The most recent 20 comments posted to Electrolite by David W.:

I didn't grant the statements had no validity simply because there are a decent handful of exceptions to them. They are, at best, rules of thumb... Kind of like walking up to someone in Minnesota and expecting to hear that unusual speaking accent they have. It's not a guarantee it'll be there, but it's commonly the case enough to make exceptions stand out in garish relief.

Granted what may sounds unusual is a beholder's ear phenomona, buy I rarely run into someone with a 'Fargo'-like accent here in St. Paul. Strangely enough, most have speech patterns much like those of Garrison Keillor. Who knew?

Signed,

Another Data Point Heard From

Evidently Dr. Jekyll helped to judge the Nebulas and Mr. Hyde writes as 'Vox Day'.

David M., quite true. But also recall how when in 1832 South Carolina proposed to nullify federal law and Jackson replied, in so many words, 'nullify this'. And the leaders of South Carolina decided that discretion was indeed the better part of valor when they realized who they were dealing with. One takes the bad along with the good, as always.

Sure, as long as you were white.

Jackson, along with Thomas Jefferson, are considered the founding fathers of the Democratic Party, in no small part because of Jackson's efforts to widen enfranchisment by eliminating property requirements as a qualification to vote.

Has it come to this? Is our president so appalling that even a genocidal monster looks good in comparison?

All U.S. Presidents up to 1900 were guilty of genocide if you consider what Jackson did to be such, as all approved the removal of natives from their ancestral lands to make room for non-native settlers, to varying degrees of course. As many natives may have died during Lincoln's term of office as Jackson's, but I think most would agree that Lincoln is hardly in danger of being eclipsed by Dubya.

I was listening to a commercial FM radio station on my drive into work this morning, and heard one DJ go on, and on, and on, about how "American" all the inaugural pomp and ceremony was. Gag. Me. I wish Old Hickory (President Andrew Jackson) could have called in to tell her about how his first inaugural was open to all the people and you didn't need no stinkin' ticket to occupy a space on Pennsylvania Avenue.

This news item so glaringly points out the snug cocoon the Bush White House has spun around itself to avoid direct exposure to critisism that could be reported on television. It's all about marginalizing the opposition to the point where what happens in the the real world doesn't matter. I'm embarassed to be a citizen of the United States when our President won't deign to brave even a little open critisism.

A fact to note: Supt. Rachel Schultz is the wife of the Republican candidate who is running for the U.S. House in my district here in western Wisconsin What a surprise...

A small story in a big mess (via Body and Soul):

Iraq: A conversation with a concerned soldier - Art Gish, Sojourners, March 4th, 2004

Saddam Hussein's infamous prison just west of Baghdad is still full, except now the U.S. military is running the prison. The prison contains more than 10,000 detainees and is being expanded. The U.S. authorities allow few visits; the detained have no right to due process, and only recently have families been able to visit their loved ones.

Cliff Kindy and I had just walked through the razor wire around the prison with an Iraqi man who wanted to make an appointment to visit his brother. "He is not allowed any visits," a guard told us.

We told the Iraqi guards we wanted to talk with an American official. That is when we met "Tony," an American soldier, about 22 years old, short, and good-looking. He likes to work out in the gym, but most days he is too tired after standing guard in front of the prison for 12 hours every day. "Most days," he said, "I have no energy left after my shift to even think." When we asked him where his home was, he said, "I am homeless."

He told us he had no authority and there was nothing he or we could do to arrange a visit. He apologized for not being able to help us. He then opened up to us. He said, "The situation is a mess in Iraq, and the American military is making it worse. I can understand that the Iraqi people would be angry. Under Saddam," he said, "families could visit their loved ones once a week."

Tony is eager to leave Iraq and the military, but said he could be killed any day. He was wearing a ragged piece of cloth as an armband in remembrance of a buddy who was killed a few days earlier.

Tony said, "If you try to do what is right, you get kicked. I tried to do what is right, and I got knocked down into the cellar." He didn't explain what he meant.

He was fighting back tears as we expressed our concern for him. We told him we wanted him to be safe, that we cared about him. Here was a good person, caught in a force he could not control, trying to preserve his integrity, doing his best to keep his heart from becoming hard and cold.

Art Gish is serving in Baghdad with Christian Peacemaker Teams, an initiative of the historic peace churches (Mennonites, Church of the Brethren, and Quakers) with support and membership from a range of Catholic and Protestant denominations, promoting violence-reduction efforts around the world. http://www.cpt.org

Lenny Bruce would have made a good host on Air America Radio:

Catholicism

The thing with Catholicism, the same as all religions, is that it teaches what should be, which seems rather incorrect. This is "what should be." Now, if you're taught to live up to a "what should be" that never existed-only an occult superstition, no proof of this "should be"-then you can sit on a jury and indict easily, you can cast the first stone, you can burn Adolf Eichmann, like that!

Jesus Christ

A lot of people say to me, "Why did you kill Christ?""I dunno … it was one of those parties, got out of hand, you know.""We killed him because he didn't want to become a doctor, that's why we killed him."

Liberals

The liberals can understand everything but people who don't understand them.

Satire

Satire is tragedy plus time. You give it enough time, the public, the reviewers will allow you to satirize it. Which is rather ridiculous, when you think about it.

There's a debate at the moment as to whether there should be a reference to God in the preamble to the proposed EU constitution.

Which is no small thing, given how Europe was once synonomous with Christendom.

I imagine that Mr. Moron will get his pink slip soon enough, given who AAR's financial backers are.

I suggest that AAR look to America's Finest Newspaper for pointers on how to poke genuine fun at religion in a secular, leftist setting.

So the Ansible story is not a joke, and I'm a bit clueless. Wouldn't be the first time...

Said bit in Ansible 80 sure looks like an in-joke to me.

Confront them. Fight them. Stand by those fighting them. Stop using reason against the unreasonable. Stop using rational arguments against the irrational.

I'm with you on the first three, but not the last two. I think most people are able, as Abe Lincoln said, to see through nonsense eventually. But by all means, point out idiocy when you see it! It's fun and builds strong rhetorical skills twelve ways... ;-)

I recall how I was talking to a fellow fan, Mike Miller, two years ago now and telling him that we had to fight Bush. Fight, fight, fight. He asked me how, and I said I didn't know but fight him anyway. Attitude comes first, actions follow.

Kos's original comment did come across to me as harsh, but given his personal history I can understand his feelings, or lack of same. If some politicans didn't want to be associated with it, that's fine with me. Kos doesn't have to mind himself for their sake, and they don't have to advertise on Kos either.

FWIW, I sent an email to Atrios after noting how Nathan Newman had attracted much attention from LGF's minions. While I can't say my letter was responsible, Atrios posted a notice about Nathan a short while later. The Atrios minions quickly followed. Heh, I think I see a marketing strategy here... ;-)

Patrick, you didn't read my comment carefully enough. Evangelicism is one thing; evangelism another. Evangelism is the process of trying to get other people to convert. I maintain that this is intolerant, no matter how politely it is done, because it requires the assumption that the evangelist's religion is better than the one held by the prospective convert.

That's the perspective of Muslims in Iraq who aren't exactly thrilled with the thought of Christian missionaries evangelizing in their country. That's perfectly understandable, given that everyone knows Islam is the One True Religion.

It's at times like this that I'm glad to be an atheist, because I believe the way to bet is that all accounts of Ghod are a fiction. At least until Ghod comes down and says otherwise.

Oh, about that story I noted earlier about the sex-ed camp being shut down? The same exact thing just occured in Waco when the Girl Scout troop there dropped it's involvment with a similar program for mothers and daughters when threatened by a boycott on the sales of GS cookies by local anti-abortion types.

I'd like to see the religious left come to the Girl Scouts' defense here. However, it may be that most of them are afraid to be associated with groups like Planned Parenthood. Oh well.

I'm all for the religious left throwing the book at the folks in this story who deserve it:

Doug Grow: 'Saving' the sexually naive - (Minneapolis Star-Tribune)

One woman who opposes abortion has "saved" a handful of St. Paul boys and their fathers from participating in a program designed to promote healthy discussion of sexuality.

In fact, the voice of Darla Meyers, an abortion foe from Hudson, Wis., has echoed so loudly that the YMCA of Greater St. Paul and Planned Parenthood of Minnesota/South Dakota have agreed to cancel four similar parent-child events that had been scheduled in future months at the YMCA camp just south of Hudson.

"We have to be concerned with the safety of children at the camp," said Bette Fenton, a spokeswoman for the St. Paul Area YMCA in explaining why the lease to hold the four events at the Y camp was canceled.

She said the YMCA, which takes no position on abortion and has no relationship with Planned Parenthood, was committed to offering its facilities for the Saturday program. But she also said the organization had been receiving e-mails so strident in tone that it was impossible to ignore safety concerns at future events.

Saturday's program was to have been a collaboration of the St. Paul Urban League and Planned Parenthood of Minnesota/South Dakota. Seven fathers and their adolescent sons were to have participated in the program, designed to improve communications between parents and children when the subject is sex.

Efforts to reach Urban League officials to find out why they decided to withdraw from a program they initially helped sponsor were unsuccessful. But apparently those officials were concerned that the fathers and sons would be disturbed by the sight of protesters outside the YMCA camp.

What was there to protest?

Tough question for most of us to answer.

But Meyers doesn't tussle with it.

"Planned Parenthood speaks devil-speak," she said.

And that's why she led a crusade to close Saturday's program. ...

(http://www.startribune.com/stories/465/4645818.html)

IIRC, witnesses are selected by a simple majority vote of the subcommittee. It would be interesting to see a list of proposed witnesses if one exists and is online. I saw some of the testimony yesterday on PBS's News Hour, and thought Feingold came across very well.

FYI, here's the URL for the webpage on the hearings that were held yesterday:

"Judicial Activism vs. Democracy: What are the National Implications of the Massachusetts Goodridge Decision and the Judicial Invalidation of Traditional Marriage Laws? "

http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearing.cfm?id=1072

Here's something Kerry can bring up tomorrow for the nightly news:

9/11 Panel Rejects White House Limits on Interviews - (New York Times)

WASHINGTON, March 2 — The independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks is refusing to accept strict conditions from the White House for interviews with President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney and is renewing its request that Mr. Bush's national security adviser testify in public, commission members said Tuesday.

The panel members, interviewed after a private meeting on Tuesday, said the commission had decided for now to reject a White House request that the interview with Mr. Bush be limited to one hour and that the questioners be only the panel's chairman and vice chairman.

The members said the commission had also decided to continue to press the national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to reconsider her refusal to testify at a public hearing. Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney are expected to be asked about how they had reacted to intelligence reports before Sept. 11, 2001, suggesting that Al Qaeda might be planning a large attack. Panel members want to ask Ms. Rice the same questions in public.

"We have held firm in saying that the conditions set by the president and vice president and Dr. Rice are not good enough," said Timothy J. Roemer, a former Indiana congressman who is one of five Democrats on the 10-member commission. ...

Time to play hardball, because that's what the other side is also playing. And if Bush thinks that 9/11 is only worth an hour of his time, he can damn well think again.

Comment statistics for David W. on the Electrolite blog

Total: 64 comments. View all these comments on a single page.