Be Afraid: New Head of the PDPD Is From a State With Open Carry

From the beginning – that is, six months ago last week – we've said that Politics Daily was going to be a place for civil discourse on civic life. We've done our part, not-always gentle reader, and now we are lookin' at you. Bonnie Goldstein, who along with Mary Winter edits and assigns stories for our Woman UP women's blog, has written several times about how hurtful it can be to read trash talk in the comments. Sample comment in response: "Hahaha, now the lesbians are cryin'!" (Sir, does your mommy know you are on the Internets?)

Recently, Bonnie wrote that a new sheriff was riding into town to moderate the comments, class up our virtual environment and make responding safe for the many who do not communicate in all caps. And watch out now, evil-doers, because she's a Texan, a lawyer, and a redhead; need I say more?

Well, maybe just a little bit: As our new chief of the PDPD – Politics Daily Police Department – Julie Henneberger Patton (that's Cousin Julie to me) will lead a team of a dozen deputies who will be rooting out crassness at their discretion, and cracking down on responses they deem profane, racist, sexist or plain old over-the-top mean. Those loooong rants about Obama the Marxist (or Bushie the Pinhead, though we get fewer of those) might be disappeared out of sheer compassion for other readers. Julie will also be writing a column highlighting the best of the week's comments.

An Auburn graduate, Julie majored in political science and earned her JD from Southern Methodist University's School of Law. A former law editor for the Texas Lawyer newspaper, she now spends her days moderating the sibling rivalry between her four children, coaching marathon classes for long-distance runners, and enjoying an occasional sushi dinner in Dallas with her husband, David. Oh soon-to-be gentled readers, do not say I didn't warn you.