Quote:by Oleg Atbashian

The two women who showed up early for my book signing at a small bookstore in Houston, TX, never even bothered to open my book. Wearing knowing smiles, they engaged me in a bizarre discussion that wound up leaping all around the known and unknown universe. They hadn’t the slightest curiosity about my ideas as an ex-Soviet immigrant in America, or what I had to say about my experience working inside the two ideologically opposed systems. As it turned out, they had spotted my flyer in the store window the day before, and the book’s title — Shakedown Socialism — had enraged them so much that they decided to return the following day and give me a piece of their collective mind.

Their act almost made me feel as if I were back in the USSR, where the harassment of people with my opinions was the norm.

...

I remembered an old trick invented in the fifth century B.C. by Socrates. Instead of telling people what he thought was true, Socrates asked seemingly simple questions that put his opponents on the path of finding the truth for themselves. Seeking genuine knowledge rather than mere victory in an argument, Socrates used his questions to cross-examine the hypotheses, assumptions, and axioms that subconsciously shaped the opinions of his opponents, drawing out the contradictions and inconsistencies they relied on.

As the two women faced my questions, their knowing smiles turned to scowls. Sometimes they would backtrack and correct their previous statements; sometimes, they would angrily storm out of the room in the manner of Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg on The View with Bill O’Reilly. After a while they would return with more talking points, and then they had to answer another logical question. My friends who witnessed the scene told me later they saw the shorter bully beginning to foam at the mouth.

Quote:She insisted that I write them down to share with her audience. As I did so, more questions began to pop up. Some were new, while others I had been asking for years while trying to make sense of my American experience. The resulting list may not exactly fit the definition of Socratic questioning. But in my defense, even Socrates couldn’t possibly envision the scale of absurdity a political argument could reach in the 21st century.

Dear Americans, these are some questions I have collected in 16 years of living in your country. Please see if you can answer them for me:

Quote:If there are no absolutes and family is an antiquated tool of bourgeois oppression, why is having gay marriage an absolute must?

(12-28-2010 04:36 PM)MileHighBronco Wrote:  - How come Hollywood can always find a good side in thugs, but never in businesspeople? What was the last movie that pictured a self-reliant, industrious man as a role model?

Quote:Why has no politician ever run on men’s issues or promised to improve the lives of males?

(12-28-2010 06:03 PM)smn1256 Wrote:  

Quote:Why has no politician ever run on men’s issues or promised to improve the lives of males?

Political correctness, women's groups would go nuts. Did you ever notice in a commercial where there is a man and a woman and one of them is supposed to look stupid it's always the man? Also, what would happen to a politician ran on white issues?

(12-28-2010 08:26 PM)SumOfAllFears Wrote:  National Association for Advancement of White People. National Organization for Men. Organization of White Airline Pilots. Whites in Government. White Cultural Center. The Congressional White Caucus Foundation. And on and on and on......

Quote:Some heads contain an enormous number of facts that never bind with one another to form a fertile soil from which original ideas will grow. Each piece of information exists independently from the others, all of them continuously shifting and rolling around like grains of sand, forming ephemeral dunes in the lifeless deserts of their minds

• If the poor in America have things that people in other countries can only dream about, why is there a movement to make America more like those other countries?
• Why do those who decry modern civilization never live far from shopping centers and why don’t grind their coffee with a stone ax?
• Ever noticed that those who demand “power to the people” also believe that people can’t do anything right without government supervision? (Though I would amend this one to say "Ever noticed that those who demand “power to the people” also believe that people can’t do anything right without their supervision?
• And finally, if all opinions are equal, how come a liberal who disagrees with a conservative is open-minded, but a conservative who disagrees with a liberal is a bigot?

(12-28-2010 11:50 PM)Rebel Wrote:  

(12-28-2010 08:26 PM)SumOfAllFears Wrote:  National Association for Advancement of White People. National Organization for Men. Organization of White Airline Pilots. Whites in Government. White Cultural Center. The Congressional White Caucus Foundation. And on and on and on......

Because they're not needed. ANY of'em. Instead of trying to add new things that separate the people, why not continue to question the reason for having something ELSE that separates the people.

Either be an AMERICAN or kindly get the fuk out. I'm pretty sure black people didn't get lynched and die in the late 1800's so they could be called something other than a damn American. They earned that right, in many, many ways. Hyphenation cheapens it.

(01-03-2011 01:06 PM)moe24 Wrote:  The following is up first... Why is there never a headline that says “Government program ends as its intended goal has been achieved”?

(01-03-2011 01:15 PM)flyingswoosh Wrote:  

(01-03-2011 01:06 PM)moe24 Wrote:  The following is up first... Why is there never a headline that says “Government program ends as its intended goal has been achieved”?

used it last week

(01-03-2011 01:18 PM)moe24 Wrote:  

(01-03-2011 01:15 PM)flyingswoosh Wrote:  

(01-03-2011 01:06 PM)moe24 Wrote:  The following is up first... Why is there never a headline that says “Government program ends as its intended goal has been achieved”?

used it last week

What kind of reaction did you get? I've already got one lib to "like" it, though to be fair she's the type of lib who votes party-line dem because catholics are "supposed to" vote that way.