Letters to the Editor
Fraud Guy
Published Letters: 337
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Healthyskeptic
[Read the article: "Fringe liberal bloggers"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thank you for laying out an impressive explanation of the Civil War/civil rights interplay in post Civil War America. I was not reaching on the timing of the start, but only pointing out your error; if you cannot acknowledge that, I am still happy that it caused you to lay out your multi-post explanation. You brought up some points that I had forgotten, or was unaware of.
Now we just have to work on the attitude. I appreciate the information, but stop trying to ram it down my throat.
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Lincoln as centrist
[Read the article: "Fringe liberal bloggers"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]healthyskeptic,
After sleeping on my last response to you, I would have to say that what most bothers me is some hypocrisy in your point that the left needs to silence its "fringe". You bring up Lincoln as an example of a centrist, who steered his party's radicals away from ruining themselves out of his understanding of what the people wanted.
However, in matching Lincoln's words with what he did, it is plain to see that a bigger issue is that while he was very consistent in his statements, goals, and actions. Was this just political calculation or personal belief writ large? Does it matter? Despite his relative obscurity and less than impressive appearance, he lead this country through one of its most traumatic and difficult periods by doing what he said and saying what he was doing.
The flip you want to add to this is that members of the current left must hide their ideals and/or push their fringe elements to the side to claim the center. I have news for you. They are the center, and their (and our) best hope is for them to consistently state their goals and follow through. You say that the failure of the Radical Republicans in the 1860's was that they privately enriched themselves while talking about the public good (hmm, sounds familiar). I think the failure of the modern center would be if they fail to do as they say and say as they do, as clearly as possible.
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Why people do bad things?
[Read the article: Notes on "A Tragic Legacy"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Working in fraud prevention, my rule of thumb has been the 10/80/10 rule. 10% of people will never attempt to do anything wrong; 10% of people will always attempt to do something wrong; and for the other 80%, it depends.
I am moving past this simplistic rule to the explanation that there are many factors that induce people to break the law. There are reasons of convenience, emotion, calculation, and ignorance (with some overlap). To prevent people from doing this, there are two main factors: difficulty of commission and apprehension of punishment.
If it is relatively easy to break the law, say, speeding, it then becomes easier for people to justify to themselves to do it. The harder it is to break the law, the less likely someone will exert the effort to do so.
The apprehension of punishment can be internal or external. Most people have an ethical system that they have internalized, which will prevent them in most cases from performing illegal acts. The external fear of punishment through societal punishment systems (social and governmental) also serve as a check on behavior.
An example I have is of a small group who illegally obtained product and turned it into income on an infamous auction site. The value of the product was low, The convenience factor was high--they didn't have to leave their home to commit the fraud. Their fear of punishment was low, as they had established their pattern over time, starting with a few hesitant transactions, then ramping the volume as they felt they were not being monitored. (They were caught, however.)
The interesting part is the after the fact rationalizations when they were caught. One claimed to be going to school, so they couldn't keep a regular job, but stated they had intentions to pay off those they ripped off after they used their schooling to get a job. Other evidence indicated they clearly were aware what they were doing was illegal, but the other factors suppressed the usual societal desire to not break the law.
It's not a perfect, or complete, theory, but helps explain what I have seen so far; as I gain more experience and find other theories, I add to the model.
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Short answer for bucky1
[Read the article: Krauthammer's plan to deny Palestinians gas and electricity]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]No.
Not for a generation.
Maybe for a few months here or there, though.
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Robert
[Read the article: Krauthammer's plan to deny Palestinians gas and electricity]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Cheney is Cthulhu; Rove is Nyarlathotep.
Gonzales reminds me of a deep one.
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Tree analogy
[Read the article: Krauthammer's plan to deny Palestinians gas and electricity]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]That's why neocons are like (some) developers; they see a stand of majestic 100 year oaks and think "mmm, strip mall".
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In defense of bucky1 and kitt
[Read the article: Face of a psychopath]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Kitt--republicans are not the only evil in the world; please remember that power corrupts. If we're lucky in '08 we will have Democrats in 2 of 3 branches, and their excesses will be reined in by conservative SC Justices.
bucky1--unlike Wilson, who favored intervention but stated otherwise, there is nothing on Gore that would indicate large scale interventionism (to my knowledge). Could he have been tempted? Sure, but it does not seem likely, and as we have seen, if he would have called for some intervention, the Republican dominated Congress would probably have called him on warmongering (and hopefully he would not have encountered an issue that would have allowed Joe to step up to the plate).
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Re:Our Pulp Horror Government
[Read the article: Krauthammer's plan to deny Palestinians gas and electricity]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Kanzan,
I still like Cheney as Cthulhu. Sitting is his undisclosed bunker in R'yleh, that which does sleep entombed.
Shub-Niggurath, the Goat with a Thousand Young? Maybe that can be Gonzo, with his numerous Liberty U spawn?
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Online Necronomicon
[Read the article: Krauthammer's plan to deny Palestinians gas and electricity]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]bucky1,
Some guys named Larry and Sergey started a project based on that a few years back, but I don't recall what happened to them.
....
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The last Lovecraftian post.
[Read the article: Krauthammer's plan to deny Palestinians gas and electricity]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I strolled over to Althouse, because I hadn't seen enough narcissism recently, and ran across her post about Glenn's takedown of MSM swooning of masculine traits. Glenn was oft referred to as "He who shall not be named", which would make him, within the Cthulhu mythos, Hastur the unspeakable, whose goal is to destroy Cthulhu and his leadership of the Old Ones.