Monday, September 15, 2008

And The PC Battle Is Joined

Apparently I blogged sufficiently about things political to appear on certain radar screens. Now comments and e-mails are rolling in, well, trickling in, actually. Whatever, y'all amuse me, even those of you who have a difficult time constructing a coherent argument. You believe you've got me FIGURED OUT. Try again buckaroo. You ain't even close. So I'll make it easy for you...

I read the NY Times while watching Fox News. I surf Daily Kos and Michelle Malkin. I listen to NPR, Rush Limbaugh and sports talk radio in roughly equal proportions. Over the years I've read Ramparts, The Nation, The New Republic, The American Spectator, National Review and Reason. I've belonged to The Sierra Club and local Chambers of Commerce. I've voted for liberals, conservatives, greens and libertarians.

I believe the first amendment is inviolate even if your name IS McCain or Feingold. I think most media is biased toward the liberal point of view, that Fox News is a healthy antidote to that bias and that it's OK cuz we need ALL points of view expressed loudly and often (though I always reserve the right to make fun of the insufferably bonkers and comically absurd NY Times.)

I've read Castro's "History Will Absolve Me," Marx & Engel's "Communist Manifesto" and Milton Friedman's "Capitalism and Freedom" and found something memorable in each. I know that's not supposed to happen. You're supposed to CHOOSE, damn it. Well, Friedman also wrote "Free To Choose." I read that too and I choose to seek first to understand.

I hate guns but am far from defenseless, as you'd find out when you break into my house and get a nail-studded baseball bat upside the head. I hate Americans' gleeful embrace of the most sadistic acts of on-screen violence - usually directed at women and/or children - yet have no problem with on-screen sexuality or your bare breasts on my local beach. I've raised 4 Tri-Daughters and want them to succeed in a world free of bias and harassment, yet I hope they're strong enough to see that sometimes a dirty joke is just a dirty joke not an act of rank patriarchy worthy of legal intervention.

I think Bill Moyers and 'Jimmah' Carter are idiotic gasbags, but so are Ann Coulter and Shawn Hannity. My biggest issue with Bill O'Reilly is not his conservativism, it's the fact that he's a lousy interviewer. My biggest problem with Keith Olberman is not his liberalism, it's the fact that he's, well, tendentious and breathes into the mic like an asthmatic beaver.

I believe that if you support abortion you should love the death penalty; conversely, if you believe serial killers should live out their days, well, then babies deserve a chance too. And of course it stands to reason that if you're anti-abortion you should be in favor of improved pre-natal care, family leave, affordable day care and decent health insurance for kids and families. Otherwise what's the point?

I'm pro-privacy and pro-Patriot Act. I'm willing to pay my fair share of taxes yet I support Social Security privatization. I support labor unions AND the right of employers to operate a non-union shop if they prefer, though having worked in a union shop once upon a time, I believe unionized organizations generally damn well deserve it.

I'm against the war but support pulling a terrorist's fingernails off if the circumstances warrant. I'm pro-sex education and partial to the theory of evolution yet I think abstentionists and creationists are entitled to their opinion without ridicule. I'm for school choice AND vouchers AND for more spending on public education.

I think experience is fine but hardly predictive of presidential greatness; innate leadership skills seem to matter more in most circumstances. Some of our worst presidents and world leaders have been quite experienced, some of the best relatively less so. So don't try and play that card with me, either way.

I love unfettered free enterprise but agree that tax breaks shouldn't be extended to corporations merrily offshoring jobs. I think the health care system in this country is utterly broken but trust neither party to fix it without putting an entire generation of physicians, managed care execs and hospital administrators up against the wall, making them spell C-O-N-S-U-M-E-R over and over and over until they get it right.

I support gay marriage. Us breeders haven't been exactly great stewards of the marital institution and why should we have all the fun anyway? Let's let gays and lesbians deal with the bitterness of divorce for a while, all that alimony, those custody disputes and utterly rapacious lawyers. Enjoy it but be careful what you wish for.

If you believe in free markets AND energy conservation, you MUST be in favor of higher gas prices so just shut up and stop complaining. There's no such thing as "excess" profits either, but that's not the same thing as saying there are no limits.

The Goracle is globally annoying but that doesn't make him wrong or lessen the threat (what's that saying about the blind pig and the acorn?) Still, in the meantime the oil in Alaska is real too, so drill, drill, drill while preparing for the inevitable day when the oil finally runs out.

Figured me out yet? I thought not. I don't have me figured out either. But keep those cards and letters coming.

Oops, sorry, forgot to add that I like BOTH the Cubs and the White Sox. Hah!

3 comments:

Spokane Al said...

I think that I would thoroughly enjoy having a beer with you.

Anonymous said...

Despite hating guns - your former secretary was out shooting at coyotes on Friday night (they were smelling mutton on the hoof). There's a mental picture for you.

You do realize that you have now totally confounded those surfing into your blog - wait, of course you do!

Anonymous said...

Damn you! BOTH parties hate those of us who actually THINK for themselves. I thought that was our responsibility! Voting isn't our responsibility; THINKING IS, voting is an automatic response. The reason people don't seem to recognize the conflicts in either party line is because they only parrot what they hear instead of forming their own opinions and how these policies might actually impact their life or the lives of their family (also their responsibility) and then DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!! like vote. It takes one to know one VM....they don't recognize someone like you.