No More Talk Radio

So they told me at work today, well more they asked me, to refrain from listening to the radio on my computer through the internet (yes I use an earbud as to not be completely obnoxious and subject other people to what I am listening too). It looks like they are implementing their own "Fairness Doctrine" (okay maybe not). I guess each division is charged for internet usage and my listening to streaming audio uses a bit of their connectivity. Needless to say I am going to enjoy work all that much more now. My talk radio at least gave me a little entertainment while there. Bottom line is now instead of getting to focus on the one or two voices on the talk show I have to listen to the hundreds of other voices in my head. Trust me it can be scary sometimes. What it’s lead to is instead of hearing to other people argue over the validity of some news topic I’ve been having to hear myself argue with myself. I know it may sound a little strange that I argue with myself but if you know me it explains a lot.

Why? There are two reasons. First off, I like to argue! Sometimes for good reason, other times I do it when I know I should just keep my mouth shut (just ask my wife) and sometimes for no reason at all other then I just want to get the other person worked up. Like in grad school, sometimes I would sit in the back row and just take shots at other student’s arguments. Funny thing was because of where I would sit, in a slightly elevated row just removed from the main semi-circle discussion (also a few seats over from the professor), I would never get challenged. Later my professor used it as an example of someone using body language and positioning to subconsciously rule the discussion. He told the class I knew what I was doing too.

The second reason is because as I’ve mentioned before I am way too analytical and have a little too complex of beliefs. For example, I am Pro Life. My Libertarian side isn’t a big fan of this stance because it completely contradicts my views on minimizing government’s role in an individual’s freedom to make their own decisions. However, this stance does fall right in line with my religious and conservative beliefs as well as the fact that I think most people now a days are stupid and incapable of making good choices. Therefore Pro Life wins out.

A perfect example of both reasons in action can be seen in two conversations I had at a former job. I was talking with a coworker (#1) who was sharing her thoughts on illegal immigration and how bad it was for the US labor market, specifically inner city. At that point my “capitalism is good” train of thought kicked in and I proceeded to point out why illegal immigrants were actually a benefit to the US economy. It went something along the lines of keeping wage/benefit costs down, diminishing the effects of labor unions thus helping to minimize production costs (COGS) which increases margin and can in turn either lower the end cost to the consumer or increase the owners wealth. Where the owner would (if they were smart) invest back into the business and grow the company thus producing more jobs or (if they were greedy) they would keep the profits and more then likely increase their personal spending thus trickling the money back through the system. All because we let some hard working immigrants in to do the jobs that lazy greedy Americans don’t want to do or will not do for less then 5 times minimum wage (Yes I am aware this argument has some flaws in it but from off the top of my head it sounded good at the time). The very next day a different coworker (#2), of foreign descent, began talking with coworker #1 about how he supports illegal immigrants and doesn’t see an issue with it. At which time my Paleo-Conservative side piped up with how all the illegal immigrants were a strain on the economy, sending US money out of the country and not contributing to the economic process, abusing government systems, refusing to recognize our values and traditions while demanding we respect theirs and that we needed to close the boarders because they were a threat to national security.. Coworker #2 asked “Well what about all that stuff you said yesterday” to which I asked “What about it?” and went about my business. They were both completely baffled by the fact that I was arguing both sides to them respectively. It took about two to three days before they came back to ask me where exactly I stood on the topic. I just simply said “Couldn’t you tell by our conversation?”. They never brought it up again.

If you read all of the way though that, then you can understand how painful my days are now going to be? Imagine having to put up with that stuff all the time? So now you have two options. I need you to either write a letter to my employer asking them to let me listen to the radio regardless of the cost to them or you can write one to me telling me why you shouldn’t write the first one. And you better make it good!