It's quite amusing, not to say saddening, to see how certain types get all hot and bothered as soon as their sacred cows are given a bit of stick.

It's not necessarily un-coincidental that the people who are pro-bird killing and the ones who show too much affinity for Mr Norman Lowell's warped ideas tend to exhibit the same frame of mind, that is to say a complete dearth of a sense of humour and of tolerance for any views that diverge from their own. I don't believe that they are the same sides of a different coin but the frisson of dislike at the way they express themselves is the same in both cases.

Both camps are so eager to descend to personal insult and invective that they really do seem to echo each other.

Let me give you a few fr'instances.

Look at this, for example, from Adriano Spiteri, who writes: "Mr. ABC, can't you stick to your columns of spite? What I find worthless and pathetic are your views, your yea-man attitude and your crass temerity. I wouldn't go down your path to say you're not entitled to express your opinion but I must say that your comment is indeed totalitarian whereas Mr. Lowell's is not."

Is it only I who is lost for words at the depth to which this commenter has plunged? Leaving aside the personal insults, which after seventeen-odd years in this game, are like water off a duck's bottom, do you see the breath-taking cheek in Mr Spiteri's remark, where he tells that Lowell's views are not totalitarian?

And then take this from Sylvana Zarb Darmanin, who writes: "Andrew Borg Cardona, I do not expect any better from you! Keep on playing Judge and Jury as this is proving to be quite entertaining. It was entertaining enough to see you being used by BLM by wearing their deceitful black t-shirt stating: No to illegal Spring Hunting - proven to be a big fat lie as Spring Hunting is LEGAL after all. I wonder how you must have felt when you learned that what BLM fed you was untrue. Carry on with your entertainment dottore!!!!"

The dear lady, who seems to want to attribute to me powers that I don't have, is apparently bereft of logic, or prefers not to bother with it when sticking up for hunters. She fails to grasp that the Protest Campaign meant what it said: no illegal hunting in Spring, but, and this might be too fine a point to grasp for the fuliminators and splutterers, this does not mean that hunting in Spring is, in and of itself, illegal.

But it is really too much to expect that logic and reason form part of any argument put forward by the pro-hunting lobby. Their attitude, as exemplified by Ms Zarb Darmanin, is quite stark: call the other lot names for long enough, characterise them as liars often enough, and people will suddenly come out in favour of hunting.

Buzz, wrong answer.

Moving on, let's consider these words of wisdom from Charles Sammut, who puts it thus: "But the ultimate hypocrisy is KZT and ABC defending Alex Vella Gera for writing "Li Tkisser Sewwi" when the latter appeared on Xarabank denouncing Lowell and screaming for his arraignment. It really has gone full circle now."

Again, a complete failure to appreciate any sort of argument that contradicts the perceived wisdom, that is that Lowell, a convicted racist, has no right to freedom of expression when he denies even more important freedoms to others: the "dirty hands" principle. And of course Vella Gera had the right to call for the prosecution of Lowell, again, after the latter's shameful exhibition on Bondi+.

On the other hand, I do believe that Vella Gregory should not have been prosecuted, because he came to the table with clean hands, for all that the fundamentalists amongst us pretend to scandalised.

There's plenty more, of course, but I've depressed you enough as it is.