Ayn Rand had it right. While they need your approval for your own self-immolation, just even engaging is its own sort of approval. It validates their world views to have a strawman to fight. When you left and the board became a complete liberal circle jerk, one could see no one was really happy at all.

Bowser still railed against America, even after two terms of “hope and change” from the man who deposed the monster GWB.

ER seemed to go off tilting at climate change windmills. The corporate boogeymen are out to destroy mankind! Back in the day he would be treated like Cydonauts or Barry D – a full anomalist. He’s just as driven and fanatic as Johannes is about nuclear caused global warming.

At some point everyone has their epiphany on the Zone – what the hell am I doing here? Why should I spend time on a post that a handful will read? In the old days at least one knew a dozen, maybe even two dozen might read a post, but the site move, logging in and all the rest ended that

Robert loathed/loathes the conservative Zoners. That became patently obvious and I think subconsciously the Zone has become exactly wheat he wanted it to be – a dirt poor man’s Daily Kos where people could come to reinforce and affirm their liberal worldview.

Intolerance in liberal thought is now self-evident all over the web. It’s refreshing to see their brutal honesty. The modern liberal is racist, intolerant, seeks to destroy all those they view as threats, wishes death on others and feels no need for civility at all. Time spent on Tumblr, FB or some other such site can give one a quick education in modern liberalism.

The Zoner liberals are relics. They still write in complete sentences. They feel a need to actually try to justify their beliefs with reason. But give them enough time and they will fully embrace the “die oppressive CIS,white racist scum!” mentality of the liberal millennials.

It can make one bitter, seeing what the world has become. But getting back to Ayn Rand, sometime one just has to create one’s own Galt’s Gulch and not engage with those who seek to use you – even if just as a convenient boogeyman to keep them from having to live with their own unchallenged beliefs for awhile.

Reading that entire thread was a trip down memory lane. The pile-ons on remaining conservatives as folks left for the Gulch became sadder and sadder to witness. Haha!

Well, anyways I’m glad you and the family are doing well. Yes, the economy sucks still. And damn! College education now is insanely expensive. But more outrageous are some of the things you are paying to be taught. I still agree with Ken Robinson on how schools are now destroying creativity:

https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity?language=en

But I’m just rambling now.

Take care Tom!

It takes it’s toll because our entire thought structures are formulated around a certain perspective. If someone murders someone in front of you, it’s hard not to be horrified. It’s hard not to have hate for the murderer and an outpouring of grief for the victim.

But then a whole new perspective might shed light on it. The killer was really a husband who’s family had been slaughtered by the victim.

The grief is replaced with a sort of painful acknowledgement of the human tragedy. And people’s inability to cope with things – or learn from them.

Ha! I come here and revert back into pompous lecture mode. Must be something about the Zone…haha! Oh well!

Take care Jody!

In fact, the leader of this nation used to say, “Every mans’ need is a right.”

Used revenues from the oil pumped out of the ground to pay for it. Yessir, regarded the oil coming out of the ground as belonging to the people.

What a concept!

See “You’ve got to be kidding” here.

Be sure to read the whole sequence, including ER’s lament on too much “partisan propaganda.”

“Watching the decline” has been about it here for me. I’ve been posting very rarely, if at all. In the area of politics, it’s become basically a handful of guys in a shed in the woods, writing manifestos at each other, and two of them are the same guy. Inserting any other opinions (or facts for that matter) apparently creates an existential disharmony or something. Kind of a microcosm of our current political arena–opposition is something that has to be destroyed, not debated.

It’s cool. They have a much easier time dealing with strawmen with our photos pasted on them then they ever did with the real thing. You might notice ER has already re-invented you.

Family is doing well. Both kids out of college now, but it’s tough for young people carrying student loans to get a foothold out there these days. The rising price of higher education in the U.S. has far outstripped wages, inflation, even medical costs, but this particular example of “greed” seems immune from liberal criticism. Can’t imagine why.

Hope you and your family are doing well. Your daughter must be out of college by now. Amazing how time flies. It would be nice if the world was in a lot better shape, but I treat Equilibrium now as an old friend and ask him to tell me the hidden good in all the things that appear to be declining. Too often he leaves me guessing.

Keep your supply shelf stocked, your Geiger counter calibrated and take that battery out of your cell phone often.

I can see where you think he is trying to shut you down completely. And maybe he is. However, I think he was trying to point out a way the two of you could have a relationship. The two of you have strongly held views on politics and economics, and neither of you is going to change the other. Discussion only leads to hostility and hard feelings.

Obviously you are free to post anything you want here. In the interest of harmony I think it’s my responsibility to not respond if it’s related to politics and economics.

There are many, many topics upon which you are very good and I enjoy your contributions. You are well read and a clear writer. And a good guy.

And we need to stay away discussions, dialogue and argument about politics and economics. Wouldn’t be prudent.

I’m sure black folks are racist as well, even about other black folks. But racism is sometimes conscious and deliberate, and sometimes we are completely unaware of it. Sometimes its malicious and cruel, and sometimes its just silly. And different nations are racist in different ways. Whites in the North are different kinds of racists than Southern Whites. I’m prejudiced against Mexicans because their culture is so different from my own, and I’m prejudiced against Puerto Ricans even though their culture is very similar to my own. And Puerto Ricans think Cubans are pushy and aggressive. The line between racism and just recognizing cultural differences is very vague and indistinct.

But I’ve known, ever since I was a kid, that the kind of racism directed against blacks by Cubans was nowhere as deep and virulent as that shown by some Southern whites. Its not as bad today as it used to be, yes, there has been progress.

Have I ever experienced racism myself? Not as a Cuban in Tampa, In my town, whites and Cubans lived and worked and went to school together, and intermarried. But when we moved into the country I experienced racism from some, but not all, the folks there. As I mentioned, I did have Cracker friends and dated Cracker girls. My parents and grandparents had definitely been discriminated against, so they were prejudiced against Crackers. The term “Cuban nigger” was very familiar to my grandparents, my parents had heard it, but I never had it used against me. And as I’ve mentioned before, I had my own family prejudices against Crackers. BTW, in Florida, “Cracker” is not an insulting or perjorative term. It merely means “native Floridian”, so technically, I’m a Cracker as well.

The point I’m trying to make is that racism is often subtle and well hidden, and it isn’t always toxic and hateful, but it is rarely totally absent. But being brought up bi-cultural makes you really sensitive to it. You learn to rely on your radar very young.

And racism as well, not to put too fine a point on it. It’s easy for whites to tell ourselves “I’m not racist because I don’t use racist language, I don’t think racist thoughts…” only to discover, to their immense dismay, that racism goes much, much deeper than that.

The odd love-child offspring of some bizarre pairing of Freddy Mercury and Prince?