Malquoting the other guy

Mitt Romney found himself being quoted out of context the other day.   He was speaking about healthcare insurance and the benefits of having options.  In a regrettable choice of words he said "I like being able  to fire people."  Clearly Meaning it is desireable to have the ability to switch companies that are deficient in providing the best level of service.  The quote in context can be viewed here.

In an unseemly display of low road politics, opponents and partisan pundits jumped on the quote, happy to take it out of context and twist it to show what an evil job destroyer the Mittster is. 
 In a pretty meanspirited act, Gingrich even had the quote converted to a cell phone ringtone .

Well Mitt you deserved it.  You got the same thing you did when you intentionally  malquoted Obama, attributing him to a statement which was 100% opposite of his stand (he was actually quoting a McCain staffer at the time). 

Karma Baby! Suck on it.

Thoughts on Christmas Letters

Consider your selves lucky.  You didn't get a Christmas Letter from us this year, recalling the memorable moments experienced by our wonderful family during the last twelve months.  You did not have to squint at blurry photos of us standing in front of monuments and churches on our enviable trips.  You were spared the adorable pictures of our cuddly pets and cuter-than-average grandkids.  If you were on our A list, you got a nice storebought card with an appropriate seasonal wish/greeting. 

 Everyone has access to word processing,  so it has become de rigueur for the family scribe to compose these little annual histories, like newsletters, printed with festive little borders and using special gothic fonts.  We got a dozen or so, ranging from the barely readable to the mildly informative to the ludicrous.  When the authors sit-down to write a Christmas Letter, they presumably do so out of an urge to recap the year of pertinent news for friends whom they have not had regular contact with.  But by the third sentence they start channeling Walter Cronkite, announcing each mundane event as if it were late-breaking need-to-know news.

 "Trish said her first word in February. It was "Dlurb" 

           "Thor, our new pucker doodle puppy,  ate mom's favorite pink bunny slipper."

While I am sure these memories are precious, I wonder if they need to be shared with the World.  Sometimes, they can unintentionally reveal too much information.

 "Slippery fingers Jill dropped a gallon jug of K-Y Jelly on my toe and I was limping around for a month."

Does anyone really like to get these smarmy, self-satisfied, impersonal missives?  I don't think so. The mistake most amateur writers make is that their prime motivation is to tell you something positive about themselves.  They incorrectly think that you are interested in their wonderful lives, so they selectively pick-out what they think is the most enviable moments.  They believe themselves to be informative and entertaining, I guess.  

The truth is, we are more entertained by accounts of ruined parties - where uncle Jack got drunk and fell off the chair  - than we are about perfectly planned parties where the food was perfectly cooked and everyone exchanged pleasant dinner conversation.  We don't want to hear you gush about your luxurious river cruise down the Seine, we want to hear about your miserable air travel hassles "And little Bernie screamed all the way from Paris to Rome! It was awful."   We wallow in your misery.

 Christmas Letter authors ought to be more caring and tuned-in to their audience.  Instead of crowing about what a great year you have had, describe some of the hilariously  crappy moments.  Instead of striving to make your recipients wish they were you, give them the gift of  being happy with their own lot in life - make them glad they aren't you.

Here are some ideas to get you started on a more interesting Christmas Letter next year:

"Melvin lost most of our nestegg investing in mink farms. What an Idiot. I should have married...."

"One of the neighbors tipped-off the cops and they confiscated my whole crop of weed...."

"Alice is pregnant again. She was featured on the Maury show to determine who the dad is....."

" Irving saved money by spreading lime on the front himself. Except that he mistakenly loaded up the spreader with rock salt..."

"Publishers Clearing house knocked on the door, but no one was home...."

 

You get the idea. 

** Disclaimer: Except for George, no one who reads this blog sent one of the Christmas Letters described in the piece.

 

Truth Seeking in the Land of Ideology

 I have frequently (and rather pompously) declared myself to be a Seeker Of Truth.   I emphasize that title with capital letters because I regard seeking the truth to be every bit as noble as other appellations such as, Chaplain, Professor, Doctor, Senator or even Dump Manager. (I claim solidarity with all workers in the profession of Waste Management, as we suffer similar scorn by society: our work is vital, yet society does not regard it as nice. But, someone needs to do it.)

Truth Seeking is scorned by true-believers.  The pursuit of Truth requires an  objective evaluation of facts.  This is impossible for one who is invested deeply in an ideology, which by definition is a system of doctrines based on beliefs.    It seems many TB's feel the need to loudly proclaim their moral superiority.  I regard this impulse as equivalent to whistling in the dark.  TB's almost always express fear - fear of  eternal punishment, fear of dangerous slippery slopes,  Socialism, terrorism, strangers, change, loss of traditional values, etc.

   

Debating with someone under the sway of ideology is futile, especially if you are invested in a competing set of doctrines. This is one of the reasons that dinner parties are less interesting these days.  Conversation has devolved to an assertion of beliefs rather than an exchange of honest information.  Listening once meant trying to keep an open mind, but no one listens anymore, except to listen for opportunities to hijack the discussion. (When not talking, the ideologue suffers the lame and inaccurate assertions of others, waiting for the critical  pause and then launches a nuanced verbal attack.)  No one seems to change their minds about anything.

It seems that when you become a TB and you decide what you truly believe in – whether it is Global Warming, Illegal Immigration, Progressive Taxation or Abortion (just to name a few) – you unshakably  believe only those assertions of fact that agree with your baseline position.  All other “facts” are suspect.  You question their validity because of the alleged bias of person who utters them, or the junk science that discovered them, on and on.  Faced with incontrovertible evidence, you will still find a way to stick to your root beliefs.  The shrinks have a name for it they call it "Cognitive dissonance".

In conversations with others, I have often been scoffed at as a fuzzy thinking fence sitter, a flip-flopper and probably worse.  My interlocutors must have felt it is an intellectual defect not to have a bear-hug on  a firmly-held conviction.  To me, it seems nearly impossible to find the Truth in the haystack of factoids, rumors and disinformation.    

I have never claimed to be the smartest guy in the room (except when I am alone with the cats)  but I privately (perhaps pompously) considered myself intellectually superior to smarter guys who did not realize that no issue is completely black or white. There are at least two sides to every issue. There are no absolute truths. 

Right wingers will use the 5^th Commandment of the Christian Bible to argue that killing is wrong, but they only mean it in the context of abortion.  These same believers will giddily approve the use of tax money to subsidize the production of weapons of mass destruction because it creates jobs.  But, where is that fine print in the Bible that allows situational exceptions to the injunction against killing?

Left wingers would like to remove all vestiges of human tribal inclination.  We are the world, they claim.  All resources belong to all men equally.  They would demolish state boundaries and distribute the wealth to everyone.  Yet without the competitive spirit of Capitalism there would be no wealth to distribute. 

These contradictions do not bother the True Believer.

Things are getting worse for Truth Seekers.  Negative political ads are nothing new, but recently the tack seems to have taken the direction towards the "low road."   There was a time when a smear ad would exaggerate the opponent's position, or take a quote out of context.  But the recent Romney TV ad deceptively shows Obama quoting a statement from the McCain campaign, as if it had been Obama's statement.
I think this is beneath contempt and would not consider voting for Mitt Romney unless he apologizes and fires the staff member(s) responsible for the ad.  Romney is more susceptible to negative ads than most polititians, since he can be honestly quoted to reveal his changeable positions.  True Believing conservatives already consider Mitt to be a shape-shifting, flip-flopping RINO (Republican in name only).   Now, he has alienated
Seekers of Truth.