It's an old, old argument, which I remember first having seen in the Nation's lettercol about twenty years ago (guess which columnist was being denounced for his gratuitous potshots against religion --hint: he's not on the Left any longer). And the anti-religious vitriol gets really intense over at Atrios and Political Animal --not that their comment threads are ever paragons of civility. But blogovians should know better, what with Fred Clark, Jeanne D'Arc, Donald Johnson, et al to remind us that there's a vocal Christian Left out there. As one of Kevin Drum's commentors hinted, notwithstanding the number of powerful Jewish rightniks, you rarely see Lefties denouncing Jews and Judaism --it's always either Christians or religion in general. Not only should the rest of us want to avoid alienating our Christian allies and recognize the power of Christian rhetoric and values for progressive causes, we could stand to be a little humbler when confronting smart and compassionate people whom we disagree with on theological issues: heaven knows what planks we're unaware of in our own eyes.
Lenny, I'm really reluctant to put Phil Ochs in the even mildly "bitter anti-
Christian" category: I think he makes it clear in "Cannons of Christianity" and "Chaplain of the War" exactly what category of Christians he's talking about and to what ends they put their religion, and they ain't Dorothy Day or MLK (The greatest living interpreters of Phil Ochs songs, Kim and Reggie Harris, are very active in the Catholic Church --I'll ask them what they think when I next get the chance).
I always just assumed that "I could care less" was a sarcasm, more or less equivalent to "Hmph, like I care." I guess that's more or less the same as what other people here (can one say "other people here"? It's not the same as "you people", is it?) are saying.
I was reminded by Jo Walton's comment that, if you look at Oscar Wilde's "The Fisherman and his Soul," souls too can be pretty heartless.
. . . come raise up your glasses, amen . . .
The first written response to 9-11 I saw that came from a New Yorker mentions having first worried about this possiblity in the Seventies: "It made me wonder how many other people had thought the same thing in twenty-odd years." I guess we now know of one or two who didn't.
Awesome. If Kucinich makes a similar statement (please G-d let him) once he leaves the race, Ralph is toast. Cold toast. Dry too. No raisins even.
Another profoundly moving blogentry. Wow. Hey, most of Dickinson (some with a little tweaking of the tune) can and should be sung to "Which Side Are You On?"
I teach Freshman Composition. I have an intestinal resection. This incident --including PNH's response to it-- made my day for those reasons, along with many others.
"The Cold War was about countering the spread of that empire." And the Terror War is often about fighting the people who were our allies in the Cold War . . . does that mean the next endless battle will be against Poland, England, Australia, and Uzbekistan?
"how many hapless nations have come under our thumb from each successive wave of our 'imperialism'?" In the Cold War? Pretty much any nation our thumb had to cover to save its hapless inhabitants from anything vaguely socialistic, starting with Guatemala (or, according to some arguments, Greece). The contrarian who originated the term "Islamofascism" --or at least "fascism with an Islamic face" could tell us plenty about that.
Trlls rrl shw p hr, Stfn. Dnn wh.
I like Dean okay, but I'm just a tad too committed to being pseudonymous to share my piercing condition and caffeination level.
Mary Kay, I think Belle and Sebastian are the newly parenting academic humanists of the site called "Belle and Sebastian Have a Blog." As for pessimism, it's a perfectly reasonable reaction to the way things are until it starts shading into misanthropy or futilitarianism. Patrick's opined that, when our pessimism reaches a certain depth, we're exactly where They want us.
Patrick, that "polka-dottedness" conceit is as good a characterization of the press as anything in Alterman or Berube. No, better. I will be using it shamelessly in conversation.
CH, is your comment meant to characterize Kerry as an aristocrat? He's not the Democratic candidate whom I most associate with that label.
Will this be the first of several entries named after Sondheim songs, or just a one-shot, like the Richard Thompson bit?
Epacris--
I think it's the other way 'round: The Stars My Destination has always been the U.S. title of the novel, except perhaps in its first serialization.
After having considered the issue for over twenty years, done a little research, and had a few conversations about it, I've come to the reluctant conclusion that everything in The Puppet Masters is meant to be taken straight and unironized --i.e. that all of the protagonist's sentiments, unless explicitly marked as hindrances, are meant to be appropriate for his admirable role in defending Earth against the communistic invaders. It's something of a Spillanean novel.
For all that I found Nader's "plague-on-both-your-houses" schtik to be a sinister force, I don't blame him or Gore's campaign strategies for Bush's being in the White House. John Nichols, among others, has documented the lengths to which the Rethugs were ready to go to get their man in, to the extent that it's conceivable they could have done it just fine without Nader's agitation in FL and NH; Bob Somerby et al tirelessly report on the sycophancy of the press in these matters. Indeed, the whole "Gore was a weak campaigner" meme owes a lot to that press, and the spin it put on the debates. I'd discourage Greens from buying into it.
But what I wanted to say was, Nader was at Princeton together with Rumsfeld? There's gotta be a story in that. Or maybe some slashfic by, you know, the Roy Orbison guy.
Taibbi has always enjoyed seeing every quality and act of his opponent-du-jour as evidence of his/her utter corruption. It's what makes his articles on Tom Friedman and Ann Coulter such fun. Once he decided not to like Clark (for which I don't blame him), it was inevitable that he'd frame his argument in that adolescent style. Which would work for me if he'd stuck to his over-the-top satirical tone, but when it combines with a house style that's always risking sanctimony, you get unredeemed cheap shots such as the one PNH noted.
Upon receiving the Internet Seer email, I boasted to several friends, "Hey, I was mistaken for Patrick Nielsen Hayden!" Heck, when a creative writing prof later that same week said, "Look at this sf story my best student submitted --it's almost too good: I fear it might be plagiarized. Do you recognize it?" I replied, mindful of my very limited knowledge of sf stories, "You're asking the wrong guy --but you're not the first person to have mistaken me for Patrick Nielsen Hayden."
(It turned out that the brilliant story was indeed the student's own work, if you wanna know).
We also have Rebecca Ore, Michael Swanwick IIRC, and about half of Chip Delany; and we recently acquired one of the first Goth orchestra conductors. On the other hand, if "shithole" means we depressed and po', I can't dispute that. An immense percentage of our housing is abandoned and condemned, our population has shrunk by a third since the Truman administration, and 85% of the families who send their kids to public schools live below the federal poverty line.
But the majority of Philadelphia voters seem to be thinking that such problems can be ameliorated by electing a Republican mayor . . .
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