Just Saying...

I have kind of an awkward situation with my job. It's one of the hostile workplace type situations, where my superior's political and religious views are polar opposites of mine, and often his expression of those views with respect to my political views and various minorities is actually quite offensive.

It would be all fine and well if he was just my boss, but unfortunately he's also been a good friend for most of the last decade, and he has no idea I feel differently. I've considered telling him, but I've seen how he treats people who he disagrees with. Not the their faces mind you, but behind their backs, and I don't want that. It's one of the minor reasons for my current job search.

I think he may suspect something though, since when we're driving together, which we do frequently, he'll put forth his opinion, and then start directing questions at me to defend his opinion, and put me in a place where I feel like I have to pick a side. So far I've been successful in trying to avoid the topic, and suggest possible alternatives to his opinion.

The topic this week was torture.

If you want my opinion. GW should be sitting in jail, and Obama shares part of that responsibility for not allowing or pushing for such a case to be pursued against GW.

GW admits to authorizing torture. That should be enough.

Unfortunately in our 'Free' country. Wealth and influence speak louder than justice.

Anyway. There really isn't a nice clean solution to my employment situation, other than changing the circumstances of said employment, but if I could get a few things off my chest...

I've stated before that I actually like the principles behind the Tea Party and I identify myself as a Libertarian Socialist, which means much of what I support is based on Libertarian principle.

So... With that said... In my opinion, if you want to claim to believe in Libertarian principles, and this includes stating that you agree with the Tea Party, you need to be careful of some of your other views.

• Support for the war in Iraq is in direct conflict with your stated views. The Iraqi war was not justifiable and should never have been started. As Eminem so eloquently put it...

Strap him with an Ak-47, let him go, fight his own war
Let him impress daddy that way

• Support for torture. There are no excuses. We claim to answer to a higher power, and live by a higher standard. The "But they would do the same to our troops" excuse is lame, as is the notion that it's justified because "They came into our country to kill our women and children" excuse. I don't think we've actually tortured anyone caught in the US, and if you want to bring women and children into the equation, lets discuss civilian casualties in Iraq.

There is a bunch of other stuff too, but the way I see it, if you're in favor of electing Palin in the next election, or if you defend Bush while condemning Obama for the current financial crisis, all you're doing is painting yourself as a hypocrite and showing that you have opted to choose party loyalty over principle and integrity.

And while we're on that topic...

Where did the idea of the option for a straight party vote on the ballot come from? Are we really that lazy that we can't check the boxes of those we want to vote for? By all means, show yourself to be a mindless, ignorant fool by voting for a party rather than a person, but do we have to make it easy to take that route?

Seem to be enabling of pure laziness, if you want my opinion!

OK - rant over...