# Whack-a-Mole did something really stupid **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 29, 2010, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whack-a-mole-did-something-really-stupid/551862 "2010-08-29T03:38:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 31
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whack-a-mole-did-something-really-stupid/551862/31 "2010-08-29T20:39:37Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > > [@Bricker](#): > > > > But in my defense, if you call me on it, I’ll take a second look and acknowledge the point, as I did immediately after the post you mention. > > Yes, you do. I’ll give you that. In fact, i don’t think i’ve seen anyone else on this board admit to their mistakes more than you. Your willingness to do it is rather impressive. Thank you. > [@](#): > > But i still wonder how it is that someone as intelligent as you can so often mischaracterize people’s positions and offer legal rebuttals to non-legal arguments, especially when this tendency has been pointed out to you on multiple occasions. Knowing that you’re intelligent, and that you understand these issues, i sometimes get the impression that you do it precisely in order to derail or misdirect the debate. In my view, it’s more often the case that an issue has both a legal aspect and a non-legal policy aspect. And in those cases, I tend to focus on the legal - obviously. Not wrong, but perhaps myopic. But the other side of the coin is that recourse to the law gives finality of an answer. We may bicker about what the policy SHOULD be; we can much more often point definitively to what the law _IS_. So I gravitate in that direction because it’s a debate ender. You’ll never convince me that abortion is not a grave moral wrong. I’ll never convince you it’s not a matter of a woman’s right to choose. But we both must acknowledge that it’s a right of constitutional dimension. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whack-a-mole-did-something-really-stupid/551862)._