Letters to the Editor
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Jebbie
No argument from me. Glenn gets to define himself, or hold to the space he simply calls Unclaimed Territory.
Given the green-dripping, envious insults of an occasional visitor, what caught my eye was:
All of the writers whom I've mentioned are also gifted stylists—eloquent in their outrage and often very funny. They are political writers whom one turns to not only because they are informative but because they're fun to read.
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Jebbie's confusion
Sorry to hear about that. I hope you can get off the pred soon. I know they can wreak almost as much havoc as they treat.
Were you a mail order bride?
No. I have a mail order husband. ;-}
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Startling, but not really a problem....
Amazing, isn't it, that anyone who's sane, articulate, and an opponent of our present cack-handed government gets labeled a liberal these days, and -- mirabile dictu -- a leftist.
Glenn probably doesn't mind too much, given that he's secure about who he is. As for us genyuwine liberals and leftists, it doesn't bother us even a little bit if the best and the brightest are mistaken for members of our family. ;-)
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-- Pedinska
Ok, I will give up on that line.
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Bldg 7
Obviously, it was the media, with help from their "independent" military analysts, who took down building 7.
This wouldn't have happened if we had Oprah explain the performance characteristics of our Abrams M1A tanks, and their support vehicles.
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-- NotOrbitBoy
Pedinska told me to ignore you as being an idiot, but I just can't bring myself to do so.
If Oprah described an Abrams accurately, her description would be fine and dandy. If General Malise, however, described an Abrams as a fine boat, you would probably hook your sorry ass to his description and link the sonofabitch all over the internets as being the embodiment of excellence.
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@Jebbie
I don't listen to pedinska either.
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@Derbig
Do you know the PENALTY for bigamy?
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-- NotOrbitBoy
"I don't listen to pedinska either."
and therein lies your problem. If you would listen to her, you wouldn't portray yourself as an imbecile with a room temperature IQ.
If you aren't getting paid for being stupid, you're missing your calling.
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Bamage
He already mentioned polyalimony.
There's also polyinlaws. This can be especially punitive in that one could be unfortunate enough to marry into a family with members like NoOrbsBoy.
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Bystander
Thank you for that link. It truly is inspiriing to see young people with that kind of courage. She pretty much depantsed Ashcroft. Guess he left the Superman underoos at home that day. ;-}
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@ Derbig Mooser
Oy Gevalt! More than one wife? You have got to be kidding, brother, or maybe you're a much braver man than I. It wouldn't be hard, really. Ever heard of polyalimony, Pollyanna?
I think you ought to be able to choose. Personally, I have no desire for multiple alimony payments (and have avoided such so far by dint of not getting married even once, although I may be slipping on that count in the near future). But far be it from me to say that other adults can't marry who they want, as many times as they want....
Cheers,
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Military-Induxstrial Complex Infomercials Passing for War News
Now that it has become apparent that MSM war related news is so tainted that it could more accurately be described as infomercials for the military-industrial complex, viewers would be well advised to turn to more factual alternative sources for information. This republic, if it can still be called that, can not survive without a well informed public.
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Fourth Estate
Who's supposed to report on the misdeeds of the Fourth Estate? I suppose we need a Fifth Estate.
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Kurtz shows how to play stupid on TeeVee --
". . . . Kurtz . . . asserted that these matters were unknown to media outlets at the time . . . ."
Yeah. The media was born yesterday.
And Mark Twain not only wrote about media bias, but gave specific examples of his having done so -- "raining frogs in Maryland" one example --and how it works.
Historically journalism was a 24/7 job. But add in 5 and 6-figure incomes, make it a 9-to-5 job, and one combines laziness, class interests, and ideological bias.
Kurtz ain't worried about the war, or who dies in it, 'cuz he knows his ass ain't at risk. If it isn't this war, it'll be another war. Or a brief lull between wars. Whatever's happening will fit in his column.
And as some of us know, and fiction writers know, without conflict one doesn't have a story. Even though it would be news, it would not be reported that "No one died today of other than natural causes. There were no murders or other crimes committed, not even the stealing of a paper clip. And no one told a lie, not even politicians," because there's no conflict in it that would keep the story going for days on end thus eliminating the need to find actual news instead of generating fake conflicts and controversys.
Same goes for all the pretty talking heads on TeeVee, who now get advanced degrees in "How to Read the [News] Infotainment on TeeVee".
Whatever.
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NPR is on the beat
glenn
I was listening to Talk of the Nation today and the story was focus of the hour including a segment where some NPR official talked about their relationship with the Gen they had used. It indicated that 1 they reviewed all the stories he participated in and found no problem with how they had used him and 2 were currently looking at whether they had adequately vetted his corporate interests.
It seems to me that having a military man describe a military action makes sense--they have the skill. It gets troublesome when they start to talk about the effectiveness or even goals of a strategy. It is also interesting that when arms depots and office buildings were being looted after the invasion and Rumsfeld was excusing it, none of these experts were out front condemning our allowing this stuff to happen.
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Isn't it wonderful to live --
in a perfect utopian world --
"The Welfare/Warfare State Must be destroyed!
"Virtual Ron Paul Will Win The Sim Election!
"-- Ron Pauliac Tuesday, April 22, 2008 07:36 PM"
-- in which no adjustments and accomodations need be made to compensate for real-world inequalities, for the fact that reality is not perfect, not all of which inequalities can be dismissed "out of hand" as "bad luck"?
Ah, to be white, male, and ignorant of history and reality.
Clue: the human race started out as a totally unregulated "free market". Slowly it learned that for the sake of the future -- the children -- there had to be some degree of stability. So they agreed to cooperate together -- i.e., established gov't, and rule of law -- regulation.
In time, among the regulations they implemented were to counter those few who on one hand refused to "voluntarily" contribute to the community in which they found tehmselves, while on the other taking advantage of the voluntary contributions of the majority.
And what was that regulation? Taxation. It was found, as example, that a coordinated defense against enemies and other dangers was wiser and more efficient than a "freelancing" in which everyone said of everyone else, "Fuck you." Gov't was established to deal with that, and other practical concerns of reality and community. Taxes pay for gov't, which is why the Founders/Framers expressly incorporated taxation in their constitutions and laws.
I.e., the Founders/Framers did not subscribe to the pseudo-philosophy of Ayn Rand.
And then there's the issue, as example, of discrimination -- largely by those same greedy, anti-social individuals noted: take advantage of every opportunity, and fuck everyone else's views on the issue. Ever hear of lynching? That is a reality occurring within imperfect reality, an inequality which needs to be compensated for the sake of the victims. It is not "reverse discrimination" except to those who want the "right" to lynch. Nor is it unfair to not include whites in such prohibitions, because the history is that whites do the lynchings, they are not the victims of it.
Short and sweet: human societies established governments and enacted laws in order to regulate the community and its members because some of those members didn't give a fuck about others, or what they did to others. And human societies did so not to "oppress" but because they learned from the experience of the lack of such that gov'ts are the lesser of two evils.
I understand the appeal of Ron Paul's rhetoric; but I also understand not only reality, and that reality is imperfect, but also that Ron Raul is to the RIGHT of BUSH. And expressly agrees with most of what the John Birch Society believes. The John Birch Society is part of that which is traditionally called "Lunatic Fringe".
Why are they called "Lunatic Fringe"? Because they are lunatic, and on the extreme fringe of the political spectrum.
Since when do we swallow unquestioned what a politician says simply because we LIKE what he says (ignoring both the fact that he may be lying, and the fact that we may be wrong)? Isn't that how we got Bushit?