Ain’t Gonna Be No Truth

I’m suspending this blog.

It’s too damn frustrating to try and sort through the adolescently craven onslaughts of gleeful lies, distortions, panderings and hypocrisy coming from The Left, The Right, both major parties, Ralph Nader, Ralph Nader’s Republican shadow, Ron Paul, the Mainstream Media, the Cable Blatherers, and all the rest who lack decency, manners, a respect for the truth and any concern for the country.

If this was a full-time job that could pay the mortgage, it would be possible to spend all my time absorbed in the existential task of chipping away at the great truth-cancer.

But it ain’t and I can’t,

So, here’s pox on all your houses. A big, honking, slatewiping pox.

Me? I’m just gonna vote this year. Nothing more. Y’all can just keep on pissing on each other just as you have done on intelligent debate, democracy, the electoral process and meaningful discussion.

I wish for ALL of you exactly what your opponent thinks you deserve.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 12th, 2008 at 7:24 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

YOUR REPLY IS WELCOME!

Please leave a civil, fact-based response.
Flames, profanity, rants, polemics, ad hominem and personal attacks are not persuasive and a waste of other readers' time.
Such comments are not appropriate for this discussion and WILL NOT BE POSTED HERE.

Fact-Based Discourse

This blog is about facts, civility and dialogue. It is not about polemics, rants, scoring "gotchas!"or preaching to the converted.

The Internet has enabled participatory democracy to an unprecedented degree. But the sad result consists of demagogues on the left and right hurling bombs at each other.

That's not dialogue; that's just being Shia and Sunni. And that's destructive. That endangers democracy, not enhances it.

Both extremes demonize dissent. "Evil" becomes whatever the blogger disagrees with. Reason, rational thought and the well-being of the country are mutilated in the process.

There is more at stake here than the personal catharsis of flipping someone off with the verbal equivalent of an Anglo-Saxon salute.

Opinions are most persuasively expressed when based on solid, factual irrefutable data. Only then do you have a chance at changing minds. Otherwise, you're just preaching to the converted.

I do not intend to preach to the converted. I intend to ask "WHY?"

I intend to challenge the demagogues to "PROVE IT." Give me facts, all the facts or go away and stop wasting my time.

I loathe party politics, the party line, and think both major parties are totally out of touch with the electorate.

Third-party candidates in today's political climate -- whether they be Ralph Nader or Bob Barr -- are just spoilers there to elect the other party's candidate.

I have worked as a top aide for a Democratic state governor and a Republican Congressman and U.S. Senator.
I vote as an independent. My favorite political book is Independent Nation which I have reviewed at this link.
Like most Americans my political beliefs do not follow a party platform.

I believe that a connection to reality is vital and all-too-often missing from the political drones and droids that control the American political landscape.

And like most Americans, I am liberal on some issues and conservative on others.

As a former journalist and university journalism instructor, I am equally offended by the Keith Olbermanns on the left hand and Ann Coulters on the right.

They and their brothers and sisters rant and rouse rabble but rarely rise above the banal. They are demagogues of different stripes: equally annoying, equally flaky and equally useless for making an informed decision.

I am not interested in getting some "journalist's" opinion. I am interested in facts, context and a complete and unbiased picture -- an increasingly scarce commodity.

Like most Americans, I am in nobody's political bag and will never be put into one. That means I cannot be taken for granted.

This blog is about reality and facts. Stay tuned.

About the Author

I've taught writing and journalism at Cornell University and UCLA, and am the author of 20 published books including several bestsellers. My books have sold more than 4 million copies. I put myself through college as a newspaper reporter and freelance magazine writer despite the fact that I was studying physics and biology. My most recent novel is Perfect Killer, published in Sept. 2005. Other novels include The Da Vinci Legacy and Daughter of God. A complete list of my books can be found at LewisPerdue.com. I have founded four companies, including a wine company a magazine and two technology firms; been a top aide to a U.S. Senator and a governor; run political races for Congress; and worked as a Washington correspondent (Ottaway/Dow-Jones, States News Service), a columnist for Gannett, The Wall Street Journal Online, CBS Marketwatch and TheStreet.Com. I write book reviews for Barron's. I received my B.S. (1972) with distinction from Cornell.

There Will Be Truth

Be skeptical. And especially skeptical of things you agree with.