Letters to the Editor
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Why Don't They Stop Using Numbers?
Or, rather, revert to using Roman Numerals.
After all, Arabic numerals are Arabic numerals, and the very use of them gives aid and comfort to the enemies of America.
We just can't be too careful.
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Paul Rosenberg:
After all, Arabic numerals are Arabic numerals, and the very use of them gives aid and comfort to the enemies of America.
Not to mention the fact that Osama can use these numbers to send codes to activate the sleeper cells -- just like they had to keep goggles on Jose Padilla for all those years to prevent him from blinking in code.
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2006/12/igor_we_need_to.html
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None of this is important
as long as Holy Joe Leiberman holds leadership positions on Senate committees.
None of it.
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Funny you should mention Roman vs Arabic numbers--
For years during the Dark Ages the Catholic church forbade using Arabic numbers for that very reason. And the rhetoric being used now often makes me worry we're sliding right back there. (Global warming is an invention of crazies! The 'towel-heads' are out to get us!)
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The idea that Muslims are more violent than Christians is absurd
Both religions have blood on their hands. Compare Iran and Afghanistan to Northern Ireland and Serbia. Remember that the second worst terrorist act in the United States was committed by Christians. Remember the ongoing terrorist acts committed against abortion clinics. Remember the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed by America. Christians have no right to accuse Muslims of being violent.
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Don't people like Kirchick ..
get how two-faced they are? ... they say they want to spread democracy abroad ... yet they want more restrictions here .. they basically want a religious theocracy here .. sometimes I wonder how did these people get so delusional
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this is annoying for a number of reasons
but one of them is the knee-jerk statement about the "liberal PC police." Um. Kirchick's entire point is based on the comments of a professional nag. One might even say that Donohue is the "Catholic PC police." But his response is OK, while the supposed liberal weenie reponse is not?
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And...
The fear-mongering also contributes to a greater sense of isolation amongst the young and growing Muslim population in the country, and the vulnerable and impressionable among them will be fodder for fundamentalists. My biggest fear is us driving one of the most economically successful, and so far fairly happily absorbed, minorities to the fringes of the US, creating significant discontent amongst those who were born and raised here - basically repeating the sins of Europe.
Marginalizing American Muslims is one of the biggest mistakes we can make. But I'm sure the right-wing commentators contributing to that potential outcome are well aware of that fact - they are quite happy leading us to WWIII or the apocalypse or whatever doomsday scenario fills their coffers.
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There's one point of insanity in this that the right-wing constantly seem to miss:
To whit, only one side actually has nuclear weapons...and it isn't the Muslims.
Wonder how these idiots would feel if their boy in the White House starts pushing all those shiny buttons inside The Football, all because 'God' told him to.
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The Lives of Others Is a Small Price to Pay for My Grit
Meanwhile, John "Don't Call Me 'Bohner'" Boehner explained, "We need to continue our effort here because, Wolf, long term, the investment that we’re making today will be a small price if we’re able to stop al Qaeda here, if we’re able to stabilize the Middle East, it’s not only going to be a small price for the near future, but think about the future for our kids and their kids."
As Greg Sargent put it, this is characteristic of many occupation-supporting politicians and commentators, who: “(a) Describe the very real sacrifice being made by others as not being such a big deal …while simultaneously… (b) Describing the sacrifice others are making as their own.”
True grit. Or chutzpah, at least.
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The "Pity Me" Blues
The “pity-me” victim mentality of these people is always at the crux of their arguments. Whether it’s their need to be the “persecuted” religion (while being the overwhelmingly dominant religion), or their being the suppressed people squelched by a liberal media, or the 'poor, hard-working Americans' being looked down upon by that upper-echelon liberal elite (while their party is, self-admittedly, the party of the “have and have mores”). Deceit is first and foremost where all their arguments begin.
Even Bill Kristol had to finally admit in a rare moment of conservative honesty, “The liberal media were never that powerful, and the whole thing was often used as an excuse by conservatives for conservative failures.” Yet, the ridiculous “liberal media” nonsense persists to this day, even after the last 6 years of over-the-top, rightwing, propaganda dominance.
As you pointed out yesterday, it was just OUTRAGEOUS to accuse General Petraeus of betraying his country, but calling war veterans like Max Cleland, John Kerry, and Jack Murtha terrorist-sympathizers and traitors is said with no more forethought than calling the sky blue. They smear victims of tragedies (the 9/11 wives, the New Orleans “refugees”, Cindy Sheehan), but if you trash a rightwing military man like Petraeus, you've crossed the line! It’s both unprecedented and unbelievable!
You hit the nail on the head again. Great post, Glenn!
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Both religions have blood on their hands.
True, but I don't think that this is the best strategy to counter the absurdity. My owm personal feeling is that murderous lunatics, idiots, brilliant people and people who simply wish to be left alone are all pretty well evenly distributed throughout the world's population. The trick is to create social structures that allow them all to live together causing the least amount of damage.
I've always thought that the US Constitution was a good place to start, particularly with its explicit injunction to keep the business of Government and that of Supernatural Beings in separate realms so that neither imposes upon or distorts the other.
I also think that most religions as practiced are in fact manifestations of tribal tendencies that, like language, we are born with the capacity to develop, complete with particuar stages at which we are susceptible to the cultural transmission that renders us Christians or Muslims or Buddhists or _________(whatever).
I guess the point I am trying to make, is that we face an uphill battle fighting the prejudice and hatred that motivates these people. But God help us if we don't try.