Betty said:

By contrast, there are those, on this list and elsewhere, with whom I violently disagree, but whose posts are so well-thought-out and reasonable that they cause me to seriously re-think my own position.

The Tarrant Nostra, for instance, gave such a well grounded defense of Tarrant that I no longer think of him as a git. Took a *lot* of discussion to convince me, but never once was I called an idiot; if I had been, I imagine my reaction would be, "Oh , well of course people like *that* would like a git."