BaptistLife.Com Forums.

I'm posting this here so that you all can hold me to this.

I realize that all the political argument here isn't productive for me. I can pretty much guess, knowing most of you for a lot of years, how you will respond to anything I post and you can probably guess my response.

While I like hanging out here for the long acquaintances we have. I'm no longer going to post about politics or respond to posts about politics. Frankly it just adds to my stress and, as far as I can tell, none of us have ever moved off of our long standing positions.

Nuff said,

I have felt that way myself. Especially when I go through a lot of reading, studying, DATA gathering and long posting to make my points and all I get back is thoughtless political one-liners (or worse sarcasm).

No folks, I do not just look at any party’s take on matters and go with that.

I have other more courteous blog spots (like Amazon book reviews, Drudge, Talking Points Memo, Seth Abrahamson twitter, Red State, IGM Forum, etc. ). But I might as well copy my points to Baptist Life as well, so I do. Last few years, I have noticed that the more salient my points are, the more silence I hear at BaptistLife.

I totally get that Keith!

We've all been friends for a long time. I've met all of you except Haruo and Jon and count you all as friends. So, I think some of your political positions are bat guano crazy...no big deal. We win some. We lose some. The republic moves on.

I'm not all that invested in political discussion and haven't been since 2012 when The Anointed One was elected to a second term. I think my statement was (and BNG picked up that article) something like I'm not going to spend the rest of my life is a perpetual snit over politics. I recommend it. If it occasionally(or frequently) comes out as sarcasm that's just part of my way of managing it. It's never vicious sarcasm or ad hominem. I've probably written more pieces (articles, OPs, not comments) for online consumption than any, perhaps all, of you. Big deal. If some generate a lot of comments, I appreciate the chance for interaction. If some of my scintillating, witty, insightful pieces die a silent death...well, I'll cope. Much of the stuff I do elsewhere is infused with data, mostly financial stuff on the SBC. Sometimes, like Keith, I feel let down to have done some analysis that no one else bothers to do and it goes nowhere.

I'm not all that impressed with some data here. If I do a mouseover and there are a bunch of links from Common Dreams, well...nah...no thanks. I know where those will go. GW doesn't much interest me.

You all know that this place successfully drove off all conservatives except me and jle. We had eight years of ihatebush, then eight years of obamacandonowrong and blameitallonbush, now two years of ireallyhatetrump and more to come. Let me count the ways....

All in all...I'm glad to know and have had a long relationship with the dozen or so regulars.

Well, Bill and Hil are on a comeback tour. I can't afford their ticket prices but, as a greedy capitalist pig, I think they should charge what their adoring market will bear and laugh all the way to the bank.

I do listen to scientists on GW. At least one of the anyway.

Are we going to argue about arguing about politics? <eye roll> LOL

I also say less and less about the SBC. After all, shockingly, I have not been a Southern Baptist for 27 years. So literally I left SBC work half my life ago.

I've not worshipped in Baptist congregation in nearly 9 years. Frankly, there is plenty of disturbing political stuff going in the UMC to keep me busy enough. BTW, in the UMC I'm seen as a moderate.

Isn't this whole notion a bit inhospitable to Jim?

I was being a little crass, I guess. Thinking that maybe his social and/or intellectual life might center on making off-the-wall misinterpretations of all of our political posts. To put it kindly. Anyhow, no, Tim, it wasn't aimed at you and wasn't even particularly aimed at all. I was firing blindly.

I may be the quietest one on here, but I don't have much to contribute that hasn't already been said better by someone else. If there was a like button I would use it often. I do read every post, with a few exceptions, and I learn a great deal worth pondering. So thanks for the discussions and the insights, and the occasional bit of humor as well.

Neil