You Don't Own Those Words

I remember a while back a friend was explaining conservatism to me. It was if he looked into the dictionary and pulled most of the superlatives and left a few to explain liberalism. I laughed but decided that he could go on thinking that way but then I realized that’s what everyone was doing and then it became an unchallenged opinion.

That was back in the day of family values, traditional values, yellow ribbon patriotism, support the troops, waving a flag of surrender and cutting and running. I never understood why a single-parent household couldn’t be considered a good traditional family value. That doesn’t mean that I don’t favor a two- parent family. It was the same way for wanting the troops to come home meant when some of us were told that we were “waving the white flag of surrender.”

I heard the best explanation of the Arizona gay ban legislation on last night’s Bill Maher and by a conservative no less. Margret Hoover, CNN’s conservative consultant told Bill Kristol and the rest of the audience and panel that a group of religious zealots introduced and voted in the discriminatory bill just to anger the gay community. It wasn’t about religious freedom and the Republican governor said as much“ it does not address a specific or present concern related to religious liberty in Arizona,” and that it was “broadly worded and could result in unintended and negative consequences.”

We will have to wait-and-see but I don’t think Michael Sam is going to run into any kind of trouble nor will the NFL and their fans put up any resistance. I think the media is stirring the pot anticipating trouble but I saw Michael Sam receive a standing ovation at a Missouri basketball game the other night and I saw the same for Jason Collins in Brooklyn. I think people in general don’t like discrimination of any kind any more.

We made it through another war on Christmas that never materialized but even at the local level we still have a lot of gun fanatics who are paranoid about gun confiscation and the politicians pander to them.It'll be that way until President Obama leaves office and a NRA backed president wins the presidency. In the meantime politicians will continue to appease the paranoid.

There is a way to stop all the superficial talking points from becoming a reality and I saw how last night. Bill Maher came prepared for Bill Kristol’s constant call for military intervention. Maher read a laundry list of all the wrong things Kristol said about Iraq causing the audience to laugh. This was the first time that I have seen Bill Kristol embarrassed and rendered speechless.

 For now I will continue to ask for a supporting link because I refuse to live in a " evidence free world."