Letters to the Editor
Kevin Riley O'Keeffe
Published Letters: 29 Editor's Choice: 1
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@ "Anonymous"
[Read the article: Blood-and-guts politics]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"It's the right that wants to torture, bomb, or otherwise obliterate anyone different. That's not hyperbole: that's your stated position!"
Neo-"conservatives" aren't the whole of the American right.
"the founding fathers' most cherished achievement: the separation of church and state."
Ridiculous! The Founding Fathers' most cherished achievement was political independence from the British Empire. "Separation of church and state" didn't even exist during their lifetimes, as the Congregationalist Church continued to be the official, established Christian sect of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts until about 1830. Similarly, the Epsicopalian church was the official, established church of Virginia (including what is now West Virginia) during the same time period. Most of the original 13 states had established churches well after the ratification of the First Amendment, and in some cases, people were actually required to tithe to those churches via public taxation. Now it is true that the First Amendment to the Constitution did prevent the establishment of an official religion and/or sect at the Federal level, and that is a good thing, but it certainly did not create the mandatory public hostiltiy to all manifestations of Christian faith that is what liberals are referring to, and celebrating, when they refer to "the seperation of church and state."
"It's the right that wants phone calls monitored without warrants, and it's the right that calls anyone who disagrees with the president a traitor."
The left has its own variety of fascism. If someone today happens to remark at their office they they agree with noted social scientist Dr. Charles Murray, in his book The Bell Curve, that people of European ancestry have, on average, a genetic propensity for higher I.Q. levels (or levels of cognition, however ones measures it) than do people of sub-Saharan African origin, you can pretty much bet that the truth will be no defense, and that this person will soon be unemployed, and thus his ability to provide not only for himself, but for his family, will be forcibly taken away from him, which is often almost as bad going to prison. That's liberal fascism, where everyone must monitor everything they say, for fear that one slip of the tongue could destroy their ability to earn the little green pieces of paper you liberals & conservatives both seem to worship.
"'I may strongly disagree with what you say but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.'" That's a LIBERAL position, jackass."
18th century liberalism has a lot more in common with the 21st century libertarianism of Republican Congressman Ron Paul of Texas, than it does with the sleazy war-mongering and corporate shilling of 20th century-style social democrats like, say, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry.
"It's LIBERALS who want all forms of expression (that don't lead to physical harm) allowed."
Let me guess, the correlation between forms of expression that do cause harm, and forms of expression that contain an ideological content that liberals regard as repugnant, is something along the lines of 100 percent, right? You can (already do, and will do so more in the future) define "harm" in whatever subjective manner you apparently find amusing, and will use that to pummel your opponents into submission by criminalizing dissent from your worldview. That is one of the many ways people like you are difficult to distinguish from those horrible neo-"conservatives" of the Bush/Cheney criminal regime.
"It's LIBERALS who have gone to the wall, time and time again, for freedom of speech, freedom of movement, freedom of association."
Albeit mainly for pornographers and members of the Communist Party. Many liberals have no issue with suppressing (Christian) religious expression, or the views of the extreme right. Heck, I'll be pleasantly surprised if this letter doesn't get deleted by the liberals here at Salon.
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@ Xrandadu Hutman
[Read the article: Blood-and-guts politics]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Whenever somebody refers to a homogenous group of random people "you people" and then attempts to analyze them as if they all represent the same generation / nationality / etc., they deserve the Dumbshit Award of the Day.
Of course I am aware of the fact that my analysis would not apply to each and every other single individual reader of Salon. I rather took it for granted that people would assume that I was aware of such things, and read my remarks within the context of my not actually intending to say that they were true about everyone here, merely many people here. That is, after all, what one would expect from an intelligent person over the age of twelve. You wouldn't happen to be eleven, would you? In any event, most of the huge volume of petty, hostile letters directed as Ms. Paglia read as if they were written by the same person. The fact I assume they were not, makes me comfortable with engaging in a modest degree of what is, admittedly, a bit of an over-generalization. Perhaps you have uncovered some occult secret by which humans can organize their thoughts, and other information, without making any generalizations at all. If so, please share it with the rest of the world immediately!