Do not make the mistake of thinking that because my conclusion is the same as another person's that my reasoning is the same
I have a problem with my last name, which is that people insist on misspelling it. I have handed people a business card and they will misspell it while looking at the damn card.
Baldilocks has a different problem with her last name—being African, and therefore unfamiliar-sounding to most, it strikes many people as being Chinese. This can fuck up people's mind rather badly.
Most people are polite and ask the origin straight out. Then, there are some that are just plain rude. Here's an example of the latter that occurred when I worked for United Airlines.
It always aggravates me when people do the "That's funny, you don't look/sound/smell (whatever)." When a redneck does that, I think I might feel a little bit of what you guys feel when Chris Rock is talking about the "Please don't let it be a black guy" moment on the news.
The one thing that would always set my Chicago-raised Mexican roommate off was when some white woman (it always seemed to be women) would be talking to him on the phone, and when he gives her his name, she says, "Oh, you didn't sound Mexican."
He would flip his lid every single time. "Oh, I'm sorree. Joo wan I should talk like dees?" It always made me laugh, and I'm not sure why. (Even with me feeling bad because I was white too.)
You know what Phelps? I bet if you'd relax a bit you'd be okay. Might even hang with you, as long as you don't say anything Libetarian.
I relax all the time. This is relaxing. There is a difference between relaxation and intensity.
I always get "Where were you born?" I say Phoenix, then I get "where were your parents from?" I say Arizona, and they usually drop it at that point.
I get asked "Where are you from?" a lot too. Depending on my mood, I either say "America" or specify Seattle or I say "around here". One time I got an email from a visitor to my blog who complimented me on how well I know English. White converts like myself are admittedly a tiny minority and most American-born converts are black, but people do seem to assume that any Muslim must be an immigrant.
I told you you're always welcome. You gotta love a mind that can read LGF AND Negrophile and not explode.
Not that I'm applauding that first choice, mind you.
Well, I have my own thoughts about LGF and most of the people who read it, but I'll save that for another time and place.
Actually, I never read Negrophile. They are on the old aggro now, though. I started reading a lot of lefty sites for while, but most of them are crap, and most of the ones that aren't are just the same old "nya nya my side is better than your side" crap. I haven't found someplace like the Puppy-Blender to start from on the left side of the aisle that doesn't lead to crap. I'm down to pretty much you and Michael Totten.
most of them are crap, and most of the ones that aren't are just the same old "nya nya my side is better than your side" crap
That standard eliminates almosr everyone.
I don't dispute that the bar is high. My gut tells me that the righty blogs tend to be better as a percentage, but there are so many righty blogs and so few lefty that I can't quantify it, so I'm not ready to say it as a generality.
I certainly have trouble finding good left side-of-the-aisle blogs, but the other common denominator besides "left" is "me".
I didn't even know about your blog (S-train) until I made the mistake of saying, "wait until all the facts are in before you invest too much emotion in this" and got lumped in with the "it couldn't happen" assholes.