The Mind of the Liberal Hippie

What a weekend! The weather was absolutely wonderful, although I was stuck inside for a fair amount of that time working extensively on school work, some of which remains to be completed but they are not due any time soon, so I will get back to it tonight after I have completed this post. Yeah, it was an interesting three days. On Friday, having returned home after an exhausting week at school and work (the county executive’s office was pretty flooded with business on Friday, a nice change of pace for once), I decided not to go see “Sahara” this weekend, which is good because I have not been hearing positive comments about it (although with mentions of “environmental claptrap” and “Christian guilt trip” in one review, I was a bit disappointed that I was not able to rant about this one), and decided to stay home and watch “Apollo 13”, a review of which should appear on “The Moose Hole” site some time this week. Also, my Dell laptop computer broke … okay, the computer itself did not break, but it was a little piece at the end of the connection wire from the power pack into the computer – honestly I could not tell you what happened but my father called Dell up and apparently everything should be patched up by Tuesday, Wednesday at the most.

Mainly the rest of the weekend was spent on homework. Thankfully for once I was able to rest this weekend from the extensive amount of papers and studying that I have been accustomed to over the weekend, but I still feel worn out having returned to the dorms at around eight this evening. For Western Civilization 002 I had to write up some notes concerning World War I and I still have to finish up the review for “Goodbye, Children” (a film about a French boarding school that hides three Jews from the Nazi occupiers – not even close to the grandeur of “Schindler’s List”) while in International Politics I had to copy notes from a friend’s notebook from a class I missed earlier this week (one I did not need to miss since the housing assignment schedule was so screwed up, but I digress), but nothing out of the ordinary, so I should not really have a right to complain too much.

Coming up I have an art paper due for Theology 001 on April 19th (which I have no idea what I am doing because I have missed two out of the last three classes … I blame Daylight Savings Time), a Western Civilization 002 paper due on the 29th of April along with an International Politics paper and a commercial to shoot with the county executive down at the courthouse (I have no clue what it is about, but I will be sure to post more details when they become available to me), and I need to pick out classes for next semester (Fall 2005) on April 25th, the second to last day of class selection – is this a cruel joke or what?! In any event, I will do my best to balance my schoolwork with the internship down at the courthouse and responding to liberal criticism here on the weblog, but we will just have to wait and see how things turn out.

Moving on … There are writers who just lavish the amount of praise they receive for their work. They eat up every compliment and congratulations that someone gives them when they recognize them walking down the street. Believe me, I have been there. It was encouraging to have people come up to me either in class or if they recognized me in the dorm elevator and say they enjoyed reading my article(s). But as much as I enjoyed hearing those songs of praise, I was even more enthusiastic when a liberal would send me a one-line facebook message calling me a “racist” or a lengthy e-mail message dictating to me how the Jews were actually terrorists in disguise (and the moon-landing was filmed inside a Hollywood soundstage). These are the type of comments that truly motivate me to do the work that I am doing. The fact that I could anger someone so much that they are able to throw their logistical sense of reasoning out the window and write me a message with infuriating emotional instability is awe-inspiring to me.

The following comment was made on the weblog site (which is exactly the way in which I hope visitors to the site will do instead of these e-mail messages to a variety of accounts – facebook, e-marq, yahoo, etc.) by Mr. James Daluga on April 8th, 2005, at around three in the afternoon. Here is what he had to say …

I have disagreed with what you have said politically, but know that there is no way to respond to your claims that will soften your stance whatsoever. However, I was appalled to read what you posted about another human being named David Guillory. Your hate-filled assessment of him was so completely degrading I feel it eliminates any kind of legitimacy you had. I attended high school with Mr. Guillory and although he may not be politically savvy, we all are entitled to our opinions Mr. Kastner. When you place your opinions on a public forum such as the internet or a newspaper you open yourself up to both positive and negative feedback. You have a right to respond to the feedback, but Mr. Guillory also has a right to respect. You obviously have a great reverence for our recently deceased Pope; however I believe he would severely look down upon your actions. You can hold whatever position you want, but when you disrespect another human being that is when you cross the line. I am not one of your “self-aggrandizing” liberals, but I’m not one of your closed minded conservatives either. I believe the only way we can come to a compromise is through an open dialogue rather then your type of put-down tactics. But I digress, I’ll save you time by telling you who I am. I sat next to you for a semester of History 001. I thought you probably were just a nice quiet kid, little did I know you were capable of such hateful actions. Mr. Guillory is a human being just like you and me and deserves to be treated as such. He expressed his opinion to you and you quoted a passage basically saying he’s a worthless human being. That would seem to contradict the high morals you claim to represent. I hope you realize that an apology is in order and that you do so accordingly.

At first I thought this was some kind of joke, but when I read it again the next morning I realized that he was actually being serious. First off, I can not recall him from my Western Civilization 001 class last semester … unless I talked to them extensively or hung out with them, recognition of these people within my classes goes straight out the window. And secondly, I just love how I have been turned into the horrific monster and scoundrel in this debate. Honestly, I truly have.

I attended high school with Mr. Guillory and although he may not be politically savvy, we all are entitled to our opinions Mr. Kastner.

So am I, Mr. Daluga, and yet I do not see you jumping to my defense and scolding Mr. Guillory, or his friends, for the abhorrent statements they have made concerning me. And what legitimacy does the fact that you went to high school with this person have anything to do with the following debate? You know, I went to high school with a lot people that I am still acquainted with today, and I am astonished at how much they have changed in less then a year since graduation. In fact there were several people in high school that I thought I knew well enough during freshman year only to confront an entirely different individual in senior year. In this time of our lives, people can change dramatically in a very short period of time, so do not always trust that the person you knew before is the same one they are today. Returning to your statement, if he is not politically savvy, why is he adamant about conducting a political debate with me? Why is he even bothering to comment about my article? See, this is where it gets confusing. Why can he not decide where he stands on an issue or what he believes adamantly about instead of flip-flopping all across the board? With this in mind, a political debate with him would be pointless. But that is a topic I shall discuss more in-depth about later in the week.

When you place your opinions on a public forum such as the internet or a newspaper you open yourself up to both positive and negative feedback. You have a right to respond to the feedback, but Mr. Guillory also has a right to respect.

No! Really?! I should complain to Al Gore about what a horrific and honest monster he has created! Why is it that the liberals believe that every time a conservative responds to a piece of negative criticism concerning an article they have written or a comment they have made that it should automatically be dismissed as a denial of the truth and an unwillingness to accept effective advice. So, Mr. Daluga, Mr. Guillory has the right to respect, but I do not?

I am not one of your “self-aggrandizing” liberals, but I’m not one of your closed minded conservatives either. I believe the only way we can come to a compromise is through an open dialogue rather then your type of put-down tactics.

Seriously?! You could have fooled me because you are doing a damn fine job of proving otherwise, sir. The only kind of people I hear call conservatives “close minded” are the type of liberal extremists you claim to not represent. Again I say this, why are you pushing so hard for me to “reform my ways” when Mr. Guillory and his friends are using far more excessive defamatory statements (calling me a racist, claiming I should take up work in a Gestapo, profanity, etc.) in responding to my original article? I am not in search of a compromise with either Mr. Guillory or any of his other liberal compatriots. I am writing the following articles in order to conclusively expose the truth about certain issues deeply affecting our nation and prove how morally unethical the left has become in their quest for political domination in the US political spectrum.

Mr. Guillory is a human being just like you and me and deserves to be treated as such. He expressed his opinion to you and you quoted a passage basically saying he’s a worthless human being. That would seem to contradict the high morals you claim to represent. I hope you realize that an apology is in order and that you do so accordingly.

Then perhaps alerting Mr. Guillory of this fact is in order first, because he has clearly not demonstrated this attitude toward me. Would you care to point out to me where I called David Guillory, as you claim I so eloquently put it, a “worthless human being”? Oh, wait! I never did type those words, now did I? And seriously Mr. Daulga, what right do you have to tell me what to do? The problem with the left is that they believe they know what is best for someone when they themselves have no clue what they are talking about in the first place.

With that in mind I leave this evening with a quote from a recent Marquette Tribune editorial you may recognize, because clearly it was not apparent enough to some people the specific point I was making:

I hope I am not the only one on this college campus to realize what a truly hypocritical assumption it is to believe that the leftists in this country represent the interests of the American public when they are the ones who decide what is good for you and what is not, rather then you making that decision for yourself. As we should come to suspect from the left, they never truly practice what they preach, invoking the right to free speech only when it serves to benefit the vulgar hate-speech figures such as Ward Churchill preaching their methodology of hatred to the future Stalins of the world.