For those of you who live to lambaste Walt Cobb and myself because of our dubious opinions about taxes, hand outs, governments, special interest groups and local flavour — you may be missing out on the opportunity of a lifetime.

There is a forum, other than writing letters to the editor, that will allow you unlimited space to voice your rebuttals.

This comes in the form of the Tribune website (www.wltribune.com) and the ‘Comments’ section provided for each article posted on the website.

You simply register a short profile (could be just your name — or pseudonym — and e-mail address) and you will be able to exercise your fingers, your vocabulary and your frustration at the same time.

The whole point of writing this column, for me, is to spur people to open debate about the given topic.

Too often we let the media dictate our opinions to us, instead of the other way around.

Too much of our lives are spent digesting and regurgitating what the spin doctors want us to perceive as reality. And while that news can also be very important, I still think the local spin is generally far more relevant.

There is a small but dedicated group of bloggers (is that the correct word?) on there regularly and many more who weigh in from time to time, but they are nearly all local people with local interests and it makes for some interesting discussion on many different topics.

If you like to read the paper or feel that deep compulsion to write letters to the editor and haven’t checked the website out, you should do so.

Try it out.

You can nail me to the wall all you like and I promise I will rebut in kind.