Look you Clown... It's Tolerance and Civility

[Warph]

Tolerance:
1.  A fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one's own; freedom from bigotry.

2.  Interest in and concern for ideas, opinions, practices, etc., foreign to one's own; a liberal, undogmatic viewpoint.

Look, tolerance does not mean you agree with everything that other people say, or that you subordinate your own best instincts to the tyranny of mass opinion.  It simply means you pretend not to know that everyone on the planet but you is a total freaking moron.


Intolerance:
1.  Lack of toleration; unwillingness or refusal to tolerate or respect contrary opinions or beliefs, persons of different races or backgrounds, etc.

2.  Incapacity or indisposition to bear or endure.

The most unforgivable thing about intolerance is, by its inherent assumption that one group, belief or lifestyle is superior to another, it fails to take into account the ultimate truth which binds us all, black,white and asian; gay, transgender and straight; Republican, Democrat and Libertarian; Arab and Israeli; Hindu and Muslim; Catholic and Protestant; Serb and Croat; Hutu and Tutsi: the fact that, at the end of the day, we are all equal pains-in-the-ass, in the eyes of the Lord.

Which leads me to Civility and Incivility.



The following took place at a Town Hall Meeting between State Senator Palmer Wingate III (R) and hot-head Joe Blow:


Joe Blow: "Those dirty lousy jerks at my company can put a sock in it!"

State Senator:: "Ah, yes, you illustrate the findings of a new study that incivility is growing in the workplace."

Joe: "My co-workers are almost as bad as the jerk politicians who are running our country into the ground!"

C/M: "You illustrate another recent survey's findings that political discourse is also becoming less civil."

Joe: "The country's going down the toilet. Nobody's in the mood to be civil!"

S/S: "Well Joe... it is Joe, right?  The first study makes some obvious findings.  Companies have laid off workers and are running lean.  People lucky to have jobs must pick up the slack.  They are working long hours."

Joe: "Yeah, every Friday, my co-workers and I say the same thing: only two more working days until Monday."

S/S:"As for incivility in political discourse, the cause is also obvious.  After years of borrowing our way to prosperity.... remember how people took out home-equity loans to buy nice stuff?.... the bills have come due."

Joe: "But the wife and I couldn't pass up that home-equity dough or the big-screen TVs, vacations and gas-guzzling SUV it bought us!"

S/S: "Government entitlements have grown so big, they must be overhauled.  Excessive government spending must end.  Some want to address these challenges now, whereas others are in denial."

Joe: "Who doesn't want to cut wasteful government spending?  We all agree on that!"

S/S: "Really?  How about cutting Social Security?  Reason magazine says it will grow from nearly $600 billion to nearly $1 trillion in only eight years as baby boomers retire."

Joe: "I'll hand over my Social Security check when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers."

S/S: "How about Medicare then, Joe?  It is projected to nearly double to $932 billion in 2018.  Democrats created an independent panel to cut Medicare spending as part of their health care reform bill."

Joe: "But my elderly mother just had her hip replaced.  If Medicare doesn't cover the cost, she'll have to tap my inheritance!"

S/S: "No doubt we are in difficult times that call for drastic actions.  No wonder incivility is on the rise.  But civility is essential to solving our problems."

Joe: "You're going to have to explain that one."

S/S: "Surely you've heard of Judith Martin, better known as Miss Manners.  She argues that civility is the heart of a well-functioning society."

Joe: "Sounds like something that old bird would say."

S/S: "She says manners and etiquette are the philosophical basis of civilization... that people must have a common language of behavior that restrains their impulses.  She says this is how we prevent our communal lives from being abrasive, unpleasant, even explosive."

Joe: "I ain't following."

S/S: "Look Joe, America has some serious problems.  Rudeness and name-calling will only stand in the way of solving these problems as I told my friend Warph over there whose hitting the buffet for the fourth time. He finally agreed with me on this issue, Joe...  we need to get hold of ourselves and, in a civil, orderly manner, do what Americans have always done."

Joe: "Pour Worcestershire sauce in our co-workers' coffee when they aren't looking?"

S/S: "We need to look squarely at our problems, identify a mix of solutions from every political point of view, then come together to work out the solutions...  just as we've solved many daunting problems in our nation's history."

Joe: "If you say so... you perverted jerk!"

[Mom70x7]

Love it - Thanks! 

[Ross]

I don't know if this is a fit or not, I kind of think it does. If you don't feel it fit's let me know and I will delete it.

I wasn't asked to voluntarily accept SS, it was the law to by in. I paid in for 55 years therefore it is not an entitlement as I see it. It was a forced payment from all of my paychecks to purchase retirement insurance therefore owed to me.

Remember, not only did you contribute to Social Security but your employer did too. It totaled 15% of your income before taxes. If you averaged only $30K over your working life, that's close to $220,500.

If you calculate the future value of $4,500 per year (yours & your employer's contribution) at a simple 5% (less than what the govt. Pays on the money that it borrows), after 49 years of working you'd have $892,919.98.

If you took out only 3% per year, you'd receive $26,787.60 per year and it would last better than 30 years (until you're 95 if you retire at age 65) and that's with no interest paid on that final amount on deposit! If you bought an annuity and it paid 4% per year, you'd have a lifetime income of $2,976.40 per month.

The folks in Washington have pulled off a bigger Ponzi scheme than Bernie Madhoff ever had.

Entitlement my ass, I paid cash for my social security insurance!!!! Just because they borrowed the money, doesn't make my benefits some kind of charity or handout!!

Congressional benefits ---- free healthcare, outrageous retirement packages, 67 paid holidays, three weeks paid vacation, unlimited paid sick days, now that's welfare, and they have the nerve to call my social security retirement entitlements?

We're "broke" and can't help our own Seniors, Veterans, Orphans, Homeless

In the last months we have provided aid to Haiti , Chile , and Turkey . And now Pakistan ......home of bin Laden. Literally, BILLIONS of DOLLARS!!!

Our retired seniors living on a 'fixed income' receive no aid nor do they get any breaks while our government and religious organizations pour Hundreds of Billions of $$$$$$'s and Tons of Food to Foreign Countries!

They call Social Security and Medicare an entitlement even though most of us have been paying for it all our working lives and now when it's time for us to collect, the government is running out of money. Why did the government borrow from it in the first place? Imagine if the *GOVERNMENT* gave 'US' the same support they give to other countries.

Sad isn't it?

[Catwoman]

Ross...You missed the entire meaning of what Warph wrote...It wasn't a commentary on SS...It was a commentary on civility and tolerance.  Go back and re-read it.