Thanks. He might have had a point. I don’t recall anything specific, but I remember thinking that a few comments were close to the edge.
I wish he’d come back.
Given some unpleasant realities it's not easy being a minority freeper especially a celebrity one like he is/was.
Katrina sorta exposed some of those harsh realities that reflect poorly on black culture and many freepers who live in homogeneous areas and have little experience with such things were shocked by reports coming from the Superdome and Convention Center of barbarism and what they saw of looting and the ineptness of Nagin and they sounded off in anger. For folks like me who grew up within 2 hours of New Orleans it was about what we expected..
Personally I rarely ever witness white supremacist talk here and the only time I ever saw it was actually a ruse perpetrated by a black moderate GOP group based in MD sent to infiltrate the forum and shame us. It backfired. So I have never bought the notion espoused by some hre that racism is part and parcel of the forum...JR is extremely strict on this and bends over backwards to tolerate for example a balance just for appearance...but his recent homosexual agenda purge bagged a few we had known were not one of us for years.
On Mike, I'm mixed. Personally I liked him and I respected that it was a bigger leap to embrace conservatism simply due to his peer group and expectations but I did not always agree with him...especially on the sensitive stuff, but he is/was very capable.
Like I said it's complicated. Conservatism for me is empirical truth based on realities and personal experience...tempered with God given moral idealism....not ideology or party so much but about what works and what is based on what I see and witness..hence my own views often conflict with minorities here.
It's unavoidable.....I always qualify by admitting that it's easy for a 50 year old white southerner like me to be conservative..hell we all are...or at least around 90% plus