Riposte - "Well, she's in the army!"

There is the concept of "fighting fair". It involves dealing with issues, one at a time. It is contrasted with "win at any cost". which includes diversion, ad hominem attacks, responding to minor, tangential issues, anything but the central point of the matter.

At the risk of belaboring the obvious, it is difficult for black-and-white thinkers to have the measured perspective to deal with issues. They are either all right or all wrong, and situations are either all good or all bad.

The other problem is that being right or wrong goes to the core of their being. If they are correct, they are good, and if they confess to being in error, they are bad to the core. Therefore they will do anything to avoid admit any substantive error - it is psychic suicide.

We see this in obvious matters, too many to detail here. Suffice it to say that, for instance, there are people who have not been correct right regarding the war in Iraq, cannot admit to being in error on any of the major issues, and yet still post as if they have credibility.

Because they cannot acknowledge to themselves to having been deceived, wrong. The internal cost would be too high. And that won't change.

Arf