Left Of Center

[Dr. Shane]

Road Rage

Now does anyone want to claim this guy isn't a wacko?

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According to police, Winkler pulled up alongside Michelle Fernandez as she was headed south on Armenia and began beeping his horn and flailing his arms, pointing at her. Fernandez, meanwhile, could not see Winkler's face because of a handmade sign in his window that read, "Never forget Bush's illegal oil war murdered thousands in Iraq."

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[cricket]

He's one of God's children. I'll say that for sure!

(And, by the way, Shane, wacko isn't a very nice term.)

[Nicodema]

Shane, to put it politely, grow up. This sort of pettyness doesn't help improve the state of social or political discourse in our nation. Picking out someone having a fit and then faulting his view on the war as if his personal fit reflected on that view or vice versa is just plain juvenile -- and I think you are smart enough to know it.

[Dr. Shane]

There are a group of people out there (I won't mention names) that don't believe there are Bush-haters. They think the term "Bush hate" is just right wing language used to anger Left wingers. Now here we obviously have an fine example of a Bush hater. So we know it isn't just Whoopie Goldberg and Chevy Chase. I tend to think a lot of journalists are Bush haters.

[cricket]

Wackos, Bush-haters, Dense People...it's just not a good thing to call people names.

Each of us has a past. Each of us has struggles. But pointing fingers and calling names won't help anything. My point is simply, speak the truth and be kind--even in the face of adversity. Stand up for Godly priniciples--not for human opinions.

[Nicodema]

Calling people names tells more about the one doing it than the one it is being done to -- and that's the end of the issue, period.

[Dr. Shane]

The term "calling names" is a catch phrase. We call our pastor a name every time we address him as pastor. So obviously not all name calling is bad.

Words mean things and are our chief means of communications. A wacko in the political world is one that has made up his or her mind and is unwilling to listen to debate and consider the aurguments made. It is a person with whom one cannot reason. Thus a wacko. We find these on both the extreame Left and Right. Micheal Moore is a classic example on the Left and Timothy McVeigh is a classic example on the Right. I have met extreame right-wingers that actually believe it is God's will for them to have a Bible in one hand and a gun in the other. I call that a wacko.

Now if one cannot agree that the liberal in this story is a wacko I will start to wonder about their ability to see reality as it is. Normal people don't try to run others off the road because they have a political campain sticker on their car.

[cricket]

I will no longer be offended, then when someone calls you a dense wacko.

/chivalry off

[Bravus]

I think this guy had mental health issues, and they expressed themselves in political terms. If you start to ascribe those characteristics to all who share his political orientation, then you have to be willing to ascribe the characteristics of those who have mental health issues that take a religious form to all religious believers. Do we want to go that way?

[Dr. Shane]

Well I would not call someone mentally ill a wacko. Nor would I call someone a wacko because they hold a specific idealogy.

[Nicodema]

But you just did.

[Nicodema]

Calling people names for being mentally ill is not cool. It's like calling someone in a wheelchair "hey you cripple" or someone who is large "fatso" or even worse, someone who is of a particular ethnic background by some hate-word associated with the color of their skin. It's just not cool.

[Dr. Shane]

I did not call anyone that is mentally ill a name. Please don't follow me around here and accuse me of saying and doing things that I have not said or done.