Sometimes, you have to defend your honour.

For the most part, I don't mind criticism, but I do take offense when those doing the criticizing are full of crap. Like, for example, this dickwad, who tees off on me but can't be bothered to get his facts even remotely correct. A couple examples should suffice, I think.

Let's start where Mr. Edey accuses me of a "Category 5 lie":

Later, this alleged Canadian [alleged?] lets loose with this Category 5 lie:

"It's also amusing that that previous CNN link was titled "Katrina may be 'our Asian tsunami'", given that the U.S.'s pathetic first response to the actual Asian tsunami was an embarrassing $35 million... If the United States was looking for sympathy, they might not have wanted to remind everyone of their own miserly attitude towards other countries' disaster victims."

And where exactly is this "lie"? I make precisely one claim in that quoted passage -- that the United States' initial response in terms of Asian tsunami aid was $35 million. Let's go to the official record, shall we?

The New York Times said on Thursday that the United States has been stingy in its response to the tsunami disaster and in giving aid in general.

The newspaper highlighted in an editorial that the 15 million dollars initially offered by Washington was less than the figure the ruling Republican Party would spend on President George Bush's inauguration next month...

The administration has since increased its aid to 35 million dollars. But the Times said the 35 million dollars remains "a miserly drop in the bucket".

Technically, I guess I have to defer to Mr. Edey. I had forgotten that the U.S.'s initial aid offer was even less than the paltry $35 million I mentioned. In short, the true situation is even more embarrassing for the Bush administration than I had written, there is no lie here, and Mr. Edey is full of shit. But, hey, it doesn't end there.

Mr. Edey continues to embarrass himself with his deluded fantasies regarding the U.S.'s siege of the city of Fallujah, Iraq. I described ...

... the citizens of, say, Fallujah in Iraq, many of whom were forced to hunker down in their bombed-out houses while American bombs and missiles rained down around them.

Mr. Edey begs to differ:

Well actually the Americans gave advance notice of their intentions to the citizens of Fallujah and allowed a week for civilians to evacuate the city.

Did they now? Boy, I'll bet that comes as a rude surprise to the residents of that city who were trapped in it during the seige:

Zaneb, a 13-year-old girl both smiling and serious, watches over the younger children who clamor for the foreigners’ attention.

Then the fathers and uncles come to talk, and I cannot keep up with the rapid Arabic full of stories of suffering.

Our Iraqi friend translates: Most people have lost their homes in the bombing.

Some have lost family members and neighbors.

All are angry.

After awhile we walk to another room, down the hall from the one bathroom that is shared by 40 families. A young man steps forward.

“We did not know the evacuation deadline,” he says. “I left the city by chance on the day the bombs began, and then I could not get back in.

“My brother, who is mentally handicapped, was left behind.

“When we went back after the attack, he was missing.

“I looked on the list of people killed, I asked at prisons, but there was no answer.

“The Americans told me to ask the Iraqi National Guard, and I did, but they gave me no answer.”

“Please,” he says. “Tell this tragedy all over the world. There are whole families who were buried under the rubble.”

In addition, numerous males were simply not allowed to leave the city for the simple reason that they might have been insurgents:

Fajullah residents begged for time to bury their dead in a soccer stadium. Women, children and the elderly were allowed to leave Fallujah, but men under 18 were ordered to stay in the city by Marines.

Families pleaded with Marines to be allowed to take out men, and when Marines refused, some entire families turned back.

I mean, if you can't believe ABC News, who can you believe?

Hundreds of men trying to flee the assault on Fallujah have been turned back by U.S. troops following orders to allow only women, children and the elderly to leave.

The military says it has received reports warning that insurgents will drop their weapons and mingle with refugees to avoid being killed or captured by advancing American troops.

As it believes many of Fallujah's men are guerrilla fighters, it has instructed U.S. troops to turn back all males aged 15 to 55.

In other words, in order to guarantee that they capture or kill all of the insurgents, the U.S. military decided to simply capture or kill every male in Fallujah of military age. Isn't that just delightful? (Not to mention a howling violation of the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit punishing a civilian population for the acts of its military.)

I could go on but why bother? If I could give Mr. Edey a couple pieces of advice, I would first suggest he do a little more research before putting pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard. Better yet, he might want to give the keyboard back to Daddy until he's old enough to use it responsibly.