Polarizing Effect of Polarized Political Views

Today, and following historical preference, political bias runs in a line. Imagine political viewpoint as a straight line, maybe infinite (consider how radical one might be), running from left (far) to right (far), and place yourself. Don't forget to align your position with a party, following party line politics, to left or right of the pinpoint that is exact center. In the interest of fractioning wholes, you can never declare the center spot. Divide enough and you have no choice but to be claimed by a side. This is linear politics. This is us or them. This is bi-polar. No matter how diverse your beliefs, you are forced by any one of them to be an "us" or a "them". With or not. Friend or Foe.
Now try to imagine the political universe as spectrum- the key word being "spectrum"- a sphere of viewpoints with a disc as the bisecting agent, blurring the pinpoint division of line politics, and load up the disc with similar considerations that can weave the fabric of liberal and conservative and negate the "walk left or walk right" mentality of "enemy at the gate" perception. Lest we work for political solidarity and unity in a common goal, our future system of government will become as polarizing as the battle raging everywhere over God. (a viewpoint still to come........).

Just to see if anyone reads..........

Loo for some controversial drubbing of a handful of subjects, such as political bi-polar disorder, religious redicularness, my thought on young-earthers, - stuff like that. If you don't have an opinion or an argument, in the future I'll try to warp the senses more with even more far-fetched dialogue on more far-fetched idiocies. I'll continue to push until someone responds, even just to yell at me (do that by using all CAPS!)

Toyota, Ford, GM, Chrysler, Hyundai...............Euro Cars

Before you junk your Toyota, do a little digging and pull the recall stats on the major car manufacturers of our time. Go back a ways- before recalls were invented. Look up Pinto, Vega, any AMC piece of crap. Step into the 90's and see what comes up. Consider the state of American car companies and ask yourself if any of them has hard feelings over the fact Toyota is now the world's largest car builder. I'm not saying Toyota doesn't have some problems- big ones- but given the timing, the opportunity and the local stat sheets, a few well placed bytes could go a long way toward feeding the fire burning in Japan. We all must hope that Toyota's problems will be corrected and that the fallout lasts only a few weeks. Meantime, given the general business tactic to knock down the top guy is going strong in this country, we might want to keep a close eye on Caterpillar and the guy down south who was paralysed while operating a Cat scraper (25mil)

APPARENTLY NOT!

Would I?

...............get more responses to my posts if I brightened up the backdrop?

Palin in Peoria

1. My first inclination is to cringe. After that I begin to realize that celebrity draw has nothing at all to do with political prowess, and that celebrity draw trumps ignorance on all levels. Palin is the spokesperson for this reality by example. It doesn't matter what she says, how she says it or where she speaks as long as the curious, the enamored, the fans, fill the seats. It is easy to play political spokesperson when you carry no political risk- Limbaugh, Matthews, left, right- doesn't matter. Palin quit her day job to garner celebrity. Her Worhol 15 minutes have stretched ad nauseum. It scares hell out of me that her aspirations run from the presidency to a daytime talk show- whatever falls in place. With all the problems facing our government, our country, the world, I guess my last inclination is to cringe- at the thought that a woman who probably can't balance her own checkbook could preside over it all.

Birthday Fun in Chicago

Now I am 52. Not really a milestone age, just a year older than 51. Still, due to the always thoughtful diligence of Amy, another great birthday has swept into the past. We drove up to Chicago Friday, punched into the "W" hotel downtown, took the train to Murphy's in the burbs (Forest Park) and caught "Drivetrain" until 2:30 am. Haven't heard them for months- serious fun. Nick returned us to downtown, we slept in, visited the Field Museum (didn't see Ben Stiller), hooked up with Nick and dined at a great steakhouse (Rosebud's?)- a birthday gift from Nick (over and beyond, I'll be addressing that). Cabbed to Nick's place in Wicker Park, checked out his 17" Mac laptop (ugh!), trained back to the "W", hit the road home on Sunday. All in all, a great respite for a couple of days. I have a great family.