I hope Bill places this post immediately after the first one.
 
This post shows I have a wicked sense of humor and am not afraid to
use it.
 
This post is entirely composed of parody, satire, and hyperbole and is
not meant to be a comment about any one person, with the exception of
the unnamed Ben and Jen Stupid-heads.  If you read the post and think I
was talking about you, then YOU ARE WRONG!  I was using the techniques of
parody, satire, and hyperbole to illustrate we--FMLers as a group--spend
entirely too much time worrying about what other people think than about
the real issues.
 
I am not kidding when I said I was not talking about specific people.
For example, my good friend Linda might suppose my mention of ethics
and morality was a slap at her, but she would be wrong.  I regularly
get hate mail from a couple of members of the "I Hate Bob Club," and
they periodically accuse me of pushing Quakerism each time I mention the
dreaded words.  If they thought I was mentioning them, they would be
wrong as well.  I was simply pointing out that there is a place on the
FML to discuss such issues as morality and ethics as they apply to
ferrets.  Likewise, some people might suppose my mention of the CaCaLand
problem a poke at Jeanne Carley.  Again, not so!  I was making the point
that the polite approach does not seem to work in California.  After all,
10 years is a long time, and if it takes another 5 or 10 years for
ferrets to be made legal, it wasn't the approach as much as the
opposition dying or retiring.  I am simply pointing out Californians
might want to crank the pressure up a couple of notches.  Case in point:
for 10 years the politeness approach has failed with the F&G, but in
less than 10 days the rudeness approach has WORKED with Ben "Sillier."
Perhaps it is time to rethink the overall strategy.
 
The use of parody, satire, and hyperbole has a long and distinguished
history within our collective culture.  Aristophanes, who mentioned
ferrets in a rather derogatory way more than 2500 years ago, used the
techniques, as did Voltaire when our country was an infant.  MAD magazine
has used them for most of my life, and I have used them today.  They are
a way to point out that some things aren't as important as they seem,
while others are far too important to be compromised.  More importantly,
they are designed to make you THINK about the issues, and THAT is the
real point.  We can fuss among ourselves, or we can use that energy to
fight ferret prejudice.  All my "booger post" does is suggest we should
be doing the later.
 
There is one other point I tried to make.  Regardless of how specific
people may feel about it, being considered to be a ferret leader DOES
entail added responsibilities.  Ferret leaders may not like it, but
it is one of the "benefits" of the public perception of leadership.
However, that position does not vacate the need of ferret leaders to
speak out when they see injustice, censorship, or just plain demagoguery.
Rather, they have the special responsibility to express ethical, moral,
scientific, and political outrage.  Some people may not want a "ferret
leader" to voice emotions and frustrations on particular subjects, but
just being in that position of public view demands they do so.  Such
complainers should get over it and be happy they have "ferret leaders"
that take their responsibility so seriously that they chance alienating
friends and peers to make an important point.
 
Bob C
[Posted in FML issue 4399]