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He was curious, he said, because while he had "no strong opinions," he had got into a fracas with friends, when they insisted there was nothing about the U.S. president that was not entirely evil. "I told them," he said, "there has to be something about him that isn't evil."

This one rang a bell with me. I was sitting in a cafe in Europe (exact location redacted to protect the guilty), and talking with an assortment of Americans and Europeans. They were doing the usual tirade about American foreign policy. With the usual inconsistencies - they deplored the invasion of Iraq (implying we should have kept our hands off), but wanted us to do something about Saudi Arabia (implying we should have thrown our weight around).

I got exasperated at one point and said, "Look, you can't have it both ways. Every single thing the US does can't be wrong!"

The first words out of someone's mouth (one of the Americans, unfortunately) was "Yes, it can!"

Now, how can you have an intelligent discussion with someone who says something as stupid as that?

So I took a different tack. This was before the election, and I started challenging them on "put your money where your mouth is". I ended up winning about $100 on various bets - Bush winning the election, no draft reinstatement, free and open election in Iraq, etc. I didn't lose a single bet.

It's my hope that being forced to hand over money to someone with radically different political views, that person having proven a greater acumen on predicting political events, will cause them to re-examine their position. Wishful thinking, perhaps, but at least I got the pleasure of shutting them up for a while.

You make an excellent point. By paying up they were admitting they were wrong. Quite a feat for a lefty. Whether their brains processed it as such I don't know. However, enough repetitions of "I was wrong" may eventually have an effect, embarrassment if nothing else.

Now, how can you have an intelligent discussion with someone who says something as stupid as that?

You can't. But making them pay up on bets was a good move. Well done.