Mrs. HM Goes Full HAM Scorched Mansion

We'll turn The Pony out into the paddock today, to kick up his heels, roll on his back, and graze in peace. He'll be tied to the snubbing post soon enough. But today Mrs. HM has more stinky fish to fry.

Sit down. Fasten your seatbelt. Make sure the lid is on your beverage. Have a nitroglycerin tablet ready to slip under your tongue. Please sign a generic waiver holding Mrs. HM harmless if you become harmed.

Let the record show that Mrs. HM is a pretty (not in the 'beauty' connotation, but in a 'fairly' kind of way) easy-going blog matron. She does not flip out if somebody has a different point of view. It takes all kinds of kinds to keep the world spinning, you know. What a boring world it would be if we were all the same. Like those creepy, orange-suited Oompa Loompas in the Augustus Gloop scene in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. 

 

Let the record further show that Mrs. HM's scathing rant to follow does not concern any of her regular readers/commenters. You might call my Back-Creek Neighbor Bev nuts. You might question the character of my neighbor Tommy. You might tell me to kick Farmer H to the curb. But I'm pretty sure you don't mean it in a malicious way.

 

After blogging for nigh on 15 years, I can kind of sense what's in the hearts of my regulars. Uh huh. I'm psychically gifted like that. I may not agree with you, but I respect your right to have different beliefs than I, and I don't pop into you blogs to rattle your cage. I steer away from the controversial topics in comments. And you show me the same respect.

 

I'm not trying to change anybody's opinion when I stand up for my own. That is something best done on one's own blog, not in somebody's comments section. I would never go to a Future Mousetrap Millionaire's blog and tell them how to build a better mousetrap. You don't go into somebody's home and start painting their walls a different color.

My comments have been set so that posting needs my approval. I did that MANY years ago, when a creepy overseas stalker started criticizing one of my regulars daily. I like the approval setting. It notifies me when I have comments. Otherwise, I'd be going back to re-read my own posts, or miss comments on older posts. These days, a spammer comment gets through the filter every now and then. So I can just send it to oblivion. 

All that said... I was not happy to find a comment on my other blog yesterday (about Farmer H's resale item of choice), from a brand new commenter, suggesting I look at the other side of an issue. SERIOUSLY? I am blankety-blank years old, and I've had a whole lifetime to consider both sides of this issue! I don't need a stranger from another country insinuating that my view is LESS-THAN.

I don't take kindly to a complete stranger, never-before-commenter, galloping in on a high-horse, looking down their nose at me, while spreading their own truth across my blog page. Especially when I track back to the profile, and find two blogs, one being from a woman who passed away three years ago, and the other seemingly promoting fancy furniture layouts with umpteen pictures of perfectly-staged rooms. Must be kind of hard to rein in your high-horse if you break an arm patting yourself on the back.

The comment was just specific enough to not be the work of a spammer who has taken over an old account. It came with a casual acknowledgment. "You probably won't post this (and who can blame you!) but I wanted you to try and see it from another angle."

 

You're darn tootin' I won't post it! Write about your opinion on your own blog. Don't cost nothin'! 

 

Here's more: "Where I live, he'd be hard put to find a huge legal market for guns. Why can't he sell something else?" Don't tell my man what to sell! It's legal, and about a third of his customers are law enforcement officers. I don't like him having so much of his money tied up in inventory, but he's making a profit, and will have a tidy sum if he ever liquidates.

 

And more: "I would hate to find out that someone had been killed with a gun I sold them." Well, DUH! It's not like Farmer H would celebrate such a thing. I'm sure a car salesman would be sad if a car he sold someone ran over a pedestrian. And a beekeeper who sells honey at the farmer's market would be sad if someone died of anaphylactic shock after eating his product. It's not like they are directly responsible. You sell a product, and then it's on the buyer what they do with it. It's not like Farmer H is standing on a street corner with a long coat full of contraband, psst-psst-ing to passersby.

 

See, it's not that the comment was in any way rude or outrageous. I just don't need a stranger telling me how to think. You don't know me. You don't know my life. You don't know my community. You don't even know my blog if you have never commented until now.