I am relatively tired of being an apologist for opinions in fields people have branded me as some kind of expert in.
Long ago, I quit fixing people's computers. All the time I am fixing them, people assume I somehow owe it to them to succeed and are unhappy if I fail. I sometimes have to go way out of my way to prove I have done everything I can to try to fix their hopelessly ancient equipment. It is basically hell, and even if I somehow succeed, the results are exactly what they were before things were broken. Not a great accomplishment. Payment? It has never equaled the problems.
I am also asked to pick computers for people. I just limit myself to recommending brand names. "How many gigs do I need? Is this a powerful computer? How much memory do I need?" These are questions whose answers change constantly over time and also answers about which computer companies lie and tweak. I seldom by the product they are looking for, and if I were looking, I would just read a bunch of reviews or even easier, use Amazon's ratings or reviews.
Politics are no different. Because I have pushed Obama as a good president, I apparently have to defend him from every charge. If one cannot see that the GOP is trying to pull out every scandal they can conjure at this particular phase of a two term president's reign, then one is politically blind. If one cannot see that the world is never a clean perfect thing, then I guess one could also believe that a computer does not go out of date or break beyond the point where it is worth repairing. I guess one could believe that one computer would be the best one and still be cheap. I guess one could believe that, again, this perfect computer will live in a stasis in which nothing changes in the rest of the world. If something changes, and Netflix becomes suddenly popular when it was ridiculed not 6 months ago, then that perfect computer surely must run Netflix no other.
The latest load of bull, and it is extremely effective bull, is that the NSA is intercepting communications. Are people just learning this, because it has been going on for 7 years or so, and across presidencies? I never had any indication it had stopped and assumed it continued. The hypocrisy is amazing as things that were defended before Obama are suddenly things to be attacked by the exact same people.
But then there are the liberals who attacked before and are attacking now. Seriously, no matter what Obama said before he was elected, no matter what policies have continued (obviously impressed on him as important by someone) it is just insanity itself to undercut the candidate who ran against the candidate who would have done the same thing, only worse, while doing a plethora of other insane things in addition.
Apparently terrorism is real and dangerous in a broader sense than people know. Apparently, the possibility of acts that could dwarf 9/11 are still very real possibilities.
I say "apparently" because, damn it, I am no expert. Nor is anyone.
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