Letters to the Editor
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@ WT- No Good Deed
The demands being made of us by the right wing these days, the view of the world which they are trying to impose on us, and the abuse they heap on those who won't go along with the program will combine to put us in a terrible place if we let them; this before we even mention how many other Garry Owens their policies will create.
Goes unpunished, right?
In some cases, when you show others mutual respect, understanding, kindness or concern - they are perceived as weaknesses to be taken advantage of, if they do not outright turn on you. This is true of fellow citizens in your own country, as well as other governments of other nations in the world.
This is why the better practioners of politics, statecraft and foreign policy are usually pragmatists and realists, not idealists. It's complicated.
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On pragmatism
This is why the better practioners of politics, statecraft and foreign policy are usually pragmatists and realists, not idealists. It's complicated. -- L.W.M.
Oh it is, yes. That's why we must always -- even when making terrible choices -- keep our eye on bebop's prize. He doesn't quote the classics, and the wise of all ages, nor speak lovingly of vegetables tended with his own hands, of his granddaughter, of the coffin he built for his father to no avail, I hope.
I do more than hope, as everyone does, but when I think of hope, I now think of bebop's counsel, and his stories. Hope with iron in it, if you will.
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All the sadness
of our times is here in this thread: the good fractured people who try so hard to communicate, the mindless ones who somehow cannot reach outside themselves, the hurt ones who talk and talk about themselves, and most of all the incredible weirdness time out of joint nature of our political life now(thanks for the Lear, bebop-o: it accurately limned it). And I worry most about my children: my eighteen year old who can vote for the first time this year and doesn't see much hope in voting, my older daughter who doesn't vote because she's sure the last two elections were stolen, my other daughter who walked door to door with me for Kerry last time and cried when he lost and tries to find a reason to continue in her activism; and my youngest daughter who looks with horror at these articles I read by Glen and asks me what we should do, what can we do, Daddy? What if one of the crazies is elected again? What will we do? And I am out on the moor in the storm with Lear and the fool looking for shelter for my children and very sad indeed.
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@WT Pragmatism
"Hope with iron in it" is a beautiful phrase.
Also, to RMP:
"I would defy any commenter here to tell me a common meaning for “like” when the word is used loosely without facts and context."
Funny that you'd choose this word as your example since, in today's parlance, it means, like, equivocal.
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Glenn, re: limiting Garry
I don't believe that you publicly warned Garry before you limited him. If you warned him privately, then he deserves your sanctioning. If you didn't, then I think your decision might have been hasty.
I think there is a night and day difference between your decision about sugarman and Garry. While Garry has been a bit aggressive about wanting you to go to Iraq, and while you have every right to run your threads as you see fit, I hope you will consider a time out for Garry rather than a final, no more chances one.
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@farragoNW
Like, would you believe, I chose that word on purpose to make a point?
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Stop The Republican Nihilists
The Republicans in this country have been revealed for what they are: irrational authoritarian nihilists. They have no faith in reason, no goodwill for their fellow citizens, and contempt for the rest of the world.
But every other political institution in this country that is supposed to provide a check on this kind of anti-American extremism has utterly failed to do its duty. The media and, most of all, the Democrats in Congress have demonstrated that their top priorities are maintaining their status among the corrupt Villagers who are the arbiters of the acceptable bounds of discourse in this country.
We need to enforce legal accountability on the war criminals in the White House and political accountability on the Democrats in Congress who refuse to take a real stand.
None of us in the netroots should give a dime to any candidate or party committee which doesn't take a clear and unambiguous stand against the Republican extremists and describe them as they are: anti-American extremists.
Bring on the primary challenges!
To paraphrase Thomas Jefferson, "Millions for those who go on offense, but not one cent for those who cower in silence."
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@RMP
Yes I would believe it. If you chose "like" for its double meaning then I hope the other guests will pardon me for slapping my knee and loudly repeating the punch line.
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Tools for Conservatives: Evading the Point, Part 327
If you can't think of a colorable rejoinder on the merits, find some meaningless rhetorical idiom to sidetrack the whole discussion.
Example:
What bothers me the most about Greenwald's argument is that he goes out of his way to take the side of an accused enemy propagandist ....
Translation:
Damn you Glenn Greenwald! Couldn't you find some popular person, right here at home, whose basic human rights were being trampled into the mud?
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RMP
I think there is a night and day difference between your decision about sugarman and Garry. While Garry has been a bit aggressive about wanting you to go to Iraq, and while you have every right to run your threads as you see fit, I hope you will consider a time out for Garry rather than a final, no more chances one.
I deleted the comments from him that prompted my decision as soon as I saw them. There were 4-5 of them in a row that were increasingly personal, defamatory and insulting, and had nothing to do with going to Iraq. He's been posting the going-to-Iraq posts for weeks now. Those don't bother me in the slightest. The posts that prompted the limits were of a different nature entirely, clearly designed to disrupt, and so far over the line that I don't believe any warning is required.
When the comment section becomes so unpleasant to me that I want to stop reading it, that, in my view, is a significant loss for the blog, since being able to read and interact with commenters is of great value to me. I have a very, very high bar for what becomes intolerable - and it never has anything to do with substantive political views, only behavior - but once it's transgressed in such an egregious way, I'm going to opt to preserve the value of the comment section over allowing one person to run rampant with objectives that have nothing to do with the purpose of the blog.