Feeling Dirty About Deleting a Comment

For the first time, I deleted a comment that was left on this blog. It bothers me that I deleted the comment, so here it is in the main blog.

In response to Reverend Wright Persists in Aiming at Obama's Foot, some anonymous person commented:

Maybe You Are The Racist Reston Kid, Obviously You Did Not Hear His Sermon Or Press Speach From Start To Finish. Maybe You Should Clean Your Ears Out, And Open Your Eyes More So You Will Know What The Hell Is Going On, Turkey!

What should I do with this sort of thing? My inclination is to delete any anonymous comments that don't contribute some new information or an opinion. If this person actually informed the discussion with some information or an opinion, I wouldn't have such a problem with the comment. Instead, he has tossed this comment in here and has probably moved on--never to be heard from again.

I have kept comments from people with whom I disagree. For instance, I had a back-and-forth about the use of torture with someone who commented in response to my post Mixed Feelings About Omar Khadr's Gitmo Interrogation. When a comment is signed, the conversation can continue. When a comment is anonymous, it can be a dialectic dead end.

The bottom line is that nasty, unsigned comments will probably be deleted. Comments that are interesting, informative, or signed (not necessarily all of these) will survive.