Comments on: Appeasement

By: mencken

mencken — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 01:00:42 +0000

Damn Larry, you just ruined another one of my best socks.

By: Basil the Rat

Basil the Rat — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 22:32:05 +0000

"All I care to know is that a man is a human being—that is enough for me; He can't be much worse."

Mark Twain

Pretentious and pseudo-intellectual enough for ya?

By: larry d.

larry d. — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 21:59:11 +0000

You seem to claim I'm anti-intellectual simply because I disagree with you. That's pretentious.

And we've already covered the pretentious nickname thing, as well as the pretentious, pseudo-intellectual practice of parroting quotes.

By: mencken

mencken — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 21:33:19 +0000

Christ on crutch Larry…Pretense of what ? I've stuck my ideological neck out here for months and all I get from you is ankle bites and barking when you get excited. You drive this goddam bus for awhile.

By: larry d.

larry d. — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 19:51:36 +0000

I've got no problem with intellectualism, just pretension.

By: mencken

mencken — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 19:27:22 +0000

Don't knock Bartlett's… lots of good stuff in there.

Interesting how often intellectuals are blamed for the world's woes. You and the ayatollahs have a lot in common.

By: larry d.

larry d. — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 16:26:30 +0000

What are you trying to say Mencken? Maybe someone from Bartlett's can say it more clearly for you.

By: mencken

mencken — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 15:58:28 +0000

"current popular intellectual theories". That's right up there with the famous Fox News line, "some would say". But thanks for allowing that there are "valid reasons to disagree" with you.

How charitible and anti-intellectual of you.

By: larry d.

larry d. — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 14:55:14 +0000

I wasn't thinking of Saddam at all but of terrorists who, by most accounts, seem to be actively plotting to kill U.S. citizens here in America.

They seem to regard their war with the U.S., Israel and the West as a life and death struggle. I think we should regard the conflict in the same way.

Of course there are valid reasons to disagree with my view. I get the distinct impression, however, that such disagreement is often overshadowed by those who simply want to prove that they understand current popular intellectual theories regarding the subjective nature of perception, values and culture.

That kind of elitist, self-righteous thinking is what I find morally repugnant.

By: Spartacus

Spartacus — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 13:22:40 +0000

Larry implies that when Saddam tortured people he perceived to be threats to his well being, it was worth the lives of thousands of Americans to stop this morally repugnant activity. When Americans torture people they feel are threats to their well being, then we hear, " who cares as long as it works." There in lies part of the problem.