Swamp resolution: Staying under the top

U.S. Doles Out Final Bank Bailout$29.3M
Treasury Department Injects Cash into 10 Banks; Last Such Payment of Federal Aid
Swamp resolution: Staying under the top

by Mark Silva

2010.

The mere mention of it causes pause for anyone who has been around the better part of six decades.

The Swamp is a young one, by comparison -- turning four years old during the first week of the new decade.

Like any four-year-old, The Swamp has learned some lessons the hard way. We have opened the door to literally hundreds of thousands of comments from readers these four years, and we haven't always been thrilled by what has crossed the threshhold.

We think we know obscenity when we see it, and the posting rules say that comments will be screened for it. We certainly know racism and religious prejudice, sexism, too. Obscenities, in their own way.

Sometimes we have been accused of censorship -- but trust us, you're happier for what you haven't had to read behind the delete button. If you want to play dirty, you can always find a soapbox.

There remains this one other tabu: "Over-the-top personal attacks.'' The rules forbid them. It's a lot more difficult, however, to draw a hard line between expression and outrage. We really are interested in a robust debate, and we invite criticism. But we've grown weary, near the end of these four years, of commentary worthy of four-year-olds.

So be it resolved, here in the Swamp, at the dawn of this new year of 2010, that commentary published here will land somewhere under the top of personal assault. We don't excise words -- in other words, we're not going to clean you up. That will be up to you. But when commentary veers into personal assault, we will be pressing the delete button a little more often. We hope you will appreciate the result.

We again wish all who pass through these e-pages a happy and civil New Year.

Obama Charts Subtler Course On Homeland Security

Before the failed Christmas Day airliner attack, President Obama hadn't spent much time talking about homeland security. That's quickly changing, but his reserved approach is based on a philosophy of managing risk and an aversion to what he has called the scare tactics of his predecessor.