{"id":749,"date":"2011-01-12T17:42:55","date_gmt":"2011-01-12T17:42:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2011\/01\/the-augean-stables-of-the-mind.html"},"modified":"2011-01-12T17:42:55","modified_gmt":"2011-01-12T17:42:55","slug":"the-augean-stables-of-the-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2011\/01\/the-augean-stables-of-the-mind.html","title":{"rendered":"The Augean Stables of the mind"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just finished a long and utterly pointless attempt to make a rational argument to a sometime contributor to this blog who was complaining that liberals were distorting stuff after the murders in Tucson.  There are links on my Facebook wall<\/a> if anyone want to go there.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
The final straw was when he tried to tell me that Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter were only “satirists.”  At that point I realized I was arguing with a fellow who lived in a hermetically sealed universe.  Nice guy too, so long as we operate within his universe which, while small, overlaps  in most areas with larger ones.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Meanwhile in MY universe Arizona Republicans, one anyway, are leaving office because of threats from other Republicans<\/a>. <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And a South Carolina gun maker issues commemorative assault rifle parts<\/a> able to convert it to fully automatic mode that honors SC Representative Joe Wilson’s outburst against Obama: “You lie.” <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I despair for my country and increasingly think our greatest chance to maintain freedom may be to secede from those whose self-chosen universe cuts themselves off from rational discourse with the rest of us.They may feel the same way and I no longer care so long as they do not kill people.   <\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
When a people breaks into groups no longer able to communicate, it is time for that people to divorce as amicably as possible.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
UPDATE<\/b><\/div>\n
Relevant Thomas Jefferson insight below the fold<\/div>\n


\nWhen discussing whether the Louisiana Purchase had made the US so big it might split, Thomas Jefferson wrote Joseph Priestly in 1804<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I confess I look to this
\nduplication of area for the extending a government so free and economical as
\nours, as a great achievement to the mass of happiness which is to ensue.  <\/span>Whether we remain in one confederacy,
\nor form into Atlantic and Mississippi confederacies, I believe is not very
\nimportant to the happiness of either part.  <\/span>Those of the western confederacy will be as much our
\nchildren & descendants as those of the eastern, and I feel myself as much
\nidentified with that country in future time as with this . . . .<\/p>\n

 It may take another decade or two, but if the so-called “conservatives” cannot begin to interact with the rest of the country on principles of constructive respect, American politics will continue to degenerate until both sides will rather go their own ways than put up with one another. I would much rather certain states be independent and pursue their own vision of “freedom” than to continue ruining our attempts at improving our lives.  If they feel the same way, good.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just finished a long and utterly pointless attempt to make a rational argument to a sometime contributor to this blog who was complaining that liberals were distorting stuff after the murders in Tucson.  There are links on my Facebook wall if anyone want to go there. The final straw was when he tried to tell…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Augean Stables of the mind - A Pagan's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2011\/01\/the-augean-stables-of-the-mind.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Augean Stables of the mind - A Pagan's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Just finished a long and utterly pointless attempt to make a rational argument to a sometime contributor to this blog who was complaining that liberals were distorting stuff after the murders in Tucson.  There are links on my Facebook wall if anyone want to go there. The final straw was when he tried to tell…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2011\/01\/the-augean-stables-of-the-mind.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Pagan's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-01-12T17:42:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gus diZerega\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Augean Stables of the mind - A Pagan's Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2011\/01\/the-augean-stables-of-the-mind.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Augean Stables of the mind - A Pagan's Blog","og_description":"Just finished a long and utterly pointless attempt to make a rational argument to a sometime contributor to this blog who was complaining that liberals were distorting stuff after the murders in Tucson.  There are links on my Facebook wall if anyone want to go there. The final straw was when he tried to tell…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2011\/01\/the-augean-stables-of-the-mind.html","og_site_name":"A Pagan's Blog","article_published_time":"2011-01-12T17:42:55+00:00","author":"Gus diZerega","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2011\/01\/the-augean-stables-of-the-mind.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2011\/01\/the-augean-stables-of-the-mind.html","name":"The Augean Stables of the mind - A Pagan's Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-01-12T17:42:55+00:00","dateModified":"2011-01-12T17:42:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#\/schema\/person\/d94ab0155d2780a0526af373b5c543f2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2011\/01\/the-augean-stables-of-the-mind.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2011\/01\/the-augean-stables-of-the-mind.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2011\/01\/the-augean-stables-of-the-mind.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Augean Stables of the mind"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/","name":"A Pagan's Blog","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Gus diZerega","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#\/schema\/person\/d94ab0155d2780a0526af373b5c543f2","name":"Gus diZerega","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/4f6\/4f6b5a87d91376eaf8d126df301ab8cdx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/4f6\/4f6b5a87d91376eaf8d126df301ab8cdx96.jpg","caption":"Gus diZerega"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/author\/gdizerega"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}