October 3, 2023
KENNEY: Be Nicer to Your Friendly Neighborhood Politician, Please?
by SHAUN KENNEY | Columnist
“Anyone can succumb to ideology. All it takes is a sense of one’s own moral superiority for being on the right side; a theory that purports to explain everything; and — this is crucial — a principled refusal to see things from the point of view of one’s opponents or victims, lest one be tainted by their evil viewpoint.”
— Gary Saul Morson, The New Criterion, “How The Great Truth Dawned” (2019)
One of the funny things about meeting politicians is the fawning that most of us do over them. For myself — having elected a few and worked for many others — you come to realize that there is a distinction between their role as a public figure and their personality that is about as wide a gulf as any canyon or valley.
In short, how they present themselves is far different from how they are presented by their opposition, and even more different than how they actually are in person. Believe me — they are far more interesting as human beings rather than off brand demigods, I assure you.
Most human beings don’t have the courage to become a politician. Imagine taking your entire self — all of it — and placing your life’s work, reputation, family, your hopes and dreams and aspirations, and most of all your vision for what could go better among your friends and neighbors and cupping that together in your two hands and offering it heart and soul to others.
Now imagine someone spending thousands if not millions of dollars trying to smack that out of your hands, showing your friends and neighbors that you are more fraud than visionary, and worse a villain to every human being you meet. Imagine your own family having to read the accusations and slanders, imagine reading on social media or in the letters to the editor what your neighbors really think of you — words they would never express in person, but given just a little bit of distance and an appropriate dose of the partisan, will be more than happy to repeat on social media, in supermarkets, at church and even among your own family relations.
Imagine putting your entire self up for public consideration. And losing.
For precisely half of the candidates you see running for public office in the Fredericksburg area, this will be their reality the Wednesday after the election after having offered their entire selves to a campaign which three weeks prior they knew whether they were winning or losing.
Any human being willing to run for public office would either be brave or stupid and perhaps a little of both. Courageous might be one word; self-absorbed and narcissistic might be terms used during the campaign. Rare is the politician who can learn the secret to political power, namely, the definition of enough.
The politician in the wild is an odd creature indeed. Younger versions tend to love the adulation and believe that they themselves have something unique to offer to their community as a steppingstone to higher office and always ever higher office. Middle aged versions tend to view public office in a much more jaded take-or-leave sense, something they desperately want but feign disinterest so as not to take the psychological hit of losing too terribly. Older politicians tend to view themselves as the ever-reliable guidepost of an old tradition which — once the fire goes out — makes them the last of their kind.
Most Americans tend to view their politicians as corrupt and malleable, telling us what they want to hear in pursuit of one goal: power. Power attracts the corruptible. God forbid such politicians expose themselves to the drug of transparency, which means becoming an open target for the malcontents and the bored. Superior breeds discover a means of remaining aloof so as not to be noticed in the press, yet just visible enough to be praised by the bureaucracy — who is always looking for a safe bet no matter what the politics of the present age.
Yet there is an old Churchillian observation which states that democracies elect the leaders we deserve. Once upon a time, Virginia could be graced by a George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison or James Monroe. This was all before Virginia washed down the flower of her youth down the gullet of war according to such bon mots as H.L. Mencken, the late editor of the Baltimore Sun who had little praise for the detritus of a once great pedigree.
For an electorate which heaps such contempt upon our own politicians, one might be led to wonder whether or not we are worthy of the Washingtons and Jeffersons among us today. After all, one can’t really blame the politicians for our troubles; blame the morons who keep electing them.
Even in saying that, perhaps the Fredericksburg area is luckier in our political class than we care to admit or realize. After all, it was not terribly long ago that the president of the Virginia State Senate hailed from this area. Nor was it too long ago that the Speaker of the House of Delegates hailed from the Fredericksburg area as well — a man whose accomplishments restoring the Virginia Retirement System to solvency are undersung and underpraised.
Nor is the Fredericksburg area bereft of seniority in either the House of Delegates or Virginia Senate. Neither are our local governments missing long-standing pillars of the community whose roots go back generations in this area despite the tidal wave of newcomers. Nor are these same newcomers absent from the halls of local power.
Fredericksburg is no stranger to leadership. In fact, our elected officials are expected to lead in Virginia and elsewhere.
What we are strangers to is ideology, or more accurately the uniparty totalitarianism which seems to have gripped our neighbors in Northern Virginia and rural Virginia. Here our debates are real. Here the great questions of growth and what Virginia will look like in 20 years are grappled with in real time.
Yet unlike most parts of Virginia, we have a wonderfully unique habit of looking at a question from all sides before we settle on a definitive answer. Our media demands it, our culture commands it, and our politics reflect this admixture of deliberation and speed. Believe it or not, we have something special in the Fredericksburg area when it comes to our politics.
And we are in danger of losing it.
No — it isn’t just to social media or the mirage of “non-partisanship” which is a perspective about as partisan and myopic as they come. Nor is it in the race for ideology over discussion. Rather, we begin to lose what makes Fredericksburg unique — the hands over the city, so to speak — when we reduce our politicians to labels such as Republican and Democrat (or even independent). The very moment we succumb to the dialectic of us against them, of good versus evil, and of friends over here contesting the enemy over there — we lose what is so special (and perhaps so frustrating) about who we are as Virginians.
Jefferson once remarked that he would rather attend to the problems of having too much liberty rather than grapple with the problem of not enough liberty. Politics can be a sordid thing, but especially when its electorate tolerates the sordid. When we engage our politicians as the friends and neighbors they are and throw off the political straightjackets, we tend to find out that we have really good reasons for approaching problems the way we do.
Will we always agree? Probably not. But will we at least continue to build upon an inheritance which views every problem created by people as something which can be solved by people? That’s noble — that’s us.
So as we engage our politicians this election season, remember a few things. These people had the guts to do what you and I wouldn’t. They too have families and hopes and aspirations and reasons why they want to represent us. More than anything, remember that what we reward says more about us than what it says about them. One hates to recall the words of the late Bertold Brecht:
Would it not in that case
Be simpler for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?
One might helpfully suggest that the way marketers and political consultants adn the bitterest individuals in our midst bend our political discourse and accomplish precisely this thing — rewarding bad actors and silencing thoughtful ones — while creating the mold by which certain politicians find it far easier to squish into at the low cost of one’s backbone.
So go easier on your friendly neighborhood politician this year. After all, the way we treat them and talk about what matters says more about us than it does about them.
FXBG Advance Playing Possum
Our team at FXBG Advance is joining in the fun downtown with a display in the window of Possumbilities at 211 William Street. Come meet our dearly departed editor, Kenney “Bones” Martin, who just can’t tear himself away from his typewriter and the need to deliver the next day’s news.
Come visit Bones all this month.
Correction
In Monday’s edition, we wrote that Belen Rodas has been endorsed by the Democratic Party. Rodas has not been endorsed by the party, nor has she sought the endorsement. We regret the error.
Today’s Government Meetings
Spotsylvania
Oct. 3 – Tuesday – Agricultural Forestal Committee Meeting – Community Development Conference Room 1 Read more
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-Martin Davis, Editor
Mr Kenney glosses over major points when he begs us not to consider a candidate by their party affiliation, as if it is irrelevant. Almost as if it is our duty to ignore it.
Only one party, both as individuals, and collectively – has refused to accept its culpability for torturing children as a matter of policy, for deliberately inciting and supporting a riot that resulted in over 100 policemen and women being beaten within an inch of their lives.
A riot that’s sole aim, besides appeasing the injured vanity of a madman, was to cause enough chaos that would justify the President himself enough cover to use the Insurrection Act to invoke martial law to suppress anyone objecting. Even if it meant American deaths.
Whose own generals had to reach out to China to insure we would not start a nuclear war for the same purpose. Think about that for a minute. We were that close, because of one party.
Amongst a multitude of other misdeeds and miscues which have egregiously resulted in loss of life, wealth, dignity as a nation. AND THE CURRENT LEADER OF THEIR PARTY AND OVERWHELMING CHOICE FOR PRESIDENT IS THE SAME PERSON. They want to do it AGAIN.
And any Republican who dares object, is primaried out, doxxed, and routinely attacked by their media allies. That’s what they do to their own people.
No need to imagine how the rest of will us fare under their yoke. Now they’ve had practice. There won’t even be a pretense of restraint.
Their kultlike god/leader is someone currently found to have committed fraud, sexual assault – and is under felony indictment for obstruction, national security risks, criminal fraud, and insurrection., and many more things. Over 90 of them. Who is promising to destroy our government if returned to power.
Of course they’d rather you not think about it.
They have actively engineered a taking of rights from women regarding their health that sets us back to the 1950’s, and are attacking books, knowledge, science for all. Typically whenever it threatens the goals of their unholy coalition between billionaires, religious mullahs, and racists. Leading to the country dropping in life expectancy, knowledge, and health – while leading the world in gun deaths, incarceration rates, and military spending,
Hungry children are takers, child labor is encouraged in their factories, starving people are vilified while their illegal labor is depended upon.
Of course they’d rather talk of anything else.
AT the state level, our “aw shucks” Governor, who this same party is presenting as Trump’s sidekick or understudy – is currently funneling millions of questionable dollars from shadow and open donors with their own agendas. Whether it be poisoning our air, destroying our education system, or controlling our people and their most personal lives.
None of our business if you buy a bazooka, but you better not do anything about that fetus with a missing brain you’re carrying that might kill you in a couple months, without running it by our mullahs first.
Meanwhile, folks like Tara Durant or Lee Peters are gladly accepting the fruit of such party affiliations.
If they’ve ever rejected the poison which lies at the core of their party at the top, and grows ever deeper and more entrenched – to the point where even school boards are controlled and suffocated by it – they’ve done so awful quietly.
I wish party affiliation DIDN’T matter. That there was no substantial difference between the parties – and that they – and their people, could be judged by their individual merits. There was a time that was true.
That time is gone.
We need to acknowledge the truth that is. The reality we live in.
The Republican party is led by a vengeful madman bent on self preservation at any cost. Who is threatened by our laws and system of government. And the members of that party are bringing that rot and destructive force to every level of our government, in every town. Including this one. I wish they weren’t.
But they are.
To pretend otherwise is a lie. To pretend it doesn’t matter is a fool’s errand.
Look. I’m not particularly learned. My participles dangle all the time. I’m okay with that. I am admittedly simple and unnuanced.
But then again, so is truth. Where ever you go on this planet, or anywhere, really – pi starts of 3.14. You find the area of a rectangle by multiplying A * B. Etc. Truth is simple.
I like my art the same way. Plain and simple.
One of my favorite shows was Lonesome Dove. You ever see it?
When I see people trying to give long, drawn out reasons for why truth doesn’t matter, I’m reminded a the scene where Augustus McCrai and Jake Spoon are chatting – as friends often do. Having previously served together as Texas Rangers, they were close, as those who have risked danger together often are.
The scene finds Jake, with his hands tied behind his back, on a horse., with a rope around his neck. About to be lynched by Augustus and the rest of their compadres. Because he helped commit murder and theft.
Augustus looks up to him and says, ” You know how it works Jake, you ride with an outlaw, you die with an outlaw.”
Now I’m sure folks like Ms Durant, Governor Youngkin, Mr Kenney will all tell you that they are very fine people, and who they are led by, who they take money from, who they align themselves, the things they will stand for do not matter. Because again, they’re very fine people. Ignore everything else.
I disagree.
I’m of an opinion that what you do matters much more than what you promise. It may be a minority opinion, where everybody else wants to forget, pretend, not talk about it. But it’s mine.
I’m sorry they crossed the line. Truly. I wish they hadn’t.
I’m sorrier they refuse to acknowledge it, accept responsibility for their actions, or disavow those doing it in their name. And are setting us up to risk it again. All for their party.
But I’ll not pretend that’s not what’s happening. So I’ll vote accordingly. I hope you will to.
At this time in America, Virginia, Fredericksburg – party affiliation matters. It’s a matter of literal life and death. For our government, Constitution, people, wealth.
Those who would have you pretend otherwise, have good reasons for doing so.
We have better reasons for not believing them.
Thank you.
shame they don’t have an edit feature for comments so apologies for typos. Hopefully the gist still makes it thru.
Not sure the party of abortion on demand up to 40 weeks gets to lecture anyone about torture — especially that of young children.
Cheers!
Man what a multitude of thoughts a few words can engender. Well done.
My first thought was, “When did Eric Rudolph get out?”. But then I saw the name was Kenney. My bad.
Then I wondered how much, over the years, have Republicans, conservatives, or the “Godly” – excused their behavior – any behavior – with that same short, certain, and easy logic.
I noted how similar such reasoning methods are to those I’ve read about – Nazis marching folks to the chambers, Stalin having kulaks shot for not starving, because it meant they were stealing food. Conquistadors, auto-de-fe’s, Crusades.
Deus vult!
In a way, I wish I could go through life with such certainty on so many things. Where instead, I remain both humbled and awed by the things I don’t know, and know I will never know.
How delighted I am when I discover something new. How easy it must be to walk through life with so little thought. Despite the wrongs you can do or harms you can cause whilst in such ignorance.
The rationalizations you can tell yourselves.
I know we’re torturing kids, but at least we’re pro-life.
I know Trump is a bad man, but he’s packing the court with liars who will vote as we want, once they lie their way on. It’s for a good cause.
Sure I like cops, but we really wanted to stay in power. Shame they got beat.
God bless America, but only as long as we get to run it…..
Upon reflection, though, I believe I’ll pass.
But I know, I know; you say you’re “pro-life”. And that justifies everything.
Yet are you? Really? Is that what you are?
Not as a group, you’re not. You’re having the same 1.72 kids per couple as everyone else. Which means, by some method, you’re making a choice. A selfish choice. So, you’re not pro-life- you’re pro-enforcing the choice that is right for you, upon everyone else.
That’s not the same thing, is it?
When you say 40 weeks on demand is what everyone who disobeys you believes – yet you yourself accept 6 weeks, or 15 weeks. Usually based upon what is most politically palatable to the majority.
If you truly believe that life begins at the very magical moment when one zygote is formed – then how is what YOU are doing in accepting 6 weeks or 15 weeks not being the very death squads that fount of Republican wisdom, Sarah Palin, once warned us about?
Either you believe it, or you don’t.
But please don’t bother telling us how holy you are for your stance.
Jeremiah states that God knew you before you were in the womb. So how are those many, many more children that YOU have chosen not to have through your chosen methods of birth control of any less value than the ones you are willing to torture others for?
Did they not have equal value? That’s a choice you made. Based on your personal beliefs, not facts. What right do you have as a conservative to impose those beliefs upon everyone else?
The story of Onan has God slay him for practicing birth control, not self pleasure as the preacher often says. Yet you’re any better?
You can’t base it on science. The earliest a baby can survive outside of the womb is 21 weeks, over 5 months. And even then, the financial costs, health complications, specialized medical requirements are horrendous. And yet, you presume the state can be used to impose demands upon a woman to risk her life or bring a life into the world where it is known it cannot survive – to salve YOUR conscience?
You know better than she and her doctor?
Rubbing salt in the wound by knowing; once the child is born, you will resent it and its birth until the day it dies. It’s her problem if its fed, housed, healed, clothed. Better not ask you for help.
I don’t have all of the answers on abortion. I think many things. I think of a conversation I had with a friend about 40 years ago. He had noted that when you looked at all of those old pictures of those huge families from the 1880’s, 90’s, etc – what you didn’t see were children with birth defects that were not life threatening.
His conclusion was that the midwives and doctors of that time did perform euthanasia. Quietly, but hard choices were made because they had to be made, when there were risks of even the healthy surviving. I don’t know, but I wonder.
I know that the chances of me ever getting pregnant were rather small. So I wondered what right I had to judge those who could not say that.
Now y’all are the same folks who were aghast at the idea of the “state” daring to ask you to not cough on anybody when doing so could lead to their excruciating death – and because of that stance – and yet think nothing of imposing your will through the state upon a woman you’ve never met – to put HER life at risk to salve your conscience for decisions that you have made.
Do you not see how incongruent that is?
And yet, when anyone notes the damage that your party has done and is doing all based upon that one false presumption of righteousness, you can easily dismiss it with a condescending toast of mirth.
Again, I can see why you would. I just don’t think it’s in our best interests as a people to ignore it.
The Republican Party is broken.
It is a party of personality, not of principle.
The few principles it does have are either not based upon the core principles of this country, or are looking to destroy it. Its members would rather you look at anything but facts, as they count on media exposure rather than reality.
We are all poorer for it as a nation as a result. We can and should do better.
We do need a principled, reasonable conservative party in this country that believes in this country and its people. The Republican Party of today is not it. We would do well to act accordingly, to vote accordingly. Rather than pretending otherwise because it makes them uncomfortable to talk about it.
Look, don’t take my word for it.
Take Mitt Romney’s – when he realizes that a significant portion of his party does not believe in the Constitution.
General Milley’s – when he had to call China to assure them Republicans wouldn’t start a nuclear war.
Kevin McCarthy’s – when he says that a party that kicks its leader out for not destroying the country is in a “bad” place (understatement of the millenia).
Take Donald Trump’s – when he vows to destroy the country, it’s laws, it’s people.
It matters. Choose wisely.
Then maybe we’ll have something to cheer about.
The Republican Party is not it.
Found the edit button, it’s at the bottom. Yay!
Here’s a simple question for you: Does every human being have the basic right to exist? Yes or no?
And therein lies the problem. So many presumptions in such a small question. And the demand that the answer be binary. How much damage has been done on this Earth by such demands and presumption would be better questions.
For instance, you presume the definition of a human being is a given.
That existence is the same as living.
That we know the answers.
And that those questions are for us to decide, not only for ourselves; but for everyone else in this world.
When the answers we are likely to come up with are based upon beliefs, rather than science. And that the science is constantly changing.
A fetus in America, close to a neonatal hospital with parents of unlimited wealth may reach that magical viability of 20 weeks. Whereas, in Ukraine as war rages, (with Republicans proudly supporting Putin BTW), poverty bound Latin America, or Africa may face very different health care realities.
There’s cloning, in vitro treatments, fertility treatments, eugenics, euthanasia, and birth control. Are there differences in where life exists on that spectrum? That’s a belief, often based more upon cultural and religious beliefs than facts.
Does a spirit exist in a cow? Depends on who you ask. Can you get in trouble for killing one and having it for supper? Depends on where you are, and when you are there.
At what point does artificial intelligence become sentient? What rights does it have? Will it be criminal to pull the plug?
Are social animals like pigs aware enough to realize the pain we cause them in our factories? Should we care? Why or why not?
I’m not asking these questions because I have all of the answers. I do not. My point is that I do not believe you do either. No matter how certain that you are that you do.
I suspect, that no matter how I answer your binary question, you would use that answer as a firm foundation to build a thesis that in the end – will justify the conclusion that you already had determined that you found pleasing before you ever asked it.
And if that is the case, generally – my view is that, as much as I can, I want to see that you are able to follow that view. For you.
But I am extremely hesitant when you presume to impose it on everyone else. Especially in a world where so much is unknown and changing.
My personal view is the current law of the Commonwealth of Virginia provides a pretty good balance between the rights of the state and the rights of the mother and the rights of the fetus/zygote/cells.
To see those rights being challenged and destroyed in the name of Republican self-righteousness and zealotry – based upon again, something that ends up being much more subjective than you will admit – because admitting it would mean you lose your justification to impose your beliefs upon others in a land that should not only have freedom of religion but from religion – is not right.
Where you’ll take a doctor’s license, place bounty on neighbors, threaten criminal convictions not only on the mother, but anyone who respects her and takes her to areas you do not yet control. That ain’t right.
Leave people be.
And if you really do care about there being fewer abortions, I would suggest you spend more time following Democratic principles.
I’m reminded of a fairly cheesy 90’s comedy named “Michael”, which though not a “great”, it’s casting director should have gotten an Oscar. Not only John Travolta, but William Hurt, Andie MacDowell, and Bob Hoskins, Jean Stapleton, Teri Garr, and Robert Pastorelli.
In the story, the Archangel Michael tells a parable. About God and the Devil making a bet about who can make a man take off his coat. The Devil goes 1st, and blows the north wind, harder and harder. Yet the man just clenches his coat tighter and tighter. Whereas God warms the day, making things gentler and gentler – to which the man takes off his coat at his own volition.
So if you really did care about life, as you so often proclaim – you would see potential mothers and their children as investments worthy of investment. Similar to how a wise farmer invests in his lands, a rancher his herd, a tradesman his tools.
You would support childcare, maternity leave, health care. Food security, education, job opportunities. Look to create safe environments by recognizing our current gun polices and legal incarceration policies do not work.
America is supposed to be a capitalist society. A land of the free. In a free, capitalist society – if conservatives really believe in that – we should be doing the best we can to create conditions where potential mothers see it in both their and their potential child’s best interest for that child to be born.
If you really are pro-life – and not pro- the choice that salves your conscience – create the conditions and let the market decide.
Simple, right?
Yes or no?
So your answer is no? Every human person does *not* have the basic right to exist?
Interesting.
My answer is my answer, such as it is.
That you would take all of those nuances, questions, thoughts – and the only thing you are capable of drawing from it is an answer which justifies your predetermined position – is not really interesting so much as confirming.
I base those positions not only on abstract thoughts, but real life experience. Transporting cancer patients from the high end hospital in town to the teaching hospital which had more resources. Driving 10mph with lights on, and still listening to them scream in pain during the ride as their back broke.
Dropping an EGTA tube down the throat of the girlfriend of a guy whom got confronted by her and his wife and them demanding he choose between them. Him choosing option C, where he shot them both before killing himself. Thinking how pointless it was, as I saw her brain tissue swelling her left occipital. Watching a heart patient we’d done CPR on from 3 in the morning, who was due for a transplant the next day – as they called him – yet seeing is arm raising from the cart as we walked away 3 hours later with the sun rising. Picking up the punch drunk nursing home patient from the home for the 30th time who used to be a Golden Gloves boxer. But now was going in for about 30th or 50th catheter replacement – which – if you understand how they work – you would realize how painful that is. The problem being, at this point, they didn’t manufacturer one with a balloon big enough to stay in.
Elderly who choose suicide rather than burden their families or themselves. And yes, mothers who were preeclamptic, or who had fetusi with gross abnormalities – where the choice was literally life or death.
The point being, sometimes breathing isn’t living. There are some existences I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy, much less myself or my wife or daughter.
And having seen all that, to have someone reduce that down to a binary question – to where doing so, they presume, gives them the right to impose their will – because they do refuse to see anything other than their binary construct – is true arrogance and indifference to life.
In a way, you are lucky to be able to live such a cloistered existence. In another, I suspect you are cursed. A man who can only see in black and white doesn’t even know rainbows exist.
To a certain extent, we all have our own umwelt. Yours is not novel. I find your answer informative and confirming. But not particularly interesting.
As I said in the beginning – pretty much every atrocity in history depends upon it.
Tell Eric that Leo says “Hey”.
All of your examples are negative, as if you are asking where God was in these instances.
And all of yours ignore the original point – that your party’s foundations are either non-existent, based upon un-American and non-conservative philosophies, are fundamentally unsound, and/or are irrational.
Yet you think they should not matter, as you are unable to even address those points – so you merely dismiss them as irrelevant.
As you make the decision of whether to foist Jim Jordan or Donald Felonyindictments Trump upon us as Speaker of the House.
Because Kevin McCarthy didn’t drive the country into default by not paying bills that you accrued. Some conservatism.
Go figure.
Again. Republican Standard is well named. Congratulations on that.
Why do you hate me so much?
You don’t think better questions would be, why, when someone who posits opinions as facts; then has those opinions challenged – rather than being either able, or willing to defend his positions/opinions/claims – either dismisses them by dismissing the person asking as unworthy to ask, ignores the challenges, or presumes that someone challenging them can only do so because of an emotional reason – rather than due to their conviction – based upon facts and results they see – that the positions you stand upon have false foundations, lead to wrong conclusions, and have and are causing great harm to our community, nation, and state; does so?
Because that is what I find interesting.
I was actually expecting better based upon the build up from Mr Davis, who I do find able to generally defend his posts. I may disagree with his conclusions, tactics, but not his facts nor his ability to defend them.
My mistake. Apologies.
I find that employing Socratic methods are rather weak tea, if the questions you ask aren’t relevant.
Still, I’d recommend staying away from the hemlock. Just to be on the safe side.
Got to go. Say this has run about as far as it can run.
And again, as seen here, there are serious questions about the Republican Party today that are worth considering before choosing any of their candidates.
Because time and again, when it mattered – no matter what or how loud of proclamations patriotism, duty, honor, thrift, etc. that they claim – when put to the test, they blink.
If the fact we now have a real possibility of a Speaker Jordan or a Speaker Trump doesn’t convince you of that, I don’t know what will.
But its true. And it matters.
Good day. Things to do.
Socrates is weak tea? Huh.
Still don’t understand why you hate your neighbors so much.
Wait a minute. YOU are Socrates?
THE Socrates?
Apologies, sir.
My first reaction is “Where ya been?, And did you see Elvis?”
My second is that I use gravity all the time. Mostly without thinking about it. Doesn’t make me Isaac Newton.
I know, I know.
The only possible reason for me to question your claim is hate, right?
No other rational reason could possibly exist in your world.
I’m starting to understand your party’s affinity for Trump a little better now.
So thanks for that……moving on.
Wait — you think I am on par with Socrates? Does that make you Thrasymachus?
Dude. You lost. Let it go.
I’m sure, somewhere, somehow, someone told you that obscure Attican bon mots are worth it for their own sake, but let it go. What and who you’re trying to defend with such obfuscation?
Really ain’t worth it, when you think about it. Just let it go.
It turned out to be a lovely Saturday outside. Why not go enjoy it?
Get some fresh air. Sounds like you could use it.
GTG. Football to watch, life to enjoy. You should try it.
Thrasymachus….geez.
Wait — this was a contest?
No. Not really.
Agreed.