That’s the problem with Obama’s transcultural evenhandedness. It gives the veneer of professorial sophistication to the most simple-minded observation: Of course there are rights and wrongs in all human affairs. Our species is a fallen one. But that doesn’t mean that these rights and wrongs are of equal weight.
A CIA rent-a-mob in a coup 56 years ago does not balance the hostage-takings, throat-slittings, terror bombings and wanton slaughters perpetrated for 30 years by a thug regime in Tehran (and its surrogates) that our own State Department calls the world’s “most active state sponsor of terrorism.”
True, France prohibits the wearing of the hijab in certain public places, in part to allow the force of law to protect Muslim women who might be coerced into wearing it by neighborhood fundamentalist gangs. But it borders on the obscene to compare this mild preference for secularization (seen in Muslim Turkey as well) to the violence that has been visited upon Copts, Maronites, Bahais, Druze and other minorities in Muslim lands, and to the unspeakable cruelties perpetrated by Shiites and Sunnis upon each other.
Even on freedom of religion, Obama could not resist the compulsion to find fault with his own country: “For instance, in the United States, rules on charitable giving have made it harder for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation” — disgracefully giving the impression to a foreign audience not versed in our laws that there is active discrimination against Muslims, when the only restriction, applied to all donors regardless of religion, is on funding charities that serve as fronts for terror.
Obama himself is the signifier which secures this philosophy, and he is as good as his word.
Hence, cultural illiteracy is all the rage for the Susan Boyle generation, who, by and large, have no knowledge of, or curiosity about, films made before E.T. or books written before The Da Vinci Code. They’re content being spoon-fed bland, derivative pabulum that makes no mental demands – the pop equivalent of junk food.
“We live in a culture that doesn’t encourage passion,†notes black stand-up comedian Reginald D. Hunter. “And it is a factory mentality…. Everyone has shared perceptions. And our shared perceptions are shaped by reading and watching the same things. It’s become homogenised.†Here in the States, despite her much-touted book club, Oprah Winfrey has been killing us softly for decades.
According to Daniel Johnson, editor of the center-right cultural and political monthly Standpoint, “books about everything are very popular at the moment. And the Internet is another very powerful tool, which again gives people a smattering of knowledge – a kind of illusion of knowledge…. They don’t really need to have much first-hand acquaintance with the past. They don’t need to actually learn anything.
“We are producing generations of children now, who are going to be very shallow human beings, who are not going to resist when they’re confronted by a threat to the West. Because they are not going to realise how precious the things are now that they have to defend. If you don’t know what you’re losing, then why should you fight to defend it?â€
What I’m not posting about, today.
Such as giving to a “charity” that helps pay for U.S. citizens to go abroad to a madrassa in, say, Yemen, to be indoctrinated into perpetual jihad so as to come back to the U.S. and gun down enlisted Marines on a sidewalk?
That kind of religious obligation, Mr. President?
What can one say except that Obama employs moral relativism masterfully. But anyone who has a grasp on history can see both his erroneous citations as well as the problem in scaling between his comparisons…
There is no possible equivalence that can be drawn between the Holocaust and the Palestinians living in Gaza. Where it possible to be in some Bizzaro world where the whole Palestinian issue was in tension with the Nazi’s, well they would have simply slaughtered the Palestinians long, long ago…
Likewise with the finger wagging about womens right. As Krauthammer notes, there can be no comparison between the state of womens rights in the US and the Arab world-period!
He believes that he is extending some form of olive branch to the Arabs with his mea-culpas and public self-flagellation. But, in engaging in all his apologetics and criticism of our nation, he is only showing the Arabs weakness; in a region of the world that respects strength and firmness of will that ‘s like putting blood in shark infested waters…
Time will show the folly of this approach. But after the Iranians have nuked the Joooooos, who will listen to his weak statements about, “These are not the Iranians I knew…”
I believe this is what Obama sees as the problem. Remember who gave him his introduction into Chicago politics: terrorists.
Another fine article by Charles Krauthammer but read the comment section. The koolaid drinkers are nearly hysterical in their denounciation of his heresy.
Man, those comments are unreadable.
This might be the stupidest column I’ve ever not read. Krauthammer, kill yourself. asap.
Carin – Yowsers! I think we have a winner! That may be the stupidist comment ever … um … commented upon.
I have now tried six times to post a comment…#$%&*! I will skip the link to the definition of Zakat at www-dot-islamicity-dot-com/mosque/Zakat/
“For instance, in the United States, rules on charitable giving have made it harder for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligationâ€
Utter crap. Contemptable lie. Zakat is given to the poor and needy. Period. Perhaps the President missed that little pillar of the faith whilst living in Indonesia (but the call to prayer sure sounded neato!). I eagerly await Mr. Obama to show us the Sura or Hadith that require all zakat to go through IRS approved foundations (Hezbollah front groups invited to apply!).
Bah.
er … stupidest, that is. Heeyuck.
Duck, I think the proper wording would be “That is the stupidest comment ever commented. ”
Those wider forums remind me why it’s completely pointless for them to have comment sections.
Is President Obama insane? Nothing stops Muslims in America from giving to charity. The rules are to prevent funnelling money to terrorist organizations so they can kill Americans.
There are at least a dozen, probably hundreds of charities if you really reasearch it, both Muslim and secular, who work in the middle east, Asia and Africa, do real development work with Muslims and do not fund terror. Plus there are a host of things a Muslim looking to part with a few bucks could do to meet his religious obligations right here at home.
KrautH commenter” Enough with the hate!
Wasn’t Von Brunn enough???”
WInecoff’s article seems to work very well in juxtaposition with that comment section.
“Standards? Don’t kid yourself. Says Landesman, “the new criterion is no longer good or bad: it’s what’s hot and what’s not.â€
““We are producing generations of children now, who are going to be very shallow human beings”
Which is why I’m having my 10 year old read Foucault’s Pendulum (halfway through), The Cryptonomicon and Gravity’s Rainbow (H/T Jeff Goldstein) this summer for her summer reading list! Oh, that’s mine. I guess better late than never for a bitter clinger.
Oh, and forgive me but could someone please tell me the HTML to blockquote? I feel like such a rube using quotation marks. Thanks in advance.
it’s the word blockquote in those little side marker thingies. the shift comma and shift period marks.
OI, if you use Firefox there’s an add-on called “Text Formatting Toolbar,” which I use, and because of which I now have 423¾ reasons why I can never use any other browser.
Sure, McGehee, rub it in….work still uses IE 6…
text
I actually like what Krauthammer said the other day, that Fox has created an alternate reality:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/10/charles-krauthammer-fox-n_n_213723.html
This is more the case. There are those here who bemoan the MSM, but it’s not really the issue. People watch what they believe, and there are plenty of outlets to service every preconceived notion. People today never have to accept (or largely even be exposed to) facts that are inconvenient to their dogma. As a result, a larger and larger swath of the population simply don’t matter to the political establishment.
Take the people on this blog. Outside of a republican primary, they simply don’t matter. Waterboarding isn’t torture. Period. AGW isn’t real. Period. The KKK is no more likely to vote Republican than Democrat. Rush doesn’t say egregious, inaccurate things.
It’s not that these belief are bad, per-se, it’s that there is absolutely nothing anyone could say that would make this population reconsider these beliefs. Since this demographic is simply impervious to changing their opinion, they insure that they don’t matter. The Republicans can write you off, because there’s no danger of you voting for a Democrat. The Democrats can write you off, because you will never see anything but bad in anything they do.
There’s an equally obstinate population on the left, which means, most of the issues and elections turn on some 20% in the middle, who largely aren’t paying attention.
I voted for Hillary, Sammy.
YES IT IS! Period.
AGW isn’t real, due to (insert gobs of data here). Period.
Oh, no. I don’t think anyone here has said that. The KKK is a Democrat institution. LOOK! RUSH LIMBAUGH!!!
It is odd though, Sammy, that while Fox often reports on items that are included in the other networks reprtage, the reverse is not true; hardly an equitable situation, and it’s no surprise then that the casual participant, who is actually apathetic to issues and politics, is so easily influenced by the overwhelming preponderance of left wing views in most of the MSM…
Which is why, excluding their opinion/entertainment shows, Fox consistently recieves high marks for evenhandedness, consistent high ratings, and an audience that is more savvy than most.
But I will concede your point on most members of parties having the courage of their convictions, and the elections turning on convincing the middle…
Krauthammer also said in that acceptance speech:
And
What is important about any claim of an alternate reality? Is the import a negation? Or is the import the establishment of something positive?
Yeah, LTC John, unfortunately at work we are stuck with ie 6, too. Thanks Carin and McGehee. On my home computer (firefox) I’ll definitely utilize that tool.
Text formatting toolbar.
I’m not convinced that the apathetic get their news from the MSM. I think they get most of their news from People Magazine. But they have a choice every time they turn on the TV or radio. They pick a station. They know Fox is available, as well as right wing talk. But most of the time their TV is on, it’s tuned to 90s Alternative Music.
When they do wonder what’s going on in the world, if they lean slightly right of center, they probably look at a more right-wing outlet. If they lean left, they look left.
But Fox is part of the MSM. As much as a Country station, and Classic Rock station are both part of the radio mix.
Does anyone know if there is a similar add on for Safari?
Reality still bites. Actions override words and beliefs that are in opposition to what is really there.
You are handed a gun and told it is unloaded, perhaps by someone you trust. You believe it to be unloaded. You can act on that belief and pull the trigger while aiming it at yourself to prove you trust that person.
That is acting on a belief and may or may not accord with reality. Reality however does not have to conform to your belief, belief must conform to reality or be destroyed in the end.
To know what is real, open the action of the gun and look for yourself to ascertain if the gun is actually unloaded. Knowledge of reality leads to beliefs that run with reality and that work.
Well if most “uninformed” people get their views from People magazine then it is definately a left of center view point. Walk down any grocery isle and tell me if you do not see at least 3 magazines with O!’s smiling face beaming at you with a glowing headline. Hell Newsweek has featured him on the cover more times than Jesus. They do not need propaganda fliers anymore, they have the covers of magazines people see everytime they go shopping. Complete with helpful captions.
AGW isn’t real. Period.
Did you ever go here and go back through the archives, little Sambot?
Of course you didn’t.
Let’s try that link again.
True now, but those same covers are used to also destroy the same objects, that were of affection, only a week ago. The celebrity game is a yo yo. What goes up has to come down so it can rise again, or not when a newer fad hits.
The cult of “Dear Leader”, being spread to the apathetic 50% of society…
“B-B-But Obama really is a good man, and I love Michelle’s arms…”
“True now, but those same covers are used to also destroy the same objects, that were of affection, only a week ago.”
Well I do not see them turning against Obama ever. I am refering to supposed “news” magazines like Time and Newsweek as well as People. I have said this on here before but one time I went into a grocery isle during the campaign and his face or his family were on EVERY SINGLE magazine I saw. They had glowing halos behind his head too.
Oh. I thought it was CSI.
Sammy, do you find the President’s ‘In American, Muslims have a hard time giving zakat’ statement persuasive?
I am still waiting for the sammah comment that does not include an argument with the voices of the caricatures its head.
You have a point geoffb…
I have a niece who lives near me. During the election her husband became a committed O-bot. Why? Because he was convinced Palin would move to outlaw abortion; regardless of the fact that she would not be president nor had she done any semblence of that as Governor of Alaska. No other factors mattered but that, and no amount of rational discussion could even get him to open his mind for a moment…
Unfortunately, he’s what they refer to here on Long Island as a mensch. As a “transferee” from the civilized part of the country, my understanding of this term is that it is a squared away kind of guy, who is not shy about telling folks the right and wrong way to view and do anything and everything; and since he’s a member of the local FD, he knows a lot of folks…
To make a long story short, before the election he was spreading the book of Obama to all who would listen; mostly other people who were apathetic and only had a cursory understanding of all the issues in play…
Now though, low and behold, he is shocked, Shocked!, at the consolidation of power, the foreign policy stances (especially Israel), and the spending and coming taxation; indeed, adding insult to injury he and his wife will no longer be able to deduct their exorbitant mortgage expense from their income taxes next year-being in the wrong bracket…
So it is funny how fast the pendulum begins it’s backswing, so to speak. And it will only get better when Obama decides that he has to raise everyones taxes or install a national VAT; you know, in the name of fiscal austerity…
In totalitarian countries, pictures of the Dear Leader are on the walls, in totalitarian-lite venues, they’re on all the magazine covers.
These people are really starting to piss me off. The daily attempts to tie the KKK to a political party, the daily attempts to tie a freakin murderer to dissent. WTF is wrong with these god damn people? You got to admit the speed in which they have started to lable dissent as not only not patriotic anymore, but evil, is breathtaking.
If you want to be pissed off at these people read this. If you do not want to read the intellectual masterbations of someone so braindead that he discards 8 years of hatred spewed by his own “side” then do not click.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/community/groups/index.html?plckForumPage=ForumDiscussion&plckDiscussionId=Cat%3aa70e3396-6663-4a8d-ba19-e44939d3c44fForum%3aa8bc6fd8-cf9f-43ca-99a4-05fdb4342697Discussion%3af26946ba-754d-4460-8d28-44d791634f6a?hpid=talkbox1
So I looked Mr Pink and got this instead:
To accompany Krauthammer’s piece, you may wish to read VDH on Dear Leader’s trouble with history books. “Just Make Stuff Up“.
The link worked for me just fine, though it’s a tad long. Once again, I’ve been saved by my 30 inch monitor.
My favorite paragraph from the Krauthammer piece:
Not that Obama considers himself divine. (He sees himself as merely messianic, or, at worst, apostolic.) But he does position himself as hovering above mere mortals, mere country, to gaze benignly upon the darkling plain beneath him where ignorant armies clash by night, blind to the common humanity that only he can see. Traveling the world, he brings the gospel of understanding and godly forbearance. We have all sinned against each other. We must now look beyond that and walk together to the sunny uplands of comity and understanding. He shall guide you. Thus:
Blockquote has failed me.
Jesus Christ Sammy can you at least use a freakin braincell for a minute. Did you kill every braincell that you used over the last 8 years in January? You want to see hate inspiring shit? Look here this took me 2 seconds with google.
http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2006/08/controversy_wat.html
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/03/19/assassination-chic-bush-the-only-dope-worth-shooting/
http://www.beloblog.com/WHAS_Blogs/PoliticalBlogger/2008/05/did-beshear-say-cheney-should.html
I can not believe for one second that this willfull blindness to the hate of the last 8 years is not intentional. Seriously I can not believe that.
…those little side marker thingies. the shift comma and shift period marks.
Otherwise known as angle brackets or tag delimiters, Carin.
sdferr my link worked for me. It is an piece in the WaPo where a left winger asks
“The murder of an abortion doctor and of a Holocaust Museum guard has predictably led to a left-wing media harangue against the right-wing media, whom the lefties blame for whipping up hate and violence.
As a lefty, I think they are right. (I mean, I think they are “correct.” The terminology gets confusing.) The point is, there are consequences to words, and people like Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly and Michael Savage need to answer for theirs. But mostly, I have a question: Why does no one ever accuse the LEFTY media of whipping up hate speech and violence? How would that even work, anyway?”
Those comments really were a sewer. I counted 5 “grows up”, 3 “kill yourself” and 7 “you need to seek help Krauthammer” in that thread.
I love the limitless tolerance and compassion which is inherent in the progressive movement.
Mr. Pink’s link.
Seriously the commentors at these sites, and Sammy, have to try to be this blind. I do not buy that this is just ignorance or partisan wishful thinking of what went on the past 8 years.
Another example from Huffpo, the place where they had to SHUT DOWN comments because people wished the death of Dick Cheney. The commentors are “aghast” and do not recall any hatred or death wished against Bush or Cheney.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/29/paper-apologizes-for-publ_n_209099.html
Thanks guys.
If you are having doubts about Obama and his Hope Presidency, chanting “Dear Leader” over and over again is said to help.
You can’t reason with the HuffPo crowd Mr. Pink…
Hell, I can’t even get 25% of my comments posted…
They delete most items that don’t conform to echo-chamber spec
Let’s review. Rape jokes are tolerant, even when about teenage daughters of Female Conservative Governors.
Nappy head jokes are have severe consequences.
Iraq war creates more terrorists.
Afghan war is okay, and necessary to protect us from Taliban.
Got it?
Like this: Keith Olbermann, with his incessant hatemongering against the Bush Administration and its foreign policy, is responsible for the murder of Pvt. William Long and the wounding of Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula.
Easy peasy. Any moron could write it. Which is why you see reams of such twaddle emanating from the left.
51
I ain’t trying to reason with anyone on there. The only reason I even started linking there is Sammy’s rants about how right wingers are inciting hatred, and his repeated bullshit throw in lines about the KKK and racism. The commentators over there remind me of him in their intentional blindness for anything they have seen or said over the past 8 years, and willful ignorance of history. My common sense tells me that that level of proffessed ignorance has to be intentional.
Sorry, tried blockquoting and it turned out like a Letterman joke.
How I see the left viewing and reacting to the right. It’s #450, link doesn’t seem to go quite there.
Mr. Pink, it’s not one sided (and I didn’t indicate that it was). The left have their own alternate reality, and the right does too. You can find plenty of hate to go around. My point is that the haters largely insure that they don’t matter. They’re dug in. One side can count on their vote, the other side can write them off.
Except it doesn’t work that way. 2 examples – The economy tanks under Bush, who had shitty fiscal policies, and the reality just invents the explanation that it’s all Barney Frank’s fault. There’s always a way to explain away the new facts and keep the worldview consistent enough.
On the left, “shooter had illegal gun”, following this belief that gun control reduces crime and ignoring evidence to the contrary.
The worldviews just explain reality, they don’t actually have to conform to it.
That’s why birds that can actually fly, have both left and right wings … at the same time.
That ‘zakat’ comment is pretty inane. I am sure the March of Dimes (for example) is pretty non-religious. Local civic organizations and foundations are available to all – Kiwanis, Jaycees, Optimists, Lions, etc. The International Red Cross includes the Red Crescent organizations, they assist anyone.
Or perhaps the question ought to be why there isn’t a muslim Goodwill, or St. Vincent de Paul, or Salvation Army?
Sammy would you classify as a “hater” considering you throw in lines about the KKK, call people racist, and add in easily disproved lies that have no bearing on subject matter at every opportunity?
We are all “haters” accoring to sammah. Again, he is arguing with the voices in its head.
Tilting at strawman windmills, isn’t he, JD?
Well according to his own definition he is one. It is also pretty telling his definition of “hater” mainly has to do with voting paterns.
Krugman blames the Holocaust shooting on the right wing.
Well given the shooter was flipping a coin from taking out the Weekly Standard (which would probably have been a very soft target indeed and would have probably had a far worse outcome) and the Holocaust Museum, sounds like Krugman is just upset with how the coin toss went.
And yes, I am saying Paul Krugman would have liked to see the staff of the Weekly Standard get killed. Paul Krugman is that craven.
This is not baseless hyperbole. Most people are partisan one way or the other, and all of us are flawed, but I find most people try to act in good faith (even if they fail quite often or get swept up by emotion occasionally). They may be stupid for being liberals and leftists, but they are more confused than acting in bad faith. There are a few people in media and politics, however, who are completely lacking any good faith or empathy whatsoever, political sociopaths if you will. Fortunately they are rare. Paul Krugman is one of them.
Except it doesn’t work that way. 2 examples – The economy tanks under Bush, who had shitty fiscal policies, and the reality just invents the explanation that it’s all Barney Frank’s fault.
Here, sammah, let me help you. While not a big fan of Bush economic policy you have to remember, or in your case, accept, that bills to raise revenue must begin in the House of representatives. You can look that up. It’s in the original Constitution. Not the living one. Both the House and the Senate went to the democrats in 2007. Your people have had since 2007 to address overspending and all that has happened is it’s been ramped up to cartoonlike proportions.
AGW. For that you would have to school yourself in the scientific method and understand what, ‘objective scientific fact’, means. If you have no critical criteria for weighing informatiion then you’ll believe anything, and you have. You have no idea if AGW let alone GW is indeed real, except you’ve been told by your betters that it is. Yes, sammah, we have been visited by aliens from outer space. Packaged in the right way you’d believe even that.
Waterboarding is torture. I can live with that.
As I said until it bites you, personally. And yes a new scapegoat can be raised up but the further from reality it goes the harder the bite will be. Perception can alter the response to reality but it cannot change reality.
Socialism can promise to create utopia. People can believe it will do so. The unicorn will still not fart rainbows because it is a cartoon in the head not reality. The world doesn’t work that way and will go on it’s way and run right over the unicorn believers in the end. The “right”‘s concern is all the damage done in the process.
Charlies’ girls believed in his vision of the future, acted on that belief. Still believe they were right to do so and with just a little more effort and luck they think they would have brought about his utopia. Reality is they killed a lot of people, ruined even more lives including their own.
Rinse, repeat on many different scales for the socialist left. The leaders there are always charismatic sociopaths. Walking, talking, disasters waiting to happen. But hope still springs eternal there, unfortunately.
Slightly off-topic, though bearing on any discussion of Barney Frank, a post at Cafe Hayek.
Sammy maybe you should see Joel Klein’s take on left wing extremism and ask yourself how many of these tenents you hold true.
http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2007/03/02/since_you_asked/
A left-wing extremist exhibits many, but not necessarily all, of the following attributes: More…
–believes the United States is a fundamentally negative force in the world.
–believes that American imperialism is the primary cause of Islamic radicalism.
–believes that the decision to go to war in Iraq was not an individual case of monumental stupidity, but a consequence of America’s fundamental imperialistic nature.
–tends to blame America for the failures of othersâ€i.e. the failure of our NATO allies to fulfill their responsibilities in Afghanistan.
–doesn’t believe that capitalism, carefully regulated and progressively taxed, is the best liberal idea in human history.
–believes American society is fundamentally unfair (as opposed to having unfair aspects that need improvement).
–believes that eternal problems like crime and poverty are the primarily the fault of society.
–believes that America isn’t really a democracy.
–believes that corporations are fundamentally evil.
–believes in a corporate conspiracy that controls the world.
–is intolerant of good ideas when they come from conservative sources.
–dismissively mocks people of faith, especially those who are opposed to abortion and gay marriage.”
–regularly uses harsh, vulgar, intolerant language to attack moderates or conservatives.
That’s not new, its been true for at least a generation now if not two.
geoffb: Yep. Reality is a hard wall to run into, isn’t it? The sad thing is so many believe that if they will something, it can be done.
Said it is only a paper moon
Sailing over a cardboard sea,
But it wouldnt be make believe
If you believed in me.
Just as real as a styrofoam acropolis.
In this case, by completely ignoring that Congress draws up the budget and the economy tanked when the Democrats took over Congress.
Or do you think Bush was at fault for failing to veto those budgets? Because I can partially agree with that.
The reason a mainstream political forum’s commentary on an article of the sort that Dan would link to ranges from “grow up” to “seek help” to “kill yourself” is because that’s the actual range of informed public opinion. On non-political forums, the range among those who inject politics into them is exactly the same.
Welcome to America. And it’s not like this because of what the Winecoff link says (the Republican form of “grow up” and “seek help”). There is no conservative-philosophical (or -otherwise) explanation for it.
Shit is so much worse than you (can) think. So much.
Wow, I’m not even close to being a left wing extremist:
A left-wing extremist exhibits many, but not necessarily all, of the following attributes: More…
–believes the United States is a fundamentally negative force in the world.
No. Quite the opposite, actually.
–believes that American imperialism is the primary cause of Islamic radicalism.
No. Religious fundamentalism is the root cause of Islamic radicalism.
–believes that the decision to go to war in Iraq was not an individual case of monumental stupidity, but a consequence of America’s fundamental imperialistic nature.
Definitely monumental stupidity. Maybe some neo-con ideology, but America’s not imperialist. I don’t see new colonies springing up all over.
–tends to blame America for the failures of othersâ€i.e. the failure of our NATO allies to fulfill their responsibilities in Afghanistan.
Nope.
–doesn’t believe that capitalism, carefully regulated and progressively taxed, is the best liberal idea in human history.
I wholeheartedly believe that “capitalism, carefully regulated and progressively taxed, is the best liberal idea in human history.” It’s conservatives that differ, esp. on the “carefully regulated and progressively taxed” part.
–believes American society is fundamentally unfair (as opposed to having unfair aspects that need improvement).
I believe there are aspects that need improvement. I favor a full meritocracy.
–believes that eternal problems like crime and poverty are the primarily the fault of society.
I don’t even know what that means. There are certain cases where opportunities are lacking, but again, it’s not a fundamental flaw or plan. I mean, Obama became president, after all. How unfair could it be?
–believes that America isn’t really a democracy.
It’s a republic, or representative democracy. It’s not a direct democracy.
–believes that corporations are fundamentally evil.
Corps are, by law, amoral. They do what’s in the interests of shareholders. Period. It’s the job of the government to incent corps to align the interest of corps with the public good (a.k.a. banning child labor)
–believes in a corporate conspiracy that controls the world.
Ha ha ha ha.. Prominent corps can’t even make cars people will buy, but they control the world? Ha ha ha.
–is intolerant of good ideas when they come from conservative sources.
If it’s evidence based, I’m all for it.
–dismissively mocks people of faith, especially those who are opposed to abortion and gay marriage.â€
Policy needs to be based on evidence. If you believe abortion and gay marriage are evil, then don’t have an abortion or marry someone of the same sex. However, I devoutly believe that it’s wrong for a religious individuals to work to codify purely religious beliefs into law. Theocracies haven’t fared much better than Communist/Socialist governments.
–regularly uses harsh, vulgar, intolerant language to attack moderates or conservatives.
I tend to notice conservatives are red faced with veins bulging and profanity spewing, while some turtleneck wearing liberal smiles smugly. But you know, I probably spend too much time here.
>>“cultural illiteracy is all the rage for the Susan Boyle generation, who, by and large, have no knowledge of, or curiosity about…”
Whatever. War is God’s way of teaching Americans geography, history, economics, them damned foreign cultures, etc etc and who is you to argue, hmm?
This is a test.
[quote]Thanks geoffb for the link to the toolbar plugin.[/quote]
Please define “informed” as you use it here.
Ghost707, you need to set it to HTML for most comment threads. BBcode generally only works on actual forums and, you know, bulletin boards.
And I see you figured that out without me. Carry on.
[quote]this is BB code[/quote] select the HTML in the drop down menu at the right(center) of the toolbar. You should get blockquote. Still the strike through and the underline won’t work here. The toolbar puts up the wrong ones for this place.
And I’m even later than you.
Crime and poverty are like gravity.They are going to exist no matter how hard a society tries to change the rules against them.
Wonderking Obama is going to give us more crime and poverty, but seems unable to change gravity though.
I still don’t have my unicorn either. Are they still on backorder?
Thanks to all. I don’t post a lot here, but seeing that this one of the most intelligent forums on the net, I would like to participate more.
test —> BOLD <—
It shipped at the same time as the magic, invisible, undetectable teapot.
I CAN HAZ HATERS !
Really? I just usually giggle at them. But you’re probably right about conservatives, what would I know, being one and all.
giggle.
as well you should.
Heh, good one Sammy.
But even Democrats now know Obama has spent his way out of office.
Obama is at war with too many Americans for it to end well for him.
Why do you lie so much? So Sean Hannity is your “conservatives”?
Definitely monumental stupidity.
Yeah. Another ally in the ME dedicated to democracy is stupid. Hey! How about them elections in Lebanon? Weird, huh?
I wholeheartedly believe that “capitalism, carefully regulated and progressively taxed, is the best liberal idea in human history.†It’s conservatives that differ, esp. on the “carefully regulated and progressively taxed†part.
Capitalism is a term Marx coined. Free markets are just that. Free from government regulation. Regulations are usually written to protect an industry. Guess who writes the regulations for the FAA? C’mon. Guess?
Corps are, by law, amoral. No. they are ammoral by their very nature.Depending on who and how they are run thery can only be less ammoral. Governments, on the other hand, are ammoral at best.”The Public Good” is a fungible term. *See Margret Sanger and Planned Parenthood.
Policy needs to be based on evidence.
No. first it must be determined if it falls ubder the authority of the constitution. The original, not the living one. Gay marriage is a nonissue federally. Bailing out private companies is also something the federal government should not be into. You want an abortion? Knock yourself out. Just don’t expect me to pay for it. It’s a moral thing. You wouldn’t understand.
Define ‘wealth’ for me, Sammy.
Forgive my normally outstanding typing. I have a booboo on my finger.
Here is a brief tutorial on HTML as used on PW. Save the link — it turns out we’re gonna need it every time somebody new turns up.
Regards,
Ric
Well, he’s not my “liberals”.
And completely free markets don’t actually work that well.
That’s funny. I wonder how come people keep building them every time they get the chance?
>>I tend to notice conservatives are red faced with veins bulging and profanity spewing, while some turtleneck wearing liberal smiles smugly. But you know, I probably spend too much time here.
To be fair, its possible that Sammy is a NE denizen, where Conservatives are eternally frustrated & excluded and thus often come acrost as sullen and ill-understood. The smug liberals, firmly the Establishment, do indeed smile to themselves.
The odd thing is that those Establishment libs still think of themselves as somehow counter-culture and avant-garde, the Rebel Jedis vs. the Republican Empire, etc etc. Utter delusionary twaddle, of course.
The task in the NE [to explain our horrid Repubs up here] is not so much to fight for conservative stuff as to get the Libs to calm down their monkey-rage and reassure them that they’ve actually nothing to fear, they’re the Establishment now so it’s time to become responsible before they destroy us all.
It isn’t working, BTW. They’re quite feral and I’ve given up.
>>And completely free markets don’t actually work that well.
Well, they do, only “completely free” ones lead inexorably to the selling of flesh, slavery, etc. Which is to say most free markets aren’t.
How do you know? They haven’t been tried lately.
So, you’re not serious. Ok.
For large enough values of “work”.
A has X. B has Y. Four cases ensue:
1) A prefers X, B prefers Y.
2) A prefers Y, B prefers Y.
3) B prefers X, A prefers X.
4) B prefers Y, A prefers X.
Case (1) is stasis. Each has what he/she/it prefers.
Cases (2) and (3) yield tension. In each case, one of the two is satisfied and the other is not.
Case (4) is the “unconstrained trade”. If the two parties exchange their goods, both of them are more satisfied — “richer” — than before. What may not be apparent is the society in which they are embedded is also richer. This is where “wealth” comes from. Anybody who tells you different either doesn’t understand the subject or is engaging in mysticism (goldbuggery is mystic at root).
No, it ain’t that simple (which is Ric’s Rule Number One). Nevertheless, if the structure doesn’t conform to that ideal it won’t generate wealth. In particular, if a third party requires A and B to swap in case (1), the society as a whole becomes poorer. If the third party requires a swap in case (2) or (3), the society gains and loses in equal amounts on the trade, and loses the value of the effort required to enforce the swap.
The proper role of Government in all that is to try to prevent third parties (including monopolists) from enforcing undesirable trades. Regulation needs to proceed from that principle. If the Government itself gets in the business of enforcing trades that aren’t desirable to the participants, it inevitably destroys wealth.
Regards,
Ric
I think there is something basic about the leftist worldview that prevents responsibility or reason. It is only to the extent that this ideology is abandoned or violated in their minds that they can achieve the semblance of either.
The fact that leftists have to lie about their policies to get elected should tell any sentient being that those used cars they are trying to sell have no engines under the hood.
The most recent lie by the left (one of my favorites) is that all citizens can enjoy the same level of medical care as that of the Congress, if only they can get their healthcare reform passed.
And completely free markets don’t actually work that well.
And your proof?
BTW The Airlines write the regulations that the FAA administer.
And completely free markets don’t actually work that well.
Remember the dotcom revolution? No rules, no regulations. Just the free market.
Regulations exist to stifle competition, sammah. Remember that.
Completely free markets? When have we had those, since …. like 1850?
The sick thing about Obama is that he isn’t remotely transcendent. He isn’t even competent, more’s the pity.
Fauxscendent?
#104
They’re everywhere. You just have to look for them.
Animal sex stories free….
Animal sex library. Gay animal sex. Animal sex pics. Animal sex video. Sex animal. Animal sex….