Welcome to my place

Posted on January 22, 2011 by crawdad

This ain’t one of them fancy places. There are no cover charges, litmus tests or loyalty oaths required to hang out here. You just have to be able to agreeably disagree.

We lean to the left but we don’t wear labels. I see too much time being wasted over definitions and labels.

“You’re not a liberal unless you support x.y and z!”

So if I support x and y but not z where does that leave me?

The first time I voted it was for Bill Clinton in 1992. Back then I thought he was a liberal Democrat but now I hear people saying that he was a conservative Republican. All I know is he seemed to do a good job. Whatever it was he did worked.

I think if people are hungry you don’t waste time arguing over theories of the best way to cure poverty, you FEED them. When you have problems you try different things. If they work, you keep doing them. If they don’t work you try something else. And you should never reject an idea just because the “wrong” people thought of it.

Is pragmatism an ideology?

The blogosphere was supposed to be a place where grassroots movements could be organized. Instead we see the organizers looking out for their own interests while people are becoming increasingly compartmentalized based on minor ideological differences and ego conflicts.

How the hell do you create a mass movement when you can’t even get along with people you agree with 99% of the time?

I don’t listen to Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck but it’s not because I’m afraid that if I do I’ll turn into a mindless zombie. I read a few right-wing blogs every day. I also read a few pro-Obama blogs and some far-left blogs. Then I make up my own mind.

In the real world we all deal with people who we disagree with politically. We work with them, go to school with them, live with them. In the blogosphere there are too many flame warriors who like winning fights but have no interest in winning hearts and minds. You don’t win a debate when the other person stops arguing. You win a debate when the other person changes their mind.

Don’t let the scowls and surly expressions fool you. This is a friendly place. Even when we tell someone to fuck-off we do it with love and affection. In real life we have all told someone we love that they were full of shit. We have also been told by someone we love that WE were full of shit. That’s because everybody is full of shit sometimes.

You can drop in anytime and stay as long as you like. We don’t care if you hang out other places too. This isn’t junior high, it’s a place for grown-ups. Act like it.

Feel free to shoot off your mouth. Just don’t get upset when people shoot back.

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113 Responses

  1. OldCoastie, on January 22, 2011 at 3:06 pm said:

    Well, “howdy”, crawdad… nice place you got here…

    thanks for allowing the Klown.

  2. 1539days, on January 22, 2011 at 3:17 pm said:

    blogrolled!

  3. ralphb, on January 22, 2011 at 3:17 pm said:

    Thanks for hosting the Klown and his posse. We’ll try to be sane, most of the time.

    You have a very nice place. Beer and fishing is always a good idea.

  4. jjmtacoma, on January 22, 2011 at 3:19 pm said:

    I’ve had a blog for a few years but didn’t do anything with it – so I never had a link to in on my name.

    It is now (back) in-work and not fancy (yet?) but I’d like to add you to the sidebar. Do you care? You can look first – of course!

    - JJ

  5. Lola-at-Large, on January 22, 2011 at 3:21 pm said:

    Nice welcome message there, crawdad. ’92 was my first election, too, and I voted for a winner. I guess that makes us about the same age. And about as open-minded, judging by this post.

  6. helenk, on January 22, 2011 at 3:27 pm said:

    Even an oldie like me ( I am only 21 in my mind) whose first vote was for JFK would feel very welcome here. Thank you for hosting the party.

    WOMEN WITH INTELLIGENCE AND EXPERIENCE,MEN WHO SUPPORT THEM AND COUNTRY BEFORE PARTY ALWAYS

    PUMAS,BUBBAS,EQUALISTS AND THOSE CHATTERING PEOPLE RULE

  7. WMCB, on January 22, 2011 at 3:52 pm said:

    Thanks for taking in the refugees, crawdad.

    Many here know me, but for those who don’t, here’s my approach to discussing politics:

    I like variety. I have friends and family left of me and right of me. I’m not afraid that if I argue with someone to the right of me, or even agree with them on a point or two, I’m going to get somehow magically and unwittingly sucked into being a Palin/Beck/Rush zombie. Nor am I going to turn into a raving radical communist if I seriously entertain and argue and/or agree with some ideas of my much more far-left friends.

    I’m all for general civility in the sense of not allowing the discussion to turn into a personally insulting bomb-throwing free-for-all. But I don’t understand that idea that people have to be “protected” from hearing things they disagree with. Filters on information, whether its the right or the left demanding those filters be in place, give me the heebie jeebies. I have a brain of my own, thanks, and I can use it to filter for myself.

    I’ll pretty much discuss anything with anybody, and if someone has a true point, I can admit that without having great angst that I’ve somehow “endorsed” or “forwarded” their whole agenda. People need to grow the fuck up and stop assuming other people are sheep to be led, “at risk” of hearing the “wrong” things and wandering off to die in the ditch dug for them by either teh evil right or teh evil left.

    I am a practical-minded Liberal who is suspicious of consolidations of great power – whether that be in the halls of govt. or in the boardrooms, or both. I’m all for govt as helpful tool and equalizer of opportunity, and free markets as engines of success. I am utterly opposed to either as lord and master.

    Mostly, I am a GROWN-ASSED WOMAN. I can discern. I can decide. I can agree with a but not b, or both, or neither. And I can shrug and say, “I dunno.” And as far as I’m concerned, so can everyone else.

  8. angienc, on January 22, 2011 at 4:17 pm said:

    Thanks for the welcome crawdad.

    But, you have to know that watching any kind of cable news and using buzzwords means you’re a moron. /snark font.

    • crawdad, on January 22, 2011 at 4:21 pm said:

      If you don’t watch cable news how are you supposed to know what the buzzwords are?

      • WMCB, on January 22, 2011 at 4:24 pm said:

        Well, you hear about them from someone who heard about them from someone else who wrote about what yet another person heard. At that point they’ve been through enough successive filters of “people who think just like me” for the mind-control microwaves to have dissipated, so yer safe.

        • 1539days, on January 22, 2011 at 6:38 pm said:

          Well, we all know the internet is full of intellectuals compared to the people on the teevee who are drooling morons.

          I’m not sure about the TV people with blogs, though.

  9. samanthasmom, on January 22, 2011 at 4:22 pm said:

    Any place that will let my dog sit at the bar and order beer is a great place!

    • WMCB, on January 22, 2011 at 4:28 pm said:

      I actually saw that the first time we went to Key West. HUGE bull mastiff sitting on the bar stool, paws up on the bar, with a big mug of beer. I thought it was grand!

      • jjmtacoma, on January 22, 2011 at 4:31 pm said:

        my dog would be too small to drink – but maybe the cat would be ok.

        • crawdad, on January 22, 2011 at 4:36 pm said:

          Your dog is smaller than your cat?

          Is it a pocket poodle or something?

        • jjmtacoma, on January 22, 2011 at 4:43 pm said:

          Yes. The dog is a 6.5lb Yorkie and the cat is 13lb “Tuxedo Cat”. So dog is 1/2 the size of the cat.

          When we acquired the dog, I didn’t appreciate what a 5 pound dog would look like because I’d always had “big dogs”.

        • Samanthasmom, on January 22, 2011 at 5:10 pm said:

          Samantha weighed over 100 lbs. Sadly, she died last spring. Her successor should top out at about 60 lbs. So she’s going to be a “small dog” for us. Ellie is still an adolescent and is too young to drink.

        • crawdad, on January 22, 2011 at 5:12 pm said:

          We don’t serve underage pets

        • jjmtacoma, on January 22, 2011 at 5:15 pm said:

          So I guess “purse dogs” are also excluded?

        • angienc, on January 22, 2011 at 7:03 pm said:

          Ha! jjm — my dog is 5.5 lbs. and my cat is 13 lbs!! My cat is all black with green eyes. I had a little tuxedo cat too, but she passed.

          Samanthasmom — sorry for the loss of your baby!!

  10. swannie, on January 22, 2011 at 4:44 pm said:

    whatcha gonna do when the river runs dry ?
    Sit on a rock and watch the crawdads fly , honey oh babe, oh my

  11. myiq2xu, on January 22, 2011 at 4:46 pm said:

    Politics Daily:

    On the 38th annivesary of the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, President Obama said Saturday said he is committed to protecting what he considers a fundamental principle: “government should not intrude on private family maters.”

    You mean private family matters like marriage?

    BTW – the typos are in the original

  12. yttik, on January 22, 2011 at 5:19 pm said:

    Hello, Crawdad. Thank you for the welcome.

  13. votermom, on January 22, 2011 at 5:21 pm said:

    Hi crawdad. Thanks for letting us barefoot hordes in here!

  14. Mr. Mike, on January 22, 2011 at 5:46 pm said:

    Where you get the photo of Markos?

  15. Bull J. Moose, on January 22, 2011 at 6:51 pm said:

    What kind of place is this exactly? Can I get a beer? Any chairs, these hooves are killing me. I think Sarah Palin is hunting me. Or maybe that was KO in a Palin suit. I hear he’s got lots of free time. Nice to meet you all.

  16. syl, on January 22, 2011 at 6:55 pm said:

    Crawdad thanks for the free beer and friendly welcome. What kind of topics of discussion interest you most?

    I’ve been looking through previous posts trying to get a sense of where your interests lay. It would be nice for us newcomers to get to know our host a little better.

  17. Sandra S., on January 22, 2011 at 7:38 pm said:

    Thanks for the welcome. Ideologically I’m a hard-left semi-socialist, and an existentialist liberal feminist with no patience for cultural relativism. In practice, I’m basically a pragmatist. I believe in baby steps, so long as they’re actually taken with the end in mind, rather than as half-loaves to ensure that the whole loaf gets ruled out.

    • crawdad, on January 22, 2011 at 7:53 pm said:

      The First Rule of Loaves (“If offered half a loaf, take it”) is premised on the idea that you are trying for a whole loaf and then settling.

      Obama starts out by announcing “We only want half a loaf” and then he settles for a couple stale crusts.

  18. crawdad, on January 22, 2011 at 8:06 pm said:

    Holy guacamole!

    Last Saturday this blog got 3 hits.

    Yesterday – 657

    Today – 4319 4876

  19. eriezindian, on January 22, 2011 at 8:14 pm said:

    This is great! Is this a new blog or have I just never been made aware of it? Whatever, I like miq2xu and will check here for my daily fix.

  20. syl, on January 22, 2011 at 8:35 pm said:

    Sorry. Hope we don’t crash the server seeing how we’ve already trashed your place in our drunken revelry.

  21. Jeffhas, on January 22, 2011 at 11:58 pm said:

    OK – MyIQ – I know it’s your first Saturday night at your new home and all – but where is the Saturday Night House Party music?

  22. Three Wickets, on January 23, 2011 at 12:03 am said:

    Thanks Crawdad for the welcome, and the company, and the beer.

  23. Senneth, on January 23, 2011 at 12:25 am said:

    Thanks Crawdad for the party place. And thanks WMCB for letting us know about it. Always loved the klown’s posts at the other place. Glad to find him again.

  24. Uppity Woman, on January 23, 2011 at 5:29 am said:

    I found out that if you leave and come back, and leave and come back, and leave and come bakk and lee an cm bakeke, you gett a free beere eviry tyme.

    :::Thud:::

  25. soupcity, on January 23, 2011 at 7:46 am said:

    Thanks for the welcome crawdad, this is gonna be a fun place to check in with everyday. “Blogs we mock,” lol! I have a feeling that list will get bigger the closer 2012 gets.

  26. djmm, on January 23, 2011 at 9:38 pm said:

    Thanks for the welcome! Looks like a great place with a lot of interesting people visiting!

    djmm

  27. kk, on January 24, 2011 at 6:05 pm said:

    thanks for the beer and the warm welcome crawdad…cheers

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