Pete Townshend, etc.

Radley Balko (theagitator.com) writes about Pete Townshend and the "Hitler Rule," the rule that says you aren't allowed to admit that Hitler had any positive qualities whatsoever, at any time.

Last night, I brought up Pete's current situation in a music conversation, and a friend of mine said something to the effect of, "sometimes you can separate an artist's accomplishments from the artist himself, in order to continue appreciating the work he's done." I think that's pretty wise, and worth honest consideration.

In any event, I'm going to give Townshend every benefit of the doubt, because I'm just incapable of creating a mental picture of the guy hunched over his Blueberry iMac, squinting at his credit card to make sure he punches the numbers in right.