Quote for the Day 9/21/2009

Arlyn (to David) : Whenever we eat lunch together we end up arguing.

Me: What are you arguing about now?

David: He thinks Obama tells the truth, and I think he tells lies. (Rough approximation here)

Me (to David) : What does he lie about?

David: Lots of stuff.

Me: You know David, it's easier for you to say things like this at the lunch table than it would be in an oral report or a written report. There you'd have to cite your sources.

David: Well, I read lots of stuff about it in magazines here at school.

Me: Have you given any thought to how you might characterize the kinds of magazines we have here at school?

David (chuckling) : I suppose they're pretty far right wing.

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Lest you spend any time worrying about David and Arlyn's arguments, you should know that they are usually done in good fun.

David is an enthusiastic giant of a senior, and Arlyn is diminutive and less noisy by nature, but just as attached to his own opinions. They're good for each other.

I don't always know for sure whether David actually believes what he firmly declares he thinks. It's quite possible that he's trolling for a reaction, and is disappointed if no one takes the bait. Some of us don't mind accommodating him.

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Arlyn spoke for himself on Obama: "I don't think he lies, but sometimes he tells just the part of the truth that supports his position. He's a good politician."

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David pointed out that in the address by Obama that was interrupted by Joe Wilson's infamous very brief speech, Obama had said many lies.

I told him that I understood that Obama had just stated that the Health Care Reform Bill would not provide free coverage to undocumented aliens, when the "You lie" event occurred, and perhaps was meant as a comment on that specific point. While Obama apparently technically said the truth--that it does not offer free medical care to non-citizen immigrants--neither does the Bill specify mechanisms for insuring that it can not happen.

If my source (Kathleen Parker, I believe) reported accurately what the Bill says and does not say, Arlyn has a perfect Exhibit A in his assessment of Obama with regard to truth telling. He's a good politician.

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I have actually never given much thought to how one would characterize the magazines we get at school, although I remember hearing from a principal the rationale for choosing one of the two weekly news magazines--the most conservative of the three that are in the same league. The two news magazines we get are US News and World Report and World. We also get the Hutchinson News, our county's daily newspaper. National Geographic and Popular Mechanics arrive regularly too.

I wonder if Sojourners would look comfortable on our magazine display. I've brought some relevant Time magazines to school in the past, although Time is not quite the antithesis to US News and World Report that Sojourners would be to World. Maybe I should think hard about how I would feel about a short sojourn at Pilgrim, both for myself and a magazine, before I decide for sure whether I should take it upon myself to broaden the magazine selections at school. I think I should at least sleep over it.