baldilocks

Repost: There are Walls, Then There are Walls (June 13, 2007)

The post below the fold is being re-posted due to criticism I received from Facebook "friends"--old Air Force acquaintances, no less--who claim that I don't support my opinions nor talk about the thinking which went into those opinions.  (Actually, they never say anything that polite or with the slightest amount of good faith; they assume that no thinking went into my opinions and refer to me as a parrot and worse.  I wonder why that is.  Is it that difficult to click on the links on the left sidebar of my Facebook page?)

Fact is, I've grown weary of methodically laying out the chains of occurrences, premises, conclusions and examples which have served as undergird to my opinions.  Fact is, whether I make the effort or don’t make the effort, I get this sort of thing (in response to Razing Arizona):

I object to you and almost everything you say. I think you are full of sh*t. That plain enough? I'm [here] to object to you and your invective, which I find personally offensive. At some point, people have to say, I object.

This guy kept insisting over and over again that he objected; I imagined him punctuating each objection with a foot stomp.

And, using the fact that he objects to me and everything I say, this “gentleman” came to the conclusion that I must be crazy and delusional.  Surely, that is the only reason that I could possibly be 180 degrees from him in all opinions.  Right?

The funniest thing, however, was that, in this man’s repeated exclamations of objection, there was never any specific direct object. (Linguists will groan at that pun.)  He never did pick out a topic about which he and I are in opposition and defend his viewpoint on that topic, even after I repeatedly invited him to do so.

It's plain, Greg, but it's still pretty generalized. There has to be a specific reason tha[t] you think that I am full of sh*t and you certainly should be able to take a specific issue and explain to me why I am wrong about it--in a sane and non-delusional, invective-free and sh*t-less manner, of course.

Come on. I know you can do it.

To which, I received this charming response:

I don't have to defend it to you -- or explain it -- anymore than I expect you to do the same [sic]. You have an opinion -- I think you're full of sh*t. My opinion. I don't really TRULY have to say anything else.

My five-year-old niece would call such a response immature.  I wouldn’t, however.  It’s obvious that either the man is intellectually incapable of defending his opinions or he is too lazy to think through  his premises and conclusion and, afterward, articulate them.  Due to the puling, I vote the latter.  Petulance in adults is almost always a cover-up.

Then again, hasn't our president repeatedly claimed that the time for talk is over? 

*****

Razing Arizona

President Obama to Mexican President Calderon: "We are not defined by our borders..."

Translation: "Give us your drug lords, your gangsters, your terrorists, yearning to behead the wayward and divert the upright...I've got a populace to subdue!"

(Thanks to Tammy Bruce)

Interview With A Monopoly Capitalist

Did you know that the richest man in the world owns a significant portion of Mexico?

[Carlos] Slim accumulated his $53.1 billion fortune by collecting companies in much the same way he did baseball cards. He searches for businesses that are undervalued, infuses them with cash and uses the size of his holdings to overwhelm the competition. He now owns stakes in more than 220 businesses…[SNIP]

His wealth has caused some resentment in a country where 40 percent live in poverty and thousands emigrate each year to seek opportunity in the United States. Both the U.S. and Mexican governments complained recently that Mexico's economic growth is stunted because large conglomerates such as Slim's have too much control.

From the minute many Mexicans are born - perhaps in one of Slim's Star Médica Hospitals - they begin putting money in his pocket. They use electricity carried by Condumex brand cables, drive on roads paved by the CILSA construction company firm and burn fuels pumped from Swecomex drilling platforms. They communicate through Telmex phone lines, smoke Slim's tobacco, which is sold under the Marlboro brand, and shop at Sears Roebuck of Mexico, a subsidiary of his huge Carso Group.

And even with all of that filthy lucre, he’s not above playing the “Mexican” card!

Slim says that he is held to a double standard because he is Mexican and that many U.S. companies such as Microsoft, Boeing [sic] and Intel enjoy similar dominance of their sectors.

Actually, Mr. Slim is partially correct, he is being criticized because he’s Mexican, but the standard isn’t double, but separate. Slim is a citizen of the same Mexico whose economic and social practices trap its poorer, darker citizens in their low station in life; that’s why they’re coming here. (When darker Americans begin to bum rush the Canadian border, call me.) That same climate allowed Slim to become what he is today; he may not be the creator of it, but the advantages taken by him are born from his country’s apartheid-like economic and social character.

Still, it’s an interesting article about a man whose sound personal economic practices are part of why he's where he is today.