See, that's why I read Steve, and you should too. If I've learned anything worth knowing in my decade and a half of trying to be a scientist, it's exactly this: I might be wrong.

No matter how sure I am, no matter how careful I've been, no matter how smart I like to think I am, no matter how intellectually and emotionally satisfying I find my position, I might be wrong. And the corollary: if I am in fact wrong, I will be better off knowing about it, and preferably sooner rather than later so that I don't waste effort on mistakes that will later be pulled down around my ears.

That's why, when I read that former House majority leader Dick Armey recently said in an interview:

Dialogues are what Democrats do, not what Republicans do. Only liberals think that if you've had a dialogue about something, you've done something.

it literally makes me want to puke. I feel physically sick at the thought of someone so arrogant, callow and ignorant being in a position of real power.

So my blogroll, that list of links over there on the right, is Pepto-Bismol for the brain. Try it, you'll like it.

Here's the full quote from Steve; go read the whole entry, too.

Those who believe in dialogue do so for the simple reason that they understand that they might be wrong. They don't think they are, but understand that they might be and so seek to test out their ideas against the strongest objections that can be leveled against them. Like a belt holding boxer who refuses to take on legitimate challengers in defense of his title, the only people who run from dialogue are those who are afraid they will lose.