My blogfriend Xrlq isn’t somebody I’d consider riling up just for amusement. He’s an attorney, father of two, and a Virginia transplant, and when he gets up a head of steam he can typically argue circles around me, which is one reason I’m glad we’re so often on the same side of the issue.

But he’s hot and bothered now about Hot Air, one of my favorite sites. He finds Allahpundit & Co. to be too quick in jumping the gun, downright wrong about some things (comments #33 and #39), and unwilling to listen to corrections because the comment section is limited to registered commenters culled during short, limited registration periods. His disdain came as a surprise to me, because while I’ve known Michelle Malkin, who runs Hot Air, isn’t his favorite person in the world, I had no idea he harbored a similar opinion of Hot Air, which, almost needless to say, I don’t share. Hot Air is a great political site, which helps to concentrate many of the issues I care about in one place and brings me relevant video clips that I don’t watch when they’re on TV because I’m too busy watching, um, serial dramas, and if the comment section is not the easiest at which to find good discussion, it is not quite the Sycophants’ Hall of Fame that Xrlq finds it to be.

He’s said his next post will lay out his criticisms of the site and his proposed solutions. I’ll be very interested to read what they are, beyond “open comment registration,” which is easy enough to predict. It’s a good thing to have a reality check on one’s favorite things every now and then, so … let’s hear it. Aside, it’s probably a good thing for Allah’s hat size to be told now and then that he’s not the greatest thing since tabbed browser windows, but he won’t hear it from me. After all, I’m just a sycophant. … Kidding.

Update: Below in the comments, Xrlq indicated that he thought I was trying to pick a blogfight with him in this post. Far from it. The post was meant to lay out the initial salvo from Xrlq to Hot Air and look ahead to Xrlq’s next post on the same–i.e. describing a blogfight between Xrlq and Hot Air, although Hot Air’s not really playing the game, so the term “blogfight” may be a bit inaccurate here. But I can see how my statement that I wouldn’t like to have X mad at me and then going on to disagree with him nevertheless could look like I was looking for a fight. I’m not. Just going for what I always expect out of the blogs–lively debate and discussion, which we’re having.

In college, I had a politically aware roommate who enthusiastically took advantage of our school’s cultural offerings. While we were at school, she heard speak, among others, P.J. O’Rourke, Dr. Ruth, Patrick Stewart, and Spike Lee, whilst I preferred to either moulder in our room, reading or watching TV; moulder in a computer lab, hopelessly addicted to what were then the very new-fangled interwebs; or moulder at another school about an hour distant, macking it up with my boyfriend.

The irony comes in here: the very interwebs that once kept me from broadening my horizons are now my primary connection to politics, culture (at least the pop kind), and information generally. Good thing I’m still addicted.