If I met Richard Dawkins ...

... I would ask him if he thinks that it's OK for me to kick my dog - I mean, not just on a whim, but as punishment, like when I see it biting a shoe or something - because my neighbor smacks his kids upside the head when they talk back to him. I assume he thinks it's not a problem that I kick my dog. Cause hitting your kids is way worse, so I get a pass, right?

I can only assume that Mr Dawkins would be on my side in this.

Back to the real world where normal people live: I really cannot understand people who use this type of argument. Seriously. If you genuinely use this as a rule to live by - Y is worse than X, therefore we cannot/should not discuss/focus on/attempt to change X. How do these people function? How do they manage to function in their daily lives? I don't get it.

No, I tell a lie ... of course I do get it. The fact of the matter is that these people - such as Richard Dawkins, sadly - do not believe in this argument. They do not believe that this is a good way to live. I know this because if they did believe it, and if they did live their lives like that, then they seriously couldn't function in any kind of normal capacity. So they don't believe the argument. They're just using it to make someone shut up.

I find this both hypocritical and pathetic.

But of course, I shouldn't complain about this, because somewhere in Azerbaijan right now there's probably a journalist being beaten up for saying that President Aliyev doesn't really have superpowers.

Silly me.