A Curious Little Blog

 "Donald.  Donald, listen to me!"  He slaps the president across the face. "Do you want to be president next year, Donald?  Because if you do, you have to stop interrupting your opponent." "I know it worked against Hillary.  But you know what?  You didn't do it that much against her.  Besides, people were looking for reasons to vote against Hillary.  They didn't like her, and they liked that you stood up to her." "Guess what, Donald?  People are not looking for reasons to vote against Biden.  They're looking for reasons to vote against you.  That's right.  I know Biden is going senile.  Yes, I know Biden has left a trail of gaffes and outright lies about his personal exploits that would have destroyed a lesser candidate.  Guess what?  If he has survived those things, he is not a lesser candidate.  There is something about him that appeals to people, and VIEWERS DO NOT LIKE TO SEE HIM INTERRUPTED." "If you're...

I disagree with the Black Lives Matter movement on just about everything, but I admire their brilliant choice of a motto.  They've picked something that no one could possibly disgree with.  Of course black lives matter!  But what does that mean?  Well, it was started in reference to police killings of blacks, so it must imply that we have to cut down on that.  But how?  Defund the police?  That doesn't follow, and it's far from something everyone would agree with.  Somehow, however, people who agree that black lives matter find themselves swept up in the defund the police movement.  And since police obviously aren't going to be totally defunded, they start thinking about what else they can do to stay on the right side, the safe side.  That begins by putting "black lives matter" on all their web sites and telling people that we must do more to stop racism -- which is quite a jump from the bland assertion that black lives matter. Saying ...

For some reason these lines from Billy Vera's song "At This Moment" have been running through my head recently.  Sometimes I like to think about hypotheticals, such as, "Would someone really give up 20 years of his life for a romantic interest?" I'm not a good candidate for this question, for two reasons.  One, I am happily married; and two, I am over 50, so losing 20 years off my life seems pretty dire at this point.  Let's assume, then, that we are dealing with a 20-something person who is desperately in love and appears not likely to win their beloved's heart.  Even in those circumstances, would you do it? At other times, I have used speculative questions like this to wonder how a person would assess the reality of the offer.  For example, if someone offered to buy your soul for $1 million, would you accept?  You probably would not think that this person could literally buy your soul even if he wanted to, but would you take a chance anyway? ...

No one has anything good to say about hypocrisy, but I am going to argue that it is best left out of political debates -- for the most part. Dave Rubin relates a time that he lost patience with an old friend of his.  They were debating a subject over a meal, and his friend insisted that Rubin's motives must be something other than whatever argument he was making.  Rubin stopped him and asked (roughly), "Are you willing to grant that I believe the things that I say with the same sincerity that you believe the things that you say?"  The friend would not concede that, so Rubin walked out of the restaurant and ended their friendship. I have faced similar accusations many times.  Often, friends will phrase it so that it doesn't apply to me directly:  "I believe you," they effectively say, "but I don't believe anyone else who makes the same argument." The tactic of accusing someone of insincerity or hypocrisy is possibly the lowest form of argument. ...