Oy, msbelle. I can't even imagine. Poor both of you.

I'm not competent to thoughtfully defend the stuff that matters bone-and-marrow deep with someone who's jokey and dismissive.

JZ, is it possible to write back with something like

"I feel very passionately about these issues and it's hard for me not to get upset when I discuss them and I feel like the other person is being jokey and dismissive. Because to me, we are discussing hopes and dreams and not punchlines."

Oh, assmole federal government! Have we discussed the proposed tax rebate here? I can't remember due to brain fog.

Accountant friend of mine just clarified what the "tax rebate" is going to mean, which is that on your 2009 taxes, you'll have to report how much of a rebate you got, and that amount will be deducted from your refund or added to the amount you owe.

That doesn't sound like a rebate. That sounds remarkably like a loan I didn't ask for.

"I feel very passionately about these issues and it's hard for me not to get upset when I discuss them and I feel like the other person is being jokey and dismissive. Because to me, we are discussing hopes and dreams and not punchlines."

Kat, yes! This. I vote this.

Accountant friend of mine just clarified what the "tax rebate" is going to mean, which is that on your 2009 taxes, you'll have to report how much of a rebate you got, and that amount will be deducted from your refund or added to the amount you owe.

Shrift, I think your accountant friend is wrong. I've read a lot of things saying explicitly that *this* rebate isn't like the 2001 rebate (which *was* a loan-advance-type thing).

That doesn't sound like a rebate. That sounds remarkably like a loan I didn't ask for.

"That's not a rebate. It's an advance." - Charlie Young

Kat, yes! This. I vote this.

HA! I've been saying stuff like this to work people for a week or so. Not related to the election, but to vocabulary instruction. It took me a couple of hours to craft an I-message that I could deliver seamlessly.

Kat, I did respond with something very close to that.

I don't want to be one of those people who throws, "You can't understand ___ until you've ____!" into an argument, but I don't know how else to convey it. I think about the last 8 years of judicial appointments; I think about my mom's friend who grew up in a nightmare family in pre-Roe East Texas and had a shame-and-risk-filled Mexican abortion and a Midwestern adoption before she was 18, and how they both wrecked her and haunt her still; I think about that image we all know of the woman crumpled on the hotel room floor; and then I think about Matilda, and my throat closes up and I can't put forth a reasoned argument. It's too close to the bone. But because it's Matilda and her future, I feel like somehow I owe it to her to try to talk this jokester into taking it all seriously.

And then I go right from there to nut-ripping. So, not particularly productive.

And then I go right from there to nut-ripping. So, not particularly productive.

On the contrary; I think nut-ripping makes your point in a VERY productive manner.

Shrift, I think your accountant friend is wrong.

I just don't trust the government with anything right now, Steph. Can you tell me where you've seen this, and whether they're referring to the bill that passed yesterday?

Oh, on a lighter political note, Obama is in Seattle for a rally right now. I would've skipped work to go if I hadn't already missed two days sick this week, and a couple of my coworkers are there. Anyway, I just got the following sighting report from a friend of DH's:

"my coworker (who is a political wonk) ran into Obama coming out of All Star Fitness on Olive today. He obviously hadn't used their shower facilities (well, his hotel bathroom is probably nicer and if he's staying at the Westin it definitely is) and apparently he's really skinny."