Common Argument

When I first started blogging, I figured I'd take to task all the silly letters to the editor I read. After a while I stopped. First, why not give these regular folks their moment in the sun, even if the argument is worthless. Second, who reads letters to the editor anymore with blogs around?

Still, there's an argument I've seen a number of times--I assume the writers came up with it independently, but who knows--regarding Palestinian teens throwing rocks at Israelis. They tend to feel any reaction is an overreaction. (They also act as if that's all that's happening in certain tense areas, but that's a different issue.) Some have even stated rock-throwing is not real violence.

I have a simple experiment to test this. Let's have all the people who make this claim stand in the middle of the street. Then let's have a bunch of teenagers run out from behind buildings and toss the heaviest rocks they can find at them. After it's over, and some people are bleeding, and others have sustained brain damage, and a few have died, let's ask them if they think this amounts to serious violence.