Calling In

A few years back I resolved to begin attempting to make my views and perspectives more visible beyond the friends and family I speak with on a semi-regular basis.  This (we)blog is a part of that, actually, but calling into programs with big personalities talking about current events with strong opinions was and remains my prime interest.   My 30th birthday soon became the dash in the sand which would be when I did it.  I decided to call into my local talk radio station last year(2011), specifically to the Mark Davis Show.  He has occasionally stood in for Rush Limbaugh, and I personally find his style to be much better than Limbaugh or Sean Hannity or just about any other of the big names in conservative talk radio.  I've intended on calling into his or other programs since then, as I prefer the style most talk radio shows have for debating even if I consider the way in which the hosts and callers put on the air use this style for mostly inflammatory and unproductive ends as far as public discourse on current events goes.  Unfortunately, I've been consumed with work as of late and it's made even listening to the programs very difficult, much less being able to call in and give the proper amount of attention and care to the endeavor.  I don't think it serves the host, their audience, or myself well if I were to call in and be fumbling for words, distracted or frustrated because of some unrelated thing going on.

Anyway, as you'll hear I called in without much direction on what I wanted to speak about, though I recall there was much going on with Herman Cain at this point during the Republican primaries.  I honestly would have enjoyed talking about just about anything and am just eager to have an exchange of ideas with others and better understand their perspectives on it.  I'm not big on attempting to judge others for their opinions but I do think it's important to understand how a person arrived at their opinion and also to do whatever is possible to take the position and ponder its implications, both intended and unintended.  In a near-future post I intend on going into more detail about this and how things could be improved, arrogant as it is to presume I could improve upon models which move millions of dollars a year.

Getting back to the conversation I had with Mark, I really enjoyed my interaction with him and I admit I was pleasantly surprised I didn't get too wound up nor did I offend or upset the host.  I'll let the audio of the call in this embedded video speak for itself, though.  I apologize for Mark's portion of the conversation being muted in comparison to my own as I did the recording with my computer;  I wasn't sure if I would be able to find my call in his podcast and then crop it out.  In the future any call-ins I'll be doing I'll do a better job balancing volumes.

Let me know what you think of the conversation we had and what points you think we missed or glazed over.  Thanks very much for reading and listening and using your time here.