I Believe

Today I turned on the Sunday morning program of NPR to hear what the other side is saying about life. One of the topics is the final run of the "I Believe" segment. Almost 300 people have written what they believe strongly and that phase of the NPR broadcasts is finally closing. I truly think it is good for people to write what they believe and feel strongly about. A lot of you read this blog and know what I write and I hope that from that you can determine what I believe. Here are a few again:

• I believe in Free Speech. It isn't free speech if you can just holler "shut the fuck up" and have people go away. You don't truly want free speech unless you are willing to let the worst kind of people you know say the worst kind of things. You don't have to agree, you have to allow them to say it. Yes, I know I have written that stupid speech should be outlawed. You know what I mean. We have all heard things that just are fundamentally so stupid that deep down not even Rush Limbaugh could believe it. (Note, he will often say it but I don't think he believes everything he says)


• I believe that Liberals are for the most part as concerned about out liberties as conservatives. In my humble opinion, they feel that the role of Government is to pass laws to guarantee the rights of people. I feel that we already have too damn many laws and they often, while good intentioned, make it difficult for the majority. Perhaps life has been too easy for me and that has shaded my thinking but hell, I started out poor and worked darned hard to get here. Perhaps Barb worked hard to get me here but let's not split hairs.


• The only grass in my life is the kind that needs mowed. I plug my radio in and wear ear muffs to listen and get out there and mow. Barb thinks it is stupid to mow grass but she will sit and read a book for hours. To me they are a related activity and I think there is little better than the smell of freshly mowed grass and it is pretty.


• I think the editors of radio programs and newspapers owe it to their employees to tell them to think about what they write and say. For example just this morning it was reported that our Secretary of State went to Beirut to tell them that they need to bar outside influences in their upcoming elections. Isn't her telling them that outside involvement? Isn't reporting that information a part of what is wrong? If the current administration think we need to play nicer with the world, why are we telling the Lebanese what to do? Don't they have enough problems of their own that we need to export our thoughts to them? I think the reporter should have said that Hillary is there to consult with them about their upcoming elections.


• Isn't calling the latest round of the flu the "Swine Flu" kind of hard on the pigs? Isn't it enough that we use them for breakfast food and ham enough? Stay away from the pigs, you'll catch that flu and die. Especially those damned Mexican pigs. Everyone knows that south of the border no one can drink the water.

Oh hell, if all I am going to do is babble on, I might as well shut this train down. More from the station of IMHO in Tecumseh, By God, Kansas. And don't you forget it.

MUD