Monday, May 31, 2010

Z's Memorial Day afternoon,,,who knew I'd be blogging about my day?

..but I did want to blog about it because it shows so perfectly a couple of mindsets I'll never agree with.

First off, it was a lovely, absolutely perfect afternoon in a friend's backyard...hot dogs, burgers, and all the fixings, but REALLY good...watermelon,, carrot cake, you get the picture...NICE. I knew about four people out of 25 or so.

A fellow who turned out knows a very dear friend of Mr. Z's and mine happened to sit down next to me and we realized we both knew this friend very shortly into our conversation so we had something in common right off the bat......and he was fascinating. We talked about many things but the thing that got my dander up was when he told me about his granddaughter who's 8 years old and who was in her public school when they showed a film on Ruby Bridges the other day, Bridges being the little black girl whose parents were encouraged by the NAACP to enroll her into a segregated school in New Orleans in 1960 (Rockwell caught the moment in the painting I've published above). The film they showed these second graders showed this poor black child being taunted by whites and parents pulling their kids out of classes, etc. You can imagine the message his granddaughter got, and she relayed it quite eloquently over dinner that night...how Americans are mean and don't like black people and on and on about this poor little black girl trying to go to school.

This man thought that it was not something we need American children seeing until they're able to grasp things in context and learn the good about this country before they learn the bad, which they should learn about in high school or college but not the formative elementary school years.
We spoke about a lot more, this man's career, the death of his wife, his kids, etc., but I had one ear on the liberal guy, Don, who lives next door to my hostess.

Don was a pip (and no, I don't mean he sang with Gladys Knight!). He came to our table and started schmoozing with some of the ladies near me while I was in conversation with the other guy. Don started talking about how anybody could possibly vote for Meg Whitman for Governor of California when she's very rich and "obviously is just another Republican buying this election" and he was waxing eloquent about Jerry (Moonbeam) Brown who's running for Governor, too, on the basis of his being Pat Brown (previous governor)'s son....that seemed to be the pedigree Don thought was enough to run California.

He then went into a tirade about Dick Cheney, information of which I haven't ever even heard of....and I kept ignoring him as he droned in my ear and I tried to listen to the guy next to me, who WAS interesting but you know me and politics... I SO wanted to argue with Don but I couldn't (God is good :-)

Don then went into how he's a Jew and he feels that as much as he loves Israel he really can't support most of what Israel does because he feels the Palestinians are so right and so sad and so innocent............and the Jews are so rough on them. (!)
OH, did I WANT TO TALK? Then, I heard him say he'd just been on a plane where he spoke to a muslim who owns something like 58 Dominos Pizza shops and what a nice guy he was and how he told him muslims don't want to kill Jews and that the Koran never says they should. "Nowhere in the Koran does it say to KILL JEWS" he says, but he admits he'd like to look more into that. (Good, Don, you do that). Okay, now I'm tingling with desire to say something but I can't interrupt the man telling me about his life, right? :-) At one point, I DID say "OH, you are all so lucky I'm not getting into your conversation!" (Don had a group of conservative women and one man as a captive audience because they're really nice people who were afraid to venture any alternative viewpoint!) But, I then turned back to my conversation......

This guy Don was SUCH a nice guy but you could just hear he's full of Olbermann and CNN and hasn't paid any heed to a viewpoint other liberal in his whole LIFE. And I so didn't want to get into it at my friend's barbecue!

Well, I did enjoy my conversation but it wasn't easy with one EAR ON DON! ....and not feeling I should really speak up. But, I wanted so badly to say "Right, Don, Muslims don't want Jews dead, the Koran doesn't tell us that, Israel's wrong and Palestinians are right, and Jerry Brown would be a perfect governor because you liked his dad." OH, and I forgot...Don was telling these people he did go to a party full of Republicans "and they're so vociferous on every subject about their own views"..."and one of the guys said Obama was really wrong about one thing; he didn't put all the bankers in PRISON!" Don seemed thrilled with that encounter..."now HERE is a REPUBLICAN I COULD LEARN TO LIKE!" Oh, cool, Don, glad you approve of THAT Republican.
z

50 comments:

Anonymous said...

Z, how old was this Don? Was he old enough even to remember Governor Moonbeam when he was governor the last time?

You know Governor Jerry Brown who was perfectly willing to let people be taxed out of their homes until we passed Prop. 13! That Jerry Brown?

Pris

Z said...

good question, Don said he's been married for 45 years...so...I guess he's anywhere between 65 and 70..oh, yes, he remembers moonbeam. And ya, that Jerry Brown :-)

FairWitness said...

You're a much better woman and guest than I'd be, Z. I just cannot hold my tongue, anywhere -- anymore! The sound liberals flapping their gums is like fingernails on a chalkboard. I have to stop them. I get in their faces with facts and get right down to the heart of it.

What a lady you are! I need to take lessons and learn from your example.

Anonymous said...

I see Z, thanks. And all I can say is, he's old enough to know better.

Jerry Brown has beem Governor, Mayor of Oakland, and attorney General of California.

He's so out of touch with anything outside of Sacramento, I think it's time he got a job working around real people instead of politicians. Or retiring, and living off of his triple dipping into the public till.

Pris

Z said...

FairWitness, it was torture.
I get so wound up so I sound more like a zealot than smart when I let loose...I'm trying, trust me, I'm trying! But, as things get worse and worse in America, it gets harder and harder.
Thank goodness for the man I was spending my time talking to!

Ducky's here said...

Has that bimbo Carly Fiorina dropped out of the race yet?

Olbermann and CNN? You call that left?

You ought to get a look at my podcast subscriptions.

Z said...

don't embarrass yourself, Ducky.

Ducky's here said...

z, my guess is you don't know much about the Quran. You're probably one of those 90 day wonder Muslim scholars that popped up after 9/11 so maybe you should listen to alternative opinions.

Anonymous said...

Z,you are dear to be quiet, but I could not have stood it. I would have had the man reeling out into the Pacific someplace between Hawaii and Guam!

I did have to laugh though. When I really thought about how ignorant Don is. It is pathetically funny and now does anyone want to ask or still wonder why we have such a moron is the White House?

I hope not because we sure have a lot of Dons out there, and no, I am not talking about the mafia dons.

Bravo grrrly for keeping your cool. I am happy you had a gentleman to sit and speak with, and some things in common to talk about. So not all was lost except one ear on Don. :)

Anonymous said...

Wow Ducky, just read your comment. I am not so sure you know much about the Koran. It does say in the Koran to kill the infidels and the "people of Saturday and Sunday." Now who would you suppose the people of Saturday and Sunday are Ducky? They are the Jews and Christians. Better read your Koran again if you ever really did, because if you did you would know that!

Ducky's here said...

O children of Israel! indeed We delivered you from your enemy, and We made a covenant with you on the blessed side of the mountain, and We sent to you the manna and the quails.

---------

Sura 20.

I'm not familiar with your quote Layla, what sura, what translation?

Anonymous said...

"Has that bimbo Carly Fiorina dropped out of the race yet?"

As opposed to whom, Barbara Boxer the dimwit of the Senate? Puhlease!

Pris

Ducky's here said...

z, I can point you to a great Marxist art history podcast.

They're doing an Hegelian anaalysis of Wincklemann right now, pretty strong. It beats Olbermann or Glenn Beck

Z said...

go ahead, Ducky, on the podcast.

Hey, are you seriously suggesting that there is no urging to kill infidels in the Koran? You need to read it...

KORAN commands to kill infidels:

Allah is an enemy to unbelievers. - Sura 2:98

On unbelievers is the curse of Allah. - Sura 2:161

Slay them wherever ye find them and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter. - 2:191

http://www.wvinter.net/~haught/Koran.html

Go for it, but I'm really not interested in arguing this here...there's just too much evidence that it's silly to suggest otherwise, no matter what your verses say.

And, by the way, I'll agree with you re Olbermann...not so much leftist in the true sense of the word but absolutely hate-filled, hateful, and uninformed...always looking for the worst..the man's a headcase...he lends no insight to any situation and never has another side represented.
I dare anybody to watch an hour of Beck and tell me he's nearly as hateful ...

Ducky's here said...

I'm saying that someone who is ignorant of the contents of the Qaran will take a short phrase without the surrounding sentence or any other context and pretend they know their ass from their elbow, yes.

Anonymous said...

What you have described, Z, is one of the main reasons I hardy ever go to "gatherings" anymore. I've been treated to almost the same routine as you experienced with "Don" so many times, I've learned just avoid people I don't know.

In my experience it has ALWAYS been a LIBERAL who aggressively asserts his or her views at social occasions.

I think it's OBNOXIOUS, ILL BRED and totally INAPPROPRIATE to talk politics at a picnic, a dinner party, a cocktail party or a reception where people who don't know each well -- if at all -- are gathered presumably to have a good time.

I have NEVER observed a conservative who behaved this way.

You say "Don" is "such a nice guy." You are much too charitable. I know his type VERY well -- New York is LOADED with them -- and every one of them is a pain in the ASS.

~ FreeThinke

Z said...

Right, Ducky, just ignore the link...:-) (but, nice try...would that you'd give the Bible the same break!)

FT...It was worth the afternoon and Don really was quite nice, we talked about other things earlier, not just politics, thank goodness.

FrogBurger said...

Ducky you need to create your own blog to enlighten us, not only on the Quran but on other topics. I'm being serious on this one. You have so much to say, and you're an editor, please start writing!

I'm glad you had fun, Z. We went to Simi Valley and the car's engine heated up so it wasn't a very fun day. But it could've been worse.

About Meg Whitman, I won't vote for her in the primaries. I cannot vote for someone who hasn't voted for 28 years and decide to run for office. That's enough for me. Tells me she'll be another lousy politicians inspired by corporate bullcrap. So maybe I'll write in Z on the ballot this time :)

California is a hopeless state, I fear.

Z said...

FrogBurger, make that "Queen Z" :-)
I'm sorry about the car overheating..

I will probably vote for Poizner in the primary, that's for sure. I'm no fan of Whitman's but it ticked me off to hear this guy rave about Jerry Brown......who does happen to be a nice man but such a leftist.

MathewK said...

Maybe your friend Don can explain why 19 muslims screaming allah akbar killed so many Americans on 9/11, which koran were they reading or was that an inside job.

Always On Watch said...

The Koran says nothing about killing Jews?

What???

Remember that dust-up a while back with the CA university web site that took down some of the Jew-hating verses in the Koran?

Z,
I typically cannot remain quiet. I've ruined at least two dinner parties because I just couldn't sit in silence and take the crap being spouted.

You're a better person than I am!

Bloviating Zeppelin said...

Don and I would have had a little tete-a-tete at such a distance that you couldn't have inserted a sheet of paper between our noses.

Don is WHY this country teeters on the brink of economic doom.

BZ

Bloviating Zeppelin said...

Duckmeister: I think you need to take a very long, a very extended trip to the Middle East, say, Syria or Yemen, and do some in-depth examination and reporting, first-hand, on the Koran. Think of the education you'd get! Be sure to tell them you're from the United States. And then be sure to tell them what the Koran really says.

BZ

(((Thought Criminal))) said...

I'm saying that someone who is ignorant of the contents of the Qaran will take a short phrase without the surrounding sentence or any other context and pretend they know their ass from their elbow, yes.

Such as when you quoted Surah 20 verse 80 above without the surrounding context that reveals that the "we" is Allah AND Muhammad (with his time-travelling God's Word decoder ring, naturally)

You just walk right into stupid relentlessly, don'tcha Ducky?

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Deborah on the Bayside said...

You're right about that movie. It's like teaching graphic sex education to youngsters too young to understand the context, the complete picture. What an adult or late adolescent mind can grasp is quite different from such a young child. Tragic... negligent... almost criminal.

As for Don, I take it he wasn't around when the Browns ruled California. I was. Or maybe he doesn't remember the mess Jerry left for The Duke and the voters (who had to oust his pet, Rose Bird, from the state supreme court to get some sanity back in the criminal justice system.)

Or how about that last budget his daddy Pat left for Reagan in '66: 12 months of expenses to be paid for by 13 months of revenue! If he finds nepotism such a qualification why not elect Michael Reagan, hmmm?

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