Bobbe answers his critics

Over the past two years this blog has been in existence, I have gotten some varied and weird questions. In some cases I have ignored them, in others I tried to address them and learned the hard way: Never trust a man with a agenda and a free platform on someone else’s podium.

After my last foray into forum debating (see the Silat article below) I received, as you can probably imagine, several replies that just weren’t worth posting.

However, I also get normal questions over and over, and I wanted to address them here publicly for the first time.

No kidding, every one of the questions below I can usually count on arriving in my inbox at least once a week, more when I post regular articles.

1: “What’s the deal with your blog?”

I dunno, what do you mean by “Deal”? It’s nothing more than life, as I see and experience it, on a day-to-day basis. I see things that are unusual, I write about them. I experience something that pisses me off, I write about it. I have information that I want to share, I write about it. I wouldn’t call this blog “ramblings” by any sense, but I give a widely varied smorgasbord of information. It’s not a political blog, but I will write about politics. It’s not a martial arts blog, but I have it in here. If I find a funny story, I pass it on. I am also an aspiring writer still cutting his teeth, so a lot of my fiction attempts end up here as well, sort of a worldwide sounding board. Seriously, how boring would it be if all I wrote about were movies? Or how about Pencak Silat all the time? Even I couldn’t do that, and you have no idea how much I love Pencak Silat. I’d be posting a lot less if all I wrote about was curry as well, and talk about a subject I could ramble on about!! I guess in the end I see myself as the Donny and Marie show of blogs, except I don’t have a hot-assed Mormon sister to keep you glued to the screen while I take a breather. So it’s just little old me.

2: “Why don’t you ever answer my emails”?

See, I knew this one would come up. Dude, I am the former representative of a major martial arts organization, and I am widely accepted as an authority on three of the world’s most popular martial arts at this time. Furthermore, I’m commonly known as a “go-to” guy for several other martial arts that I loosely have my hand in. I am scripting out a few videos of the martial arts I teach for filming. I am an I.T. consultant, and when you have a friend like me, you email him for help or advice. Also, my blog often pokes fun at sensitive issues, or outright attacks topics others shy away from, things like religion, racism, bigotry, etc. everybody repeat after me: “Bobbe gets more hate mail than the NAACP!” Did I mention I am kind of famous on youtube? Say, did I happen to mention that I run a small martial arts school that everyone and their sister is trying to get in? I’ve had to unplug the school phone because I’m no longer accepting students. Oh, and just throw my various associations with a well known horror writer’s cult that is trying to get a well known convention held here in Seattle as opposed to Portland for no other reason than absolute petty jealousy. I’m well known amongst this crowd as well, even though I recently quit in disgust. (Dude, Portland does it just fine. Spend the gas money and drive down for a weekend. Stop bugging me, I’m fucking OUT!) Tack on the additional membership in the Zombie Nation, a group of horror writers set in yet ANOTHER fictional world. Finally, there is a list of people who have fast-track access to me as well, close friends and family. One last thing, did you notice the “Legal Crap” posting of mine? Uh-huh, had to take time to deal with that. I get alerts and updates from about 15 different sources for I.T., current events worldwide, continental drift, the BBC, you name it.

I typically receive anywhere between 70 to 100 emails PER DAY. Consider that for a second. This morning alone (Thursday, August 02, 2007) I was dealing with 83 emails when I logged in at 7 am. It took my Outlook client about 10 minutes to get them all (people send me attachments the size of Rhode Island all the time). It can typically take me about 2 hours to skim through them and reply to the most pertinent. And then people started emailing me during the day, and some I chose to answer as well. Before I had a blog I received maybe 30 or 40 emails per day, but my popularity (or infamy) has grown since I entered the blogsphere. So, if I haven’t answered your email, it’s not because I’m sitting here ignoring it. Some days, I can’t even answer my best and closest friend’s emails.

3: “Are you a racist”?

Nope, I don’t even own a sports car. Actually, this is a very touchy subject and definitely worthy of debate. I have a funny outlook on racism. I was raised in foster homes and orphanages, and that did something to my views on race. I was also helped at a critical time in my life by two caring black men who made sure I didn’t die, and that also altered my views on race. Finally, as I have matured into adulthood, I have encountered many racists, both white and black, and that has given me a different perspective as well.

A popular black author has posted that he believes we all have a degree of racism in us. I don’t subscribe to this. I believe that it’s a choice to hate. Notice I said hate, not dislike. I dislike a certain type of homosexual that fits a typical “bitchy girlfriend” archetype, but I don’t hate homosexuals. I extremely dislike the typical rap-thug-gangsta “oh no she didn’t girlfriend!” attitude you can see from time to time. But do I hate black people? No. I personally have an outgoing, even overbearing characteristic that can be invasive in small areas. I try to control it, but I admit that it’s something that grates on people’s nerves from time to time. It’s tough being somebody as awesome as I am!!

But if you don’t like me because of that, does that put you in the “get whitey” category? No, of course not. The price of living in a diverse society with the interracial mixture that is found in America is that you are always going to rub SOMEONE the wrong way. And while I dislike some (and as I am disliked often enough) I recognize that there are also characteristics that I would probably love about people I dislike, were I to know them a little better. So I am, if nothing else, tolerant. I know racist jokes. I know homosexual jokes. In fact, you would be hard-pressed to find a category I DON’T have jovial experience with (really, try me!) but I also believe I have sensitivity toward my fellow human beings, and I of course wouldn’t say them in front of somebody I knew wasn’t “with it” or knew would hurt their feelings. That’s my opinion of tolerance. And common decency, I might add. In fact, if I told such a joke and you said “that’s racist” you would be correct. If you said “you’re a racist” you would be dead wrong.

Sometimes, though, you make a mistake. Everybody does, this isn’t a qualifier for racism or bigotry. Remind me to tell the story of a guy who I know but didn’t realize he was gay, and my friends and I were kicking the word “Fag” around at each other in front of him. Yeesh, sometimes you open your mouth and insert an entire shoestore.

4: “Are you a homosexual?”

This one I get often enough, although never phrased quite that tactfully. The answer is no; I’m strictly butter-side-up. However, I have several gay friends, and one of the most influential teachers in my life was gay. So I have worked to overcome my knee-jerk phobias about homosexuals that I had as a teenager, and now it’s something I laugh about.

But I can’t stand seeing our government trying to implement policies that prevent homosexuals from having acceptance and equality in their lives. The black community has thrown it’s weight behind these policies, and I have addressed this in a previous post, but I want to add this here and now: Whenever you treat ANYONE as if they are a second class citizen you are setting the stage for that class to be subjected to violence and hatred. You are essentially categorizing them as animals, and this disgusts me. Even more so when you toss the bible at me and use it as some sort of moralistic shield to your petty bigotry behind. So yeah, I am also a little vocal when it comes to equality among the sexes, the races, and those who are simply “different” in any sense of the word, and this often leads people to think advocacy means inclusion. In my case, it’s simply activism.

5: “Why do you hate God?”

I don’t hate God. I don’t even believe in God. What I hate is religion. The reason I hate religion is that it commands the course of people’s lives through what I firmly believe is propaganda and mythology. Coupled with the fact that no religious organization can bear the thought of someone else having a different doctrine, or simply living their lives in control of themselves and you get a great recipe for death, murder and genocide in the name of righteousness. Also I can’t abide a thing that puts a man on his knees.

In the case of my belief about biblical texts being ancient propaganda, you would have to have a historical and global view; what was occurring in the Fertile Crescent in the early days of man’s civilization, particularly between 4004 and 1491 B.C. For instance, Sodom and Gomorrah to me isn’t a tale of factual events. I don’t think it ever happened. What I do think is that it’s an example of religion inserting itself into the background rhythm of your life, whether you are religious or not. It says “Look, look at what happens when you have no God in your lives. You become monkey raping incestuous butt pirates, and God will punish you!!” Look around you, and ask yourself: are we living in lawlessness today? Are people righteous? If the answer is no, why are we not burning and turning to pillars of salt? If the answer is yes, why are we living in fear?

It goes much deeper than that, and I am happy to spend hours debating my views in civilized discourse over a glass of something from the Trappist monasteries in Belgium. (See! French-speaking monks! Just look at how religious and racially tolerant I am!!)

6: “Are you attacking Islam?”

Well, no more or less than I attack Christianity, Mormonism, Catholicism, Judaism, or any other organized religion. See above for reasons why. But if someone who happens to be Islamic screws the pooch on the world stage, OF COURSE I’m gonna rag on it! Don’t put a curry in front of me and expect me to rationalize with it…I’m gonna tear into that sucker with a Roti and a great Trappist Ale!!

7: “Are you a Muslim?”

No, but I have a few Muslim teachers, and I pay close attention to them.

Oh, I know, and I can hear you all now: How can I hate organized religion, as well as not believe in God, but still study under religious teachers?

Easy: Knowledge from any source is still knowledge. And my friends know that EDUCATION is different from INDOCTRONATION. Also, if you ever met Mushtaq Ali, well, you’d get it.

8: “Dr.Who or Star Trek?”

Dr. Who. Easy.

9: “Why didn’t you post my response on your blog?”

Now most responses I do post, but I regulate them all. If I don’t know who you are then I won’t allow you to respond in a way that instigates a fight on my blog, or detracts from what the topic was about. I reject almost all anonymous posts. Those who I do allow to respond with a snide comment or detracting remark are often friends, or at least close acquaintances. So, if you sent something to me that was derogatory, unsigned, or just mean-spirited, odds are I deleted it. If you wanna rant with the big boys get yer own soapbox, this one’s mine.

10: “Why do you post five articles in a day, and then nothing for weeks on end?”

Because I don’t want to be trite or shallow. I want to post meaningful, witty and insightful articles that people enjoy, not just vomit up the first random thought that crosses my stunted cerebral cavity. Otherwise there would be WAY more posts about Asian babes.

I usually write several articles at once, and I stop when I run out of things to say. I will often let a post sit for a couple of weeks before I come back to it and see if I still like it as much as I did when I first typed it. If I need to change something, I do and then give it a final day to set with me. Then I post it. I will also throw in images or videos I find amusing or worthwhile, but I hate using it too often because I feel like if I don’t actually write an article then I’m cheating you. Right now I have 12 unfinished articles that I am constantly adding to. Some will be finished by next week, others you won’t see until next year.

11: “Do you really know Steve Perry?” (Sometimes worded as “Why does Steve Perry hate you?”)

I do! We run with the same pack, so to speak, and the entire group is one I’m proud as hell to be a part of. Poet Tiel Ansari and her husband Todd (nom de plume Dan Gambria) are also in this, in fact they kind of inducted me. Mushtaq Ali, of course, Terry Trahan, Mike “The Annihilator” Blackgrave and a few others as well. Steve and I present a kind of rivalry in public, but it’s all just show. I’m actually a lot more respectful of him when we are in the same room. The only time I am a smartass to him is online, (and out of reach) he’s a great guy and one of my teenage favorites for science fiction. Adult fave as well. He’s the only person who calls me “Kid”. For that matter, Mushtaq Ali (older than dirt) calls me a pup, and I’m two birthdays away from 40. Yeesh, these guys.

12: “What happened to you in the orphanage that was so bad?”

You mean the gory details? It would take too long. For a taste, Google “Survivors of New Bethany” and read up on that. I was in the Walterboro S.C. facility, and directly responsible for it’s closure. I hold the record for most successful escape as well, but that’s another story. Also, this is a small chapter in the whole book of things, and looking back on it I can say that it was as bad as I said it was, but I’m not as affected by it as many I still know from those days. Why things like this happen I’ll never know, but the youth system of America is nothing short of a not-funny joke. Most people I know from the orphanage are walking time bombs (some have exploded already.)

I don’t know why I’m not hitting my wife or tearing the wings off flies, or drowning kittens. It just motivated me to be better than my surroundings. That’s really all I can tell you.

13: “I wish my boyfriend was hot like you”

Yeah, I know it. I can’t help it.

14: “Zombies?”

Zombies!