I realize there is a somewhat laissez-faire attitude toward the diary section amongst the management, but when you have people posting diaries crowing their indifference to the disease of political opponents and getting recommended for it, you're getting into 9/11 diary territory. Purely gratuitous, no possible upside, makes the site look bad not just to right wingers but to anyone with a shred of decency and common sense.
Something in the way of an official "this is fucked up" would go a long way. I don't mean some kind of mealy mouthed crap reiterating the previous diary about our collective sympathies for Mr. Snow. This is the time for a Sister Souljah moment.
I guess I'd already mentioned this in a previous comment before the latest bit of diaretic madness. I'm sure we all remember Sunday's exercise in speculative fiction, which I daresay got the ball rolling. I figured, if anything, that diary ought to be called out for what it was: a cheap, crass exercise in Limbaugh-esque know-nothing commentary whose sole point seemed to be to declare that if anyone wants to exploit the diarist's decency, they'll have to find it first.
Of course, I never dreamed that in full knowledge that all of the previous diary's speculation was pure bullshit, someone would feel compelled to take issue with Miss Blue's diary, which seemed to be an attempt to smooth over the first. It's a bit difficult, I think, for an even slightly well-adjusted person to get his brain wrapped around the mentality of someone who'd feel the need to point out to everyone that he _won't_ be praying for Tony Snow nor his family (indeed, the diarist tells us, he doesn't pray at all, dontcha know!) and what's more he doesn't give a damn in the first place, so that even if he were "the praying type" (as if the "praying type" is the only type that could relate to Miss Blue's diary -- questions the diarist might have about its authenticity notwithstanding) he would not pray for Tony Snow. To make matters worse, he goes on to say that there are people for whom he really does have some sort of compassion, but Snow's quasi-prominent role in the political opposition shoots his chances of joining that number all to hell.
I mean, seriously. Someone needs to get a handle on this stuff. I don't even think this will shield the site from any kind of unwelcome attention. That's not even the issue. This is going to happen again and again, unless there's some general understanding that it's not okay or normal or what this site is supposed to be about. The general understanding is rather muddled and seems to lean toward the okay/normal/point of site school of thought and that understanding will not evolve in the right direction without influence from the outside.