Dan: You hit something I've been kicking around my head (lots of empty space up there, you see) for a while.
The below will be one of my worst attempts to ever put thought to word, because I can't really get the general sentiment into a nice orderly fashion. Don't overread, it's as general as possible in an attempt to get someone better versed than I to see what I mean.
Liberals have a much tougher time being against people. When conservatives are against something, it's almost expected: they're right-wings, reactionaries, stick-in-the-muds, exclusionary...they can slander and debase and be as closedminded as they want. But when liberals do it, it's "against the rules," because a liberal has to agree with everybody.
That's not fair.
We are expected to love hypocrites and scum.
Love is not the same as respect--at least, not when told to "love thy neighbor" or "love the sinner, hate the sin." I know too many people who claim to love people--and for all I know, they do, or at least they think they do--who don't respect them at all. I don't think you could write the paragraph you did about people you respected.
To top it off, it's not like this was an impulse rant; you had time, after writing more reasoned thoughts on social justice, to look at what you wrote. Don't claim you were caught up in the heat of the moment.
We are not, necessarily, expected to give a pass to their hypocrisy or their scum-like behavior. I called bullshit on the NHs. They called bullshit on me back. I retracted some of my bullshit...
See, no. That's not what happened. You hurled insults, and they called you on it. As a result you retracted one but kept the rest--and, in fact, reinforced your underlying sentiment.
In attempting to mount an argument in support of your insults, you blew a few words out of proportion--then didn't deal with getting called on that, instead claiming that, in short, you weren't insulting them--because you love them, and they should know that and not be offended by your characterization of them as hypocritical scum.
Respecting hypocritical scum is hard work but worthwhile.
Calling someone hypocritical scum is antithetical to respecting him.
(Calling people "intelligent, eloquent, and sometimes even wise" while calling them hypocritical scum is a good start, I'd think.)
Not in my book...At best it's condescending, and at worst it's insulting. Or maybe the other way around.
[...] my post, which contained one paragraph of overwrought flamage and four paragraphs of reasoned argument.
There is a Rule of Blogging in here:
If you want to flame, flame. It's your right.
If you want to make a reasoned argument, please do. It's your duty.
But don't try to do both. You'll please nobody and anger everybody.
That said, to the topic of granting Emma a point...don't be a moron, I'm sure you're smarter than that.
Emma cited a case in counterexample, and a harsh one at that. She then said she wasn't cutting her opponents any slack. This is good, because it keeps everybody from getting complacent. She also said that she didn't care how unreasonable she sounded, she was holding to her views.
Patrick wasn't granting a point to her for being unreasonable, but for providing a case and a viewpoint.
So: Don't be a moron.
The transcript doesn't do it justice. Here's the web site for the BitTorrent...
http://bitflood.org:8080/?file=791b2f5d95a54d1381b85f271b51f71e73964185
Oh, and for the record, if asked when Wallace--or even, when Kennedy--was shot, I'd need to look it up. I think I could guess Kennedy, actually, but I wouldn't stake my life or reputation on it.
Of course, I was born in 1984, so weigh that against the fact that I recognized the name George C. Wallace at all...
I'm amazed that this even got to, let alone through, a fact-checking department. This guy is supposedly an expert on political violence?
In the words of Kenn Cavness, "Legally, I’m sure that the California Supreme Court made the correct decision. It still makes me sad, though."
http://www.cavness.org/cogicophony/archives/2004/08/it_doesnt_mean.php
Michael: Trust me, they have the "lots and lots of smaller boxes" bit down cold.
Speaking as a New Yorker (I may very well be able to help out in the transfer, I don't know yet...), the only problem I have with saying that New York landlords are a dastardly lot overall is that I fervently believe that the defining characteristic of New Yorkers is that it's impossible to say they have any traits overall, because of how New York encompasses all possibilities.
A wannabee cult that believes in a God who dresses up and parades down Sixth Street on Halloween can get an exception, but if they do it themselves they can't.
Go figure.
Is it any reflection on me that after I was clear on the punch line, and that after I'd clicked a few of the links, my primary response is "they really shouldn't call it a Ministry when they're talking about Peace. I mean, word choice..."?
While I think Lennon was an exceptional talent, we're not talking about a god-like being whose presence enlightened all about him. It's not like you missed out on a golden age whose like we won't see again.
That depends on who you ask. *grin* In the case of me and my father, well, sometimes I think I did miss out on the appropriate golden age.
I'm not quite sure how to elaborate on what I said...It's not simply a question of talent. It's a matter of who he touched, and how, straight up to his death. I can't think of another artist who had that kind of effect on so many people.
I wasn't alive when John Lennon was shot. Nevertheless, thanks to my father's love of music (transferred almost wholesale to me) I've loved his work as long as I can remember.
I envy the people who were there when he was, even though they would have been alive for the day he was killed. I envy them the pure, raw emotion they felt from his life, his work, his death.
"The failure of democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq will condemn every advocate of freedom in those two countries to prison or death, and would extinguish the democratic hopes of millions in the Middle East."
See, I agree with some of this. I also think it's happening...
"Having seen the worst of tyranny, the Iraqi people will reject the return of tyranny."
Yeah, I think they might be doing just that.
| Year | Number of comments posted |
|---|---|
| 2004 | 13 |
| 2003 | 3 |
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