So, John’s been doing this thing where he asks willing bloggers five questions of his choice. The answers are then to be posted on the blogger’s own blog. I volunteered; what follows are the results.
1) Dude! I read your blogs and all it’s about is hats and BBQ pits on apartment balconies. Wassupwiddat?
Well, what I usually write about is current events and politics, but these have disgusted me to the point where I want to block out as much news and politics as I can. That’s not quite the case, but you could say that I have a low tolerance for these things right now.
And the hat? Well, these are the intertubes, and on the intertubes, everyone has an avatar. Most people choose their avatar to express their best qualities; a sort of heroic representation, if you will. My avatar, a size 7-7/8 piece of shaped, water-resistant cotton-duck (made in Canada, for God’s sake), express my worst. In my world-view, the heroic, anti-heroic, and villainous thoughts all have their place, and repressing my darker thoughts only makes them worse.
Continuing on that them, I suppose my grill is an avatar as well — a symbol of the battle against the creeping State. The battle of the statists against liberty, if it is to be won by the statists, will be won one 6-foot-square concrete patio at a time. The battle against them will be won similarly.
2) What is your first politically-sentient memory?
I’m thirty years old — and my first memory of a political figure was the shooting of Ronald Reagan by a crazed admirer of Jodie Foster in the early Eighties. The first election I remember was the 1984 election, which of course was won by Reagan. The first political controversy I remember paying some sort of attention to was the Iran-Contra affair, because my dad actually taped some of the hearings. He worked for a defense contractor back then, and even then I think he had an eye toward running or becoming a contractor himself (he is an advisor to one today), so I think that explains his interest. I registered as a Republican when I went to college, but I was the quintessential “RINO”, since I at no time made any effort to support Republican candidates. The first election I watched in which I cared about the outcome was later in life — the 2000 election. That had less to do with being enamored with Bush — which I never really was — than “anyone but Gore”. That reaction extends not only to Gore today but his fellow crypto-socialist nightmares; which, sadly, covers not only most Democrats but some members of the Republican party today.
3) As a conservative (and K-State alum and fan to boot) in Lawrence, you at times project a sensibility that I’d call fish-out-of-water-ness. Or do you feel more like Socrates-as-Athenian-gadfly?
Well, I haven’t studied Greek history, but I suppose it would have to be the second one, because I hardly think it’s possible for me to be a “fish out of water” in a place (Northeast Kansas) I’ve lived almost my entire life. Now, even one so trenchantly socially unaware as myself realizes that I’m somehow fundamentally “different” from the community I live in, but I don’t worry about it. Another question might have been “How does the community I live in react to me?” but I obviously do not concern myself with that either.
4) Hot Fuss or Sam’s Town?
I don’t know. They are really quite different; so much so that if it were not for Brandon Flowers’s voice you might think they were by different artists. Hot Fuss was fresh and different, especially considering the crap that has been put out by the music industry in the last seven years. Sam’s Town is too, but in a different way. Hot Fuss could have been done by Depeche Mode or bands in that genre, but Sam’s Town is very retro, almost Meat Loaf-ish. Both are in heavy rotation in my music players.
5) You and Josh Rosenau and Joel Mathis and Paul Decelles are in a cage fight. Brains count as much as brawn, but no rhetorical blows below the belt allowed. Who emerges bloodied but unbowed and goes off with that cute platinum blonde in the front row to drink Keystone Light till you can’t see straight and you don’t much care in any case? Or would you rather just stay at home and play Doom?
Well, if we’re serving Keystone Light, I’m going with Doom. And what sort of blogger (a narcissist at heart) doesn’t answer that question with himself?
Seriously, this is a tough one to answer for a variety of reasons, not all of which will see the light of day here. Let me try an ambiguous tactic. All four of these people are accomplished, highly-educated individuals who have successfully done a lot of different things. One of them is no more or less likely to win than the others but would would rather watch the battle than participate. Another one, again, has the skills, but would probably try to stop any battle, bringing it to a peaceful resolution, rather than fight it. A third has the skills and the claws necessary to win the fight — and a demonstrated willingness to employ the chair to the back of the knee to people he doesn’t like — but he, as are all others of his political ilk, are more concerned with the perception of fairness rather than actual fairness, and so even he will have to wait for Mills Lane to turn his back. The fourth has those things as well and cares nothing for perception — whether his own or anyone else’s.
I leave it as an exercise for the readers we share in common to determine who fits which description.
Thus endeth the question-and-answer session.
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