wow...two in two days... :P ok this one is a bit more...umm....just a slight vent... i just got finished listening to a person I grew up highly respecting and admiring...in fact i'm on record telling Wheaton that I wanted to study psychology/bible because i wanted to be like this man... I just listened to James Dobson's radio broadcast about his views of both Barak Obama and John McCain... And i can't believe how unintelligent and unthoughtfully they responded to Barak's speech and also to McCain... It's a wonderful example to me of how specific agenda driven worldviews...in this case an almost fundamentalist Evangelical pro-life/family dispensational Republican take on reality...have a hard time hearing the other perspective. I went to listen to him because...ok...i know i'm a bit different politically than he is now...but hey...i still respect the guy as thoughful and engaging...and boom...i listen to him and i'm really sad. He takes excerpts of Barak's speech and 1. completely misunderstands Barack's words and rhetoric...2. responds with an unequally compelling and rather unthoughtful response twisting what he hears to then launch off on a tirade against not just Barack but Democrats and "those liberals"... He claims that Barack deliberately twists and misuses the Bible when he was just being rhetorical...he then claims that Barack is misreading the Constitution when all Barack is saying is that public discourse on morality is not just a Christian enterprise...finally that Barack is slamming all preachers when again...he's just being rhetorical (meaning slightly sarcastic)...AGGGGHHHH! I'd go through it bit by bit...but it would mean i'd have to listen to it again...and i'd rather not...(plus the cubs game is on :P) i'd be interested if those of you who do still listen to him and are Republicans...went to hear that broadcast and responded to it... it's really scary...cause like it or not...millions listen to this guy....they eat it up like it's from God's mouth... the most frustrating thing these days is a lack of forums where the right and left INTELLIGIBLY and THOUGHTFULLY talk to each other publically...everything we get...CNN, Fox News...Bill O'Reilley, talk shows...even NPR...is all slants from one side or the other...both sides lobbing rhetoric and seemingly misrepresenting their enemies...constructing strawmen arguments and then proudly and simplisitically knocking them down...see how stupid those on the right are? see how immoral the left is? you listen to the debates and people just talk past each other...it's so annoying...if this is what is happening in Washington DC...no wonder nothing is getting done... well we've managed to invade a few countries....sigh... oh...btw...i've been reading this site recently...(now you'll see how "liberal" josh has become...haha...) and i commend it to you...www.naomiklein.org....read her book...it's disturbing...if even half that stuff is real...Lord have mercy on us... sigh... josh | 
