Things get to me sometimes...
...and I keep it in. Usually to be polite and sometimes because I don't have time to post about it. But sometimes another blogger will write a post that will cause me to "let it all out" in their comments. Rather than repeat myself here, I'll just link to the posts and comments I'm talking about.
- Mark Shea posts about petulant, self-defeating religious conservatives. Of course he agrees with them. Being the pragmatist I am, I don't.
- Andrea Harris posts about bloggers (some of whom I happen to like, BTW) who let their jerk-flags fly. I rant in agreement with Andrea.
I feel a lot better now...
Update: Eh...for the sake of convenience...or something, I'll go ahead and duplicate the above linked comments in the extended entry.
My comment to Mark Shea:
I understand the frustration that religious conservatives have -- after all, I'm one too. However, as another blogger stated, the President is the President of the whole country, not just the base and -- I would add -- not just religious conservatives.Since I'm also a realist, I hardly see how pitching a petulant fit and sitting out the elections to "teach the GOP a lesson" will accomplish anything positive for our side. It's been tried before and it gave us eight years of Clinton.
All I can say is, don't come crying to me when sitting out the elections gives us a Democrat controlled Congress. While the Republicans may not cater to our every whim, at least they won't do worse.
It helps if you think of Republicans as cobelligerents rather than allies.
My comment to Andrea Harris:
Yeah, I kind of have a hard time getting upset about the “pre-pregnant” stuff when there are things like this going on. I mean, really, priorities people.And yes, the allergies/asthma is a “character flaw” stuff disgusts me as well. Gosh, do they think people want to go into anaphylactic shock and perhaps die after ingesting certain substances? I sure do wish I could take penicillin or NSAIDs without having frightening allergic reactions — it would make life a lot easier — but I can’t. My mother had asthma as a child but it went away when she got older. Did she have some character flaw as a child that she doesn’t have now?
Also, I had to shake my head at the commenter in one of those threads that said this: “I think that an allegic reaction can be much worse for the people seeing it than the people having it.” Uh, no it isn’t, dude. It’s pretty damn scary to be the person having an allergic reaction. Trust me on this.
Sorry for ranting, but this stuff has been getting to me, too.
Posted by Susan B. at 3:00 PM to Blogdom
Susan, the comment after yours on Mark Shea's blog is absolutely infuriating. I'd go bring down the hammer if I thought it would do any good. Letting streams of people into this country illegally is like the Good Samaritan how exactly? The best way to help all those people in Mexico would be to head on down there with some US troops, give the corrupt Mexican government a good ****-kickin' and get some leaders in there who cared about everyone in the country, not just those of "purer" descent. Oh yeah, but all Christians are against the Iraq war too. Uh-huh. Yes, our government has problems, and I know there are plenty of corrupt people. But since there are no streams of people sneaking into Canada to get jobs, no people building homemade boats out of plastic jugs and plywood to try to get to another country, and women have the leisure to complain about a government suggestion to take more folic acid, I'd say we are still better off. Not to mention I have what I think is a right, to carry a weapon so that if someone tries to hurt me or my daughters, I can blow a hole in him. Letting a bunch of people into our country willy-nilly can only hurt us. Not that I don't know that's the goal of some that support illegals.
As for the allergy thing, it's tricky. I mean, I have an allergy to codeine, and when you have to have big surgery, that's no fun. I had a massive allergy to the candles my sister used to burn in her home, and had to leave their home on several occasions before they stopped burning them. So I don't think it's a character flaw! But the peanut thing is so pervasive! Not only just no peanut product foods, but nothing that could have been made around peanuts, no peanut residue on your clothes, your skin, your mouth. I wonder if that is not a lot to ask of a school of let's say three hundred kids for a couple of kids that have allergies. I don't have a firm opinion on that, it's just something I wonder about. I'm not attacking anybody on this one.