Check it out: I'm a master-hack!
Every once in awhile a fellow named Craig Skinner would write a letter to the editor about my columns, in which he tended to misquote me and claim I was a wing of the arch conservative movement. (I'm a moderate, but to a far left wing liberal, anyone who's not him is a conservative. And the other way around.)
One of his issues was a joke I made about John Kerry, after which Mr. Skinner went on for a few pages about how awful my precious G.W. Bush was -- despite the fact that I'd made absolutely no mention of Bush in that column. So I did an intensive investigation of Kerry and discovered that throughout his entire career in congress, he had done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. He hadn't even bothered to show up to his defense related meetings prior to 9/11. Being that we were at war and needed to take action to keep from being attacked again, I elected to vote for Bush. (There will be a pause while my liberal friends gasp.) Mr. Skinner elected not to respond, which was probably wise considering I'd traded my normal (alleged) humor for an article stuffed with actual facts.
In retrospect, it occurs to me that a politician who does nothing whatsoever might not be such a bad idea.
Anyway, I hadn't much thought about him in awhile (Skinner, I mean. Well, not Kerry, either), because he's one of those guys who tends to read the first sentance of something and then go on and write the rest of the thing himself -- or at least, assume what the rest of it is going to say. There's not much point in debating the facts with someone who's willing to make the facts up as he goes along. Anyway, I recently did a search for -- okay, I'll admit it -- myself. (Sue me!) And there I was, mentioned in his blog:
http://reverentandfree.blogspot.com/2005_04_01_reverentandfree_archive.html
"During last year's election cycle I wrote a series of letters to the Albion New-Era concerning the prose of master-hack, Mark Hunter. The purpose of my correspondence was to point out Hunter's blatant use of false information in his columns (aka lies), and that he wouldn't know a fact if he crawled into bed with it. But since the election I have left Mark and the rest of the New-Era alone, and have chosen instead to make fun of his writing in this blog."
I resent that; I would always get to know a fact before falling into bed with it.
By not telling me about his blog, he thus has a chance to make fun of me without letting me defend myself. But I don't mind so much, because after looking at it I got a kick out of the fact that apparently no one else was alerted to its presence, either. (Notice the number of comments)
So, since I have many readers, I thought people should get a chance to read him, too. He does say some things I agree with, but I find it upsetting that, rather than just saying why he doesn't agree with the positions of some people, he insists on calling them names. I don't call people names unless they earn it.
You might also notice that he says the EXACT same things about right wing conservatives that they say about left wing liberals. Maybe, if we left them alone, they'd just kill each other off? One can hope.
One of his issues was a joke I made about John Kerry, after which Mr. Skinner went on for a few pages about how awful my precious G.W. Bush was -- despite the fact that I'd made absolutely no mention of Bush in that column. So I did an intensive investigation of Kerry and discovered that throughout his entire career in congress, he had done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. He hadn't even bothered to show up to his defense related meetings prior to 9/11. Being that we were at war and needed to take action to keep from being attacked again, I elected to vote for Bush. (There will be a pause while my liberal friends gasp.) Mr. Skinner elected not to respond, which was probably wise considering I'd traded my normal (alleged) humor for an article stuffed with actual facts.
In retrospect, it occurs to me that a politician who does nothing whatsoever might not be such a bad idea.
Anyway, I hadn't much thought about him in awhile (Skinner, I mean. Well, not Kerry, either), because he's one of those guys who tends to read the first sentance of something and then go on and write the rest of the thing himself -- or at least, assume what the rest of it is going to say. There's not much point in debating the facts with someone who's willing to make the facts up as he goes along. Anyway, I recently did a search for -- okay, I'll admit it -- myself. (Sue me!) And there I was, mentioned in his blog:
http://reverentandfree.blogspot.com/2005_04_01_reverentandfree_archive.html
"During last year's election cycle I wrote a series of letters to the Albion New-Era concerning the prose of master-hack, Mark Hunter. The purpose of my correspondence was to point out Hunter's blatant use of false information in his columns (aka lies), and that he wouldn't know a fact if he crawled into bed with it. But since the election I have left Mark and the rest of the New-Era alone, and have chosen instead to make fun of his writing in this blog."
I resent that; I would always get to know a fact before falling into bed with it.
By not telling me about his blog, he thus has a chance to make fun of me without letting me defend myself. But I don't mind so much, because after looking at it I got a kick out of the fact that apparently no one else was alerted to its presence, either. (Notice the number of comments)
So, since I have many readers, I thought people should get a chance to read him, too. He does say some things I agree with, but I find it upsetting that, rather than just saying why he doesn't agree with the positions of some people, he insists on calling them names. I don't call people names unless they earn it.
You might also notice that he says the EXACT same things about right wing conservatives that they say about left wing liberals. Maybe, if we left them alone, they'd just kill each other off? One can hope.