The Crazy Lefties are Everywhere

Its not just the famous lefties, such a Howard Dean, that engage their mouth before using their brain.

I had quite the experience the other day. I was standing on my lawn talking to my neighbour "Gary". He is a recently retired oil patch worker and is not very interested in politics. In fact, I could not even get him to come to a condo meeting to vote for me when I ran, even though he supported me. He has views on politics, but he one of those guys who worries about himself and doesn't stick his nose into other peoples business. A Libertarian who doesn't know he is one.

As we are standing there talking about something, this handyman drives up, gets out of his truck and begins to talk to us. He is 66 years old and is used on occasion to fix things around the complex. He knows the complex better than anyone. How do I know this? Because this is the first thing he tells us.

I have lived in our condo for 8 years and Gary for 12 years. I was also on the condo board for over 1 year. I do not recognize this guy. Not to say that he is lying, but he is not one of those guys who everyone knows. He just comes up to us, interrupts what we are discussing and starts telling us his life story, not so much as an introduction. He does not know me well enough to do that and I find it a bit rude. To add to the rudeness, it is one of those one way conversations, where he talks and requires no input from you. I can take that. My mother taught me to be polite to people, especially my elders, even if they do not give you the same courtesy.

However, then he goes in politics. Bush is evil, those damn Americans, blah, blah, blah, blahblah.

Why do people do this? Are they dumb? The last thing I do when meeting someone new is start talking about controversial topics with someone you just met (or in this guy's case, didn't even meet yet). I mean, you don't go up to some person you just met at a party and start talking about how the Joooooooossss are ruining the world. Though it is fun to watch when one person pipes up and says "I am Jewish".

I did something like that once, where a guy made some joke about my mother. You know, one of those dumb jokes you are always hearing black comedians make. After he was done, I looked him in the eye and with a straight face, said "My mother's dead". Of course, she isn't, but you should have seen the look on the guys face. He almost fell over himself trying to apologize. But I digress.

I think it is a lefty trait to assume that your views are so correct that everyone agrees with them. The wife does this as well. Just a few weeks ago we are meeting our real estate agent to look at houses. We meet her at this big church in Sherwood Park. Now, most of you Ontario types think that Alberta is populated with these huge churches a la Jim and Tammy Faye Baker. Nothing could be further from the truth. Alberta may seem to be more Bible thumping than Ontario, but big church bible thumpers are rare, at least around Edmonton. But I will admit, this church is big. It does have a school and community centre attached, which accounts for most of the size, but it does convey that born again Christian, hallelujah type religious thing. I noticed this too, but being polite and having just met this real estate agent, I am not going to mention anything about it. Not so the wife. We get in the car and the second thing out of her mouth is some comment about the crazy religious people and their crazy big church. Well guess what. The real estate agent, although she does not go to that church, belongs to the same religion and goes to church in Fort Saskatchewan.

Back to the old guy. Once he starts going off about Bush and the war in Iraq and how the damn Americans push us around, I just about lose it. I mean, this is Alberta. This is the last place in Canada where you would think a guy would assume everyone would agree with his lefty views. This in not downtown Vancouver, ffs. So, I decide to take him to task. What I usually do in these situations is take on a position which doesn't directly contradict their assertions, but takes it to an extreme. So I tell the guy that I think Canadians are wimps. It's our own fault for letting the Americans push us around and we should build up our army, invade the bastards and nuke the hell out of them. Teach them a lesson, yes sir.

I would have been more satisfied if his jaw had dropped and he stared at me dumbfounded, but the guy just kept going. I don't think he really wanted, or needed for that matter, me around for him to talk. About this time my neighbour broke in and started to ask the guy what work he was doing, etc, thereby saving the conversation from degenerating further.

If one Lefty learned to engage brain before opening mouth, my good deed was done for that day.

Now if the wife would only learn.