Salon Readers, what is Justice? What is Compassion? :)

Having vigorously pointed out the stupidity of both Republicans and Democrats in my last post (second at this site) I now feel a sense of obligation to any who may have understood it to give them some valuable advice. Strange, but true.

Please understand, I have no financial interest, but time is short, and anyway I have hardly any confidence that anyone will pay attention - I am just obeying my sense of a "moral imperative". For your own sake, please take advantage of the artificially low price of gold, and particularly silver, today!

Personally, I patronize goldmoney.com and thesilverxchange.com

There. Now I can go to sleep, having given you the opportunity to safeguard your finances.

Good night, America! (Dumb or Not)

I too have noticed that Republicans don't want to admit to being Republicans. Admitting to that is admitting to having voted for Bush. Admitting to having voted for Bush is admitting to beginning the end of the American empire.

As an opening aside, Fester freely acknowledges a generous helping of arrogance and (not) humility, along with a paucity of bodhicitta (a shout out to those sanskrit devotees, you betcha).

But it seems to me that certainty and self-righteousness is an unremarkable condition of mankind in general. It can be found in those that have adopted science as a religion and among those who, with the adoption of ancient texts and perceived self alignment with those ancient dictates, now imagine themselves imbued with celestial authority. For the rest of us, we make judgment calls.

Your words (excerpted below). seem to implement some 2.0 version of the divine rights of Kings. Call it the divine rights of Presidents. In Fester's worldview the President is the Employee, the Citizens are the Employer. It is our job to critique the President and his or her performance with the tools we have at hand. Admittedly, calling the President a wanker is a rather blunt instrument, though not information free. I'm sorry, but I'm not willing to cede to my betters.

One only has to look at the war in the Iraqs or the present financial catastrophe to know that power, influence, and even knowledge does not confer wisdom.

So I will continue to make my own bad calls, thank you very much.

Thus we observe posters here and elsewhere proposing themselves the superior in every way of Presidents of the United States and others whose politics they reject. It does not occur to them that such grandiosity in the absence of any but the most subjective and impressionistic evidence actually approaches the bizarre - and would in fact deserve the epithet bizarre if it were not as common as it is in certain circles.

How do they know what is wrong and what should be done? This question seldom troubles them for their understanding is for them intuitive and self-evident. That their opinions are truths is for them simply too obvious to be denied by any sensible and decent person. Do they understand the world and everything in it? They do. They understand it better than those presently entrusted with managing public affairs. Do they know the right formulas and programs to achieve the best and most just arrangemnt of local, national, international and global affairs? They know this as well and are in a hurry to get to work to set everything to rights.

hi big,

i think admitting to being republican admits to being a social darwinist and not caring about the condition of your fellow man - i think THAT's why they deny it.

i cant say how many of these "non-republicans" i know say, "we should take care of each other, not pay the government to."

so then you reasonably ask, "when is the last time you helped a stranger? when is the last time you gave out of your pocket/heart?"

ALWAYS the answer is, "umm. uhhh. well, i served food at church on thanksgiving." IF they have even done that much.

I like your hypothesis. It doesn't matter if one asserts compassion. One either manifests it or one doesn't and there are daily opportunities to do so. So, if one alleges that the best mechanism for compassion isn't government, then it is incumbent upon a compassionate person to BE compassionate beyond, "Tsk, tsk." When one's combines Republicanism with alleged Christianity, the imperative for compassion is multiplied. Of course, as I often note, Republicans are the people who torture and allegedly worship the tortured Jesus, so that degree of incongruity pretty much clears them to pass homeless people while singing, "Zippi-dee-dah, zippi-dee-ay, my, oh, my what a wonderful day!"

Tele: you are one pretentious sack of excrement offering the complete Latin for "by this it is proved" (q.e.d.). My selection was a favorite of Harry Caray -- I picked an easy one to decipher.

What is truly sad about the Telelogicuses (if I might pluralize)populating today's bloggispheres is their fundamental cowardice, using stilted language to assuage their cronies or intimidate any who oppose and dismissing anyone in between. They are the new breed of bullies, cyber-bullies. Cloaked by the impersonal veil of the Internet and false signatures, these cheap shot artists refine their art, posting and reposting, refining and retooling their hate-centered messages. Consider the content of Telelogicus' screeds: note how often he categorizes people like some pseudoscientist with selfmade standards.

Bullbutter, Telelogicus. You are a pathetic cave dwelling neoturd. You are bookmark abandoned in a library condemned by the city to make way for a WalMart sump pump. You are obscure and obscene (in the Greek playwright use of the word you snotty elitist carbon life form).

Your dependence on strawman arguments exhibits the simplistic logical fallacy that infects each of your entries which are at the very least specious and at the very best trite.

Push off, Theologicus. The waters are too deep and the current too fast for sardine sized wanna-be cyber-bullies who try to guild with Latin. It is like putting perfume on a . . .