Hurley's World

I am one of those strange people who can't really find a home in either political party, at least not right now. Or as Fred likes to say, I'm the first on the wall in the event of a revolution. I blame it on being a true, classical liberal and being a fan of the mixed economy. Even if I wanted to be a Democrat, I know for sure they would not want to have me. Numerous debates with Democrats, particularly Young Democrats, have convinced me of that. Yet, at the same time, the encroachment of the Religious Right on the Republican party just leaves me feeling sick and deeply disturbed.

It's actually the issue I have with most of the conservative talking heads present on TV and radio. Due to my evening commute, I mostly listen to Jay Severin and Laura Ingraham (a fellow Dartmouth graduate). Between the two I have to say that I agree with Jay more often than Laura, but that really isn't saying much. The problem I have with Jay, like many conservative talk show hosts, is that I agree with him usually on the first point, maybe even the second point, of his argument, and then he just goes crazy. For instance, he was recently talking about the North Korea issue and he was making some very good arguments and I was finding some common ground, and then he had to make the comment that he was saying this knowing full well that if North Korea were to successfully invade South Korea, fewer Korean women would make their way here. Jay, why did you have to go there? Overall, I find that (1) he often goes too far for my taste and (2) he too often refers to women in a sexual manner. Now, I realize that on the second point, he probably doesn't mean to do it as a way of making them seem or feel inferior, but given my own life experiences, it still pisses the heck out of me.

With Laura, as good as she is, she (at least her radio personality) and I just disagree on so many issues. Now how much of that is because it makes good entertainment and how much of it is related to actual philosophical differences, I know not. But I also feel that she is too quick call people names as a method of attacking rather than actually attacking people on their logic. I also feel that she is willing to go too far in dismantling our liberties under the mistaken impression that (1) it might make us safer and (2) the ends justify the means. I had the same feeling about Al Gore right after the attacks on September 11th.