I liked the “Go to Hell” and “Fall of the face of the earth” comments – the tolerance of the left just keeps oozing through.

Mike, in no way was I showing disdain for those with advanced degrees in my “random Dr.” comment. I used those words because in the “Funny Stuff” post the author attributed the fact that a Dr. in Florida (I think it was Florida) passed on an offensive e-mail, and she used this as an example that conservatives as a whole hold these opinions. This was not something passed on by Michael Steele, Rush Limbaugh or Sarah Palin. My point was that I do not take the words or actions of a random person – and I used the term “random Dr.” because she used a, well, a random Dr.” – as a basis for the way the entire left feels.

And you are right, I shouldn’t have used the term “dirt poor”. No, I have never lived in a house with a dirt poor, but I have lived many years of my life below the federal poverty level. I have also lived above it, and I still don’t understand what someone’s social status has to do with him or her being able to comprehend certain things. By this argument, are you willing to toss aside the opinions of anyone on the left should they have come from well-off beginnings? Of course not.

I’m not sure what the deal about the biblical quote is. I merely remember a quote that I believed to be from the Bible, did a Google search, and found out that it was indeed a quote from Matthew. I was not aware that I was required to further research the quote in terms of other places it could be found in the Bible. Again, it was the quote I was interested in, not the source. I only gave the source of my quote because you gave the source of yours, and I didn’t want to be rude.

As for Schizophrenia, I’ll look into it. Oh, I doubt that I harbor these inclinations, but then again, would a true Schizophrenic know that he or she had Schizophrenia? I doubt it.

I am confused on one comment you made Mike. Was the sentence “please don’t waste time verifying what politicos ‘really said’ as most are speaking as you write, situationally or as a “single issue of the moment” proponent or opponent.” Was this directed at me or the others on this site, as I am sure you could find examples of all of us, yourself included, doing so at one time or another.

Have a great day everyone.

(Sorry Steve, only 535 words)

NO! What’s in that for me? What’s in it for AWOP? What’s in it for anyone who normally visits this site? Bob, you are complete and total waste of time! I’ve met trolls like you before, and they end up absorbing vast amounts of other people’s limited lifespans. How stupid do you think I am, to “debate” someone (i.e., listen to you pontificate) about stuff that gets crammed down my throat daily by people on the so-called liberal media? Not that stupid, I assure you.

Do News Writer and her readers a favor: fall off the edge of the Earth … I mean, go to Hell … um, take your excess verbiage somewhere else.

Enough. I am done with you. Go ahead; have the last word 2000 words.

1st) Obviously I was unclear about the dr vs Dr part; I give a rat’s ass about your punctuation, I was offended by the tone in which it was used, which showed your disdain for those of more education than yourself if you don’t like what they say. Jerry Falwell was an ass, but he DID EARN the title.

2nd) “dirt poor’ seems to mean far different circumstances to you; the picture of you living in an uninsulated, dirt floored, drafty, leaky, one small wood stove to heat both rooms where generally upward of 6 people live without running water, outside toilet facilities(unheated), little to no food, money, or hope. To me, THAT’s DIRT POOR. Even that’s good compared to some places I’ve stayed as a guest of those living there.
Bob living that way more than as a token overnight stay is difficult to picture. Bob living with that grinding poverty unimaginable. The 1st place I describe is how many of my relatives lived in the pre-1970s. NOT BY CHOICE either. I was adopted by ‘white, well-to-do’, but not monetarily well off, a situation I remedied through hard work, study, help of others, and a whole lotta luck!! So, YES!! I CAN relate, having lived at the bottom, middle, and higher rungs of prosperity.
Contrary to common belief, “money is the root of all evil” is NOT the original phrase. “love of money is the root of all evil” is a much better translation.

3rd) A self-proclaimed agnostic such as yourself is apparently not required to know that the closest translation to your ‘biblical quote’ can be found in several forms, places (Luke 6 41-42) and ALL vary greatly in different ways from the original language in which written.

4Th) Enlighten yourself, LOOK UP and try to understand Schizophrenia, cogent argument, and spend some time with the writings of those you quote, and please don’t waste time verifying what politicos ‘really said’ as most are speaking as you write, situationally or as a “single issue of the moment” proponent or opponent.

LASTLY: That you answered in the way you did tends to support my observations of my, now no longer, final reply to you.

AWOP TEAM, mea culpa, gomen nasai, my bad (my EGO is more likely ‘it’)!!

Look, apparently I’m some kind of right-wing whack job, incapable of threading two words together let alone a coherent thought, so I should be an easy target, yet you seem to only focus on bandwidth.

And I’ll tell you what, since you’re so worried about bandwidth, I invite you and everyone else at AWOP to visit my site, leave lengthy rants of your own, and I won’t even limit you to discussions about my particular posts. It’s a free-for-all. I also promise that, regardless of what you say or what you call me, there will be zero threat of banishment or “disemvowelment”.

Mike, I’ll keep my responses to you short and sweet, if possible. First, the use of Dr. vs. dr. was merely a mis-punctuation on my part. Amazing that someone could read so much into that, yet I was suppose to ascertain Newts supposed distrust of government itself from your misquote. Talk about schizophrenic.

And Mike, I have been poor, dirt poor. I don’t understand where minorities have the corner on open-mindedness. No, I’ll never know what it’s like to be a minority, and you’ll never know what it’s like to be, what, a “majority”? So. I guess using that argument you’ll need to stop complaining about conservatives, “the rich white man”, or whatever, since you couldn’t possibly no what they’re experiencing.

Oh, and the biblical quote was from Matthew 7, vs 3-5, not Luke 6 (God forbid I get that wrong, given the hatred flung for picking the wrong origin of the Witch Dr. (capital “D”). And the purpose of the quote wasn’t to push a Christian ideal – if you had actually read earlier comments you would know I am agnostic – but that the actual point of the quote fit the situation.

Despite what you think, some of us DO read AND comprehend conservative writings. Therein seems to be the difference, we ‘comprehend’ what we read and can actually stand in another’s stead to attempt see from their viewpoint as best we can, and achieve some degree of success doing it. After some time reading your promotion of ‘what Bob believes’ I actually hoped you’d look up a word I carefully chose for one of my latest replies to you, as (to me) it describes your comments when taken as a whole: schizophrenic.

As for this “Al Sharpton, Keith Olbermann, or some random liberal dr. in some other state say or do something idiotic, I don’t ascribe that behavior to the entire left wing”; my only comment is does ‘dr’ imply Phd? As a holder of 2 Doctorates in Engineering Disciplines, who despises being referred to as ‘Dr’ almost as much as I despise ‘Native American’, I guess you’re attempting to denigrate those who have invested the effort to achieve this in ANY Discipline.

Since you can not relate (NO, you REALLY CANNOT!!) to that which doesn’t fit your black or white, hot or cold, this or that, views as evidenced by your own words and your feeble attempts to appear ‘worldly’, you’ll NEVER ‘get’ BEING a minority, BEING actually impoverished, BEING open-minded, EXPERIENCING sharing and accepting knowledge that conflicts with your view of reality. Don’t bother ranting on in reply, as I’ve decided to restrict my information(?) input to only that of those exceeding B. O’Reilly in intelligence, roughly 85% of the world population.

I note that in another mini-rant you’ve taken to Bible phrases, ” why do you see the piece of sawdust in another believer’s eye and not notice the wooden beam in your own eye”. It’s attributed to one of the most liberal beings of all who’ve walked the Earth, Jesus Christ. It’s from Luke 6 and is one of several times it appears in various forms as a parable used by Christ. Always strikes me how those most rabidly ‘Un-Christian’ in their core beliefs & behaviors are almost always in direct conflict with the beliefs attributed to their ‘Savior’. Guess it’s another ’schizophrenic thing’ & I’m incapable of grasping why this should be.

Maybe it’s that the old Goebbels quote (YES, OUT OF CONTEXT for clarity) that speaks so clearly to what the AVERAGE right wing leader subscribes to (Cheney & Bush et al pertain) “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” The one thing that ALWAYS amazes me about certain ‘Bobs’ is their absolute certainty in the correctness of what they believe, FACTS, EXPERIENCES of MANY others, and lack of their personal comprehension be damned. YES!! I DO CHANGE MY MIND and quite often, but only when presented with a cogent argument, personal experiences (mine & others) on a large (non-situational or single issue) scale, and those pesky things ultra conservatives and ultra liberals despise: FACTS!!

Bye Bob, it’s been ‘interesting’. Old Injun sincerely appologizes to AWOP Team for using bandwidth for personal ranting. Will go say 5 ‘Hail Marys’, which roughly translates to “Have a good stiff Single-Malt 18 year reserve Scotch” in Passamaquoddy;)

It’s hard for me to take your criticisms of me seriously when you admit you “merely skim” my comments. If you don’t like what I have to say, and it appears you don’t, I give you full permission to not read my comments. I think I’ll live.

As for “repeatedly taking someone else’s self-paid bandwidth for your own purposes”, despite the fact that I didn’t see your name on the “Team AWOP” page, I’ll address it. My comments on these pages are not for my own purpose, but rather addressing false comments and misrepresentations (as I see them) of the AWOP writers. I do not comment on an article about healthcare by giving my opinions of the 2nd amendment or the war in Iraq. Given that at the end of each article there is a section for “comments” – and I am actually commenting on something from the article, I feel that I am doing what the author intended.

As for the length of my rants, it would probably be easier for me to limit my words if, when I question a comment or issue, the person responding to me addressed my question, rather than personally attacking me, or turning the discussion on one thing (i.e. health care), into something else (i.e., Sarah Palin, George Bush, Dick Cheney, etc…..).

And while you may be right that “Inflicting your sententious tomes willy-nilly on the readers of another blog eventually turns you into a troll”, posting a feature on a “progressive” website, one that claims to value free speech, and then not only discouraging discussion or debate of those ideas, but heaping additional misrepresentation on top of misrepresentation, is ironic at best, and hypocritical at worst.

I read approximately the first two sentences of your comment before MEGO (“my eyes glazed over”). I, too, like to write; that doesn’t mean the world likes to read what I write in huge quantity, especially on someone else’s site. Inflicting your sententious tomes willy-nilly on the readers of another blog eventually turns you into a troll, however polite you may or may not be.

Bob, if you worry that, without you, we won’t ever be exposed to “conservative” ideas… and I use the word loosely… set your mind at ease. Many hours a day, we are forcibly exposed to your kind of claptrap. Sometimes, we’ve simply had enough of it. Take your “discussion” and go back to your own blog with it.

Aside: I merely skimmed your comment, but it doesn’t appear that you answered the issue of your repeatedly taking someone else’s self-paid bandwidth for your own purposes. That doesn’t count as “dialog”; that counts as theft.

2) It was Lori, or it might have been News Writer, who, upon my agreeing with one of their points of view early on, said something like “That’s great you agree with us, but why not go and put forth that view on a conservative website that doesn’t share our view”. Great advice, and I did just that, and in that same spirit, I am here, learning new things, and challenging ideas, facts and opinions I either know to be or consider to be incorrect. This is a great opportunity for you to either educate me, learn from me (yeah, I know that’s not going to happen), or, expose me for the wing-nut I am, further solidifying your position.

The problem is, no one (okay, almost no one) ever wants to debate ideas or discuss issues, they’d rather make assumptions about me (usually off, occasionally dead on), berate me for my support of Palin or McCain (despite the fact that I have never supported either – although I did come to Palin’s defense once), complain about Bush, or just call me names. Whoever said “”The debate is over” is a line that is used only by those who realize they would never win a debate.” was dead on.

3) AWOP Rule #3: “Spirited discussion is encouraged”. Yeah….. not so much. Spirit AGREEMENT perhaps, but discussion……

4) Steve, I do have a blog of my own, however in the last six weeks or so that I have been reading and commenting here, I haven’t mentioned it, because my purpose here was not to plug my own blog – which I haven’t actually bothered with much since the election ended – but rather to discuss and debate what I consider important issues with what I consider intelligent people. I’m not interested in “measuring my impact on blog readers”, I’m interested in intelligent discussion.

But, since you mentioned the blog, it is http://www.lostiowandiary.blogspot.com

While I could stick to my own blog, or stick to “like-minded” blogs, I doubt any real “progress” is attained by simple issues with people that share your point of view. I do however agree with your comment that “Blogging on someone else’s coin” is anything but conservative. Doing ANYTHING on someone else’s dime is purely a liberal ideal.

5) AWOP Rule #7: “Don’t just say we’re wrong. Prove it. If you can’t, shut up”. Again, not so much. I’m not even to try to prove so much that you’re wrong, but try to discuss what are usually not just black & white issues. I’m not even given a chance to “Prove it” because real debate and discussion is discouraged.

Also, doesn’t this rule work both ways? You can call me wrong, and that’s it? Again, I’m not even looking for “proof”, but something more than a “No you’re not/yes I am” answer would be nice.

6) And Mike, you too (along with the great Wil Robinson), are one that I really enjoy reading, not just you political pieces but your life thoughts on your website. I probably get the most out of our back-and-forths, and have learned a great deal from you in the past, especially in the old Red Hog days. It is because of your disdain for the “sound bite society” we live in that I try to really express and discuss my ideas and ideals fully.

7) As for those of you who really have trouble stomaching my comments, don’t read em. And if those at AWOP decide they want to censor, delete or “disemvowel” (which by the way was hilarious…. hypocritical, but still hilarious) me, there is nothing stopping them from doing so, other than the fact that they lose a bit of the “progress” they desire… Okay, even I realize that sounded like I thought my musings were too grand to be missed, something I am accused of here. What I REALLY meant was, can you really be promoting a progressive society, when you are so intolerant of opinions other than your own?

Look, if I’m being disrespectful, tell me. I don’t think I am being, and if I am it has never been my intention to disrespect anyone at this site. Disagree, yes. Disrespect, no. Snarky? Yeah, sometimes.

In the meantime, I will continue to read, compliment where I can, and disagree when I feel it necessary. Whether I’m allowed to comment is your call. Whether you decide to read or not read those comments, is your call. I am hopeful of some debate and discussion, but even if I don’t get it, I’ll still read the blog, as I appreciate much of the writing and style here. I’ll probably continue to be misrepresented, but that’s okay too…. As long as things don’t get boring.