Beck Smearing and the Tucson Massacre

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Brant,

The problem with neocons is that they do their violence differently. They like preemptive wars--or hell, just plain old war--a little too much. And many of them scapegoat just as badly as anyone on the left.

I find myself neither right, left nor center. I'm basically on the outside with all this.

What that means is that I put up with government because I don't see any way out--especially with human nature being what it is, but inside my soul, I intensely wish it were different. I act accordingly. I support those who I believe have a decent shot at reducing the government's role in our lives. And I try to stay under the radar when I step out of bounds.

(I'm not sayin' I ever step out of bounds, of course... )

Michael

[Robert Campbell]

Brant,

I don't believe that Jack Wheeler has gotten over 9/11.

In the 1980s, he was a big promoter of the mujahidin in Afghanistan, "embedding" himself with them on more than one occasion.

He was aware of the Sunni fanatical element—I recall him complaining about Gulbuddin Hekmatyar—but he thought that armed Muslim warriors would be like Enver Pasha back in the 1920s: the Soviet Union's problem, no one else's.

His immediate reaction to 9/11 was to call for the United States government to announce that any further attack by Islamic imperialists would be instantly met with the nuking of Mecca and Medina.

Robert Campbell

[Brant Gaede]

Brant,

I don't believe that Jack Wheeler has gotten over 9/11.

In the 1980s, he was a big promoter of the mujahidin in Afghanistan, "embedding" himself with them on more than one occasion.

He was aware of the Sunni fanatical element—I recall him complaining about Gulbuddin Hekmatyar—but he thought that armed Muslim warriors would be like Enver Pasha back in the 1920s: the Soviet Union's problem, no one else's.

His immediate reaction to 9/11 was to call for the United States government to announce that any further attack by Islamic imperialists would be instantly met with the nuking of Mecca and Medina.

Robert Campbell

That last wouldn't have worked. It would have caused a major, never-ending backlash--the instant radicalization of almost all of the world's Muslims. The U.S., regardless, has been manufacturing its own enemies in the Middle East ever since 9-11 much more than before that date. The 9-11 attacks were essentially a form of bear baiting. Incredibly successful.

--Brant

[Greybird]

[...] So let's look at the word "atheist" in the manner Beck uses it. Just like everyone on earth, he uses the same word to mean different things at different times. [...] And just like everyone on earth, he uses words in context without qualifying all the contexts and exceptions every time he speaks.

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”

“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”

“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master — that’s all.”

Alice was too much puzzled to say anything, so after a minute Humpty Dumpty began again. “They’ve a temper, some of them — particularly verbs, they’re the proudest — adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs — however, I can manage the whole lot! Impenetrability! That’s what I say!”

(Through the Looking-Glass)

I'll go with the 140-year-old original take on such special pleading, thenk kew. Slightly more elegant.

And after all, one can't deny the spiritual — and physical — resemblances between That Fabled Egg and That Modern Pundit.

Edited January 13, 2011 by Greybird

[Greybird]

See what I meant, Steve? A case of the bends, for sure. Contortions and all. Not a pretty spectacle.

You were right, JR. Fans are not to be reasoned with. Their condescension and excuse-making must simply be endured, like precipitation.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

"I will be the one who decides which double standards I use," said the bitter dreamer. "And which ones you should use."

(sigh)