Politics
Aside from the occasional snide comment and/or link here and there, I've been avoiding any discussion of politics here. Part of the reason is that while I have my own opinions about matters political at the local, state and national levels, I've been having a very hard time finding any intelligent opposition with which to have a reasoned discussion of the issues. In fact, I may have crippled a longstanding correspondence with a Canadian acquaintance after telling him that if he was going to sound like part of the Indymedia/Democratic Underground loony left when it came to American politics, I didn't want to hear any more out of him. To paraphrase Lynyrd Skynyrd, "If you want to/Talk anime/Well I guess that'll be okay." I admit to being ignorant about Canadian politics, OTOH, since most of what I know about it comes from the editorial page of the National Post (when I read it) and the rest from Colby Cosh's weblog, but my friend appears to take what he reads in the Toronto papers and hears from the CBC about what goes on down here at face value. Which he doesn't do when it comes to Canadian politics, so I don't know what's going on there.
Anyway, most of my friends know what my political opinions are (although my daughter occasionally is unpleasantly surprised to discover that I remain more Catholic and Federalist than libertarian) and also know that I don't suffer sloganeering idiocy particularly well. There are cogent arguments to be made against the policies that the President and Governor Pawlenty are pursuing, but for the most part those arguments seem to be coming from old-school conservatives like Jerry Pournelle and pro-war liberals like Roger Simon. They aren't coming from the editorial pages of the Star-Tribune or the New York Times - and let's not even drag the Ghidrah of TV network news (ABC/CBS/NBC) into this, shall we? I have better things to do than reply to commenters who are just barfing back what they read in City Pages or the Red Star, and I don't see wasting my time on people who are still bleating that "Bush KNEW!!!" or that he was AWOL from the Guard as a productive use of my time. The Northern Alliance of bloggers (most notably Mitch Berg, the Fraters and Captain Ed) do that sort of thing so I don't have to, and God bless them for it.
Meanwhile, it's a beautiful evening, the Red Sox swept the Yankees this weekend, and my Senators are in fourth place as we approach the end of the first month. With Torii Hunter just back from the DL (so long, Damian Rolls, I hardly knew ye) I should stay comfortably in the first division for a while. There's laundry to do and more CDs to put up on eBay. Later, y'all.
Anyway, most of my friends know what my political opinions are (although my daughter occasionally is unpleasantly surprised to discover that I remain more Catholic and Federalist than libertarian) and also know that I don't suffer sloganeering idiocy particularly well. There are cogent arguments to be made against the policies that the President and Governor Pawlenty are pursuing, but for the most part those arguments seem to be coming from old-school conservatives like Jerry Pournelle and pro-war liberals like Roger Simon. They aren't coming from the editorial pages of the Star-Tribune or the New York Times - and let's not even drag the Ghidrah of TV network news (ABC/CBS/NBC) into this, shall we? I have better things to do than reply to commenters who are just barfing back what they read in City Pages or the Red Star, and I don't see wasting my time on people who are still bleating that "Bush KNEW!!!" or that he was AWOL from the Guard as a productive use of my time. The Northern Alliance of bloggers (most notably Mitch Berg, the Fraters and Captain Ed) do that sort of thing so I don't have to, and God bless them for it.
Meanwhile, it's a beautiful evening, the Red Sox swept the Yankees this weekend, and my Senators are in fourth place as we approach the end of the first month. With Torii Hunter just back from the DL (so long, Damian Rolls, I hardly knew ye) I should stay comfortably in the first division for a while. There's laundry to do and more CDs to put up on eBay. Later, y'all.