Saturday, December 31, 2011

AARGH!!!!!!!

On a day as dreary as today and given its somewhat noteworthy position near the edge of the year,  I should have been reflecting on past mistakes, future endeavors, or at the least contemplating my naval.  Instead, I chose to attempt one more time to do two things that have been consistent in their refusal to bend to my will.

It all started with Twitter.  I have had a Twitter account I guess for a couple of years now.  In that time I have tweeted twice, have 4 followers, and I am supposedly following two others.  Obviously I have not gotten into the Tweeting thing.  Either that, or my existence on this planet is much sadder than even I thought it was.    So this morning I decided I would take one more hesitant step into the 21st century and figure out how Twitter works.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

A Spirit Driven Interlude

Words pour free as Guinness draft at an Irish wake.  Some words, phrases , crusts of thought savored harsh and slow.  Others tossed back quick. The writer sits hunched, crunched and through slitted eyes manages to make some sense.  His story slowly taking form, not a word he wasted.  No back tracking, he never second guessed.

A grand tale of love, heartbreak and sorrow spreads its wings.  Author, author why do you hesitate?  Is the moment so precious or is that a tear in your eye? 

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Life in the Slow Lane

I get so wrapped up in the silly details of my life sometimes, I don't notice the little things, the small events and efforts made by others that make my part of the world so special to me.  Today rather than put my nose to the grindstone here at the bike shop, I pulled one of my classic "Here physically, but not in spirit" routines.  I searched the local sites for news worth reporting to the larger world outside my small corner of Maine.

Predictably newsworthy events that might cause waves elsewhere were in short supply.  We locals tend to go about our business, go home, and cuddle up to Jeopardy or ESPN with a cool drink or maybe some local herb of the smoking kind.  We mind our own business for the most part and expect others to do the same..  Southern Maine is not a hotbed of controversy or extravagance.  If one is under 30 and single, life here is boooooring.  If one is married with children, it is still booooring but a much saner and safe environment than many other locales I can think of.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Another Christmas Tale - T 10 - Capstone

James knew today would be different the moment he opened his eyes and stared up at the cardboard ceiling of the box he had called home the last few days.  James did not dwell on the occasional and inconsequential buzzing of the what might bee's. Existence and survival depended on more mundane matters.  Scavenging a meal and hitting tourists up for enough change to score a bottle of Mad Dog 20/20 sweet wine were his daily concerns. The feeling something new was headed his way faded before he crawled out of that appliance box.

James began his daily schlep over to the Salvation Army kitchen up on Congress St.  The sensation something was out of sync returned just as he turned up Front St and onto it’s ancient cobblestones Portland kept in place for the atmosphere they added to the city's Old Salt working waterfront motif.  Down on Commercial Ave. the fish houses were opening their doors hoping  to off load big catches  for the fish mongers to filet..

Friday, December 23, 2011

The Missed Anniversary


 Last week I remembered  that my 7th year anniversary with this blog was coming up.  I thought it might be nice to write a post on that date making note of the auspicious occasion.  As I am the only one in charge of keeping track, it is so very typical that I blew it.  I have regularly forgotten more important dates than this one.  My wife's birthday comes to mind. Two years in a row I blew it.  The second one is still brought up as ammo by her when she needs to take me down a peg or two.  My daughter's birthday, more than a few wedding anniversaries and even my own birthday several times have been lost in the clutter I call my mind.  Unless someone mentions I missed them, I often do not notice for a week at least.


But over the last couple of years my track record has improved.  Wishing to keep up the good work, if only to satisfy myself, I checked my archived posts and I could have sworn the 7th anniversary fell on December 23.  All week I had planned to say a few words and maybe have a shot of Ezra Brooks to celebrate.............................Well I'll still have the shot.  I'm due anyway.

The Tea Party Mentality

Growing up in a politically aware conservative family, I was taught to consider the Left a bunch of loose dog lunatics who had no cohesive message.  According to family elders, the Left was comprised (Now this was in the 1960s) of commies, anarchists, and racists (Dixiecrats).  While the Right was a more gentile civilized group who honored loyalty and unified effort.  The Right wore suits from Brooks Brothers and hung out in board rooms, country clubs, and the many yacht basins found on both coasts.  The Left existed in the ghettos, the mills, and dark dirty dives where they  conjured up their traitorous mischief over bottles of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. The lines were clearly drawn,  Everyone it seemed was happy with this arrangement.

Then the Negroes finally found a unified voice and began loudly complaining about their station in Life.  Their efforts to that point had been erratic, hit or miss, no real leader had consolidated their message.  Martin Luther King and his coalition of bright angry blacks declared the current delusion of quiet peace and tranquility I call "Father Knows Best Era , Chapter One", was not going to continue.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Two BoZones Are Better Than One

I recently decided to make use of one of the blogs I created quite awhile ago.  It is Lost in the BoZone, The Other Dimension.  I created it solely to own the Name "Lost in the BoZone" on Blogger.  This "Lost in the BoZone" is actually HTTP-ed "The File Cabinet".  I changed the name almost immediately after coming up with "The File Cabinet"  I then posted to it for 4 years before I decided to claim the name I was using by registering it with Blogger.  Rather than swap everything over because I'm a lazy bastard at heart, I just let the new BoZone sit and gather dust while I continued to poison the Internets from The original BoZone.  It's all damn confusing and it really does not matter.  The point is I now plan to utilize "BoZone , the other dimension" to hold my fiction.  Specifically the longer fiction.  I will continue to use this blog for most of my posting.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Can Kicking and Stupid Women

Michelle Bachmann was asked this morning on NBC's Today Show why she was in Iowa instead of doing her job in Congress fighting the good fight against Obama and those evil Democrats over  the temporary extension of the payroll tax cuts.  Her reply was telling and so typical of the current mindset of the Right.

She blamed Obama for Congress not doing its job.  Yet she is wasting time running around Iowa instead of doing the job she is getting paid for.  She said and I paraphrase, "Why go back to DC when it won't do any good?" Right Michelle, that's the spirit.  Getting votes is so much more important than actually governing.

Who created the impasse now crippling Congress?  In my view and I suspect the view of a growing number of Americans is that the Republicans are seen as the problem.   Obama has backtracked so much trying to coddle the  stupidly stubborn Republicans acting like two year olds, he is looking more like a conservative than the liberal he has been labled by the right.  Boehner has lost control and the dumasses of the Right have the party by the balls.

Sure the two month extension is just kicking the can down the road.  But because her and her bonehead party have created this stalemate regarding a more permanent solution, the can once again absolutely needs to be kicked down the road.  If the extension does not go through, it will hurt her party much more than it will hurt Obama or the Democrats.

Later.........................................................................

Monday, December 19, 2011

How Congress Works Today

Rapidly changing events unfold  with such speed, by the time unintended consequences rear their ugly little heads, the unfolding events have moved on to other events emerging faster than the consequences can keep pace.  Negative results begin to logjam, becoming entwined and more complicated as they fuse together out of sight until eventually events not even on anyone's radar force them to panic mode and they back pedal in often fruitless effort to address what has already happened,  thereby weakening their readiness to deal with the next catastrophe on the horizon.  

Instead of stepping back to take the broader view, and spend a few minutes catching their breath, they quickly look to their respective ideologies for excuses rather than allowing time for common sense to seep to the top.  Distracted and fooled into thinking all of these unfolding events are not inter-connected, they address each as individuals rather than as the mob that has really shown up at their door.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

The Best Fight Ever

So I'm abusing the Hell out of google last night and searching out information or images on anything that pops into my mind.  Yeah I know.  Get a life or something close, but what the hell, it beat sitting numb and dumb in front of the tube.

I google my name.  I google my brothers names.  I google my mom's name, Hell I go through the family one member at a time.  Nothing new really.  Then I googled "Charlotte Hall, images".  Jack pot.  I am looking at images, old and new, of the area that was named after the military school I attended in southern Maryland back in the 1960s.  There are few school buildings standing now.  They were in tough shape when I went there.  After the school closed about 1976, they fell into disrepair and most were razed when the property was turned into a Veteran's home.

One of the buildings still there has been restored and is apparently one of the finest examples of American Gothic architecture in the state of Maryland.  When I had to use it, it was just a church.  It is called the Dent Memorial Chapel.  It was built in 1884.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Pro-Life vs Pro-Choice

The article that fired me upFrom Right Wing Watch

First some history to tie this post in with my own past.

My girlfriend my freshman year in college (1970/71) became pregnant.  I won't go into the nuts and bolts of her decision to abort, but let's just say, I chose to support her decision, no matter what she came up with.  It was my first exposure to the world of  Planned Parenthood.   At that time the Feds had yet to weigh in on the controversy of abortion on demand.  It was still in the hands of the individual states.  Roe v Wade would not happen until 1973.  Maryland was a state that allowed abortion.   

Friday, December 16, 2011

Who Runs the GOP?

I was sure the GOP was on a steep downhill trend back in the 1980s.  I figured it would hit bottom sooner or later and they would begin to show signs of sanity again.  I guess I need to have more patience. But let's face it, thirty years is an awfully long time to watch a party continue to fall.  Maybe there is no bottom because they are hard into a an ideological free fall into a pit with no bottom.  Maybe it is the proverbial corner and being painted into it by their own rigid set of ideals.  Whatever it is, the GOP have definitely become slaves to an unrealistic agenda and are now tools of fringe ideologues whose oars only intermittently hit the water in smooth strokes.  Those intermittent strokes of sanity seem to be less frequent each day the presidential election inches closer.  Their panic boldly displayed as they have begun to turn on themselves in ugly public displays more common among bickering Democrats.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

The Drudge Retort Report

I have been under the weather these past few days.  I missed quite a bit of what is happening out there in the big world.  So I punched up the Drudge Retort - The site set up to counter the Drudge Report.  The headlines are always written to catch the eye and several did.

Chris Wallace contends that should Ron Paul win the Iowa Caucus, it is not a victory for Paul, but a defeat for the Iowa Caucus.   Hmm.  Ron Paul gets no respect even when he polls with serious numbers.  I hope he runs a Ralph Nader style candidacy. 

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Where's the White People?

I ran across the video below over to Reality Zone.  It is a report on the current state of affairs in Motown.  What struck me while viewing it was not the financial trouble Detroit is having.  That has been an ongoing problem for like forever.  It was the video itself.

The news voice, a pleasant sounding woman with a Brit accent, tells us the population back in the hey day of American dominance in the auto industry was around two million.  Factories churned out cars, mills baked and bent metal, and Detroit existed happily as a show piece of American economic power.

Friday, December 09, 2011

Labels


People love labels.  We humans seem to want to label everything.  We put labels on clothes, on pillows, on ourselves and on other people.  We do not seem to care if the labels we assign ourselves or each other fit into the definition of what that label originally meant.  We do not seem to care what someone else labels themselves if we have decided on a label for them we like instead.  You are not a Conservative, you are a Fascist.  You are not a Liberal, you are a Communist or maybe a socialist.  Seems those two have become unfairly and inextricably entwined with each other because like our joy at mixing metaphors, we just love mixing labels.

Thursday, December 08, 2011

Religious Freedom

So yesterday I blogged my disdain for those who would inject specific  "traditional values" into our lives whether we wanted them or not.  Again I feel the need to offer up some kind of counter to my previous post.  Neither side of this debate is guilt free when it comes to wanting to shove their values down our throat.

The Tim Tebow hoopla.  I don't care one way or the other about Tim Tebow.  I wish him well unless he is playing my Pats, then the gloves are off.  But I have no opinion of him wearing his faith on his sleeves, under his eyes or his tendency to drop to bended knee and thank the almighty for that touchdown pass.  He has the right to do so, period.

Wednesday, December 07, 2011

Traditional Values

Tom Harper over to "Who Hijacked Our Country" wrote a post about Obama and his Presidential condemnation of world wide gay discrimination.  Pop over to see what it's all about.  I have another bone to pick regarding something I read in his post.

The catch phrases used by one side to beat down the other side get very old after awhile.  I would think the firebrands would hire someone to freshen up the rhetoric.  Of course the political suitors have no regard for the intelligence of their audience.  The audience apparently does not mind.  So why should I whine about it?  I guess it is because every time I hear certain words in certain combinations over and over again I get a little irritated which can, if I am exposed too many times within a short enough period of time, make me go slightly bonkers and rip off a rant here instead of stomping out back to my neighbor's house with my chainsaw to cut down that damn 40 foot cross he erected to let everyone know he is a God fearing man.

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

The Haunted House

A man of means and importance dies unjustly and what happens?  Legends begin, lies become facts, and things start bumping around in the night.

Many ghost stories we read about are the creations of writers who wish to entertain us through fictional renderings of the terrors we all think up from time to time. But many ghost stories are born from factual events. 

Such is the case of a Great great great great , not sure how many greats - Grandfather of mine.  He was legally hanged on trumped up charges in 1788 and not long after locals began to claim his ghost still wandered the family home he had built.  It is a real house that once had a husband, a wife and 12 children pass in and out on a daily basis. Eventually though, the saga of John Roberts lll overwhelmed it's reality and it joined the ranks of local legend in Lower Merion, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia.

Monday, December 05, 2011

The Traitor or "Respublica v. John Roberts" - A diifferent perspective - Kinda

First of all I would have rather been related to John Roberts, the pirate.  And I guess it is possible there is a connection.  He came from Wales and my family on that side came from Wales at the same time he was an up and coming Pirate of fame and ill repute.  Apparently there were too many Roberts in Wales.  It must have been damn confusing.

Instead of the pirate I have to settle for having a traitor to the Revolution in my past.  Hardly as romantic as being related to a pirate who dies with his sword in hand and veins in his teeth.  But then my relative was hanged*. That's kinda cool.  It is also very cool that according to one historian, Williard Sterne Randall, it was the trial of John Roberts that caused Benedict Arnold to go public with his opposition to the radical Whigs and their lust to go after Tories.  Had he not publicly supported clemency for the Loyalists, his name may never have been inextricably entwined with the word "traitor". 

Sunday, December 04, 2011

The Traitor

Rummaging around my ancestral past has gotten very interesting.

My middle name will now be a constant reminder of my relationship to a traitor in my past.  My middle name will also  remind me that Life is not fair, it never has been, nor will it ever be.....fair.   Life is a crap shoot and no matter how covered we think our asses are, events can combine to ruin anyone's day.

Of course like so many tales from 235 years ago, the truth or facts are often muddled as they  pass down from one family member to another.  But the facts of this story are indisputable. Only the reasons are muddled and mysterious.  It is a fact  that 3 signers of the Declaration of Independence tried to get his death sentence commuted.  And some years after he was hanged until dead, his wife had what property that had not been sold or redistributed returned to her and she was provided with a small pension courtesy of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  I assume this was the government's way of saying, "Oops, we screwed up.  Sorry about that."

This part of my journey into the family past began with the picture above.  It is photograph of a pen & ink drawing one of my forebears, Charles Hamlet Roberts drew of the Roberts Mill near Philadelphia.  He drew it at age 17.  Kid had some talent.

I grew up with this picture hanging prominently in whatever house we lived in.  It now hangs in mine.  Hanging on each side of it are photos of my  Great Grandfather Spencer Roberts and my Great Grandmother Elisabeth Taylor Roberts.  From what I can gather, Spencer might be the traitor's grandson.  I have not been able to fill in the void of about 60 years between Spencer and the traitor.  But Spencer ran the Mill, a strong indication of direct lineage.

I googled "Roberts Mill, Pennsylvania".  One link lead to another, lead to another until I eventually found the following story.

In yesterday's post, I mentioned that one set of ancestors, the Spencers, had set up shop in America in the mid 1600's.  The Roberts also settled here in the 1600s.  1682 or 83 to narrow it down.  John Roberts left Wales and acquired a sizable piece of land directly from William Penn who essentially owned Pennsylvania at the time.  Penn was a well to do Englishman and a Quaker.  He envisioned creating a Quaker paradise out of the sight and mind of the intolerant attitudes and laws of England.   Religious freedom it seems is what brought the Roberts to this country.  Making money was what brought the Spencers.  Regardless, both  considered America as their way to a better life.

John Roberts built the second grist mill  to be erected in Pennsylvania.  Once he had it running, he built a solid business through hard work at the mill and farming his rather large land holding.  He had one son, John Roberts ll who took over when he died.  John the Second was not a healthy man.  Less than a year after he married, he died.  Four months later John Roberts lll was born

John Roberts lll was the prosperous one..  Under his stewardship, the family business blossomed.  He acquired more land, more mills, farmed more land, ground more grain, milled more lumber, and the Roberts became one of the wealthiest families in Pennsylvania at that time.  Naturally success like that created frictions with neighbors, competitors, and any number of people who would covet what John lll had built.  Add in the fact that he was a Quaker and it follows that he might have made enemies.

During this time of business expansion, the Colonists were becoming more dissatisfied with what many considered the overbearing control of the King of England.  They revolted.  Everyone knows or should have an inkling about this war.  If not, then go back to school ferchrisakes.  Many of the Quakers tried to stay out of the fray as a main tenet of their religion was refusal to participate in war..  They were anti-slavery, did not believe in drinking alcohol, and swearing oaths was out of the question.

John lll was fed up with marauding British and Colonial armies sweeping through his area and taking what they wanted.  I am guessing being a businessman, he figured they ought to pay for what they took.  So he heads to British controlled Philadelphia and petitions the commander there to ante up or stop taking his shit.  He was pressed into service by the British and forced to guide some of their patrols as they went on foraging missions.  He did not volunteer and was released from their custody when the British left Philadelphia.

The British finally surrendered at Yorktown, went home to England leaving a mess behind for the Colonists to make sense of.  The tumultuous period right after the Revolutionary War was full of sleaze bags among the new Americans taking advantage of their own.  John Roberts was accused of being a Tory by a man he had had a land dispute with.  He was arrested in a sweep that rounded up over a hundred people.  Only he and one other man were actually held for trial.  I am not sure about the other guy, but my namesake was hanged on November 4, 1788.  Hanged even though almost a thousand people had signed clemency petitions including American military officers and three signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Immediately after he died, much of his confiscated land and properties were sold secretly to several of his "competitors" from the same area.  Eventually some of it was returned to his widow  in 1792 along with a small pension to help carry her through to her death.

And this is what I learned yesterday about my family in between  bike tune ups and phone calls on a typical off season Saturday screwing the pooch.  The Internet is really a great tool for a fool like me.

More to come................................................

Saturday, December 03, 2011

Lost Treasure

Maybe it is that I am no longer young and numb, having worn out the young leaving just the numb. Maybe it is because I find myself less connected to the Present world as it spins by me.  Or maybe it is because two people, one on the west coast and one on the east coast independently contacted me within two weeks of each other.  Both were inquiring about my family's past.  Regardless, I find myself becoming fascinated by the chain of events and people who participated in them creating the flow of history that has me playing a bit part here in Maine some 350 years later.

First it was my cousin on my mom's side.  I opened my email one morning and there was "Ancestry.com" notifying me that I had been added to a family tree - the Faulkners of San Francisco.  I located my cousin whom I had not seen for over 25 years and set him straight on a couple of family miscues on the tree.  He had my grandfather right on my father's side but not my grandmother.  He also had questions regarding what I might know about the Faulkners as passed down from my mom.  Unfortunately, I had precious little as it turned out.

Then yesterday, a journalism student from Pennsylvania contacted me through the Acton Library.  She was researching my grandfather, Dr. Robert Shuter Macrum of Sewickley, PA who had died in 1913 at the age of 45.  A professor had taken her class to a cemetery in Germantown, PA and told them to pick a headstone and do a biography.  She picked my grandfather's.  Again I was not of much help other than supplying her with some images and a few kernels of history I had managed to collect by just being around family gatherings at the right time.  I actually learned more from her than she did from me.

It appears that one branch of my family has been here since the mid 1600s and were original lessees of land from William Penn.  It also appears I have noble Brit blood flowing in my veins and she found a history dating back to the 1000's.  That's 1000 years ago.  My mind is blown now.

I found out  two of my ancestors died in the Neshaminy Flood of 1683 that swept through Bucks County, PA.  Their two sons, having been orphaned, were sent back to Barbados to live with relatives until they came of age.  One at least returned to try and reclaim his family's land.  He had two sons and died in 1705 in or around Philadelphia.  He bequeathed his two sons the princely sum of 20 pounds apiece once they reached the age of 21.  They had a long wait.  They were about ages 4 and 6 when he died.  Apparently he was a merchant of some kind as the rest of his will was about dispensing with a barrel of rum, some bolts of cloth, beads and other valuable commodities of that era.

I am now bitten with a new quest.  We'll see if I have it in me to chase down more of the history of my family.  I supposedly have connections to the very area I live in now through my mom's family.  It will be interesting to look into.

Later....................................................

Friday, December 02, 2011

Crotch Face Revisits Blogging Etiquette

I figured it was time to reaquant myself bone up again on the current do's and don'ts of blogging just to see if anything had changed.  I googled "Blogging Etiquette" and surprise, surprise, it is still a go to subject when one has nothing else to write about.  Not that I have nothing else to write about.  Other folks have nothing to write about.  Me, well, I can pretty much write about anything, even crap I know nothing about.  Like Blogging Etiquette fer instance.

Of the 4.6 million hits that pertained to or mentioned Blogging Etiquette, I visited I guess maybe 5.  More than enough to realize that change has happened but nothing really new other than the good form one should practice when Facebook Liking, Tweeting, RSS-ing, and using permalinks.  Nothing to do with me I thought.  I don't tweet,  I don't like Facebook, and what the Hell is RSS and permalinks anyway?  If I don't know about them, they must not be a problem.

I only began this investigation after once more fielding some wonderful comments on my timeless post "Wingers with Woodies", the post that keeps on giving.  Apparently some of my recent visitors to that post have not read or maybe comprehended some of the basic rules of civilized interactions  we bloggers of experience have come to take for granted. 

If the basic rules I just re-read are to be followed, it is bad form to call the writer of the post a "Crotch Face" or "Mac-scum", or one of my favorites, "Idiot".   As I don't mind being called anything, I understand that many people out there get all flustered when being assaulted with abusive language.  So when I visit someone's blog, I do try to fit in with the ongoing atmosphere.  If it is a no holds barred blog, I hold no bars.  If it is a polite, don't want to piss anyone off blog, I keep my ever ready nasty comments to myself.  With this in mind, I have to say that no one who made derogatory comments on the Winger post was out of line.  I started it and deserved every comment I received.  I can swim with scum or dance with the civilized folk.  And based on my profile picture, I can understand someone confusing my face for a crotch.  And as to being an Idiot, well, I proudly go where smarter men fear to tread.

With all this information and data sifted, collated, and parked in the right spots, I continued my investigation into what polite bloggers do.  I especially liked the one hint - "Do not be afraid to delete a derogatory comment.  It is your blog and a derogatory comment can often undermine the conversation from more on topic comments."

"Hmm", I thought and looked at the ceiling.  I noticed one of the ceiling tiles was cracked and uh, oh where was I?  Oh Yeah, "Hmm", I thought.  "It is indeed my blog.  I can do anything I want."  I choose to leave the nasty comments because they point up just how insane people get when one of their heroes is slighted.  If I am going to post obnoxious posts, I should be stand up and publish obnoxious comments also.  To only let the choir sing would be dishonest.  If I pissed someone off then I should let everyone know it.  It's the least I can do.

Keep it 'tween the ditches.......................................

Thursday, December 01, 2011

Anonymous Said

Below is a comment posted to my "Winger With Woodies" post yesterday.  I wrote the post almost 2 years ago.  I liked this comment so much, I thought I would share.  The comment is not even close to being on topic.  But I assume whoever wrote this feels much better now.  I live to serve.

"How do you know a liberal is lying? Answer - when their lips are moving! Those on the left have no class, none, nada, zip. Your blog is just another pile of garbage designed to appeal to the senseless mob. You are in a word - pathetic.

Dana Perino has more class in one strand of her blonde hair than you and those like you could ever hope to accumulate in your pathetic lifetimes.

Ugh, you all make me so sick. WHy don't you all fly down to Cuba and hang out with your fellow leftists. While you're there, check out the poverty, the homelessness, the depravity, and the helplessness. That's what the left would like to bring to the USA. While you're there, check out the void between the have's and the have-not's in Cuba. You bitch and whine about income gaps between the rich and the middle class here, wait til you get a load of the divide in your commie mate's backyard.

Food for thought, loser. While I will readily condemn you for your ignorance, Dana Perino never will. She has too much stuff for the likes of you. You don't deserve her benefit of the doubt."

How should I react to this?  I mean, how should I respond once I stop laughing.  This person was obviously serious.  And if not, they did a damn fine job of imitating the "Free Republic" Freeper persona.  I used to dice it out with mental giants like this back in the day of newsgroups in the 1990s.  Any thin skin I may have still had was beefed up by that experience.

So is snarky and sarcastic the way to go?  Or do I treat this comment seriously and address the specific complaints and accusations?  Or maybe I should point out the fact that the comment has absolutely nothing to do with my post?  Hmm.  What to do?  If nothing else I should thank them for giving me something to post today.

I'll come up with something.