Morning, visionaries,
We have to be careful lest a love-fest break out here, but I would like to thank Angie for coveting my tag line, and for saying publicly that in her view I am not an anti-Semite. She says also that if I were to display any of those tendencies she would hop on it like a fly on sugar. Let me say here that if I were to do any such thing, I cordially invite her to do so with enthusiasm.
Tim Bartnick believes that I have reviled George Johnson, which I don’t think is the case. Whatever the reason, Johnson is unbalanced, and in certain settings, he is dangerous. His current weapon of choice is slander, which he is spreading around the country at the speed of light. People here in Moscow know him and can discount what he is doing, but on the other side of the country, lies can be more credulously believed. Since Johnson’s choice of weapons is words, we answer with words. But please note, our use of polemics with regard to him is parry, not thrust. We are not trying to “get” him; we are simply defending ourselves.
One of the reasons we need to do so is that others who have more apparent credibility (at least right now) have taken up the same kind of smears and tactics for spreading the smears (even though they should know better, Duane). The sooner everybody sees this the better. You cannot act just like Johnson and then not be associated with him. Duane has joined a food fight that was already in progress, and wants to keep his dignity by throwing only green jello while Johnson, clearly an unbalanced man, has proceeded as far as to throw the meat loaf and mashed potatoes. As far as I am concerned, Duane can explain the nuances of his position to the junior high principal, who is just outside in the hall.
Duane also says, “I didn’t realize that denigrating ethnic humor was back in style. How naive of me.” In my post yesterday, when I defined a joke as an entertainment for lesser-evolved primates, I forgot to mention that “jokes” are also something of an elementary puzzle, and that a certain response is called for from the hearer. This response is something that primitives used to call “getting it.”
One last thing. Although it is always great fun for liberals to play the race card, in this instance, you need to look both ways before you cross that street. I wonder how many racially-mixed families attend Christ Church? Check it out before you make accusations. We have all kinds — Scots, Irish, English, you name it.
Official notice to humorless logicians: the penultimate paragraph of this post was a joke.
Cordially,
“Apologetics in the Void” are repostings from an on-going electronic discussion and debate I had some time ago with members of our local community, whose names I have changed. The list serve is called Vision 20/20, and hence the name “visionaries.” Reading just these posts probably feels like listening to one half of a phone conversation, but I don’t feel at liberty to publish what others have written. But I have been editing these posts (lightly) with intelligibility in mind.