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Go gently–

September 15th, 2008 · 33 Comments

It’s great when it’s them, not you, isn’t it?

I mean, when you see a news teaser on TV that says, “Certain snacks cause incontinence and dementia, find out at eleven if you’re at risk.” Then you tune in at eleven and sit through the inane city council meetings, the woman who was jailed for keeping three tigers and an ostrich in her studio apartment, the weather, the sports, and the water-skiing squirrel, and finally, when you’re convinced that it’s you — that you knew you shouldn’t have eaten nothing but Pop tarts in your freshman year at college — the prompter puppet comes on and says, “Hair gel.”  Then she explains that a five year study at the university of Helsinki concluded that people who have a diet high in hair gel tend to be incontinent and demented.

And man does it feel good. It’s not you. It’s SO not you. Sure, you ate a little paste when you were six, and you might have built that model of the Battleship Missouri in the closet with the door shut and went kind of blind for a week or so from the glue fumes, but you have definitely never eaten hair gel, that you can remember. You rule!

Take a minute to enjoy your internal gloat.

Well this blog is like that.  I am totally not writing about you. Not one of you. I’m writing about them. So don’t roll up in the comments all, “That’s not me.  I’m not that way at all.”   I know.  Isn’t it great?  Let’s take a minute and feel just a little better about ourselves, shall we?

Come with me.

First, the teaser. Here’s a comment on my blog the other day about Experience and Imagination:
— (I couldn’t reach this guy to see if I could use
his name, but if he contacts me, I’ll put it in)

I personally am an independent voter with a political philosophy similar to Andrew Sullivan (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com which is to say i am fiscally conservative but socially libertarian). I am also a person of dark skin who grew up in an area that is 99% white. I have many white friends who are from blue collar/union and traditional democratic leaning families. It is with unfortunate realization that they have often mentioned to me that they simply can’t vote for Obama simply because of his skin color. I am often flabbergasted by their honesty and they will only do it because I grew up with them and at this point they don’t think of me by my skin color. How ironic. And unfortunately for the country I often wonder how many people are there like this in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan (the swing states that can determine this election) that won’t admit to this fact.”

And there’s the rub. I’ve read it in a dozen places, people who say, “there are just some people who, no matter what they think about the issues, will not vote for a black man.”

Are you feeling a little superior? Are you feeling a little smug. Of course — you are voting the issues, or experience, or ideology — goes without saying. I stipulate that you are voting for your candidate and not voting for the other one for good reasons. I even understand if you’re Libertarian/Green/Telletubbie Party and you just won’t feel irrelevant enough unless you choose your own personal moonbat.  You have got to feel good about not voting race. You have got to be pleased that you are evolved and enlightened enough to not make decisions based on skin color.  In short, you rock.

But let’s talk about them.

Let’s talk about them, on their deathbed, shall we?  Not tomorrow, not in two years, but oh, forty, fifty years down the line.  Children and grandchildren gathered around the bed. And there they are, with their life stretched out behind them.  I’ve written a fair amount about death, as those of you who’ve read A Dirty Job know. I’ve thought about it, researched it, and I’ve sat deathwatch on a couple of people as well, caring for them in their last days. I’d like to tell you that it’s all a bright light and morphine haze.  I’d like to tell you that people, in their last days, are wise and forgiving and possessed of an inner peace.  But in my experience, that’s just not the case.

Regrets come back. They circle in the mind of the dying like carrion birds. Even people of faith, who believe that they are forgiven, can be nagged by regret.

We all have regrets, things that we will never admit that we did, that we’re ashamed of, and that we can make excuses for, but things that raise up in the back of our minds whenever we make a sweeping statement: “Well at least I never–”

Maybe you murdered a songbird with a slingshot when you were a kid, showed your hoo-hah to the boys behind the garage, maybe you told your brother you just didn’t have the money, when, in fact, you just didn’t want to give it to him. Maybe it was the time your wife sent you out for Huggies and you shagged the counter girl with the brace on her leg in the back room at the Jiffy Mart, maybe you saw that guy get hit on Highway 280 and you didn’t stop to see if he was okay, maybe you could have done something, sometime –something to make life better for someone, but you didn’t. You might have been able to save someone but you didn’t, but only you know.

So, now it’s forty years from now. You’ve taught your children how to be good people. Maybe you’ve taught them about the compassionate Buddha or the forgiving Christ, you’ve taught them that it’s never wrong to do the right thing.  But as the light dies, and you want, so badly, to go gently into that good night, you start, you jerk, like a dream where you miss a step. You’re wrenched back into  ache and unsettling, because you know, and only you know, that despite how you felt about the health and prosperity of your country, you just could not pull that lever because you just couldn’t vote for a black guy.

That’s how you sum up a life of accomplishment, with a deep, wrenching feeling that you did the wrong thing. And you lay uneasy forever .

I’m so glad that none of you are that person.  Let’s rejoice, shall we.  For no matter our choice, we did not make it for hateful, small-minded reasons. Doing the right thing never needs to be justified.

And come Wednesday morning, after election day, you will wake up to the first day of the future of our country — a future that you made.  Imagine how great you’re going to feel, how satisfied with having done the right thing.

And in the end,  you can rest easy. Forever.

VOTE

Tags: Politics

33 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Jeff // Sep 15, 2008 at 3:59 pm

    Nicely put AG

    Interesting blog item with relevant political data from a fellow SF writer (though not fiction):

    Careful Senator, your politics are showing…

    http://digitalroam.typepad.com/digital_roam/2008/09/dear-senators-your-politics-are-showing.html

  • 2 gretchenfaith // Sep 15, 2008 at 7:52 pm

    Brilliant, really.

    I just hope everyone else in Ohio reads this.

    (“I’ve sat deathwatch on a couple of people as well, caring for them in their last days. I’d like to tell you that it’s all a bright light and morphine haze. I’d like to tell you that people, in their last days, are wise and forgiving and possessed of an inner peace. But in my experience, that’s just not the case.” See, I’ve always suspected that the scene in A Dirty Job where the dying lady has a telephone conversation using her dog as the phone was something you witnessed in real life. (Maybe she was talking to her dog using the comforter as the phone, I could be mis-remembering, the point is, the scene was bizarre and odd and had a distinct ring of truth to it, in terms of odd things people do when the die.))

  • 3 Tonyj // Sep 15, 2008 at 9:47 pm

    Chris,

    I am the person who posted that response and would like to thank you again for using it as part of your blog. After posting it I was concern that there would be many who would respond with the typical “What about the X% of blacks who will only vote for Obama because he’s black?” I did not want my response to be used as some type of racial bating diatribe. Then I realize that your readers and fan base are most likely more open minded and intelligent than to be pulled into the tit-for-tat counter arguments.

    I posted this based on my own personal, real-life observations of the environment in which I live and grew up and of what was said to me by those who are life-long friends. I believe we all realize that in any culture and society be it racial or religious that there will always be those with less than open minds. My favorite movie that best illustrates this is the classic Richard Widmark / Sidney Poitier movie “No Way Out” (1950). Highly recommend this as a rental if you’ve never seen it.

    So that I can put some context and background to my response I want to describe myself and where I grew up so that people may be able to relate. I was born in a Southeastern Asian country and immigrated to the U.S. at 7 in 1972 to the southwest side neighborhoods of Chicago near Midway Airport. While most of the people in this urban environment are good, hard working people trying to earn an honest mostly blue-collar living, they grew up in a different environment than today.

    This part of Chicago was and still to a certain degree is heavily segregated by nationality to the point of being tribal but we call them Neighborhoods. I am not saying that this is a bad or good thing since we as humans often congregate in pockets with those who are “like” us. I can tell you exactly where the Polish, Irish, Germans, Lithuanian, etc. side of the street I am on when I walked to school or the park at that time.

    During the summer I would tan easily so my skin color while brown would be especially dark-brown. I have been called every non-european slurs that you can imagine from spic, chink, gook to nigger. I actually found it rather funny to be called the n word and would often think that if you are to hate me then at least use the proper racial slur. It only showed me that ignorance and stupidity often went hand-in-hand.

    Ultimately I became so ingrained and familiar to many of the kids around me that I eventually built a large and close group of friends to this day from these neighborhoods. I even married a girl from the neighborhood who is part Polish, Irish and German. The first day that I went to her house to meet her family, her Irish Grandfather opened the front door and called out to her in a loud voice for me to hear that “your chinky-chinaman boyfriend was here.” Ultimately I also won him over.

    I am not trying to make this area out to be a racist bastion because there were obviously just as many open minded people as well. I wouldn’t even necessarily called some of them racist because these kids grew up in a generation of changing racial perceptions and fears. It wasn’t until they were able to meet somebody different or went away from this insular environment that they realized that there is a much larger perspective and world out there.

    I apologize for the length of this response but I guess what I am trying to say at length is that we all must realize that the environment that we came from or grew up in can affect our decisions. As you mentioned, regardless of your political affiliation, make your decisions based on objectivity and simply not because of perception. In the end you’ll sleep better for it.

  • 4 chris // Sep 15, 2008 at 11:05 pm

    Tony
    Thanks for your comments. Being able to quote you gave the post a lot more credibility than it would have had without. Thanks for sharing your insight.

  • 5 JasonB // Sep 16, 2008 at 5:51 am

    Here are some reasons I will NOT vote for Obama:

    He voted for partial birth abortion (one more push it’s a baby, one less push you can kill it).

    He want’s to raise capital gains taxes

    He voted against repealing the death tax. (A tax that can force small businesses and farms to be sold, to pay inheritance taxes, rather than allow the heirs to continue to run the business or farm is morally reprehensible).

    His comment about people “clinging to guns and religion” (I have both!!).

    He voted for a law that would have prevented Illinois residents from defending themselves with a firearm IN THEIR OWN HOME.

    I wouldn’t vote for any candidate like this, regardless of race.

  • 6 Jillopy // Sep 16, 2008 at 11:20 am

    What the fuck am I supposed to do with this 20lb. bucket of hair gel I got from Sam’s now? That shit is good on tortilla chips.

  • 7 Fortune Cookie // Sep 16, 2008 at 10:22 pm

    Cool.
    One less thing I have to worry about.
    It’s not me.
    That hair gel stuff. Ya dice up some red play-doh and BAM!
    Jus like salsa, without the heat.

  • 8 HeatherP // Sep 17, 2008 at 2:40 pm

    I, for one, just want to know what subgroup of America is actually eating hair gel?

  • 9 VerySmallGiant // Sep 19, 2008 at 9:23 pm

    The hair gel eaters are people that vote based on skin color. They are the people that elect a true and total jackass to the highest office in this nation…not once, but twice. And apparently, they out number us. Perhaps, fate willing, on election day, that nasty hair gel habit will keep them holed up in the bathroom serving their incontinence, and having forgotten that they are of legal voting age due to dementia. Let them eat hair gel…hell, buy it for them, by the case.

  • 10 Redroach // Sep 26, 2008 at 1:01 pm

    Does hair gel taste like chicken? That could explain somethings.

  • 11 Cheri // Sep 30, 2008 at 10:23 pm

    My eldest daughter married a Polish Republican and after meeting his father I have grown to overlook his ignorant attitudes as something he grew up with and I strive to re-educate him. His father, like a true Chicagoan votes early and often. He votes Republican in Illinois, then drives to Michigan to vote Republican there. I find him vaguely amusing but have finally decided to stop honoring him with debate. On the other hand I made it clear to the remaining children that while I had no preferences in the color or nationality of their mates, I would not tolerate another Republican in the family no matter what. Sorry I can’t take the selfish it is all about me and my family attitude. People who worry about abortion but accept capital punishment. People who cling to the cross but forget what Jesus had to say. People who worry about money going to the poor but not to the military/industrial complex. Sorry I guess I am just getting intolerant in my old age.

  • 12 JasonB // Oct 3, 2008 at 1:34 pm

    Cheri,

    How are “People who worry about abortion but accept capital punishment” different from people who are against captial punishment but pro-choice. Doesn’t that fit a lot of self-proclaimed liberals? I fall under the first group and think if I have to choose between killing babies or murderers, I’ll stick with the murderers.

    I know some people who are anti-abortion and anti-captial punishment. They are the only ones, in my opinion, without flaws and hypocracy in their arguments.

  • 13 Betsy // Oct 6, 2008 at 9:38 am

    JasonB,
    This is a question of definition when it comes to abortion. While you have the*right* to consider a 12 week old fetus a “baby”, I have the *right* to consider it a fetus. The important point is *right*. No one makes people, oh I mean WOMEN, have abortions. In this country a pregnant woman can even decide to attempt to carry a fetus to term even if it is risking her life. If you were a woman ( I perhaps incorrectly assume you are a man) you could decide to never, ever EVER have an abortion. You could have been raped by some one, become pregnant by that action and no one would ever, in a million years force you to have an abortion. Your ethics, morals and hypothetical uterus is your own. MY ethics, morals and actual uterus is my own. Just like my definition of a 12 week old fetus. Please try to remember this fact next time you think about FORCING someone, anyone to do something that does not match their own ethics or morality.

  • 14 adam // Oct 8, 2008 at 1:32 pm

    Much deeper politics than I thought I would get from a man that wrote about a sea creature making love to a fuel tanker. I feel we can rest assured that there are probably as many people voting FOR a black man (to feel that they are sensitive to race issues) as are voting against a black man, as opposed to voting on the issues. I would be saddened by this if I believed at all that either of them would stand true to thier positions on said issues, so I propose to vote howerver makes you feel good, or close your eyes and pull if you can’t decide.

  • 15 JasonB // Oct 9, 2008 at 10:07 am

    Betsy,

    Wow, are you jumping to some conclusions! Where in my post did I say anything about FORCING anyone to do anything? You can be morally opposed to abortion without actively trying to eliminate it. Cheri was condemning someone for “worrying about abortion but accepting captial punishment.” My post attempted to point out that her opinion of that hypocracy is no different than my opinion of someone who is pro-choice but anti-capital punishment. You justify abortion by saying a 12-week pregnant women is carrying a fetus rather than a baby. Fine that’s your opinion and I won’t attempt to convice you otherwise. I justify capital punishment by saying that someone who commits murder is no longer worthy of being treated like a human. They deserve to live no more than what you call a fetus.
    I’ve re-read my post many times trying to see what about it made you feel the need to be so condescending in your reply to me, and I still don’t see it. I can admit that being pro-life and pro-capital punishment is somewhat hypocritical. I feel that the opposing views, when combined, are as well. That’s all I was trying to say.

  • 16 Bruceifer // Oct 10, 2008 at 2:58 pm

    Dear jason b, where to begin. your obvious racism, closeminded opinions, of the simple fact that you and your ilk are morally and ethically corrupt? Where the fuck do you think you get the right to dictate to anyone else what they can or cannot do with their body? You can sit there all day in your tiny little world nit picking your contrived “facts” about Obama, but the truth is that McCains flaws are bigger than that lump on the side of his old head.
    People like you always seem to think they know what’s right for the rest of us: you don’t! The war of lies is wrong, McCain’s asskissing of the hypachristian right and sucking up at Bob Jones psuedoversity just go to prove how old, out of touch, and unable to take a stand on any single issue for more than a day without reversing himself. He let Karl Rove and Fucktard Bush motherfuck him into political exile in 2000 with their lies about his supposed out of wedlock black love child, then crawled away like the woreout old man he is, but then kiss’s Bush ass like nothing ever happened, and all is forgiven now that he is desperate to pander to the rightwing religious nutjobs who run the republicunt party.
    You my friend are the worst type of voter, ignorant, misinformed, and biased, basically as every other republican is in this country, foolish. You probably think Chimpy McFlightsuit has done a heck of a job, right? That the war on terrorism is being won, and that the US has the god given right to run the world as the great uber policeman, correct so far?
    So do you like paying $4.50 a gallon for gas? Your president is an oilman, right, do you think this is a coincidence? His cronies and his party are the reason for the economic meltdown we’re going through and will continue on for a good long while after he leaves office, but by all means please, keep drinking the Koolaid.
    The only real mystery in all of this is how someone so puckered up conservative found his way to Chris Moore and his books, you people are usually more into burning this stuff than reading it, aren’t ya………….

  • 17 JasonB // Oct 13, 2008 at 5:56 am

    Bruceifer,

    Go back and read our posts again. Which one of us sounds even remotely sane? I state my opinion without attacking anyone, and you write like a rabid dog. (Sorry, that was an attack, wasn’t it? But, you made me do it.) Who are you to call me a racist? You don’t know me, and you don’t know who my friends are. And morally corrupt? How much time and money do YOU donate to charity each year? What are YOU doing to help those who are less fortunate than you? Have you worked in a soup kitchen? Have you worked every weekend in December to gather and distribute toys and food to children and their families who need them? Do you work with any youth groups? Have you ever even helped one of your own neighbors? Maybe you have, but if you did, how could you call a fellow human that does similar work morally corrupt?

    Do you want to talk about morally corrupt people? Here’s some: Rev. Wright, Tony Rezko, Bill Ayers… Want to talk about them? Because the main stream media and the Obama campaign sure don’t.

    By the way, I found my first Chris Moore book (A Dirty Job) because it was in the bargain section and looked funny. I really enjoy his books and don’t let our political differences prevent me from enjoying them. I happen to be enlightened enough to know that most labels don’t fit most people. Because I’m republican, and like Chris Moore books, I don’t assume that only other Republicans could like him. Who’s the narrow-minded one here?

    I love how some liberals are so filled with hate for anyone who thinks differently than they do. Kind of defies the definition of “Liberal” doesn’t it.

  • 18 Chris H // Oct 16, 2008 at 4:04 pm

    Jason B.
    I’m game for the discussion:
    1. He voted for partial birth abortion- Did you listen to his reasoning for this? He voted against it because it made no exceptions. None.

    So if your sister, wife, daughter, etc, is pregnant and the doctor tells her that there is a complication and bringing this baby to term will kill her. At this point we have a question where we can either push forward and possibly kill the mother, and likely the child, or we can allow exceptions. Obama doesn’t want partial birth and he has said he’d vote for a ban with exceptions.

    2. He want’s to raise capital gains taxes
    Perhaps I’m more socialist then I used to be, but should the people who make the most contribute the most to the government? Their wealth is driven by a stable economy and government and that government requires funds to operate.

    3. He voted against repealing the death tax.
    See point 2. I personally would benefit greatly from the lack of death tax as I have some relatives who have done very well. But again, the money to fund the government must come from somewhere.

    4. His comment about people “clinging to guns and religion”-
    Take all quotes in context. He’s not anti-religion and he’s only mildly anti-gun. He’s talking about a person’s mindset when they allow themselves to become one to two platform voters. When you’re disillusioned and believe that no politician makes a difference why wouldn’t you vote on the only two clear differences you can see?

    5. He voted for a law that would have prevented Illinois residents from defending themselves with a firearm IN THEIR OWN HOME.
    All research points out that having handguns in the home dramatically increase the likely-hood of being shot, mostly by your own gun.

    If you are really really interested in making the best decision possible it’s worth looking into Obama’s book Audacity of Hope. He explains what controversial decisions he’s made in the past and why he made them. After reading that it’s much harder to accept every easy “He voted against ….” There’s always context.

    From your later comments…
    Do you want to talk about morally corrupt people? Here’s some: Rev. Wright, Tony Rezko, Bill Ayers…
    Reverend Wright is very unfortunate, and I think Obama’s speech on race after the short clips of his speeches came out was one of the best i’ve ever heard. I go to church for much more than a pastor. If my pastor preaches something I disagree with (and often does) I don’t disavow him and never come back. There’s too much keeping me there. Ayers is laughable to me. As Michelle Obama said, “Anyone involved in education in Chicago has dealt with him”. Rezko is poisonous for some people but the amount contributed to Obama is minimal and we could find dozens of more controversial donors for McCain.

    Alright, that’s probably enough for now. I believe we have a possibility for a president like we haven’t seen in decades. I hope and pray that America is ready for him.

  • 19 Jason B // Oct 21, 2008 at 9:19 pm

    Chris H,

    First, thanks for not calling me a racist or a “puckered up conservative”. I’ll address some of your responses.

    Partial birth abortion. The name says it all. Labor is induced and the woman partially delivers the baby. I’ve read of two types, one where the head is delivered, and one where everything but the head is delivered. At this point the fetus/baby is killed. Then the dead fetus/baby is delivered. So, exactly what health condition exists where a woman can endure the trauma of labor all the way up until the last push; but, not the last push that would deliver a live baby? Remember, I did not address Obama’s votes on first-trimester abortions where a woman’s health is a legitimate reason because the abortion is less traumatic than labor. I’m talking about partial BIRTH abortion. I don’t think anybody can name a health problem that can endure all parts of labor except for that last push. Think about where we are drawing that line. Stop pushing, it’s a fetus, not a baby and you can kill it. One more push and it’s a baby and killing it is murder. The difference of one push.

    On taxes. History shows that over-taxing rich people (I’m not one by the way, and the death tax won’t ever reach my family) makes them spend less on the goods and services that provide jobs to the lower and middle classes. Taxes spike and you immediately see cuts in spending on luxury goods. Who makes the luxury goods? Not the rich. In addition, the bottom 40% of taxpayers pay NO federal income taxes. Many of them get more refunded to them than they paid in due to the “Earned Income Credit”. I don’t have a problem with that, they need the break, and it wasn’t that long ago that I got almost everything I’d paid into federal taxes refunded to me. I’ve also seen figures like this for most years: Top 10% of taxpayers pay over 35% of federal taxes, top 25% of taxpayers pay 70% of federal taxes and the top 50% of taxpayers pay 97% of taxes. Guess what? The rich are already paying their fair share. Nobody “deserves” to have their taxes raised right now. And no family should have to sell assets that their parents and grandparents earned and paid taxes on, so that they can pay an inheritance tax.

    Spin the “clinging to guns and religion” comment any way you want. You won’t convince me that it wasn’t the comment of an elitist who doesn’t like guns and was so disconnected from his church of twenty years that he had no idea what the pastor stood for or said from the pulpit.

    No one should be prevented from keeping a firearm in their home. It’s unconstitutional.
    I haven’t seen the research that you have, but I can guess that research would show that you are more likely to die in a car wreck if you are in a Corvette than a Buick. Should we legislate to prevent people from driving Corvette’s for their own good? I think that research would also show that people with guns in their home have a much higher probability of surviving an attack in their home than someone without a gun. You can skew research in any direction that the group paying for it wants you to.

    The people that Obama has associated with: Why has he been so evasive when discussing Ayers or Rev. Wright? His story changed many times. At one point Ayers was “just a guy who lived in his neighborhood.” We know that they had much more contact than that. How much? It looks to me like they worked together quite a bit while serving on the same board. The Rev. Wright thing floors me. How do you go to the same church with the same Reverend for twenty years and first defend the man and then claim that you didn’t know he was so racist and never heard any of those sermons. Obama claimed at one time to have a close relationship with Wright. Then he dis-avowwed him. So which is it? Obama is such a horrible judge of character that he had no idea who Wright was and believed? Or he did know and now he is lying through his teeth. Rezko is dirty and his connections to Obama are real. The deal with the home and lot points to a much closer relationship than just a donor writing a check.

    Here’s a new question I have. Why did Obama vote “present” so many times? I’m not impressed by someone who can’t or won’t make decisions.

    Thanks for your reply. I await your response to this.

    Jason

  • 20 Jason B // Oct 22, 2008 at 6:13 am

    Chris H.

    Well I posted a reply last night, but it appears to have disappeared this morning. I don’t know whether there was a technical glitch (I saw it appear beneath your post before I shut down my computer), or if I’ve been censored by a liberal blogmaster. There weren’t any dirty words and I didn’t call anybody names (which seems to be fine here as long as you’re attacking a conservative). I may try again later.

    Jason

  • 21 Jason B // Oct 22, 2008 at 6:15 am

    Ahhhh. Now I see the statement below my latest entry that says “Your comment is awaiting moderation”. I hope that whoever decided to delete my last post has the courtesy to email me and explain why they deleted it.

  • 22 Patrick // Oct 22, 2008 at 5:45 pm

    Wow. I have always thought that we were supposed to elect people based on who we thought would best represent the people they…well…represented. What’s all this crap about race? If the chartreuse dwarf lesbian pagan chick is the best pick, pull the lever. Unless, of course, chartreuse doesn’t go with your drapes, then screw her and vote for another war-mongering dullard. It’s tres chic.

    And, just for the record, there is no difference between a Republican and a Democrat any more than there is a difference between heads or tails.

  • 23 chris // Oct 23, 2008 at 9:53 am

    Jason B

    I have other things to do in addition to moderating this blog. I just didn’t get to anyone comments for a couple of days. This may not be the best forum to carry on a heated argument.

    I know it’s frustrating, but putting a human between the posts and the published comments is the only way to keep the spam out.

    Please stop whining.

  • 24 Jason B // Oct 23, 2008 at 11:15 am

    Chris,

    Who’s whining? I didn’t know that the entrys weren’t posted until a moderator approved them. I posted from one computer and checked the next day for a response from another computer, so my post didn’t appear at all. I didn’t realize what was happening until my comment about it appeared with the “moderator” note at the bottom. At that point, I still didn’t see the post from the night before and the easiest assumption was that it had been censored.
    I’m sorry I jumped to the wrong conclusion; but, I hardly whined, and surely didn’t deserve the response you gave.
    I have other things that I could be doing. But I chose to come to your website to read your blog posts. Just like I chose to go to a bookstore and buy your books.

  • 25 Chris H // Oct 24, 2008 at 2:11 pm

    Jason B,
    A few final thoughts on the subjects:
    Partial Birth. Probably not a subject we’ll ever agree on and that’s fine. I’m not sure I agree with Obama’s vote on this, but I see his logic behind it.

    Same with the voting present thing. Another nice thing about reading Obama’s book is it shows how he views votes on certain things and sees the good points of both sides and so votes present because he can’t vote against, and can’t vote for it. Many times he voted present because of an addendum that was added to the bill that made it unpalatable.

    Again, Ayers is a bigwig in education. Personally if Obama has a question about education and comes to Ayers, I’m fine with it.

    Wright… He forgave him and said he wasn’t condemning him after the comments came out. Then a few weeks later Wright came out and repeated and even intensified some of his prior comments, basically throwing Barack under the bus. Barack’s hand was forced and so he made his decision to make a speech on it.

    About guns, two minutes of searching found:
    http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-4142015_ITM
    Again, we might not agree, but there is a ton of research out there on this topic.

    Finally as to Elitist… What’s wrong with a brilliant man leading the country? I’m done with the current president who I feel like I could have a beer with. I’ll take the president who would order a manhattan and could kick the crap out of me in chess. Don’t tell me that Barack is more out of touch then McCain either. The man owns 10 houses and has been in DC for over 25 years. Barack chose to work with common people after getting a law degree from one of the best institutions in the nation. He could have come out making ridiculous money, but chose to take a low paying job working with a chicago community to help out the common man.

    Anyway… I know blog exchanges will never change either of our minds but hopefully we’ll both think deeply on it.

  • 26 Jason B // Oct 25, 2008 at 5:41 am

    Chris H.

    I never expected to change your mind. I hoped to show that someone can decide against voting for Obama for many reasons that have nothing to do with race. If nothing else, I think we’ve proven that two people can disagree; but, still discuss it without being reduced to insults and mudslinging.

    Thanks for the debate

    Jason

  • 27 Sky // Oct 26, 2008 at 6:07 pm

    Brilliant, as usual.
    I needed to read something outside the rapid-fire mudslinging going lately, and. . . here it is!

    Thanks for keeping it real.

    I just cannot deny your logic. . . even while playing the devil’s advocate. . .

  • 28 lisa // Oct 29, 2008 at 7:07 pm

    And. World Peace.

  • 29 Leprrkan // Nov 2, 2008 at 8:59 am

    Jason B:

    2 Points…

    1) Do the terms/names The Keating 5 or G. Gordon Libby mean anything to you? How about the fact that John McCain, a man who knows first hand the horrors of torture at the hands of an enemy, refuses to outright ban it’s use by our government?
    And yet you have no problem calling Obama’s integrity into question… puzzling, no?

    2) I would suggest it might be bad form to insult, either in a direct or backhanded way, the person whose forum this is. No one made you come here, certainly not Chris, and making veiled threats about being a fan or not, over comments he rightly called you out on

    (sorry but this: “Well I posted a reply last night, but it appears to have disappeared this morning. I don’t know whether there was a technical glitch (I saw it appear beneath your post before I shut down my computer), or if I’ve been censored by a liberal blogmaster. There weren’t any dirty words and I didn’t call anybody names (which seems to be fine here as long as you’re attacking a conservative). ” sure as hell smacks of whining,

    is both childish and ridiculous.

    If you want a “Fair and Balanced” view on politics, go over to Fox News’ blog.

    If you’ve really read the AG’s work then you already know what his views are, as he has had the balls to always be up front about them.

  • 30 Jason B // Nov 3, 2008 at 8:03 am

    Lepprkan,

    Go back and read AG’s post. The last sentence was not necessary.

    So if I’m not liberal, I shouldn’t post anything here?

    I found this definition for “Liberal” in the “American Heritage Dictionary”:

    “Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded.”

    I’m not feeling the tolerance here.

    I know I’m a fan of his. I’ve bought all of his books, and I’ll keep buying his books, because they’re funny. Liberal’s don’t have a lock on humor.

    I appreciate that AG is brilliant and writes some of the funniest, laugh-out-loud, stories I’ve ever read. I expected that he would appreciate people from ALL political viewpoints who spend their money on his books, so that he can live the life he does, including moderating this blog. And actually, I would never have assumed that he would do the moderating himself. When I thought I’d been censored, I assumed it was an AG flunky, not the man himself.

    No matter what the circumstances, it’s no fun getting slammed by an author you admire.

  • 31 VerySmallGiant // Nov 3, 2008 at 11:19 am

    shhhh. Maybe if we’re all very, very quiet, he’ll go away…

  • 32 Hack 2015 // May 25, 2015 at 2:29 pm

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  • 33 tamara d garcia // Apr 25, 2020 at 10:28 am

    Now we have Trump.

    I had no idea We could loose with over

    2 million votes against him

    The mid west is slightly retarded.

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