Shaky conservative

I don't write about politics much.  Part of this is because my own views are uncertain.  Part of it is that my views on a lot of things are more conservative than those of most people I know, and I don't want people to think less of me because of my views.  (Let's face it, people often do think less of other people if they find out that the other person has opposing views on political issues, especially if it is a very sensitive or emotional issue.)

Discussing my views in detail is much more than I have the time or energy to do now, but there are probably a few reasons why I often lean in a conservative direction.  First, there's family influence.  I grew up in a moderately conservative, Reagan-supporting suburban middle-class family.  Unlike many people with that background, I didn't grow up to oppose the ideas and values that I was brought up with.  I don't agree with all of them, but overall I think that most of them make sense.  The conservatism that I grew up with was somewhat moralistic, but not harshly judgmental.  It taught that people shouldn't be dependent on the government, but not that people should be completely left to their own devices no matter what.  It was patriotic, but not overly nationalistic or xenophobic.  I liked it then, and I still like it now.

Another thing that pushed me in the direction of conservatism was that many of the more liberal or left-leaning people I knew, while certainly good people, were a little bit more ... close-minded than the conservatives.  This goes against the common stereotype that conservatives are the narrow-minded ones, but I have often found it to be true.  If someone starts from the assumption that all conservatives, no matter what their actual ideas, are narrow-minded fools and bigots, then there really isn't any room for debate or discussion of any kind.  That attitude always rubbed me the wrong way, to put it mildly.


These days, everything is confused for me when it comes to politics.  I still think of myself as a conservative, and take that side of an argument more often than not, but the conservatism of recent years seems to be more harsh and intolerant than the variety that I grew up believing in.  I guess being harsh and intolerant doesn't necessarily make something wrong, but those have never been qualities that I liked very much.  I guess you could say that my conservatism is very shaky.

Maybe I should start writing about my political views.  Actually, I shouldn't.  There seem to be millions of bloggers writing about politics, and most of them know a lot more about the issues than I do!

Move along, nothing to see here

Nothing really blogworthy to report here.  I'm just going day to day, struggling with my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and waiting for warmer weather when there will be a little green outside.

Random comments

The good news: The temperature outside around 70 Fahrenheit and relatively dry.
The bad news: The air conditioning in my office with non-opening windows is busted, leaving current office temperature at about 82 degrees and humid, probably to rise over the course of the day.

The good news: I'm getting in about 3 miles of walking every day to and from the train station to work.
The bad news: I've fallen back into the habit of pigging out on junk food in the evenings, which more than nullifies any benefits from the extra walking as far as weight loss goes. I'm sure that the walking is still good for my health, though.)

On an unrelated note, I am tired of wiping up after folks who can't hit the toilet accurately in the men's room. People would be well-advised to remember the following little jingle from my childhood:

If you sprinkle when you tinkle
Please be neat, and wipe the seat

(I apologize if this was a case of TMI.)

Re: my posts

Sorry that I haven't been posting much besides garden and plant stuff lately. I haven't been feeling at my best mentally, I've felt tired a lot, and gardening and plants are the only things that have both made me both want to write and that I feel like I can write (semi-) coherently about. Every time I want to write something about history, my life, or some other issue, I start worrying if my post really is worthwhile or makes any sense or is pointless or will unnecessarily offend someone, or whether it accurately represents what I am really thinking, etc., etc. Frankly, I didn't start blogging to add another pointless obsessive self-imposed emotional burden to my life, so I avoid posting except for the few subjects that are free of this emotional baggage. (Given my talent for creating pointless self-imposed emotional burdens, I shouldn't be so surprised that this has happened.)

The same issue applies to a certain degree commenting on other peoples' blogs.

Hopefully this will pass.

Tired

Tired at all hours of the day. Tired enough to barely keep my eyes open sometimes. Tired enough to go in and out of a near-sleep state in front of my computer at work, in which my eyes are open but I am not conscious of my surroundings. Tired for no apparent reason. Tired in spite of getting enough sleep. Tired in spite of not being particularly stressed. Tired in spite of not feeling sick in any other way. Mystery tired. Not too worried - it happens occasionally. Hope it goes away.

Because I need to post something, dammit

I live a pretty dull life. I actually like it that way a lot of the time, but it does give me precious little worth writing about. Still, since not having anything momentously important to say hasn’t stopped millions of other bloggers, so why should it stop me? So, in no particular order ....


My youngest brother has been accepted into the physics doctoral program at Oxford. That's the Oxford in England, one of the world's more prestigious educational institutions. Yes, he's pretty smart. Not only can I not understand the sub-field that he specializes in - I can't even remember what it's called. (I'll have to ask him if he plans on trying to pick up an "Oxford accent" while he's there - that would be ... disturbing.)


Far less welcome was the news last Friday that my sister in law in Germany had to have surgery. She is apparently doing OK - nobody in the USA has heard from my brother since this past weekend, but since he would always contact us if there was a serious problem, we are going by the principle that no news is good news.


I have several important things that I need to start working on, the most important of which is looking for a new place to live. I have responded to these challenges so far in my usual fashion -- by procrastinating energetically.


I met an old friend who I hadn't seen in a couple of years for lunch this past weekend - he and his family seem to be doing pretty well, which is good news. We caught up on stuff that has been going on in our lives and reminisced about the "good ol' days" when we were growing up (in our case, mostly 80s and early 90s).


It's snowing here now - we're supposed to get mixed snow and rain for about the next 3 days. There isn't supposed to be too much accumulation, though, partly because the rain in the day will help melt the snow that fell at night. Unfortunately, all this freezing and thawing will probably make for a lot of ice on the roads.


There's more stuff that I don't have time to cover (or can't think of) at the moment, but it will have to wait ....