Glenn wrote @ Che

"Great. That's the crux of it. You're a person willing to be totally intellectually dishonest and apply double standards when it comes to political issues. I'm not, and a lot of readers here aren't. So it's hardly surprising that you would consider such things perfectly acceptable. You favor hypocrisy and intellectual dishonestly in pursuit of winning. Not everyone does."

That is the problem with our entire political system in a nutshell. Hell that is probably the problem with our whole American society.

this is why I read you Glenn.

And by the way, to all the fake outrage folks: man my first vote was for Jimmy Carter and I still love him and I have despised Republicans since Reagan's sophistry corrupted so many: but I am damn angry about what the Clintons are doing.

Don't need two presidents like that at the same time.

fine folks arguing, arguing, arguing: fascinating to try to follow the points and counter-points. And I begin teaching my introduction to logic class on Wednesday. All this makes good grist for the mill :)

all my stars to bebop-o.

knows how to at least thumb their noses at the bastards, unlike the democrats in the senate and house.

from the wide sky apes are whimpering.

Indeed.

Thanks for that Bebop-o. Here is one for you:

Thus gathered in company,

We have in the midst of us

A tree of laughter and talk,

A fragrant plum tree.

The piercing voice of a bush warbler

Is an alarm for the slumbering world.

--Basho

A bow to you, sir. At least let us have people who are willing to speak up. What infuriates me about most of the democrats in congress is that (unless they are part of a kabuki theater, a constant possibility in my mind) is that they are a peculiarly disgusting kind of coward: one unwilling to speak up or make a stand when people are dying (with the Iraqi civilians being the far greater monstrosity). And even those who speak up end up infuriating me: is that all you can do? Soldiers will die for their county but you cannot even perform some civil disobedience? Raise some true hell? Soldiers are willing to die but you are not willing to be embarrassed or shunned by your colleagues? The democrats in congress fill me with such total disgust. Yeah, some are better than others and they are not all alike, but when all is said and done I have seen none that I know of willing to risk their career to protest this horror and try to educate Americans on how serious it is. I suppose they salve themselves with the thought that if they remain within bounds they can do at least some good behind the scenes. I spit on them on behalf of the soldiers and the innocent civilians.

You wrote: "and the reality that, for most Americans, logic is an unfamiliar skill"

Yes. I am on the front lines of that fact, as it were: I teach introduction to logic. And tomorrow I will give my first lecture to a new class of freshman, who will stare at me (most of them, not all) as if I am speaking some foreign language or describing some incredibly exotic technique. And I am at a small liberal arts college where the tuition is high and most of them are the children of those with enough money to pay the tuition, who went to the "good high schools": and as it has happened every year for the last thirteen years I will be telling them things that take them unawares. There is always a kind of continuum in this of course, ranging from those who have no inkling of basic logic to those who already have some sense of it.

But to a solid majority it will be like I am speaking an ancient dead language. It is my opinion we are living in the ruins of western civilization (or maybe we have always been living in the ruins of a grand idea that was never really realized, I am not sure). But then what is important is to take it one person at a time. People can begin to think for themselves, one at a time. And I know this this because I have seen it happen. What is important is the people I will be speaking to tomorrow, each one of them. What is important is each one of you being true to what you know and continuing to think. You have to hold on to what is important and be true to it in each moment you have, even and especially when everything is going bad. I believe all I will have when I am dying is the integrity of my life as I have lived it. In my last moments that will be my heaven or my hell. Think of what hell all these false politicinas are condemning themselves to. It fairly makes ones hair stand on end.

"Hay cowboys and gal pin-hat people! This place is great for thinking together. We can all be embarrased together here. It's all so fair. It is a lovely day. Bandito no. Buena."

Gracias.

http://tinyurl.com/38g286