tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15868947.post2223530516125757393..comments2023-10-29T06:41:23.910-07:00Comments on Halfway There: Speaking for ourselvesZenohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09058127284297728552noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15868947.post-9737659544974457782008-11-17T15:33:00.000-08:002008-11-17T15:33:00.000-08:00Hailing from the same background, the response I g...Hailing from the same background, the response I get quite frequently revolves around gun control. Obviously, guns are synonymous with freedom.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15868947.post-8740992287127286552008-11-15T21:48:00.000-08:002008-11-15T21:48:00.000-08:00Having been recently brought to tears again by an ...Having been recently brought to tears again by an unusual reminder of my father's death (in summer '06, I guess I'm still grieving) I encourage Zeno and every other reader to try to keep fences mended with parents, no matter how annoying they can be. When they're being uber-annoying, think of those interactions as food for your blogs or lunchtime discussions with coworkers. <BR/><BR/>Be patient with 'em. Under all that bluster, most of them still love you unconditionally. That's a very great and wonderful thing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15868947.post-69497133014333085172008-11-13T02:42:00.000-08:002008-11-13T02:42:00.000-08:00That is sad, and has nothing to do with education....That is sad, and has nothing to do with education. My dad has all kinds of degrees from prestigious institutions, but he buys that line from the same source. Even worse, he buys the line coming out of Salt Lake almost completely without question. No, make that completely without question -- he manages to not hear the parts he would otherwise have problems with. People are strange.The Brutal Gourmethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07757709920291579862noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15868947.post-35972895853312876972008-11-11T16:57:00.000-08:002008-11-11T16:57:00.000-08:00It's a good question, William, but I never get a g...It's a good question, William, but I never get a good answer from my father. His resentment of supposed "government control" may have some roots in his years as a farmer, when he would chafe at state and federal regulations about what he could do with his land and his cattle (limitations on federally subsidized irrigation water, dairy price supports, and crop limits). Sure, there were subsidies and price-support checks, but he resented them.<BR/><BR/>But that was many years ago. Dad has been out of the agriculture business for decades. Now he kicks about Medicare rules and managed care, griping that it limits his options. (He's sufficiently well off that his options are broad and he'd like a more free-market approach to health care -- or so he says.) But is this the "control" that he so resents? I strongly suspect the real reason is that Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and Dennis Prager tell him several hours every week that liberals are out to control our lives from cradle to grave. And he believes them.Zenohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09058127284297728552noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15868947.post-75715351900098615922008-11-11T15:16:00.000-08:002008-11-11T15:16:00.000-08:00Not to derail this thread, because I know your res...Not to derail this thread, because I know your response was all about his first paragraph, but I was wondering about his second paragraph: Why does he think that liberals want to control his life? I hear this sort of thing a lot from conservatives, but when pressed for an explanation, usually all they've got is "higher taxes". Then there's "they're oppressing me by not letting me discriminate" against some hated group. Business owners have more complaints: liberals won't let them pollute, and insist on minimum wages. But none of this sounds like "control" to me.<BR/><BR/>I'm not being rhetorical -- I genuinely don't understand this kind of rhetoric, unless it's just projection.Williamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02052684196866992031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15868947.post-62191887887751423332008-11-10T19:43:00.000-08:002008-11-10T19:43:00.000-08:00I have encountered this reaction before. A friend...I have encountered this reaction before. A friend of my mother had an inferiority complex and thought that us people with degrees thought that we were superior and that she was stupid and that we looked down on her because she did not have a degree. It was all in her mind, but there was no way to persuade her otherwise.Zipihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17740374683502444440noreply@blogger.com