Quote of the Week...from Clint Eastwood

Maybe I'm getting to the age when I'm starting to be senile or nostalgic or both, but people are so angry now.  You used to be able to disagree with people and still be friends.  Now you hear these talk shows, and everyone who believes differently from you is a moron and an idiot.           ---Clint Eastwood

I'm a fan of Clint Eastwood's movies...especially the early westerns...and have noted his political leanings over the years as well. A pragmatic conservative who supports minority rights as well as avoiding overseas military conflicts, he is usually in the general center of the political spectrum.  And I've noticed that this position can bring out a lot of antagonism from folks mired in ideology and partisanship...although not from me.  That's why he disappointed me at the 2012 Republican Convention that nominated Mitt Romney for president when he ranted on for ten minutes at an empty chair onstage, pretending that President Obama was sitting in it and putting vulgar expressions in the absent president's mouth...to the ecstatic cheers and laughter of the attendees. It drew out my scorn for Eastwood...and most likely unintentionally helped contribute to Obama's reelection that year as it did NOT play well on TV.  The irony was that his objection to the president was rooted in the increased military focus on Afghanistan, something that many conservatives supported: politics can get pretty convoluted!  Anyway, fast forward eight years and we find Eastwood opposing Trump and endorsing centrist candidate Michael Bloomberg in the Democratic primaries...so his political leanings are by no means bound to one party.  I've forgiven the dude for that earlier diatribe and see his above quote as a marker for our times.  As for me, I tend to politically divide the people around me not so much by whether they lean Republican or Democratic as by how vocal and adamant they are about openly pushing their opinions on me and others.  Look, I watch the news and can read...I don't need someone regurgitating almost verbatim something they picked up on some talk radio or TV show, usually with an insulting jab aimed at the "other side".  I do know that the hosts of many of these shows specialize in demonizing the opposition, and if you're a regular listener then you're liable to fall under their sway and begin to emulate their contemptuous attitudes.  I used to listen to both conservative and liberal opinion shows but can no longer handle the vitriol that is disguised as public discourse. If that's your cup of tea then good luck with it... just keep it off my wave, as the late Chris Cornell of Soundgarden once sang ...