Letters to the Editor
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Of Course, He's Arrogant
Brilliant article. Of course, St. George is arrogant; every time he's screwed up, somebody's always been there to save him, whether it's Daddy's, Daddy's friends or the Supreme Court, or fate itself. Get bad grades in school? Daddy will get you into Harvard. Drunk driving and other arrests? Daddy's connections will bury the bad news. Mess up the businesses Daddy's money got you? Daddy's friends will bail you out. Goof off during the Presidential campaign, come off as a lazy jerk, and come up short in the vote count? Your brother will jigger the ballots. If all else fails, Daddy's connections on the Supreme Court will fix the law just for you. Is your stolen Presidency failing because you spend more time golfing than reading policy briefs? 9/11 to the rescue!
So why should we be surprised that he blundered into Iraq? He's sure God will save him. But will God save the rest of us from him?
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Where is the outrage?
There was an ad in the New Yorker last year, quoting a man whose name I can't even remember, to the effect that "if the President announced that God had spoken to him through the television set and told him to (fill in the blanks), it would precipitate a national crisis." He then asked why the absence of a television set should make this statement any less alarming.
That was one smart man. He was absolutely right, and it appears that we can't do a thing about it.
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power of sin?
Sin, eh?
"Power of Pride" bumper stickers for everyone!!
some people truly are morons.
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Ah, yes, faith again.
Yup, Bush is crazy, but he has been since day one of the 2000 Presidential campaign. All it took was paying attention to him -- not what he said (even Reagan could read a speech) but what he did. The slightest bit of research turned up gems like Karla Faye and others on death row in Texas.
But Amurricans wanted a man of faith. Any man of faith should be disqualified de facto from serving in any capacity in public life. The practice of believing things on no evidence carries over with catastrophic results.
The only quibble I have with the article was the nonsensical "Of course, there are millions of deeply religious people whose faith has not led them to abandon reason."
One CANNOT have faith and reason at the same time. Sorry. Everyone wants to believe that, and they do believe it, but it's not reasonable to believe it.
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The Elephant in the Room
The one thing this article did not take into account is the Apocalyptic visions of some members of the Religious Right - for whom Bush has shown a lot of affinity.
Could Bush's ultimate aim be the Apocalypse?
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faith and reason
"One CANNOT have faith and reason at the same time. Sorry."
Why do you beleive the two mutually exclusive? I suppose it's a matter of how you define "faith," eh?
For example, what if my faith was that beyond the singularity from which the universe sprang there was a creator? Is that faith incompatible with reason? We don't know how something came from nothing. Is my reason savaged and destroyed if I choose to answer this potentially unanswerable question with faith? In all other things I may concede to reason and science. Would this faith be incompatible with reason then?
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His enablers
Never forget that what enabled such a lunatic invasion of the only country in that region without a terrorist threat, was the bullying by a legion of perhaps 50-100 million ignorant rednecks whipped into pseudo-patriotic frenzy by rightist agitprop posing as talk radio and a cable news channel. This is the half of the country we like to pretend doesn't exist, raised on race resentment and proud of their ignorance, even willing to vote against their own interests to "stick it" to liberals.
Even when their dirty immoral war blew up in their pasty faces and they finally lost an election in a landslide, nothing has been done to address these crucial enablers who could very well whip up next a nuclear firestorm
This is why the Dem Congress has cut its own throat by falling down on its promise made to Air America hosts and Ed Schultz that key committees would hold high profile hearings into the talk radio juggernaut which has been allowed to dupe 50 million Americans for 15 years, without challenge, with bald-faced lies on publicly owned airwaves. Forget the Fairness Doctrine - just educate America to who ruined their politics!
The blogosphere is beginning to address a widespread boycott of the mainstream advertisers who dared to sponsor Faux New's propaganda chasing after their war-inflated ratings. Watch how fast they will back down when confronted with angry consumers. The ad agency for Bank of America and United Airlines recently bragged about advertising on L.A.'s progressive talk station and emphatically stated they would not advertise on hate radio. They are not worried about losing morbidly obese hick listeners if Clem decides to shoo the chicken off the computer and starts his own redneck boycott. It is we who hold the consumer power and we need to apply it to end the pirating of public airwaves by GOP dirty tricksters.
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Gary Gary Gary.....
Your opinion surprises me sometimes. For all your smart and insightful commentary, I am surprised at the way you think sometimes. You honestly believe that Bush and the neocons want a good outcome in Iraq? let me tell you what they really want...
First of all, many in the US military never thought they lost the Vietnam war if you look through the cold logic of numbers...in their world less gooks = less resources to share. That is why the US military never updated their counterinsurgency manuals and hence never really did learn anything from that war. Because in terms of people killed, Vietnam obviously lost more people and USA won the war. I think the same logic should be applied to this current war we have.
See this Bush's main supporters are neocons, who want to see Israel's opponents eliminated, right wing Christian nuts who hate anything Muslim and a motley of old timers who hate any non white foreigner. Do you think anyone of these people really shed tears on the number of Iraqis killed? NO. BECAUSE THE MORE IRAQIS DEAD = LESS MUSLIMS/ARABS/OPPONENTS OF ISRAEL. You see if the neocons really looked themselves in the mirror and asked the hard facts about what went wrong, they would not be screaming for a war with Iran? But that isnt the case, is it? BECAUSE MORE DEAD IRANIANS = LESSER OPPONENTS OF ISRAEL.
Glenn Greenwald has quoted numerous time right wing neocons such as Podhoretz who has gone on the record to say the US military should have executed any young Iraqi male when Iraq was invaded, so that US troops in Iraq wouldnt face an insurgency. But does one honestly think he cares for the US troops?? No he cares for Israel and in his world if US troops leave, those young Iraqi men could cause trouble for Israel because they are all Arabs.
There is no hand wringing or thinking about Iraq in this neocon community. Quit pretending like you think they want a good outcome in Iraq.