This is outrageous, and, if it can happen to anyone with a bumper-sticker or decal that doesn't support Der Fuhrer, we are in a heap of trouble.
It took me 20 seconds to locate this man's home address (nobody is anonymous) and I wrote him a letter enclosing a $20 bill.
In other news, I am heading to the airport in an hour or so, to fly to Sacramento. I plan to drive from there to Napa, to have dinner with friends, then to a motel in Davis around 10 pm.
Then, until Thursday evening, I'll be doing an intensive programming gig at UC Davis, with a bunch of other programmers representing a number of conservation agencies in Northern California. Should be fun, and an opportunity to share technologies and tools with other geeks.
Back to Portland late Thursday night.
Barry:
ReplyDeleteThere are sick idiots on both sides. My car was minorly vandalized in Port Townsend a year ago. I had a couple of Bush stickers on my car. They were partidally destroyed. Later, walking into a realtor's office, I was informed that we would probably not be welcome in Port Townsend after the realtor noticed my sticker. My response? Suck it up, replace my stickers and vow never to spend a dime in Port Townsend again! My experience with liberals of the Port Townsend variety is that diversity is celebrated as long as you believe the way they do. There is no room for differing opinions.
Regards,
Mad
Mad, I am so sorry to hear your tale. That Port Townsend realtor's comments are an outrage.
ReplyDeleteThere is no excuse for vandalism and intolerance like this, no matter from which side it comes.
The trouble we are in, world-wide, seems to be largely caused by True Believers of all stripes, whether they be marauding jihadis who kill in the name of Allah, or asshole right-wing Israelis, who justify their oppression of Arabs on 3000 year-old scriptural propaganda.
We saw 'An Inconvenient Truth' last night, and I urge you to see it, too, if you haven't already. Among the many juicy quotes in the film is this classic from Mark Twain:
"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."
Umm.... Just what would you have Israei do? Pull out of the Gaza? Oh, they did that. Begin retreating from the West Bank? Oh, they are doing that. And just what do they get in return? Rockets, suicide bombers, and continuous hate-filled rhetoric.
ReplyDeleteThe Israelis are not the problem here. The Palestinians are their own worst enemy. There is no desire to get along with anybody much less the Jews. As for the remainder of the Arabs, what have they contributed to the welfare of their Arab brothers? Nada! The US is the major contributor to the welfare of those folks. Somewhere around 60% of the $$ going to them via the UN. What do their wealthy Arab neighbors contribute? 0.025%. That's brotherhood for you.
Again, what do you think Israel should do?
As to an "Inconvenient Truth", I don't waste good money on bad fiction. Al Gore, sadly, is a joke even amongst believers. At the top of the list of problems with this movie is that there is not overwelming scientific consensus on the contributions of human activity to global warming. This whole area is being hyped by folks who make their living from grants to study this stuff. The problem is that they can't get money if they don't "believe". This is not a scientific, rigorous evaluation but instead a scam to get money for research. There is plenty of contra scientific opinions if you do some simple google searches.
Mad