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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.

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Tuesday, February 19, 2008 08:57 AM

The Wingnuttiest Youtube Ever (Now With Mark Steyn)

http://instaputz.blogspot.com/2008/02/wingnuttiest-youtube-ever-nsfw.html

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 09:00 AM

Mark Steyn - Globally Renowned Expert in Musical Comedy and Terrorism

http://tinyurl.com/2dkbcy

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 09:02 AM

Quakers & Shakers: another important distinction

Quakers are not now and were not historically celibate. Shakers were.

Which is why one could be a birthright Quaker, but not a birthright Shaker... and also perhaps why the Shakers' numbers dwindled so dramatically.

Just thought I should mention it... ;~)

(An aside: I've also heard that it was a Shaker woman who invented the circular saw... after spinning-- dervish-style-- and imagining that such a circular motion would be a more efficient way to cut up lumber. For furniture, no doubt.)

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 09:10 AM

@Anonymust

A Shaker woman invented the circular saw?

I thought it was Sweeney Todd!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 09:11 AM

Anonymust

...it was a Shaker woman who invented the circular saw...

-- Anonymust

Mmm. I wonder how it is that some guy didn't steal the credit for that from the Shaker woman.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 09:11 AM

Re: Shaking Quakers - I was responding to Bucky

So I wasn't being serious. I was mocking him mercilessly, as any serious warmonger would do.

(I thought that would be obvious.)

Origin of the name

The name "Shakers," originally pejorative, was derived from the term "Shaking Quakers" and was applied as a mocking description of their rituals of trembling, shouting, dancing, shaking, singing, and glossolalia (speaking in strange and unknown languages).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakers

Now go away, or I shall taunt you all a second time, like a Frenchmen.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=R7qxqvjTbu0&mode=related&search=

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 09:14 AM

"I was responding to Bucky"

See, that was where you went wrong. Bucky requires no response. He contains multitudes.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 09:14 AM

@Kitt

Sweeney did.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 09:14 AM

Shakers

Hey shaker-fans, google 'shaker gift drawings' sometime, there is some incredible folk art from their community.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 09:20 AM

Anyone would think ...

... from the self-important, but not particularly bright, Anonymous' comments that this is the first time that Steyn has pulled this particular gambit when it certainly is not:

But I felt gradually exhausted since September 11th, 2001, that it's very dispiriting trying to keep going in this phase of what is a very long conflict. And the reason I do it is because I want us to win. I don't particularly like journalism. I don't particularly like writing newspaper columns. I'm sick of having to make what I think should be an obvious case again and again and again. And I'd much rather pack it in and sit on my porch in New Hampshire and enjoy the view of the mountains. But I do it because I want us to win.
— Mark Steyn, interview with Hugh Hewitt (2006)
<http://discerningtexan.blogspot.com/2006/03/steyn-on-immigration-mccain-media.html>

Here we have the same whine: how exhausting it is to be the only one willing to stand up (metaphorically) to the Islamic hordes bent on the destruction of Western Civilization when he'd rather be doing something else. Well maybe he would and he is sacrificing himself in the name of the American Empire much like Horatio saying "ego pontem defendam", but somehow I just don't get that impression from his repeated protestations.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 09:22 AM

Bucky is like those Russian nesting dolls?

Bucky... contains multitudes.

-- William Timberman

I shall call him Babushka.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 09:24 AM

@ Frankly, M.D.

It's the pontifex Steyn is defending, not the pons. Words are subtle things, but true.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 09:29 AM

Her name was Tabitha Babbit

according to wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabitha_Babbit

Of course, Kitt, there is still some dispute about whether or not she was the first inventor of the circular saw. So, perhaps some man will eventually get credit for it. ;~)

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 09:31 AM

I like Quakers, Shakers and Sufis

But don't let the Quakers do prison reform without supervision, like they did here in the latter half of the 19th century. By that time people became aware that many prisoners, far from being reformed, were being driven insane by the constant silence and isolation for meditation the well meaning Quakers prescribed, it was too late for most of them.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 09:31 AM

Correction...

Babbitt with two Ts...

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 09:34 AM

In the meantime...

while we've been discussion Quaker, Shakers and Sufis...

Glenn Greenwald has posted something new for us.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 12:51 PM

@buckyl

I am sincere in positing that LWM is sick;

buckyl

Are we talking about the same LWM? Cause I don't think so, not by a long shot!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 01:01 PM

No Nose is Good Gnus!

I don't know what you know

but I do know that you don't know

what "we" knows about Steyn.

Anon

If you knew Steynie,

Like I knew Steynie,

Oh, Oh, Oh,

What a Gal!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 01:06 PM

Don't make me...

When people read the written word they invariably intone the writing in various ways

Anon

Yes, Anon, but some of us can read without moving our lips.

Now come on, you must have a name you're proud of, with mad rhetorical and reasoning skills such as you posess? What is it, friend, please tell us. Or are you the same Anon that Bartlett's likes to quote so much?

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 01:14 PM

Is This Simply the Latest Outrage?

That's because I long ago figured out that the Sufi/Quaker connection was part of a continuum of ecstatic religious fervor.

LWM

Now you go too far, good sir. I beg you to remember that Nixon was a Quaker, and moderate your ire. Don't ire until you see the wites of their eyes, is my advice. It is.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 03:13 PM

-- L.W.M the wanker says ...

... "I like Quakers, Shakers and Sufis"

Which is why he made fun of them all no doubt. The little wanker can pretend he is doing satire, but that requires talent and honesty. As I pointed out on just one of his anti-Paul posts, he mistakes the position entirely. That is not what satire is. Not at all.

Have you noticed that lwm has embraced using the military overseas --- has never wrote one word against that. He does want to see a Democrat choose the war, but he loves war. He only pretends that he is doing satire. Ask him about foreign policy.

By the way, he uses all sorts of names but you can tell easily. Even wonder who pw was?

Tuesday, February 19, 2008 03:22 PM

Timberman as coward ...

"See, that was where you went wrong. Bucky requires no response. He contains multitudes.

-- William Timberman"

I saw the dig that you took late last thread where you praised the war criminal LBJ again, knowing that it was too close to the end of the tread for response. Now, we have the half-assed cryptic remarks like the above.

You have supported the state and the centralization of power your whole life; now watch the next few years as we all reap the bitter grain you have helped to sow. When they come for you, it will no better that the thugs voted Democrat.

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