From outside the box

These are comments from "Robert" concerning my last blog titled "New Years pledges and other meaningless stuff". I have interjected my responses thru out.

Robert starts out....
I would like to examine your pledges and comment on each of them—that is if you are “tolerant” enough to indulge me…
1) Don’t you think it might be a bit presumptuous to ascribe the politics of all those who disagree with you as deriving from talk radio? Besides, Air America had its shot at influencing public opinion—perhaps you should consider why it failed so miserably?

Joe's reply....
First off, you know this whole blog was tongue in cheek, right? The whole problem with writing humor is that writing in and of itself lacks the dimension of voice inflection and intonations, which can be important in delivering punch lines as well as setting the tone for what is being said. That being said, I realize that there is truth in humor. So I will take responsibility for my humor and address your remarks as best I can. Concerning radio personalities, I have often said that I get a lot of information and often change my point of view about a subject because of something a right wing radio host said. However, I find there is a lot of holier than thou crap, a lot of left wing bashing over stupid issues that these guys are doing on talk radio. Bottom line, it's all about entertainment, and I realize that. I don't think any of us should ever take Rush Limbaugh, or even Bill Maher for that matter, too seriously. Air America cannot compete with right wing radio shows because liberals do not need to hear their message get dumbed down to a level that it appeals to your average Joe 6 pack and then repeated over and over with silly mantra's i.e. liberal radio is just not as interesting. Here's another comparison what I'm talking about...Go to a lecture by Depok Chopra and then attend a Christian Fundamentalist's Sunday get together.

Robert goes on....
2) Since the Catholic Church recanted its authority to teach science centuries ago and Pope John Paul II apologized all over himself for Galileo, why do you mock all believers in God? Science and belief complement each other and not all Christians are fundamentalists who read Genesis as a science text. Further, this implies that any true scientist must surely eschew any belief in God, ignoring the fact that many scientists, including Copernicus, Bacon, Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, Newton, Mendel, Kelvin, Pasteur and, to some extent, Einstein were all religious men.

Joe's reply....
I would not seriously mock all believers in God. I believe in God. I do however mock churches and religions. The catholic church has a history of suppressing science, although thru my own research I see that they have engaged on a campaign to change their own history. No surprise there. I know that all Christians are not fundamentalist's just as all democrats are not socialist's. We all tend to take the heat for whatever the extreme ends of our philosophical affiliates are engaged in.

Robert goes on....
3) If you wish to inform yourself with facts about global warming, I invite you to dig more deeply. There is a good deal of evidence that warming and cooling are cyclical. I still remember magazines warning us about the coming “ice age” back when I was a teenager in the ‘70’s!

Joe's reply....
I have said before that I hope the conservatives are right on this one and that science is wrong. But when you look back over history, how often has that happened?

Robert goes on....
4) Your “broad brush” is also a bit too eager to paint all conservatives as warmongers. No one in his right mind likes war. However, even Senator Harry Reid had to admit recently that the troop surge was working, and statistics show that fatalities have been greatly reduced in Iraq. Further, your statement that Bush has “been wrong about everything he could be wrong about” lacks foundation. I certainly do not like the war in Iraq and I am willing to admit that the barbaric mindset of Muslim fanatics seems inimical to the foothold of democracy our president hopes to plant in the middle east, but calling the president “wrong in all things” is as intolerant as me dismissing Bill Clinton as doing nothing more as president than seducing his assistants. As much as the media loves to ridicule Bush, he has been remarkably successful in many areas, particularly the economy. A recent report indicates that there has been a three percent increase in GDP as well as after-tax income, and inflation is moderate.

Joe's reply....
In humor, one will often exaggerate the truth to get a point across. Bush has not been wrong about everything, however, I will not give him any credit for the economy. He, along with 6 years of an irresponsible republican congress have managed to almost triple our national debt. Anybody can make an economy look good by borrowing. Problem is, someday the debt must be paid, right? For 6 years, Bush never vetoed and congress never investigated. They had a sweet deal worked out, it was win-win for the politicians, but it was a loose-loose for the American people.

Robert goes on....
5) What “truth” is being suppressed by the right wing? The last time I checked, it was the liberals and leftists who wished to shut down all debate on issues like global warming and abortion. Go to Youtube and type in “West Coast March For Life” and see how “tolerant” the liberals in the City by the Bay are when someone dares to even mention that abortion is killing.

Joe's reply....
You are right. I believe that any and all issues should be able to stand up to the light of debate and that should include everything from abortion and global warming to slaughter houses and medical marijuana.

Robert goes on....
6) Again, why are you lumping all religious people into the same broad category? Not every religious person is a Christian. Not every Christian is a fundamentalist. Not every Christian has the same political philosophy.

7) I am not offended by your New Age beliefs. You can channel the spirit of Che Guevera through your cornflakes if it makes you happy.

Joe's reply....
I am not as new age as my humor might imply. There is one area that I would lump all people of religion together and that is that most religions teach the illusion of separatism, actually, much of Christian philosophy is based on it. This stems from the church long ago adopting the theory that there are such things as finite particles and therefore solidness and separation are realities. This has led to the illusion that God is actually separated from man. We know now (and this is where I ascribe to what you could call new age theory) thru quantum physics that there are no such thing as solid particles, everything is a form of energy, and therefore there is nothing that is solid or separated...everything is connected by energy, and ultimately I believe, by consciousness. One of the basic problems with religion, as I see it, is that they have a distorted vision of what God is all about, mainly that God is separate. I'm sure we could spend hours debating on this subject alone, and maybe we should sometime.

Robert goes on....
8) Humor is sometimes the only thing that retains our sanity. Please do not give it up.

Finally, I would suggest (and certainly not insist) that you re-examine your obsession with “tolerance”. I have to politely disagree and say that tolerance is not a virtue. We cannot tolerate murder, rape, violation of civil liberties and the like and touting “tolerance” as an end in itself is misleading and empty. However I would again SUGGEST that perhaps you consider replacing “tolerance” with the capital virtue of “patience” (something I seem to run out of on a daily basis). Patience is defined as, “Forbearance and endurance through moderation. Resolving conflicts peacefully, as opposed to resorting to violence. The ability to forgive; to show mercy to sinners.” If you practice patience, perhaps you can then forgive me for my long-winded response.

Joe's final reply....Well said. However, I get a bit long winded myself, it's a thing that passionate and thinking people do. Robert, I know you are a professional and well published writer so I appreciate that you take the time to read my blog as well as carrying on a little "philisophical jousting" with me. I look forward to future exchanges.