Saturday, April 4, 2009

RADICAL, DUDE, RADICAL

Don't tell him I said so, but one of my favorite reads, blogwise, is: A Radical Perspective.

The radical, who refers to himself as TAO, is a good writer and a logical thinker.

While he gives himself a little more credit than he actually deserves, not more than most of us do.

(One of my favorite brand new old sayings is: "Make me a list of the opinions you hold that you think are wrong. If you think they are wrong, why do you hold them?")

At any rate, it is not my purpose here to magnify TAO as a blogger, rather to let you know that there are more ways of looking at things than just "ultra right" or "ultra left."

One of the interesting things about him is that when he leaves comments on blogs around cyberspace, he often comes across as an "anti-person," that is, someone who is against whatever you say...and sometimes he is.

When you read his blog, on the other hand, you get a real feeling that he is someone who really cares about our country and has some honest ideas about what is being done wrong, or right, and what can be done about them.

I don't agree with him all the time.

For instance, often he makes some point which I understand, like: "I personally want to know that if I have a stream running through my property and I use it for drinking water then I do not want some slob upstream dumping his waste in water I use for drinking."

Then he ruins it with the phrase: "THAT is exactly what government is all about."

One might say, "Well and good," but from his context one would conclude that he believes that is what the FEDERAL government is all about.

At that point, he and I would part company.

I would say, "THAT is exactly what local governments are for. And local governments are much easier for the people to control."

The problem, in my mind, feeble though it may be, is that the federal government must have very restricted powers (listed in the Preamble to the Constitution), and leave the rest to state, county, city and other local bodies to deal with.

That's a lot harder than just turning everything over to the feds, but it has been the basic (though far from perfect) approach for over 230 years, and has served us well.

In fact, every time the feds have become overly involved in our daily lives, it has cost us as a nation in terms of both freedom and GNP.

The idea of the men who put together this great experiment called The United States of America, was to carefully balance the freedoms of individuals and the involvement of the federal government.

It would have been a heresy to them to give deference to some action that took freedoms from the individual simply because someone saw it as necessary "for the greater good."

They believed that the greater good was served by lessening the involvement of the centralized government in favor of state and local governments.

TAO and I (and maybe you, too) agree on many things regarding the problems we face and the complications of solving those issues. We disagree on the proper approach to solving those problems.

Nevertheless, I think you'll find him very interesting, very thought provoking, and even fun to read.

He will give you A Radical Perspective.


NOTE TO TAO: Please fax your check over to me ASAP, for, as you know, these are difficult economic times.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sorry...we can not agree on that one.
No way, No how!

Joe said...

New York Guy's View: Do you mean you cannot agree that TAO's blog is interesting, that you cannot disagree with my disagreement with him, or that you are just disagreeing on general principles?

sue said...

Well, Joe, I'm jealous that you have endorsed TAO's blog. But I'm sure he appreciates it!

sue said...

P.S. Did you see that A NYG's View lists Jaws as one of his favorite movies?

Joe said...

Sue: Do not mistakenly think that because it is one of my favorite reads it is also one of my favorite blogs.

I read him every day (for the reasons I listed in my post), just as I read your blog every day.

New York Guy's reaction suggested that he does not approve of me liking to read TAO's blog.

Actually, I read lots of blogs every day. My favorites are listed in my blog roll...there because there is something I like about the way they express themselves, whether or not I agree with them.

My very favorite blog is The Audacity of Barry O , because of it's funny approach to complaining about President BO.

sue said...

Joe - I agree that it is good to read many blogs, whether you like them or not.

But I got started reading Conservative blogs, and now I'm trying to even it out some.

Joe said...

New York Guy: I got to wondering...was your disagreement with me over my belief that a large central government is bad, or that local control of things is better, or what?

Anonymous said...

Joe, I'm thinking he probably doesn't agree with you regarding TAO. I on the other hand have learned a lot from him. When I first met him we really got off on the wrong foot, but after time I think we both found we had a lot more in common than we had originally thought. His blog is very interesting even though we don't always agree. He doesn't fit into a certain category and I think that is why so many conservatives have a problem with him. I agree it is a worthy rea!

TAO said...

Joe,

Your check is in the mail...

I normally try to speak about "government" in a general sense: local, state, and federal.

I also realize that alot of the issues we have with government are not so much governmental as they are social: There are some really evil people in the world and some of them occupy some pretty high offices in our political and economic system.

I do believe that our government should represent THE PEOPLE. Not business and not special interests; it should act to protect us from the threats that are posed when economic interests or special interests get too powerful.

What we have now is collusion and it has brought this country to a serious point in our history.

I want our government to play a totally different role in our lives than most conservatives do and than most liberals do.

I never expected to be well liked Joe, because I refuse to submit to the conservative and or the liberal talking points.

Been around the block more than once and I am too old to drink the kool aid...

I only started my blog to make people THINK...not to change anyones mind or promote my own agenda.

I will always be the one that posts the comments that annoy people...its not my opinion that matters, because truthfully, who cares what I think or believe....

Its just to make people think.

Joe said...

TAO: I though so.

Tapline said...

Joe, as usual you have an excellent post and I do, most of the time agree with what you are trying to put across you do much research on your post and I for one appreciate its content...as far aas Tao is concerned I have not, that I recall read his blog, but I shall forthwith....stay well...