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August 23, 2005

College, socialists and a road trip

Saturday morning I posted my review of BSG and now is the first time I've have a moment to even look at the 'net or news.

We hit the road at 6:30 am and trekked to Frisco. Six people and two cars packed tight with everything Siobhan left to the last minute to pack. 'Course, I'd been telling her to pack since she graduated in June, but she didn't get serious about it until about a week ago.

Teens. Heh.

My daughters, Jenn and Heather, hadn't been in Frisco before and if nothing else, the city is renown for culinary delights. We had fun introducing them to a couple of the smaller local places with atmosphere and great food. One of our fave places of Foley's on O'Farrell ... an Irish pub that's everything you'd expect it to be this side of Dublin.

Sunday we moved Siobhan into the dorms at SFSU, a cool, cloudy day when So. Cal sizzled in typical August weather. Thank goodness Erin is housesitting and taking care of all my plants!

In the midst of unboxing, setting up the 'puter and running out and getting stuff we hadn't thought of, down the dorm hall comes a gal handing out fliers from the campus socialists. Siobhan heaved a sigh and handed it to me (I'll scan it when I get home). It's a hoot! Entitled "Fight the right!" one cannot help but laugh at the chuckleheadedness of the screed

Capitalism creates the driving force behind the war in Iraq, the destruction of the environment and the attacks on abortion rights.
Jaysus, Mary and Joseph -- outside of the obvious lack of any kind of rational thought in that rant, one cannot help but find the delicious irony in a bunch of kids at a taxpayer funded campus on which several very high profile Capitalists have donated funds and buildings screeching against a system that allows them the opportunity for such a public tantrum.

The one thing I've always noticed about "socialists"...they really are miserable people. They are the most humorless, eager to take offense, stick up their collective asses, people you'll ever meet. They cannot even chalk their silly slogans on the sidewalks outside the dorms without wearing an expression of extreme hate.

Poor things. You want to buy them a beer and see them get well laid.

This is followed only by the irony of the faux call for the "privileged" to join the military when such high falutin' campuses of the "privileged" ban ROTC or any military recruiting. Or the false outrage of those supporters of 'Mother' Marionette. I haven't had much time yet to review all the comments in my previous posts but I see some people are arguing that no one can "authentically" support fighting the terrorists in Iraq.

Siobhan is settled, starting classes, the others took a couple of side trips and returned to town Monday night, and hubby and I are enjoying a leisurely trip down the coast. A vacation in some of the most spectacular of American landscapes.

And capitalism, the only economic system fit for human beings, makes it possible.

Posted by Darleen at August 23, 2005 10:06 PM

Comments

Gee, imagine that! College students investigating alternative political points of view! Oh my god, the Horror!!!! And do they also demonstrate naivete and lack of complete understanding? Disgraceful! Too bad they weren't all raised to understand that life is too short to allow any thinking on one's own, better to just regurgitate their parents' middle aged philosophies.

We're taking our dear liberal daughter to college next week as well - to the beautiful liberal city of Boston, where she received a full scholarship to BU. All State Volleyball star, Gold Award Girl Scout, AP scholar, Habitat for Humanity and all that - those damn liberals don't know how to raise good American kids, do they? She starts a week early to donate five days work to Boston homeless children's programs.

No time for her to deal in politics,and far as I can tell she's basically a capitalist, like just about every liberal Democrat I have met in my life. Just not a cold blooded corporatist. She intends to study medicine and donate at least ten years of her life to humanitarian programs. Guess she'll decide after that how important she finds wealth and money, but for now it's not on her radar. Those liberal kids! They'll be the death of America. From the friends she's already met online sounds like BU is crawling with do good athlete scholars like herself. Damn universities polluting our kids' minds.

Posted by: Hrubec at August 24, 2005 04:07 AM

I wonder if Hrubec realizes that s/he is actually proving Darleen's observation that socialists and liberals are humorless and willing to take offense at anything, I will move on and discuss the actual point of what Darleen was getting at: the irony of denouncing a system that makes it possible to denounce it without legal government reprisal.
Darleen never once said the exposure to differing political philosophies was an undesirable or a bad thing. Not to mention that her daughter caught on to the irony of the situation herself.
Now, two years ago we went through the same process with our oldest, taking Jamie to Furman University. He entered there as a National Merit Scholar, Palmetto Fellow and a Furman Scholar. Since then he has also picked up a couple of other scholarships. He also is not just an eat-and-study type student. He has been a part of two of Furman's three consecutive national championship rugby teams. While a freshman he protested the school having Hillary Clinton on campus for a political event without inviting a female politician with an opposing view. Not because he is a "right-wing nutjob" like his old man (I don't think it likely anybody who espoused my politics would have supported Ralph Nader like Jamie did).
Jamie's political fervor is born out of compassion and desire for people to be the best they can (as I would hope that anybody's political ideology is rooted). The biggest differences come in the routes the various philosophies take to get there. The problem comes when self-interest grasping power becomes the motivating factor (this is true of ANY political philosophy). He has also become a Catholic after being raised Methodist (Methodists are not pro-life enough for him [his words, not mine]). Then again, I was like him in college. I wrote in Alfred E. Neuman in the '76 election as I could stomach neither Ford or Carter.
By the way, I have not disowned or otherwise done anything to distance myself from Jamie as Hrubec seems to imply that conservatives do. He is and always be my son and embraced as such.
Darleen, you are in for an interesting time over the next few years.

Posted by: J Rob at August 24, 2005 04:49 AM

PS: Darleen, I've added you to my blog roll.

Posted by: J Rob at August 24, 2005 04:50 AM

Having been friends with, gotten drunk with, cracked up with, and gotten laid by my share of lefties, I can only conclude that vehemently anti-leftist conservatives suffer from a kind of psychosis, probably brought on by a deep, abiding and accurate fear that they're actually total dorks.

Posted by: jpe at August 24, 2005 07:24 AM

- Ignoring the Liberal morons, whom G_d gave us for our amusement, your story reminded me of the days back in the sixties, before I became a permenent resident, when I was only out here contracting for GD. Every friday I had to pick up my paycheck at the downtown Western Union, where that megalith to city sprawl, Horton Plaza, now stands. The Irony was dripping from the walls, as the line consisted generally of people working in the field, and angst ladened collegettes/lads looking for the weekly stipend from Daddy. I would just chuckle to myself and exchange eye-rolling glances with other adults in the queue, listening to glandular, overly excited coed's berate their conservative parents for not providing enough of the green for that weeks freedom march placards. It never seems to dawn on the anti-everything, including soap in many cases, that they're biting the hand that feeds them. Classic.

Posted by: Big Bang Hunter at August 24, 2005 08:55 AM

Hrubec

You allowed your daughter to be in the Girl Scouts?? Wow, exposing her to such an obvious fascist organization.

I'm shocked, shocked I tell you.

BTW did you see anything in my post that indicates other than bemusement at the poor dear campus socialists? Or that my daughter(s) should never be exposed to "differing" views?

Hell, I WANT them to know them all, for the obvious reason that one sharpens their own reasoning on the whetstone of such chuckleheadedness that "socialists" provide.

JPE

You must have been playing with the social leftists, the ones that have NOT embraced the "personal is the political" mantra of the Left cult.

anti-leftist conservatives suffer from a kind of psychosis, probably brought on by a deep, abiding and accurate fear that they're actually total dorks.

Hmmm... I suspect a great deal of projection on that. Libertarians and conversatives don't usually give a damn if a "Leftist" thinks them a "dork." It usually is a badge of honor to be considered "unhip" because we believe in personal freedom coupled with personal responsibility.

Posted by: Darleen at August 24, 2005 09:03 AM

- Thats pretty heady rhetoric Hrubeck, coming from a denizen that resides in a state that owes its very existance to the early days of rum running and the whiskey wars. If theres a reason you find the likes of yourself and your ilk "sequestered" in a very small area, perhaps re-electing a known drunken, woman chasing murderer to the Senate term after term might have some bearing on your plight. In spite of the antigonistic face you present to America through the help of your leftist MSM lap dogs, there are many good and responsible citizens in the New England area that are proud of their Amrican heritage, and embrace the Christian/Judao principles on which our Republic was founded. You are a small minority, loud but fortunately mostly ineffective.

Posted by: Big Bang Hunter at August 24, 2005 11:06 AM

- and yes Darleen.... You are exactly right. Every Leftist "lie label" they spew brings a smile to my face and a warm reaffirmation of just how desperate and power deprived the socialist/utopian asshats feel.

Posted by: Big Bang Hunter at August 24, 2005 11:42 AM

Yeah, J Rob, you conservativese are a laugh a minute, I've noticed. Like this Big Bang Man, he's a real hoot, colorful as a Hee Haw cartoon. Big Bang...I know reading isn't fundamental in every part of this country, but try a little harder. My kid is going to school in Massachusetts. She was born in New York, where we have always lived. You know the place. Our citizens died to give your president a free check for all the war he chooses to make. Last week you thought I said I was a Jew. Those are the people your president uses to pretend he has a moral underpinning to all the war he chooses to make. Try and get it straight.

Yeah, Darleen, not only is my daughter a Girl Scout, but I led her troop until 6th grade. Great organization. She's been to England, Sweden, Kenya...even Savannah, Georgia! Juliette Low's birthplace, you know.

Her Gold Award involved her sewing and personally embroidering Christmas stockings for 400 some soldiers in Iraq & Afghanistan. Put in them gifts, candy, decorations, and sent lights and trees to the larger groups. Got all the names from family members and all the money and labor from our community. Won the VFW award at graduation.

Her college essay was on the subject Ethical Dilemma - namely, the emotional/intellectual conflicts involved in supporting soldiers even when you believe they have been misused by their government.

You might want to start checking some of your political assumptions at the door. I do know how it feels to be confused by the contradictions. The seemingly incompatible love that conservatives have for capitalism and the socialist teachings of Christ always confuse me for example. Maybe your daughters will try and consider such ethical dilemmas in their college careers.

Oh, and J Rob, check out The Daily Show some time. You really need to get out a little.
..

Posted by: Etienne at August 24, 2005 06:57 PM

- Does attacks on the opposition, making comments about posters you know nothing about, also show your level of understanding of everything else you say Etienne. Or does it help in some small way to deflect the powerlessness that your braying asshat side must live with. Either way if theres an "Ethical Dilemma" in this country, its among you socialist/Marxist/Communist "progressive" birdbrains, taking the impossible position of screaching your patriotism, while you do everything you can to undermine the efforts of the military and country that feeds your sorry ass. I pity you, simply pity you. Liberals are "elitist" morons, pure and simple.

Posted by: Big Bang Hunter at August 25, 2005 02:51 PM

Etienne's post reminds me of an old lawyers' addage, "don't ask a question you cannot reasonably predict the answer to". In this case, don't make a challenge you cannot reasobably predict the response. I have seen the daily show. All I can say about it is that the Marx Brothers are in no danger of being eclipsed by those people. If you like adolescent humor masquerading as political satire, hey knock yourself out. Personally I like comedy authored by people with more than two adjacent functioning brain cells.

"You really need to get out a little. "

C'mon, is that really the best you could come up with?

Posted by: J Rob at August 25, 2005 06:44 PM


"psychosis...deep, abiding and accurate fear that they're actually total dorks."

Having been raised in an extremely liberal environment, and having been friends with more than my share of liberals and leftists, I have great sympathy for anyone who develops a dislike for what passes for "progressives" these days. In my experience, endlessly repeated for decades, lefties are very quick to treat any deviation from political orthodoxy as heresy. Worry about unintended consequences of liberalized welfare policies and you're a heartless corporatist. Criticize Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson and you're a racist. Notice that Cuba still has a large network of gulags, or voice sympathy for the Sandinistas' victims and you're an imperialist. Express a preference for individual liberty over socialistic totalitarianism and you're a fascist. Object to comdemning America for anything and everything while excusing even mass-murder committed by leftists ("great men make great mistakes" was the lastest excuse just last week) and you're a McCarthyite. Wonder why it's there's a double standard that makes it okay to assault a man for merely saying something that a feminist dislikes, and you're a sexist pig. Object to gratuitous harassment of conservative . And so on ad nauseum. It doesn't matter how long you've been friends, or how liberal you have been in your opinions. Show evidence of deviationism and see how deep the friendship really is.

I started out far enough left to vote for Gene McCarthy and George McGovern. Some of my earnest, naiive opinions must have pained the conservatives I knew, but they were almost invariably polite and respectful in their disagreements, in marked contrast to the the liberals and leftists who were much more likely to be intolerant, and who were the primary practitioners of politics by character assassination.

If the left were not so nasty, there would be few who hate them. But then it wouldn't be the left.

Posted by: pst314 at August 27, 2005 05:06 PM