The Left's Secret Weapon

27% of Americans are self-identified Republican, 31% Democrats. That leaves 44% of Americans in the middle. I guarantee you there are very very few Americans who are against the parties because they are not extreme enough. So what do the parties do?

While Elizabeth Warren called murder a "vague moral objection*" Hillary says her favorite book is the bible. The tea party ousts any republican candidate that can't pass the lunacy test. So who is the independent voter going to vote for? The answer is the democrats. 

Most voters would rather be thought of as stupid rather than unamerican. It's that simple folks.

You can have your ideological purity your House of Representatives and your pride OR you can think about being a party that gives a shit about the 44% who have no voice: the hawks who are *pro-choice; the people who are against gun control AND the death penalty; the folks who support tougher borders AND immigration reform; who want equal rights for gays AND Christians (like prayer in schools.)

But noooo the tea party finds those voters suspect. Is the Democratic Party going to compromise on any of those things? No. Are they going to get those votes? Yes. Because they tell these folks their opinion is stupid, self-defeating or ignorant whereas the right will tell them they are in a cultural war where any deviation of opinion marks defeat. 

THAT is the left's best weapon.

Thank You Yahoo for Banning me!

Edit: Apparently I am not banned from Yahoo, someone hacked the parental controls on my phone (long distance) and blocked the site. Still, enjoy the rant below that was.

Many years ago, I discovered a fun web site called Yahoo Chat. I spoke with strangers from all over the country in a jumbled free-for-all that was annoying, joyful and spontaneous. After a while pre-teens took over the site with  their outrageous sexual remarks (designed to scare off us adults) and their anger and nihilism. Then one day, chat went away, rolled over into messenger in some manner incomprehensible to adults. 

Every once in a while I would go back to Yahoo looking for Chat but it was never there. One day I stumbled upon answers. It was stilted and pretending to not be a chat site (with some indecipherable guidelines that nobody really understood) but it was a way to talk to people around the world about common interests. 

But soon it was all about trolls. Trolls who insult you and call you malicious names (which mostly reflect on their own sins) and report your questions which makes them "trusted members" in Yahoo and gain status. Eventually this led to my account being frozen out of Yahoo. Friends urged me to just open a new account - or four. I took the first step towards troll-dom.

Several lost accounts and several upgrades of Answers, from a friendly site to an ugly box filled with inane questions and now when I click on Answers - nothing. They have blocked me out.

All I can say is thank you. Answers was becoming such a misery that I feel I have been liberated. 

Dear friends, if you hear bad things about me there, please set their readers straight.

Be well, friends and trolls alike, and see you around the Internet.

Happy Hiram

Allen West: Voice of Reason?

A Moderate Conservative Responds to Allen West's 5 questions (for the progressive liberals, since I can't find any to respond.)

Here is the original article:

http://allenwestrepublic.com

Question 1) 450 billion of the 900 billion requested TARP money was APPROVED UNDER Bush and a lesser amount was disbursed under Obama. I would love to be able to congratulate Bush on preventing "The Great Depression II" but they did the whole thing under pressure from the incoming administration so as to not look like another Warren G. Harding. They figured you'd blame the whole thing on Obama anyhow, which you are, missing the point: the trillions spent on the Iraq War is why progressives call Bush un-American, but much less loudly now that their guy spent an equal amount. So whatever you are going on about it is confused and not helpful. Half of the national debt payments go to Europe to fund the world bank, an arrangement which has been in place since WWII and which if we didn't owe them, as ALL member nations do, they would consider us a renegade like Iran and put embargoes and other restrictions on us. Please pay off the national debt so I can have a world war on home soil.

2. How many men were left behind in Vietnam comparatively. We all grew up knowing MIA's and now you are going to pretend that war is not like that? Shame on you. Men get left behind in war. Saying "we leave no man behind" is supposed to bolster the troops, not fool them.  Illegal immigration is a different issue.

3. Obama did not promise lower gas prices as a result of the Iraq war. Progressives and Liberals all have electric cars anyway.

4. If Nixon resigned over being threatened with Impeachment why doesn't Congress find something to impeach Obama over? Because it isn't there.

5. The fact that you don't say "Millhouse Nixon" and your Sotero remark make their case. If you can't make an argument without fear-mongering then you have already lost the argument.

Terrible terrible points every one. We used to spend the whole page arguing against Obamacare but arguments on the right seem to not be about issues but about fear-baiting. The left is no better, so does that justify this garbage?

Peter is reporting again

He is calling himself the best post in YAP again and when I disagreed he reported it.

Now he reports this old gem, an answer to Love Child:

After The Beginning of The End

He followed a shadow, to hear it 

his path crossed those with spirit 

Patches of light in the dog-eared vine 

Till he was giddy with muse's wine. 

The fakers threatened, the timid thrashed 

paranoia wound its circular cast; 

but a home it was nevertheless. 

Encouraged, inspired and blessed 

as music stirred insipid nights, 

it wasnt his, it wasnt right, 

so curtains fell, the play was done 

The middling spell became unspun 

The marching band refused to yield 

No rosy dawn was e'er revealed. 

Just a dead commercial site 

a fading smile and endless night.

This is about Yahoo Poetry becoming crap. Aside from the dastardly format, whom do we have to blame: good old Peter Benoit, report hound terrible poet and shifty friend to those foolish enough to befriend him.(Gene).

An apology (sort of)

I was in the bagel shop this morning and I ran into a friend. He mock cut in line in front of me and as I said "Hey!" he turned around and laughed. In this very busy bagel shop, people wait on a line ten or more people long, but they have maybe eight servers, so they get through the line quickly (another ten customers turn up real quick though.)

My friend and I were talking about how some folks, when they place their orders, continue to stand in the way of the line instead of stepping aside, until the line ends up running well out of the door whether in the rain or snow or shine. My friend said, "I used to try and correct people, but they never want to hear it and it just ends up ruining my peace of mind, and getting into altercations."

I agreed and said, "Yeah I stopped playing cop in here a long time ago. But I still play cop out on the internet."

That's when it struck me that I need to be spending much less time wrangling about other people's behavior and focus instead on what I have to say in Yahoo Philosophy. I have gotten quite hot an bothered about some people's inability to take advice OR EVEN JUST ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THEY HEARD IT. But all of that is frankly NONE OF MY BUSINESS.

So in the light of this, I want to apologize to Breezy Seven and Lorry Five Aussie Lily for not minding my own business and for the pile of things I have said about you both in anger. I want to extend that to others I have jumped on in my misguided attempts to play internet cop, but I will list a certain number of exceptions to the above (this part is the sort of):

I do not nor do I plan to apologize for defending myself from:

Peter Benoit

Pseudo-Thomas 7 (Which is really Peter anyway)

Gene Bourne (Who is Peter's plaything )

Caz and Lapiz Domino (Whom I have nothing against but I never instigated those conflicts)

and Elysabeth (With whom I never instigated the conflict.)

Also on my not apology list is Daniell who threatened me.

That being said, I will attempt, I am sure miserably, to stop focusing on the failings of others (unless they seem to be asking for that advice,)

Happy Hiram

PS: I would ask Lorry Five to please keep my account blocked as despite my apology, I doubt we will ever have anything civil to say to one another. I wish you happiness and peace, especially peace from me.

Are my trolls working for the philosophy Pollyannas or is it a coincidence that my most legitimate BA's are under attack?

My appeal to Yahoo for my latest question violated:

I answered this question described what they were doing well in intricate detail, praised the questioner and got best answer for it. I have three appeals for obviously acceptable answers that were reported and have gone days with no response. That fact that envy-trolls know when they can report proper questions and the system is down so they will stand points to the fact that those who make Answers impossibly subjective and abusive either work for Yahoo or are in collusion with employees. This question is as appropriate as any question could be, and allowing it to be reported constitutes Yahoo endorsing a bullying culture.

Hello Happy Hiram,

The answer on Yahoo Answers was reported and deleted by one or more trusted members of the Answers community:

"The compressed energy of this is amazingly well served by the paragraph form. I find it chilling and accurate. Nice to see you. You seem to shine always at my dark hour."

Peace, love and communication liars

[Edit: I do not per se remove old posts as I consider this my internet personal history book, I have apologized for the conflict with Lorry 5 and Breezy 7 and so I ask any readers to take this and the related posts with a huge grain of salt. They speak to my poor behavior as much or more than anyone else's. See the apology: http://hiramsrants.blogspot.com/2014/05/an-apology-sort-of.html ]

Well obviously there is no negotiating with people who say they want to hear all sides and believe in peace love and dialog.

At least Breezy managed to try and talk to me. But Lorry Five apparently means nothing she says she stands for.

Oh well, I will close my email and block her again.

Cest la guerre!

http://hiramsrants.blogspot.com/2014/04/peace-pact.html