. Oh, and they’re changing the electoral boundaries to suit themselves. Forgive me for being depressed.

-M