"From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines, going where I list, my own master total and absolute, Listening to others, considering well what they say, Pausing, searching, receiving, contemplating, Gently, but with undeniable will, divesting myself of the holds that would hold me."
Walt Whitman (1819-92)
"When I look back now over my life and call to mind what I might have had simply for taking and did not take, my heart is like to break."
Akhenaton (d. c.1354 BC)
And now, the current weather, from some random person we pulled off the street:
Monday, September 13, 2004
Toes, Stepped On
in-sult Function: verb
Etymology: Middle French or Latin; Middle French insulter, from Latin insultare, literally, to spring upon, from in- + saltare to leap -- more at SALTATION
1 : to treat with insolence, indignity, or contempt : AFFRONT; also : to affect offensively or damagingly [doggerel that insults the reader's intelligence]
2 : how intelligent people view an attempt to get them to believe something stupid
I had a friend and co-worker years ago, we'll call him J. J was extremely active politically, had worked on many campaigns, and was also so active in service groups that he had served as national president of one of them.
During the Vietnam war, J and his family pulled some strings and had him assigned to a unit that was preparing to be disbanded. Within weeks, J had an honorable discharge, way ahead of time. He never went to Vietnam, of course, that was the whole point.
Knowing this, and having worked on the Hill in Washington myself, I have no doubt about the assertions that Bush had preferential treatment in the National Guard. I would expect that he did, since his father was a congressman at the time.
Does it bother me? Well, not much since I expect that every son of well to do families during that period received special treatment. Including, I might add, John Kerry who the Boston Globe described as living in "that rarefied world of wealth and privilege where the French is fluent and the manners impeccable..."
I'm OK with all of that, that's how life works.
But there is something that will always raise my dander, something that will make me emotionally do a back arch and hiss like a scared kitten.
Don't ever, EVER call me stupid.
I find it highly insulting, very offensive, and take it as a personal affront. As I think I should. And I'm not alone.
Other bloggers feel the same way. As a whole, any blogger beyond the "Oh my god he's so cute and I went to the mall today" stage is pretty smart. Some bloggers are absolutely brilliant, and a good proportion are genius level. You know who I'm talking about, and some of this blogs readers are who I'm talking about.
So when I watch a commercial that says, as I posted earlier, "On the diets you tried before you thought you were losing fat, but you were just losing meaningless weight" I get offended that they would think me idiotic enough to not see through that.
Yesterday, a local station ran several hours of documentary (read "infomercial") about how this city's revitalized downtown area is a great place to live. In amongst the propaganda, they stated that "artists, musicians and entreprenuers have been moving into the area for years, poising it to be an overnight success." Huh?
This explains the uproar in the blogosphere in the last few days about the CBS Dan Rather memos. Sure, some partisanship is involved, but more than anything the blog community is outraged and offended that when they caught CBS with its pants down the network just ignored it and gave lame, stupid excuses.
This is not political anymore. It's about truth and insults.
Dan Rather, and CBS, has insulted me and everyone else who took the time to find out the truth about these memos. And we're offended. Our toes are stepped on.
We're not stupid, ya know.
He who allows himself to be insulted, deserves to be.
Pierre Corneille
French dramatist (1606 - 1684)
