I really am, no joke! 
I’m at the fairly left end of the spectrum, he’s way to the right. Both of us are news and politics junkies. Both of us can reason intelligently, argue passionately, end up screaming at each other and then put it all aside to go have a beer after work.
God, I’ve missed having a proper nemesis. 
He was laid off early 2010 (mistake, IMO. He was good at his job.) I just heard today that he’s getting rehired, for now at least. He’ll be a temp for the short term. I do hope he gets a proper full time position in the coming months.
Man, I’ve missed having someone to just argue with full on - guns blazing, mouth flaming. I do like him, and he’s a good guy. And fuck, sometimes you just need someone that can give as well as they can get so you can both blow off some steam.
So here’s to my upcoming furious political debates. I can’t wait!
What fun! Hope for your sake he gets rehired permanently!
I find myself wondering if he’s going to be the same kind of conservative in future as he was in the past. Did you ever get a feel for his attitude toward the economically unfortunate, back in the day?
He hates them, with a passion 
I did ask him if he felt hypocritical taking unemployment since he hates any sort of government safety net:
“Nope. I’ve already paid for it. Might as well collect.”
To his credit, he has been looking hard for jobs. And while he’s been off he’s canceled child care for his kids and watched them himself. I can disagree with him strongly about a lot of things, but one of his personal principles is personal responsibility, and I respect that.
…of course, he’s white, middle class, and college educated. So he’s no Horatio Alger.
He didn’t suffer too much. He got a nice severance package and his wife (fully employed) has supported them in the mean-time.
Just a fun update:
I’ve been addressing him as “temp” for nearly a week now. Usually with a scornful inflection.
He’s been taking it in stride and laughing at it.
His proper position (the one he had before he was laid off) has been posted as an open position. Management I’ve talked to have said “yeah, we’re almost certainly gonna hire him on a permanent basis. It’s just due diligence that we post the position externally.”
So I told him today, “Fair warning. I’ve applied for your job. And I’ve got seniority.”
This is just messing with him, of course. I’m no more qualified to be a financial analyst than he is to to be a chemical engineer.
I’m glad he’s back.
I’ve gone through phases of my life where I wanted nothing more than a friend with whom to argue (philosophy and politics), but there was nobody to be found except on the internet. For some reason, my boyfriends weren’t into arguing. Jerks. Since then I’ve evened way out, I don’t care to argue with people anymore.
And the internet is never as good, it’s not personal enough. Have fun =)
Late update; mods delete if this counts as a zombie thread
He got hired (again) full-time, salaried two weeks ago! I’m happy for him and his family! But ugh. UGH! He’s a changed man. Temporarily losing his ability to provide for his family has made him (gag) far more moderate in his beliefs and temper.
What fresh hell is this?
We actually had two adult-level, speaking-voices only discussions today about two of our previous “scream-level” issues.
He acknowledged(!) that human-related climate change was a threat; we both acknowledged that China and India would make short-term US changes moot; we agreed that a long term plan for either dealing with climate change OR a game-changing energy technology is required for energy and climate policy.
Appalling.
Even worse: We both agreed that a US debt default would be disastrous; we both agreed that until medicare, military, and social security were addressed honestly by both parties, the whole “debt limit” debate is sham and dangerous.
What the hell is going on? I was hoping for this guy to come back firing the crazy! He comes back reasoning as an adult! I didn’t sign up for this!
:rolleyes:
I’m glad he’s back. Sad to have lost a nemesis.
I may have old friends who looked forward to my prattling about what recent events portend the Rapture only to hear me now discuss Nero as the Beast and 70 AD as the End of the Aion.
And debating the merits of 666 vs. 616?
Aw! I know two people at work who are like that – liberal/conservative shout matches, and best of friends, and really enjoy their shout matches – and I know they’d be pretty sad if the other person suddenly switched and started agreeing with him.
To be fair, both of them think a US debt default would be disastrous, and that medicare/military/SS need to be addressed honestly by both parties, so I think you may just be condemned to agree on those issues! (Although my conservative co-worker will defend the military spending much more robustly than the Medicare/SS spending, so there’s that.)
I wouldn’t know that he’s changed - I think the current idiocy can be fairly easy to spot no matter which side of the aisle you’re on.
Guess you’re just going to have to agree to agree.
Give him a few months, he could be off his game.
“Hitting rock bottom’s a college education, kid.” –Death to Smoochy
If only every staunch tea-party-type understood what it was like to be one of those “welfare queens” they like to disparage.