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Jens 'n' Frens
Idle thoughts of a relatively libertarian Republican in Cambridge, MA, and whomever he invites. Mostly political.
"A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures."
-- Daniel Webster
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Wednesday, June 25, 2003 :::
The Kitchen Cabinet's Lily takes on the discussion of taboo subjects, and predictably gets it right. (The Cabinet is the source of much of our traffic, so I have to suck up.)
The rudeness isn't in the desire to talk about politics, or even (usually) in the substance of the remarks; it's in the narrow-minded assumption that if someone's at the same dinner party as you, they share your politics.
Sometimes people are deliberately inflammatory (I have a specific example in mind), but most trouble of this sort is caused by presumption rather than intent.
I spent Thanksgiving on Cape Cod with the family of a friend. At one point, I ended up discussing Cardinal Law with a half-dozen Catholics (I'm not Catholic). There's no reason it can't be done civilly, as long as it's done respectfully.
Elsewhere at the Cabinet, Kate brings up space tourism, which will probably require a reduction in costs to be viable, and Lily finds a British survey on bad American teeth that doesn't seem to mention David Letterman.
::: posted by Steven at 3:31 PM
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