mr sticky

I am going to be the first one to admit that I can no longer think for myself.
I am also going to admit that I have no idea where to turn to for information.
I also don't really know, if indeed, there is really anything to argue about.


Sensationalism rules the media...both on the liberal and conservative outlets. Truth, as always, is a matter of interpretation. Case in point...
The majority of the US (according to polls), was in favor of bringing the terrorist war to the mid-east. It was assumed that this war would be bloody and long. The fight for geography is over, but the fight for security is in its infantile stages. I was pseudo-informed that these conflicts were projected to take upwards of five years to fully materialize. The "hot" conflicts are over in supposedly record time. Now, eveyone, including the conservatives, are hurling criticisms about the length and cost of the conflict. The liberals say the war was about oil. The conservatives say it was about WMD's.
I haven't seen either.


On to the economy... I have never in my thirty-two years, heard any pundit praise ANY president, or legislator in their plan for the economy. It is ALWAYS a critique on that individual's plan and where it fails. Does the prez really have any control over the economy? I have never thought so, but everyone else seems to think it's a button he presses on the desk in the oval office. Yet, it's always his fault for it going bad, and everyone else gets a pat on the back when it cycles back.

What I'm getting at, is that we spend a lot of energy debating stuff that really may not matter. It may have been a slow news day so the network edits a memo to make Howard Deans look like an ass, or "W" look like he ordered an attack on a mosque full of kids. Every reporting outlet has some opinion of the newsmaker themselves and this bias cannot be cleansed.
Fox news says fair and balanced? Not in prime time your not.
Liberals say they're progressive and open to new ideas? Not if they come from a conservative.

We say we argue simply because we are "on different sides" of the issue. There is no way in hell that that many people agree. I can't get the four people in my house to agree on dinner. Our information comes from sources that are either biased in presentation, or just they went to look it up to prove their point anyway!

I'm thinking that we have reduced politics to the sporting world. I support this team and every other team sucks. We don't have debates, we score points on each other. I know that each of you initially will start typing to refute what I say in your usual mode of debate. BUT, ask yourself some questions...
Are each of your opinions your own?

Do you consider the politics of the speaker before you form an opinion?

Does the other side have nothing to say of value?

Why IS there just two ways to look at an issue?

Please, feel yourself out before you answer. We've all heard the pat responses to political debate, and this is not really about that.

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The sad thing is... as you get older you come to realize that you don't so much pilot your life, as you just try to hold on, in a screaming, defiant ball of white-knuckle anxious fury