Well, that was interesting. Yesterday I participated in Huffington Post Live, an online video show they run all day long, divided into various segments which, like HuffPo itself, vary from the serious to the silly. My appearance was, by the time it happened, out of place to say the least.
My presence there came about because of my most recent column in our local paper, about the war on Christmas. HuffPo wanted to do a section on it, and somehow someone there had come across my article. So I was contacted. But by the time I got the message, it was too late for that show. Having never done an online chat of any sort, a nice lady there sent me the link to download the plugin, confirmed it was working, and invited me to participate the next day. Seems their model is to have somebody with credentials, along with a panel of regular folk. The topic was the NRA, the main guest was a lady state legislator from Tennessee, a staunch R, gun owner, member of the NRA (like Romney, a "lifetime member," which means you chose to pay enough up front to be called that. Not, as Mitt would have had us believe -- along with many other lies -- that he'd been a member his whole life).
Anyhow, as leader of the majority R caucus in her legislature, having theretofore been given an A+ rating by the NRA, she chose to oppose (while working to compromise with the NRA) legislation written by them making it illegal (as I understand it) for a homeowner to refuse to let a gun-toting person onto his property. Really. The NRA poured money into a campaign against her, and she lost her bid for reelection.
The panel of whatever it is we were consisted of me, a student at Howard University, and a lawyer from Canada. The most fun was beforehand, while Tavis Smiley was droning on and on in the previous segment, several minutes beyond our time to start. During that time we all (including the legislator) talked among ourselves, face to face, as it were, introducing ourselves, asking questions of each other. I liked it. The session itself was okay, but since I have no knowledge of the NRA other than the fact that Wayne LaPierre is a lying idiot conspiracy-monger, catering to the most paranoid wing of the gun-owning populace, I felt weird being there. Plus, I looked like a fat piece of shit.
Next time, if there is one, I'll have to mount my laptop higher, and look up. Or stick to radio.
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