Boston's Senator John Kerry: "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism".

Ellen Goodman of The Boston Globe: "Let's just say that global warming deniers are now on a par with Holocaust deniers, though one denies the past and the other denies the present and future".

Jonah Goldberg replies, "Disgusting, Illogical, Stupid--Those are just some of the words that come to mind":

No, Ellen. Let's not just say that. Denying that the industrialized mass-murder of millions actually happened isn't really quite the same thing as refusing to believe global warming is real. I believe global warming is real, by the way. But people who "deny" — a bad word to begin with — that global warming is real are unpersuaded by media hype and the constantly moving goal posts of a funding-hungry scientific community. People who deny the Holocaust happened tend to be the kinds of people who are actually sympathetic with the perpetrators of the Holocaust. They tend to enjoy poking Jews in the eye with taunts and smirks.

Update: "Above all, we can't stand to be bullied", James Taranto writes. "And what is it but an act of bullying to deny that there is any room for honest disagreement, to insist that those of us who are unpersuaded are the equivalent of Holocaust deniers, that we are not merely mistaken but evil?"

Much more from Taranto on Goodman's odious moral equivalency at the top of his latest "Best of the Web" column; don't miss it.