born to argue

I'm just reading along on Beagles's post, nodding now and then, quite so, I agree, yes, yes, and then I come across watermelon.  Watermelon? 

I was just a little kid, and it seems like it was some kind of joke inside a package of bubblegum it was like one of those Did you ever see things, and one of the things was Did you ever see a darkie who didn't like watermelon.  Oh, did they like watermelon?  I supposed I liked watermelon too.  What was so funny about it?  I suppose it was something like Did you ever see a woman who didn't like to shop for shoes?  And you kind of laugh because women do seem to be inordinately fond of shoes.  I guess it is making fun of women.


You could still make a joke to a woman about shoe shopping, she might get annoyed, but not too much, but if you are white and made that watermelon crack to a black person there would be some nasty repercussions.  On the face of it, it doesn't look that insulting, as Beagles notes, don't we all love watermelon a messy summertime confection where you can also spit out the seeds like little rockets?  But it has become very insulting.  Most people know this, and the black person to whom the crack is made would know this, and would assume you knew it, so the assumption would be that you are insulting him, and there it is.

And that bill straight ballot bill is about votes.  Right now the dems are against it because they think it will hurt them and the reps like it because they think it will help them.  If they thought the other way their positions would be reversed.


That whole thing about sin.  I've been over it before with Beagles, and it was a long and arduous trek and I am not sure that I was able to persuade Beagles who still claims never to have sinned (Ken Sin, to wit, knowing something is the wrong thing to do and doing it anyway), but Old Dog, maybe I could convince him, so I went through the whole thing again, painstakingly making my case, dropping in little tidbits about cheetos to keep it light and entertaining, and posted it with a modicum of satisfaction, and I thought I had done a pretty good job.

But the next morning I saw his post, and he had basically disagreed with everything I said.  It was like even as he was reading it he was making arguments against it.  What the fuck?  And then I realized that is exactly the same thing I do.

I don't know about you guys, but I think I was born to argue (actually I prefer the term discussion because I don't like shouting or calling names).  If I am sitting next to somebody in a bar and I say something and the person next to me disagrees I am a lot more interested than if they say they agree, because what kind of conversation can you have then?