Re: Kent Cripin's cynical liberalism

[Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>]

On Sat, Nov 15, 1997 at 06:21:50PM -0600, TruthMonger wrote:
[accuses me of not knowing humor]
>   (Kent, are you the one sending anonyous emails to whitehouse.gov
>    saying, "Throw rocks at DC!"?)

No.  But here's a joke:

    The pope and President Clinton died on the same day, but due to an
    administrative foul up, Clinton was sent to heaven and the Pope
    was sent to hell. 

    The Pope explained the situation to the devil, he checked out all
    of the paperwork, and the error was acknowledged.  The Pope was
    told, however, that it would take about 24 hours to fix the
    problem and correct the error. 

    The next day, the Pope was called in and the devil said his
    good-bye as he went off to heaven. 

    On his way up, he met Clinton who was on his way down, and they
    stop to chat. 

    Pope: Sorry about the mix up. 

    President Clinton: No problem. 
          
    Pope: Well, I'm really excited about going to heaven. 

    President Clinton: Why's that?

    Pope: All my life I've wanted to meet the Virgin Mary. 

    President Clinton: You're a day late. 

[...]

>   Really, Kent, you surely can't have lived such a cloistered life that
> you judge everything in life by the words and images cast upon the 
> Silver Screen of alleged reality.

I don't think anyone who knows me would say I have lived a cloistered 
life.  "Checkered" is the word that comes to mind.  Though I've been pretty 
stable the last 20 years. :-)

>   In my younger days I used to get picked up by dirt-farmers while
> hitchiking, and be subjected to a predictable lecture about long
> hair, hippies all ought to get a job, kids today...blah, blah.
> Most of the time, before dropping me off, the farmer would dig
> a few bucks out of his pocket and offer it to me, saying, "Have
> you eaten today? Here, take this."

My youth was similar.  But now the tables have turned, eh? Last
Tuesday I was coming home from a doctors appt., and saw a guy 
standing at a light with a sign "Homeless -- will work for food".  It 
was getting dark; I happened to have a $10 bill handy, so I rolled 
down my window and gave it to him -- just another bleeding heart 
liberal, I guess.  But I didn't give him a lecture.

> > >   I've smoked crack with blacks, niggers and black-afro americans. When
> > > I talk loud enough for them to hear me, I try to be courteous enough to
> > > fit my choice of words to the environment and/or their preference.
>  
> > courtesy = censorship
> 
> Courtesy = free choice of words = honest self-censorship
> Politcially Correct Politeness = Mandatory/voluntary self-censorship

I just tossed that out to think about.  The relationship between 
courtesy and censorship is pretty subtle.


> NEWS FLASH!!!
>   Once you grow up and move away from home, then many things that were
> formerly mandatory (or else!) become voluntary. People who were easy
> to toilet train often go through life thinking that they are 'good'
> people just because they still haven't figured out that they have
> a 'choice' of how to speak, act, behave.  
>   I'll take a good old redneck who has learned not to 'hate niggers'
> as much as he used to, over an anal retentive batik artist who 
> still hasn't figured out that he clenches his teeth when he speaks
> of the 'Black-Afro American' who robbed and pistol-whipped him.

Hmm -- I've been robbed at gunpoint 3 times, pistol-whipped once.  The
perpetrators were all minorities; none were ever caught.  Possessing a
gun at the time wouldn't have made a positive difference in any of the
cases, incidentally.  (I own several guns; I am quite familiar with
guns; I no longer really have a use for them, though.)

I don't clench my teeth over it.  But racism does get under my skin,
in a very personal way. 

[...]

>   The best way to eliminate racism is to hire a racist, go to dinner
> with a racist, talk with a racist--not to sit drinking cafe latte 
> with your friends while denouncing racism.

Hardly an exhaustive list of options.

>   I find it hard to believe that the slants and the round-eyes on
> this list think that apparent differences in the backgrounds and
> beliefs of list members deserves more discussion than the loss of
> our common freedoms,

It's because there are enough people on the list who see a distinction
between preservation of freedom, and hate and fear mongering.  Even
more, I think that many feel that the hate and fear mongering is
actually contrary to the goal of preserving freedom. 

[...]

>   In the course of pursuing things which are important in our life
> (such as producing the Nutly News), we will be much more productive
> if we refrain from joining in mouth-jerk reactions to the worms
> that get dangled in front of us by the anonymous entities posting
> from the boat above us.

Right.  I never pay attention to anonymous entities.

>   And the way this relates to crypto is...NONE OF YOUR FUCKING
> BUSINESS! (<--- Topically Incorrect)
> 
> TruthMonger

-- 
Kent Crispin				"No reason to get excited",
kent@songbird.com			the thief he kindly spoke...
PGP fingerprint:   B1 8B 72 ED 55 21 5E 44  61 F4 58 0F 72 10 65 55
http://songbird.com/kent/pgp_key.html