Sung to the tune of the 1976 hit by Manfred Mann:

Blinded by the pie,
Wrapped up in a mousse
Another runner from the Right…uh, Left….

The pie-throwing stories are not new. By now, many of you may know that Ann Coulter and William Kristol were hit by idiot protesters throwing pies and that Pat Buchanan received a “dressing down.”

Intolerance is nothing new, either. It afflicts people regardless of which political persuasions they claim.

My own personal opinion is that it primarily afflicts those who haven’t fully thought through their own positions. Like homophobes fearful of becoming gay if they spot a homosexual, those who have no real sense of their own self cannot tolerate anyone different and still feel safe.

Should there be limits to tolerance? Yes. But the boundaries, the limits, are pretty expansive. Mere speech — even “hate speech” — should be not just constitutionally-protected and countered by more speech, not physical attacks, but should be tolerated and even attended-to.

My own blog has received comments from some pretty hateful people in the past, but I let the posts get through the moderation system I have in place to block spammers, anyway. Then I try to respond in a way that highlights their hate, or stupidity, as the case may be. (Ironically, some of the most heated comments surrounded one of my articles about Mel Gibson’s The Passion in which I argued that we should not jump to the conclusion that it was anti-semitic as some were doing before they had even seen it!)

At any rate, I would advocate intolerance for pie-throwing and other physical assaults. When someone throws a pie at someone because of what they said, law enforcement should throw the book at ’em.

People like Pat Buchanan and Ann Coulter are dangers to our society because of the way in which they present their “arguments” — all bluster, name-calling and no substance. It’s funny and entertaining to those incapable of recognizing the lack of thought. Heck, it’s sometimes funny and entertaining to those of us who can recognize the lack of thought.

But it’s no reason to waste a perfectly good pie.