Good one

I watch these regularly, and when he got started, put LSN onto Michael Voris. When he started showing up in Rome, I introduced him around to the gang. As you might guess, I think Michael's a blast, and whenever he's here, he's always up for some fun. He and his faithful cameraman, Charlie, came to my birthday party last year, and we had a blast. (I taught Charlie that there is nothing to fear from grappa...that'll teach him to trust a woman!)

Michael's style suits me to a T, and I'm not offended by his hyper-American, game-show-host style mannerisms. I think people who are, are just plain being snobs. And boring, anti-American snobs at that. Michael gives me a laugh, regularly, and that's something I really appreciate.

There are some who don't like him, but is it possible to "not like" someone whom you've never met? This is one of the big problems with the media in general, and the New Media in particular. The latter is a lot more "interactive" but even with this backing and forthing, I think there isn't a lot of real communication. There have been plenty of people I've only "known" online whom I haven't liked < cough>Shea< /cough>, but because I admit that even in the worst cases, I've only ever known the small portion of what these people think from what they've produced on their websites or blogs.

In my better moments, I have to admit that I don't hate certain people... can't hate them because I've never met them. I may hate everything they write, everything they think that has been made public, and everything they believe, but I've come to see that there is a vast difference between even these important and intimate things and the person himself.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for making snap judgments about people, particularly based on things like their obnoxious style, annoying mannerisms, weird clothes, or even bad hair (for Pete sake, Michael, get a fricken grown-up haircut!) so naturally I've got absolutely nothing against judging people according to the stupid and/or evil things they believe. But honestly, I've found it possible to like and appreciate people whose ideas I radically disagree with. And given what I do for a living, and the fact that I fundamentally disagree with nearly every person on earth, that's a pretty good thing.

People are the thing that makes the world interesting to live in. I used to think I was actually a misanthrope. But I think now that I was just trying to put a respectable name on being just plain grouchy.




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