A scholar is only useful if they are saying things which are true and novel. If it's not novel you can consult your notes. If it's not true, then it's false, now isn't it? As such, the primary virtue of the scholar is honesty.
To be polite is to lie. No proper scholar is polite.
[If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all], seems a fine principle to me, for women and the merchant caste. The primary virtue of the merchant caste is something like compassion. The merchant caste are such inveterate liars it's hard to be exactly sure.
The scholar's version: if you can't say something you genuinely believe, don't say anything at all.
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New failcomment system also fails to publish my comments, it's not limited to yours. Keep trying, it will usually work, eventually.
Blogger deliberately trying to kill itself, I expect.
Captchas should be off. If it gives you one anyway, it's against my explicit instructions.