Appreciating the Readers (I):

As I promised, I am responding to reader requests, as part of the reader appreciation day:

A reader comments:

I was a bit shocked by the very oblique fashion in which you responded to D. Rodrik.

The reader is responding to my comments from Wednesday's Interesting Picks:

Dani Rodrik no longer recognizes the country where he was raised and spends most of his time when he is not teaching in the U.S. (subscription-only). Being a resident of that country, I would say that it had changed quite a while ago, but Dani has only recently been noticing...

I should have written this in the post, but the comments stem from Dani's own admission.When he first started politics-blogging after the detention of his father-in-law, Dani admitted that he had first seen Ergenekon as a democratization process and supported it, only to find out later on that was not "entirely" the case- I could not find that post, so I am quoting from memory and  I cannot relay his exact wording, but this was more or less what he said.
 

BTW, I worked for Dani as his teaching and research assistant and have the utmost respect for him, so I would be the last person to respond to him in an oblique fashion.