Yesterday, I went out into the public; and, Gentle Reader, it was not a pleasant experience!
For several months now, I've had a $15 gift card to one the big, nationally known chain bookstores; the nearest of which to me is a good hour drive away. Between that I just don't really care for driving, and that the trip would cost more than the card's value, I've just been carting the card around in my wallet for all these months.
Then I realized that carrying around the extra weight of the card was causing me to use more energy than otherwise (both my own personal energy and the car's when I do drive); plus, the thickness of the card in the wallet (in my hip pocket) was probably throwing off my spinal alignment. So, as yesterday was rainy (it has done little but rain for at least a week and a half), I decided to spend the card, despite that that meant a foray into the public.
The drive was actually the best part of the day.
The bookstore was a bit too warm for me ... and there were people in it: cud-, I mean, gum-chewing, foot-shuffling (these two seem to go together, and always make me think of cattle chewing their cuds as they shuffle back to the barn after a hard day of grazing), gum-snapping, flip-flop flopping; with little drama-queen girls, and little boys already so fat that the development of their bodies has been permanently altered .... arrgh! At least I wasn't subjected to someone snuffling for hours on end, rather than going to just blow his nose.
I got no pleasure from browsing through the books, either general interest or sci-fi/fantasy. None! What a waste of time in a bookstore.
But, the thing I just had to share with Gentle Reader occurred first. Walking into the store, I thought to myself, "I'd best check with a clerk that this card hasn't expired, lest I spend a couple of hours in here and then find the card is no good." So, I stopped first at the main counter.
There was an elderly gentleman in front of me, looking for the magazine 'The Economist,' which turned out to be not with all the other magazines but at my knee level just a few feet from where we were standing. He got himself a copy and handed it to the clerk.
The magazine's cover story was about the recent British election and the subsequent Tory-LibDem coalition government.
The clerk, a big, fluttery, lummox, remarked upon the magazine's cover story. "Imagine that! The far-left and the "far-right" coming together to form a single government like that," he sssaid, weaving his fingers together to illustrate the coming together of the far-left and the "far-right" into a unified government. "Maybe we can manage that, here, too.."
The elderly gentleman refrained from telling the lummox just what a lummox he is. As did I, let Gentle Reade be aware. But, I did think to myself, "I really ought to blog about this." Imagine this: there are actually people in this world who imagine that the Tories, much less Cameron's Tories, are "far right."
Then, to top off the day, the authors of the book I did buy are using "gender inclusive" language. Thankfully, this is a mild use, else I'd likely never read the book.
Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
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22 comments:
I'd have simply said, "Yeah! Just think of what could be accomplished if we could just outlaw abortion and gay marriage, and move on to the REAL problems."
I used to be quiet in the face of public exchanges like that, but not anymore. Call it the tea party sympathizer in me - being obnoxious in public is no longer just for the left.
There would have been nothing obnoxious about that response. It's too bad that I'm too tongue-tied to have thought of it.
I agree with you almost 100%. But short of eugenics or draconian civil laws, what ideas of 'value' can we postulate to have the required outcomes? How about IQ tests for intending parents? How about more factual education rather than 'arts' perspectives? (we might of course, disagree on the 'facts'). Do you have any suggestions?
Your claim that 'liberals' cite the Robin Hood story to 'excuse the depredations of street-thugs and to justify their own planned depredations against the free citizens of this Republic' is spurious to say the least. Can you demonstrate more than one or two examples of low level, no-authority 'liberals' doing so?
From my observations, the Robin Hood story, however you see it , carries at least as much historical support and physical evidence as the bible.
And if Crude wants to get on with the 'real' problems, why the little dribble about non-consequential issues like abortion and gay marriage?
Ilion, I have come across Rupert on a few blogs and he normally posts cogent, if erroneous to some, comments. The comments he has been 'dropping' here are no more offensive, no more inane, and no less factual than those you have been posting on Uncommon Descent and Darwin's God.
You do not contribute any knowledge, value or information. You just 'drop' snide little comments about evolutionists and atheists.
Leroy,
I can see already that you're not intellectually honest (i.e. you're a fool). And I don't allow fools to waste my time.
You haven't gone over the line, yet. But you will. And when you do, you'll get the same treatment as Rupert.
Leaving aside your description of my opinion differing to yours as being intellectually dishonest or foolish, do you have any suggestions as to how we can recover society from the ravages of the 'trash' which you had to share your space with?
Fat, sniveling brats and morons are in abundance. The real difficulty is rectifying the problem without draconian measures, unless you think we need to take such drastic action?
"... do you have any suggestions as to how we can recover society from the ravages of the 'trash' which you had to share your space with?"
As I've pointed out already, you are intellectually dishonest.
I never even implied 'trash.'
No, you didn't imply 'trash', I'm not saying you did. That was MY use of a descriptor as a generic term.
As I said, fat sniveling brats and morons are in abundance, any suggestions?
And if Crude wants to get on with the 'real' problems, why the little dribble about non-consequential issues like abortion and gay marriage?
Oh, lighten up. It was an imagined one-line response to a store clerk sharing his political opinions unasked for.
As for how to deal with "fat sniveling brats and morons", I think Ilion handled Rupert just fine.
It's logically impossible to reason with those who will not reason. It's logically impossible to converse with those who will not converse.
And I refuse to let that sort waste my time ... or bandwidth on my blog.
And as for the store clerk, it's not just that no one asked for his political opinions, it's that the opinion he expressed was so vapid. His expressed opinion was not only lacking in insight, it was a black-hole with respect to insight.
I am trying to converse with you Ilion.
I stated that I understand your view regarding the people you came across at the bookstore.
Having made a couple of suggestions about what could be done about it, I asked if you had any suggestions.
It makes me mad not just when authors use "he or she," but also when they just use "she" instead of the more appropriate "he."
Exactly my point, Drew. And, when there is a lot of that inappropriate "sheing," I loose interesting in reading what the person has to say. The way I look at it, such persons are either so ignorant about something so basic and simple that one has to entertain the possibility that they're just stupid, or they're dishonest and playing at identity politics.
And I don't care who such persons are, or where they are perceived to be on the political scale ... if they intentionally "she" when English grammar calls for "he," then they might as well be a leftist, for at the very least they're acting as enablers for leftism.
Use Afghanistan as a nuclear test site. No really, it's never achieved anything or contributed anything and never will. Look how they kill each other, treat their women and fuck goats and little boys. And what they did to those magnificent ancient works of art! Should have chopped their hands off and shoved them up their arses.
Build a military wall around Iraq and let them sort themselves out. Warn any other state, such as Iran, that if there is even a hint of interference they will have the living shit bombed out of them. Their earthquakes will feel like birthday parties compared to the razing they will suffer.
Tell the Palestinians they have one chance to answer the question correctly. (the morons will think it's a trick question, but...). Will you allow Israel to live in peace and get on with living cooperatively in a shared land? If yes, demonstrate it NOW and on an ongoing basis. If no, BOOM! Use whatever weapons necessary to wipe the fuckers out. Big time.
Kill Putin, install a military government and tell all the warring and internally conflicted former soviet states they have about five minutes to enact peaceful resolutions or suffer the same fate as Afghanistan. All the people across the former soviet union have been unable to move forward in any meaningful way so they might as well revert.
Kick all resource companies out of africa. Remove all 'western' aid. They've been given enough time and resources to join the rest of us. I mean come on, every time they take a step forward some thug, international conglomerate or the pope comes along and sends them three steps backwards.
Tell islamic countries that until women are free to wear bikinis on their beaches, have a drink, drive a car and get a job, if they wish to do so; all non-islamic countries will ban islamic attire.
Take over the vatican. Kick out the current occupiers and turn it into the worlds biggest and best art museum. Remove tax-free status from all religions, everywhere. Remove all references to any deities or faiths from ALL public laws, institutions, facilities, fundings and activities. When the usual suspects fire up with their pro-creationist, homophobic, anti-choice nonsense, whoosh!, one way tickets to what used to be Afghanistan. Likewise all the wing-nut shock-jocks on radio and TV, people like Rush Limberger, and all the tele-evangelists, whoosh!, russia would be a good destination I reckon.
What would we be left with? A world predominantly (hey nothings perfect) made up of rational people of reason. People who accept facts, evidence and proof. People who can do what they wish so long as it doesn't impact negatively on those around them. Ah, still not perfect but a much better base than the bucket of shit we currently have to wade through to find any reality in this world.
This is why I didn't take up blogging for so long when everyone else did ... I don't like dealing with nuts.
Frankly, and as hypocritical as this will sound, I think comments on most blogs by and large tend to detract from them. People end up largely ignoring the original posts and show up mostly to engage in some comment warfare on too many blogs. Especially ones where anything controversial is discussed.
I don't see anything at all hypocritical in your observation.
... and, as it turns out, my blog has worked out better than I'd feared it would. Most of the comments I've garnered have been on-topic and (more importantly) have been indicative of persons engaging me and what I've said. It's only just recently that we've been seeing this little wavelet of persons with no interest in rational discourse.
"Imagine this: there are actually people in this world who imagine that the Tories, much less Cameron's Tories, are "far right.""
Oh yeah, much of that misconception is due to the media, they dishonestly portray anyone who is not a mad leftist as a mad rightwing racist, redneck and such.
Good stuff, Ilíon. I really have to stop by your blog more often.
I notice that "Robin" did not make make his/her profile public, which always makes me suspicious. I mean, you're anonymous anyway with only a first name that might be fake.
Is Robin's comment an example of "Poe's Law"? It seems like something very close to a parody to me.
I got no pleasure from browsing through the books, either general interest or sci-fi/fantasy. None! What a waste of time in a bookstore.
Just curious as to why you say this. Even under the worst of circumstances, as a book lover in general and also a fan of SF/fantasy, I always manage to get some pleasure out of browsing the book shelves in just about any bookstore I find myself in.
"Just curious as to why you say this. Even under the worst of circumstances, as a book lover in general and also a fan of SF/fantasy, I always manage to get some pleasure out of browsing the book shelves in just about any bookstore I find myself in."
Generally, so do I. But that day, I didn't; the experience was just flat. That's why I remarked upon it ... it was so remarkable!
I'd thought to get Dembski's new book, 'The End of Christianity,' but it wasn't in stock (and I figured if I'm going to order it, I'll get it from the small non-chain bookstore near my house); so I browsed the sci-fi/fantasy, but just couldn't strike up any interest in even pulling many of them off the shelf for even a once-over.
"Good stuff, Ilíon. I really have to stop by your blog more often."
Thank you; I do try to be entertaining if I cannot be informative.
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