I don’t like long blog entries, so I will deal specifically with what Mark said later. Right now let me deal with LESSON ONE of what he said.
Please remember that the blog is porch talk. Sometimes poor little Bobby’s tummy doesn’t feel good, so he bitches and he moans and makes a fool of himself.
Again.
So what do you do about it? You say exactly what you would say if you were on the porch to a respected member of the family who has said something stupid.
You say, “I respect you, Uncle Bob, but you are making an ass of yourself.”
“Again.”
Mark just did that, and I took it like a man. Some of you may want to know how a truly mature man deals with justifiable criticism:
I am writing this in a fetal position under my bed. I am typing with one hand and sucking the thumb on the other. I stopped holding my breath several seconds ago.
But once I get out of my trauma stage, I will appreciate what Mark told me.
Yes, Mark, it is stupid and childish for me to betray people who take the trouble to read what I have to say by accusing them of not getting the point. I am insulting the very people who are among the very, very few who read AND APPRECIATE what I have to say, and there is no excuse for that.
Let me repeat that: There is NO excuse for behavior like that.
I appreciate just how bad this behavior is. All my life I have been sickened by New York editorialists telling their readers how stupid they were. Beginning in the 1960s, a fashionable editorialists just could not insult his readers enough. He would tell them how nasty Americans are and how evil white people are.
Readers couldn’t get enough of it. They just grovelled ecstatically.
All those years I kept wondering, will anybody ever tell those insulters to go to hell instead of just lying down and taking it?
Well, when Bobby’s tummy hurt and he made the same mistake, MY readers called me down on it.
MY blog readers are not as tame as the people who live by New York Times editorials.
Stay wild.
#1 by Richard L. Hardison on 12/20/2004 - 4:56 pm
Put the skeer on and git him good. He’s probably wona them yankee fellers we been hearin about all these years and he deserves a good whuppin tryin to challenge the great Bob Whitaker.
#2 by Peter on 12/20/2004 - 10:39 pm
Uncle Bob, could I have another glass of lemonade, please?
#3 by Don on 12/21/2004 - 12:19 am
I like Mark. He is a serious and good person and wants to get down to business. We can use many more people like him. I’m glad he is on our side of the fence.
#4 by Bob Whitaker on 12/21/2004 - 11:54 am
Now that I have crawled out from under my bed, I like Mark again, too.
#5 by Don on 12/21/2004 - 12:57 pm
RE: “we hid out and outfitted members of Quantrill’s unit”
A real plus.
RE: “usually the dog that has my leg finds his legs are just as vulnerable and tasty as mine.”
I once was chased and bitten by a German Shepherd while on a bike. I put down the bike and chased this presumptous canine right back to his house.
#6 by Richard L. Hardison on 12/22/2004 - 7:57 pm
Actually, the proper word for us is “feral.” Most of us were good multi-cult types in training at one time, until something suddenly caused enlightenment. So we were once domesticated and have gone feral about like a good razorback.
personally, I would rather face a pack of wolves then a pack of feral dogs. The wolves have enough sense to run from a man with a rifle, a pack of feral dogs don’t. They are far more dangerous.
#7 by Bob Whitaker on 12/31/2004 - 10:24 pm
Richard, “feral” is just a latinized word for “wild.”
You and your Latin!
If you Romans ain’t gonna learn American you ought to go back where you came from.