Link free sausage (and other polite indigestibles)

While Justin’s remarks about James Wolcott being a “Vienna Sausage twiddler” struck me as just a wee bit on the disrespectful side (after all, mocking a man’s dietary habits comes precariously close to resembling ad hominem), they were nonetheless highly amusing. And the more I thought it over, the more I realized that Wolcott is bringing this all on himself, because he isn’t being polite.
Far from it.
And the irony here is mouth-wateringly rich. What prompted this latest strand of the various Wolcott “threads” was Glenn Reynolds’ quote from Heinlein regarding a certain inescapable truth about polite society. (A concept I believe in despite my regular failings.) Wolcott, diving in headfirst, attacked the view that an armed society is a polite society with a barrage of petulant ad hominem attacks against Glenn Reynolds and Robert Heinlein.
If I may paraphrase Heinlein and Reynolds, the argument advanced strikes me as along these lines: if civilized people have at hand deadly force to protect themselves, they will tend to show more respect for each other, and will be more polite. And even uncivilized people will think twice if they know the civilized are armed.
This is a fact of life with which I couldn’t agree more. Having deadly force at your disposal is a responsibility not to be taken lightly. I own a number of guns, and it is at least as humbling as it is empowering to know they are there. I think it makes me slower to anger and more careful, especially in situations which might provoke people to become violent. I don’t want to start trouble with anyone, and one of the reasons is that I’m awed by the responsibility of knowing I can defend my life with fatal force. This is a form of self confidence which resembles the feeling one gets after extensive martial arts training. While I only reached the purple belt stage in my own training (and really should pick up where I left off), that was enough to experience firsthand the feeling that that sort of physical self confidence can bring. Self training leads to self discipline, which leads to respect for others (because you don’t want to hurt them unless you have to), which in turn leads to self-respect. Admittedly, it might be argued that guns are a shortcut, but there is no question that unless you’re an uncouth criminal asshole of some sort, owning guns brings a similar type of self respect — and respect for others. It is humbling, and I really believe the politeness factor is greatly increased.
So, I know from the lessons I have learned in my life that Robert Heinlein is right, and Glenn Reynolds is right. Whoever else has voiced that sentiment is also right.
It would be one thing if James Wolcott offered some sort of thoughtful disagreement. Instead, he lurches into a raving personal assault:

GLENN REYNOLDS OUT-STUPIDS HIMSELF
I stray into Instadunce as rarely as possible, wishing to spare myself the antic-less antics of a performing flea with only a couple of tricks in its repertoire. But today my wanderings took me there–I must have been following a link–and in one sentence Reynolds disclosed an impressive depth of ignorance worthy of a hick hack.

That’s polite?
I think it’s the height of rudeness.
It is unworthy of polite society, even if its rudeness is clothed in a sort of rhetorically foppish Sunday best.
By his own example, I think Wolcott only proves how wrong he is. Certainly, he’s in no position to be holding court on the subject of politeness.
I notice that Wolcott continues his stubborn habit of not providing links to what he references. But me, I’m so darned polite, I even placed a Vienna Sausage “link” right there up at the top.
And I’ll be even politer than that!
After accusations like Justin’s (coupled with the so utterly “linkless” Wolcott) I feel the least we could do here is help the man come up with his own brand of link-free sausages.

Hopefully they’re boneless (despite Justin’s rather crude insinuation to the contrary).
Yum.