you put your pants on

I guess they did a lot of things before tv. I think they listened to the radio a lot. I remember being very young and the whole family sitting in front of the radio like it was a tv and listening to some comedy show. But tv was already in the wings. I remember kids in school talking about Uncle Johnny Coons who they were watching when they came home for lunch on that new-fangled device. I felt awfully deprived that we didn’t have one, but a couple years later we did, and it changed life completely. Everybody had their own chair or place on the sofa. The tv listings would have been consulted and the night’s viewing would have been decided on. Somebody would turn it on and there would be a little pinhole of light and then it would come on, and the evening would begin.

I don’t know if radio held that kind of attention, but then there was a time before even radio, and I guess they had barn dances, but you can’t have a barn dance every night.

I don’t know about debates, I don’t remember hearing anything about that, but it does make sense, and I know I have heard that political speeches were a big event. People who may not have even had any political opinions would turn out to see them just for entertainment. Just think we could probably have had our own Uncle Ken and Beagles show, and hawked some snake oil during intermission.

I like the debates, but I never watch the prez’s speeches. Everything he says is leaked out beforehand anyway, so what’s the point?. Remember when they used to have press conferences? I used to like those, but I think they died out after Bill Clinton. Pity.

If somebody is totally into the dogma of Christianity or communism or whatever, there is really no reason to argue or discuss with them. Those systems have approved answers for everything and the guy just repeats them.

I think one thing we agreed on way back when we first started this thing was that there was a physical universe independent of what we might believe, that is there are things like trees and rocks, and there are facts like there is a tree on top of that rock that can’t be disputed. It’s not like whenever two people disagree on facts, both facts are equal, one is true and the other isn’t. This is the source of all knowledge.

If an opinion is based on emotions I am prepared to dismiss it out of hand. A person should be able to see past their emotions (which are illogical), and base their opinion on the facts, just the facts. I find it a little peculiar that a person who lounges around till the wee hours of the evening in his underwear and a bathrobe should be so anti gay. Just sayin.

I was just having a discussion with one of our classmates and made the same point about how email and blogs like this one are superior to phone calls or conversation, for exactly the reason you say, because you have to think before you put your words down instead of just watching your gums flap.

And I am writing this with my pants on, fresh from my morning shower. You guys who shower in the evening, I just don’t know.