I've never done a personal diary before. I'm just buring off a bit of steam here and tossing out some recent irritations. Get a laugh out of this, then move on to the real diaries about real things that need thought and investment.
With the death of Osama bin Laden, facebook was alive with postings about how torture had given us bin Laden, and how Obama was anti-military, anti-American, and had NOTHING to do with the planning or assult, and deserved zero credit. I took umbrage, and in return I was called unAmerican.
From the facebook status in progress...(I had just linked a chart showing that 54% of this year's budget goes to the military):
Lostboyjim: Look at the link. 54% of the national budget goes to the military. Overall we spend $515 Billion/year on the military, the next closest country, France, is at $61 Billion. I think we can afford to cut the military quite a bit and still be the #1 military power in the world.
Bxxxxxxxx: look up that figure where its busted up and see how much goes actually to the military and how much goes to the defense contracts and you keep wanting to praise obama look at it this way he has yet to show a legal birth certificate
Lostboyjim: Did you not watch the news last week. The official birth certificate was shown. All the talking heads from Bill O'Rielly on down agreed it was correct. Anyway, thank you for your service in the military. but if we're not going to stay on topic and just jump around from attack to attack, I'd rather not.
Bxxxxxxx: i must have missed that last night and the core of this discussion has been obama and the fact that you and him are against americans and the military and as far as his birth certificate he has had more than enough time to have forged it cause if he hadnt had something to hide it would have been brought forth day one instead of waiting until its almost time for the next election year
In the end this is probably a good thing. I was able to remove a few facebook friends that obviously I have nothing in common with. I have several conservative friends on facebook, and sometime we debate and sometimes we shout talking points over each other, but we tend to look for common ground, and to listen to the other person before we respond.
But rolling to "unAmerican" because I think our military is overfunded? What happened to debate? This is nothing more than repeating talking points. To be honest I didn't know he was a birther; once we hit that wall it kinda stopped being fun and just got annoying (I mean, I am annoyed by the lack of punctuation, but it's a conservative on facebook, what do you do?).
That was the first of this week. Being called unAmerican by Conservatives is par for the course. I'm used to it...
But then I come to DailyKOS and got in a flame war. I din't mean to, honestly. It was a simple "not a diary" comment. I didn't realize I was not only unAmerican, but also a traitor! (yup, I am the traitor mentioned):
HRing ad hominem unconstitutional comments OK
Anyone who makes an ad hominem attack or who supports treason should be HRed! I will continue to do so. It is stupid to have a "rule" not to HR in your own diary. It is appropriate under these circumstances.
Now, I have to admit, I kinda like the "unconstitutional comment" attack. It's so forceful, yet meaningless. It's something I would imagine Orly Taiz saying. And I know the right thing to do is not to engage. I have just joined the poster's list of judges and other readers who have committed treason against her. There is no logical way to win this argument. I know that.
But, this is my home. Facebook is like the playground: if you fight with someone there you just go to another part of the park to play and ignore them. But if someone comes into your home and starts tracking dirt around or re-sorting my CDs, I get irritated. KOS is my home. And again, I know better! Maybe part of it is that this is only my 2nd HR here in the new, improved KOS, and I am touchy about it.
So this is my week. I'm an unAmerican Traitor who writes Unconstitutional Comments. Pats on the back and comments welcome, but please, watch the constitutionality of your comments!