Civil Disagreements
It is possible to disagree with another person without having to come armed with a revolver or pockets full of insults.
Even during these turbulent times, it is possible to disagree with another person without having to come armed with a revolver or pockets full of insults, as borne out by recent exchanges I’ve had with two of my longtime readers.
In response to my having written “Speaking of which, after seeing the way that his godless enemies have treated Donald Trump, Jesus Christ would be wise to delay His long-anticipated return visit,” Joseph Neuner wrote: “Many of your readers are Christian (I am) and believe in the divinity of Jesus. Christ is son of God….already perfect in His wisdom. Not wise to poke fun. I thought the statement unseemly, slightly clever, but unwise to make fun of a part of your client base’s beliefs, however inadvertent. Joe. P.s. The rest of your column was very good.”
I replied: “I don’t see how using humor in reference to the Second Coming is unwise or could be regarded as poking fun at Jesus. There is truth in humor, or I have been wasting my time. If Jesus returned and the media decided He was a Republican, He would be treated the way that Trump has been treated for the past five years. Regards, Burt p.s. I’m glad you liked the rest of the article, but I would respectfully suggest that you reserve your censure for those who disgrace your religion. Say, someone like Pope Francis.”
Next I heard from an old friend, Jay Lehr, who let me know “I suspect you are doing many readers no good with your pessimism, which will cause them to give up the fight. That benefits no one. While you say you have no time to read other people’s articles, I strongly recommend you read the one I am about to send you.”
And because he was the co-author, I read it. It listed all the terrible things that are happening, but then concluded that after four years of Biden, people would wake up to reality and vote more wisely in 2024.
I replied: “Good article, but I disagree with your conclusion. We had eight sobering years of Obama, but the only reason Trump was elected in 2016 was because he was running against the most unliked woman in America. If any other Democrat, including Bernie Sanders, had garnered the nomination, Trump would have been defeated. Remember that fewer than 100,000 votes gave Trump the victory in those four rustbelt states. Anyone but Hillary would have captured those votes. That would have given the Democrats 12 consecutive years in the White House and another four when the incumbent would have won this past November.”
Jay replied: “I agree with you. But I’m convinced that the next four years will wake up America to the fact of their enslavement.”
“God knows I hope you’re right,” I wrote back, “but that’s the same thing I said after we’d suffered through four years of Obama. I’m not falling for that one again.”
A friend of mine, Trudy Sargent, a Brit who brilliantly directed “Angels on Tap,” has continued to work during the lockdown, but it hasn’t been easy or cheap. The casts and crew working on her projects have to be tested for Covid-19 every few days. As if that’s not bad enough, they also have to fill out questionnaires that ask for their ethnicity and gender.
Hollywood, being the tip of the loony spear, they are given their choice of Male, Female, Transgender Unknown, Transgender M2F, Transgender F2M, Ambiguous, Unknown, Other and Not Specified. Unknown? Nobody has suggested they take a look between their legs? But I suppose that would constitute peeking, and we mustn’t have any of that.
With his typical acumen, Joe Biden has appointed Kristen Clarke to head up the Civil Rights division of the Justice Department. I suppose he could have done worse, but I assume that neither Louis Farrakhan nor Al Sharpton wanted to take a cut in pay.
Ms. Clarke is the black Harvard grad (whose academic credentials are no doubt the result of Harvard’s racist enrollment policies) who argues that melanin is what gives black people their mental, physical and spiritual, superiority over whites and everyone else.
Odd if true that the only areas in which they’ve displayed this alleged superiority in America are basketball, football and show business.
Even in Africa, where they can’t use racism as a scapegoat, their only major achievements are wide-scale murder, kidnapping and maintaining the last vile vestiges of slavery.
Here in the States, where people like Kristen Clarke, Don Lemon and the Obamas, continue to insist that blacks are mistreated, Biden has prioritized black people getting the Covid vaccine before whites. In Oregon, at least for the time being, only blacks will receive the shots. Old white folks can just hold their horses, even as blacks in jail get to take cuts ahead of them.
Has it occurred to Tony Fauci and any of his fellow experts that breathing through a mask for nearly a year has done much more damage to our lungs than the virus has? Might the related damage to our immune systems explain the recurring surges?
When you add that to the increased use of drugs, alcohol and the general depression affecting adults and children, it would logically make Americans easy pickings for the Chinese flu.
Casino owner Sheldon Adelson recently died at the age of 87. There was deep mourning in the professional class of Republicans because he had contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to candidates.
I always thought he was wasting his money. Instead of funding scores of elections in which the Republican was barely more conservative than his opponent, I was always advising him to jump into the media. All he had to do was buy a Spanish-language paper and staff it with Conservatives and he would have had more influence on American politics than if he’d written a billion dollar check to the RNC. It’s not an accident that the Left controls just about every newspaper in the nation. It wasn’t always that way and Jeff Bezos didn’t steal the media. Our side, as short-sighted as ever, just handed it over.
The same thing we did with our public schools and our colleges and universities.
The Left always brings a gun to a knife fight; we bring good intentions.
When I saw Mitch McConnell turning on Trump, it made me wonder about all those federal judges he’s been putting in place over the past four years. Since Mitch is the one who’s been vetting them, we’re in trouble if he’s what passes for a Conservative.
Hell, of the three justices Trump placed on the Supreme Court, not one of them joined Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas in voting to hear the case involving Pennsylvania’s ignoring its own constitution in order to help get Biden elected.
Arthur Lourea passed along a meme showing Richard Nixon as a member of the Social Media Committee on Unamerican Activities asking a witness: “Are you now or have you ever been a Trump supporter?”
As I have often observed, even here in Hollywood, the Leftists never minded blacklists except when they were briefly the ones being targeted.
Speaking of which, Penny Alfonso passed along a meme that showed the Hollywood sign and asked: “Why not tear down this monument, which represents decades of systemic exploitation, rape and pedophilia?”
And let’s not forget all those cheesy movies.
Not one to rest on her laurels, Penny also shared a meme showing two scientists in a lab, all decked out in hazmat suits, with the caption: “This is what virologists wear to protect themselves from a virus, Don’t worry, though. Your bandana probably works, too.”
And even as the laurels continue to pile up, Penny rises to the occasion and shared a headline from the sarcastic hub of America, the Babylon Bee: “Trump Praised for Accepting Election Results 4 Years Quicker Than Hillary Clinton Did.”
Bob Hunt, who dares not let Penny get too far ahead, sent along one that rang the bell for my dog Angel. It showed Charlie Brown and Snoopy lying against their favorite tree. Charlie muses, “I wonder what it would be like if our roles were reversed. What if you were the master and I were your dog?” Snoopy muses back: “I thought I was the master.”
Don’t get too upset, Snoopy. We Americans also thought we were the masters until the Democrats, the tech oligarchs and George Soros, placed us on their laps and explained the facts of life.
