Letters posted here are associated with the following article:

459
Letters
Sunday, February 17, 2008 12:00 AM

The fun and excitement of civilization wars (fought from afar)

Believing that one is waging paramount war against the most evil enemy ever is a garden-variety psychological need, not a political or ideological conviction.

The letters thread is now closed.

View:
Tuesday, February 19, 2008 07:23 AM

Ron Paul is a Great Sufi Master and Teacher!

He and his disciples will smite the infidels who defile His Name and The Holy Constitution! (Especially The Articles, that BoR stuff is heretical!)

Paultards Enraged At Fake City

Ron Paul’s most fervent supporters were outraged to learn that “Watson University” had rescinded an invitation for the Libertarian congressman to speak there. One commenter on The City Desk declared angrily that “Ron Paul can teach your entire student body more in 1 hour than they learn in 4 years of study.” But the biggest problem with this educational institution isn’t their brazen dis of America’s greatest patriot. It’s that it doesn’t exist.

City Desk editor RJ White cooked up the whole story to see what sort of nutbag comments it would attract. And yea, it yielded a veritable cornucopia of yahoos, including one poet whose sterling work is quoted here in full:

Nader Gravel & Paul Kucinich

Awake from your slumber

4 Wise Men march with the people

Washington DC

Whistleblowers

Honesty compassion intelligence guts

Not carrots sticks coercive diplomacy

Divided we fall

Mike Gravel

Dennis Kucinich

Ron Paul

Ralph Nader

No bribery blackmail extortion

Rage against the machine

Democracy rising democracy now

Suffer not...

http://wonkette.com/357693/paultards-enraged-at-fake-city

Better watch out, infidel bebop-o. A Fatwa is declared on your Satanic Verses!

Neolib/Neocon Anti-Paulsie Propaganda!

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/wrong_paul.html

So Long, Dr. Paul. You were our only hope.

http://ronpaulsurvivalreport.blogspot.com/2008/02/ron-paul-immeadiately-withdraws-from.html

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 07:25 AM

Kitt

i>I don't know what you know but I do know that you don't know what "we" knows about Steyn. I also know that Steyn has a track record based upon his blog writings. "We" might draw some conclusions about how Steyn "feels" from having read those blog writings.

Glenn is not discussing Steyn's politics, he's discussing his psychology. To say that you disagree and even dislike Steyn's politics is one thing. To say that you know Steyn's psychology to the point that you can tell whether he's tired or not and whether or not he's being truthful about being tired or not is crossing over into something else entirely. It's absurd.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 07:28 AM

Before I get a toothache and leave well enough alone...

Maybe a William Shakespearean sonnet about the maggot fitting into Natures purposes can be found and cut/pasted here? Now,

I'm outta here with a dang headache.

A wild mouse in a sickroom meant impending death.

I don't believe in those scary old wife-tale omens anyway.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 07:33 AM

Anon

It's absurd.

--Anonymous

You're being "absurd" to pretend that we can't clearly see that Steyn is a self inflated asshole and that he shows that obvious fact in the content of his many self inflated asshole writings. We needn't pretend that Steyn's warped mind is not exposed for all to see. He is not a mystery to anyone who cares to take a little time to read him. If you want to claim ignorance, be my guest. But try not to feel the need to claim everyone is as ignorant as you claim to be.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 07:34 AM

@ Mr Timberman

Again, look at the body of Steyn's writing. He clearly gets off on seeing himself as the last embattled defender of Western Civilization; the exhaustion he refers to is a rhetorical device intended to engender sympathy for his lone struggle.

Is is -- in a word -- disingenuous. (There might also be just a whiff of guilty conscience hovering about it as he begins, but of course our valiant culture warrior has recovered himself and re-girded his loins long before putting the trumpet once again to his lips at the end.)

A drama queen. No more, no less. And a disgusting one at that.

When people read the written word they invariably intone the writing in various ways. Your interpretation of a piece may vary greatly from someone else's interpretation. The assigment of 'feelings' to a particular author says more about you than it does about the author. Or in this case, Glenn's assignment of feelings to Mr. Steyn says more about Glenn than it does to Mr. Steyn.

Sorry, that's just the way it is.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 07:36 AM

Hah!

WT... @ anonymous

Again, look at the body of Steyn's writing.

That would be an anatomical and physiological study, you western dualist!

We must find the "mind" of Steyn's writing! I'd turn him upside down and look where the sun don't shine.

You first.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 07:36 AM

@ anonymous

It's not absurd; it's polemical. Steyn himself has chosen the site for this battle. He can hardly complain if he's outflanked on his own ground. (Especially since he has you to do it for him.)

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 07:37 AM

Ron P.?

I need a carrot on a stick to put in front of my donkey.

The old mule is too damn lazy and she needs to be a burger "king"...

Or O Hail Mother Merry, and intercede please, the Mother of Ron Paul's mommy?

Do you have a clean pitchfork to haul a Ron P. monkey to the chimpanzee zoo in DC?

A monkey likes a banana republic or a Right-Wing Tyrannical goofy Donald Duck Reign? huh.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 07:38 AM

Anon

Sorry, that's just the way it is.

--Anonymous

What a transparent fraud you are.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 07:38 AM

Well, Celery (aka AJ)

I have little doubt that Kristol is one of our Devils Incarnate.

Bees, however...

I was driving up the Tehachapis last year on the way to New Mexico, passed lots of farms and ranches with Dead Bee hives just sort of tumbled every which way in the fields. It was sad.

But they say the bees are recovering this year and hives are coming back.

Portent?

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 07:40 AM

Anonymous

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Steyn is the one who introduced his psychology into the discussion. The quote read:

He may have a point: It's psychologically exhausting being on permanent Orange Alert, especially as the reason for it recedes further and further in the rear-view mirror. A lot of Americans are "over" 9/11, and, while the event had a lingering emotional power, the strategic challenge it exposed has not been accepted by much of the electorate. [emphasis mine]

And, yes. I double checked that from Steyn's own site. Now, you may, perhaps, want to argue that Steyn was referring to the psychology of others; not his own. But, then, would Steyn not be guilty of the same thing of which you accuse Glenn Greenwald?

Most Active Letters Threads

740

The commendably missing element from Obama's speech

There was no pretense that human rights is our goal, or the likely outcome, in escalating the war
436

Do Obama officials know what his Afghanistan plan is?

What explains the completely contradictory statements from key aides on a central plank of the war strategy?
408

America's regression

It's almost impossible to find a nation with as many torture advocates as the U.S. has.
332

Palin: Birthers have "fair question" about Obama

Of Obama birth, the ex-governor says, "the public is still, rightfully, making it an issue" (Updated)
211

The poster boy for progressive self-delusion

Read Hayden's 2008 Obama endorsement to remember the way the left sold our centrist president to itself

View all »

Letters Help

Currently in Salon