How the world will love us
Bookworm on Nov 02 2008 at 11:28 pm | Filed under: Barack Obama
Mr. Bookworm reminded me (again) that, if the US elects Obama, the world will love us. I suddenly realized precisely the form that love will take. Let me tell you a story.
Many, many years ago, my Dad visited his sister, who lived on a farm at the time. His most vivid memory of that visit was of his niece, aged 5, playing with a little kid (as in baby goat, not a small person). My Dad reminded me that kids are just about the cutest things on four legs. “I love you, I love you, I love you,” his niece cooed to the little goat. “And tomorrow, we’re going to eat you for dinner.”
That’s how the rest of the world is going to love us when/if Obama is president.
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Endorsement roundup…
I asked bloggers I’m friendly with for their Presidential endorsements. Thanks to all of those who answered. In retrospect my constraints were a bit too strict and people tended to ignore the two or there sentence limit. So if you wrote something shor…
Yes indeedy – everyone will love us … I feel a chill – we have an Obama bus in our neighborhhood – I blogged about it… pretty scary… http://www.rationaljane.blogspot.com
Here is an excellent article from the Wall Street Journal that outlines what happens when an ignorant populace vote-in a charismatic demagogue for “Change”. Key-in on the word “plunder”.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122567336191591913.html
What should be of concern to everyone is that pretty much the same kind of plundering of private retirement plans described as having happened in Argentina is also being contemplated here.
http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f50/elimination-of-401ks-being-considered-by-congress-40013.html
In my opinion, it’s a done deal if Obama gets elected tomorrow. There is just too much money sloshing around in individual retirement accounts for the government to keep its hands off.
Obama already has his model whereby to effect this. This is, in fact, what happened to the (State and privately funded) teachers’ pension accounts in Illinois: teachers put in 10% of their own money to be matched by 10% from the State. Pretty soon, the State just started contributing pension fund IOUs. The next step was for the corrupt Illinois Democrat/Republican “combine” gave the existing and current teachers’ funds to party insiders, who promptly looted the funds by charging astronomical management “fees”, the difference being covered by State IOUs. This is in part why Obama’s friends and Illinois Combine insiders like Tony Rezko and William Cellini and (soon, we can only hope, our sitting Governor) have been indicted by the Feds (watch these cases go away if Obama gets elected, though).
Right now, the State of Illinois has a $44 billion teachers’ pension fund IOU.
http://www.dcba.org/brief/novissue/2006/northern1106.htm
So, do you really think that people here in the good ol’ USA will idly stand by and allow their retirement plans to be pillaged by the Obama regime? We aren’t sheeple, are we? Think again – Illinois teachers have again and again overwhelmingly voted for these very same people that ripped them off.
Obama will turn us into another Argentina. We WILL be plundered and for this, half of the country will, I am sure, find a way to blame George Bush.
So, I echo Book and all the other like-minded commentators here – VOTE as if this may be your very last chance to do so as a free, prosperous American or forever hold your peace to live like an Argentinian.
Haa-haa-haa!
What an excellent story! And how prescient.
Deana
haha Anxiety attacks!
It’s alright, I feel like as if my college result will be declared on Tuesday.
Sigh Sigh.. >>>>Obama Supporter!!!
When groups like Al-Qaeda, Hamas, and the Palestinians express their love and support for an Obama win, what else do we expect to have happen?
Book, tell me your husband was kidding. If not, then dump him because you deserve better.
Actually, on second thought your husband could be right. The world will love us when we become a second rate power, with a stagnant economy. They will also love us, temporarily, if we are hit be another devestating terror attack.
Ask him if he sees one, or both of those scenarios for us with Obama at the helm.
Shoal waters ahead!
(Good story. Farm girls understand the real world. Sort of like Sarah.)
I see that my previous post on Argentina and the plundering of pension plans by governments (soon to come to a Plan near you) is still awaiting moderation. In the meantime, here is another link to private pension fund raiding underway in the U.K.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1082511/Browns-17-000-tax-raid-EVERY-private-pension–value-cushy-public-sector-schemes-soars-1trillion.html
It seems to be worldwide trend.
Sometimes, a person or a country needs to do the unpopular thing.
When Germany moved into the Rhineland in 1936, one of the reasons France took no action was fear that the United States would denounce them as warmongers/imperialists.
They should have ignored us then, just as we should ignore the complaints of certain countries now.
Bookworm –
You have to promise us that if Obama gets elected, you will let us know what your husband’s reactions are as he observes how things go.
Deana
I will. He’ll probably be pleased. He told me last night that he thinks Obama’s tax plan is great because the rich deserve to pay a lot more and because those who aren’t rich should get that money. I’ve moved right over the years; he’s moved left.
Bookworm.
Is your husband self-employed? If not, has he thought about the effect of the taxes on his employer? Does he have a 401k?
I know – if he’s typical of those on the left, he doesn’t care. And won’t till it affects _him_ and his family. He looks at all those who have more than he has and doesn’t seem to recognize that there are lots of people who are looking at _him_ and licking their chops!
I’ve always wondered how Mary Matalin and James Carrville stay married. I’d find the constant friction about basic values wearing, I think.
Bookworm –
It’s a testament to your love and respect for each other that you don’t allow politics to affect your relationship. (I almost said that you are amazing for putting up with a husband who is so obviously and consistently wrong but I will take the high road here. Ha!) Seriously, it reflects well on both of you.
Deana
Book,
I agree with Deana. May G-d continue bless your marriage!
Oldflyer – haven’t you realized that ALL men marry up?
But I agree with your premise. The world will ‘love’ us when they no longer fear us or respect us. They’ll ‘love’ us alright… they’ll ‘love’ us to death.
BobK, I have known that for 50 years now.
A little off topic, but I want to put this out there. Maybe Bookworm will pass it along to her husband.
I saw an interview with Lawrence Eagleburger on FNC this morning and heard him say (paraphrasing closely): “America is on the verge of electing a Con Man as President. He bought this election”. I have great respect for Eagleburger. He closed by saying that he will be in deep depression when this is over. I fear he will have a lot of company.
No matter how bad things get under Obama, the Liberal/Left will always be able to “blame Bush.”
As George Orwell wrote in 1984, “he who controls the past, controls the future”.
Dear Bookworm, I am new to this site. I read your article in the Marin IJ yesterday. I’m really excited to finally find a conservative group in Marin. I am a teacher in Marin County(yes I’m a conservative!) and I have been harassed by all of my colleagues. Not looking forward to going to work on Wednesday if Obama wins. I’m still keeping the faith that McCain is going to prevail! Look forward to hearing from you! Diana
I guess he’s unaware that Sarkozy considers Obama an immature man-child…
Oldflyer, Eagleburger is right.
For the nice, pro-Obama Jewish families that live around me (and they truly are very nice people who try to do right), Obama is a “feel good” candidate. He appears nice, he has a nice family, he says such nice things, he just wants the best for everyone and he wants to be fair. Beside, they feel that the right and fair thing to do is to elect a black man because it would them feel that they just could not be racist.
I can’t cut through that dream-castle image they have developed of him. I don’t know how. When will they wake up? Perhaps when he throws Israel under the bus (which he will). In any case, I believe that it will require a catastrophe.
Many of us recognize Obama as a charismatic demagogue.
I grew up in Europe post-WWII and spent quite a lot of time with my family and other Europeans wondering how it could have happened that supposedly sane, cultivated, educated and “nice” Germans could elect such a man (well, 34% did, anyway). Hitler traded off on a horrible economic and political “misery” index in the turmoil of the Wiemar Republic. He promised Germans to redistribute wealth from the wealthy to the working man (done!); to take away the power of the greedy capitalists (done!), to build a national health service and guaranteed health care (done!), to establish and implement a national environmental ethos (done), undertake a massive, state-funded jobs program to put Germans back to work, building the autobahn and the Volkswagon Beetle, among other things (done!), to unionize Germans as a way to guarantee their workers “rights” (done), to provide State aid to working families with children (done), to mobilize the youth of Germany into a national civil defense force (done), to make the world “respect” (insert “love”) Germany (insert “America”) again and to “Change the world” (Oops!). Progressive intellectuals (including in America) loved him.
Of course, Herr Hitler had all these peculiar ideas about the Jews and other “undesirables” and a circle of extremist friends, but he couldn’t be serious about that language he used and how can anyone judge a person by his circle of friends, after all. He was clearly a very humane and thoughtful person…a true patriot. In fact, if it wasn’t for that unpleasantness about the “camps” (of which nobody knew nothing, nothing, nothing), what was there not to like?
I use this to illustrate the power of a charismatic demagogue to lead an entire nation over the cliff. No, I am not saying what you think: Obama is no Hitler and no Nazi…so temper your outrage. He’s a front man. However, some of the people around him (Farrakhan, Ayers, Dohrn and the people who mentored Obama) are “Nazis” in the broadest sense of the term – they are soulless Utopian totalitarians that will stop at absolutely nothing to destroy society in order to remake it in their image. It is they who are the truly dangerous ones and they are about to be fully empowered. When that happens, we will not have the same excuses as the Germans. As far as my nice Jewish neighbors are concerned, they were admonished to “Never Forget” and yet they did.
In the end, whether Communist or Nazi or Jihadi, the totalitarians always came for the Jews, because they could.
OK.
So my mom just called me from work and told me that two of her co-workers were discussing the election near her desk. My mom happens to work in an industry that is unionized and the discussion by the two men centered on why they were voting for Obama.
She said one of them actually said, “So what if Obama associates with terrorists? I could care less.”
I can scarcely believe that. I mean, I can understand supporting Obama and believing (contrary to all evidence) that he has never associated with a known terrorist.
I am sure it is totally possible for someone to shut down their brain and close their eyes and ears so they can continue to believe that Obama’s association with Ayers is a fabrication and that Obama truly believed that Ayers had “rehabilitated himself,” even though Ayers said in 2001 (when Obama was in his 40s) that he didn’t regret setting bombs and feels he didn’t do enough.
But it is something else entirely to admit that even if Obama DOES associate with a terrorist, it doesn’t matter.
I simply cannot believe that we are 7 years out from Sept. 11th and we have regular, average (not fringe) Americans who think it is irrelevant if their President has terrorist friends.
What about all the families in America who have lost loved ones in terrorist attacks? As many as there are, they pale in comparison to the numbers of families around the world who have lost their loved ones to terrorist attacks.
I am just dumbfounded.
Deana
dkdarcy –
Be of good cheer!!!
First, we don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow. No one does.
Second, don’t worry about being harassed by your colleagues. (They are always assuring us that THEY are the tolerant, understanding and inclusive ones. I’m sure they won’t hurt you. Much.)
Seriously though, the harassment you will endure on Wednesday will pale in comparison to you getting to watch these people as reality sinks in during an Obama presidency. I know there is no pleasure in watching our country suffer (it really concerns me) but I am CONFIDENT that an awful lot of folks who are voting for Obama KNOW he has no business being president and they are going to have to spend an awful lot of time and energy over the next four years excusing and explaining and justifying all sorts of things.
Deana
On Tuesday night I’m going to head over to Strawberry and watch the Miracle/Disaster with the GOP crowd.
When I told my wife that was my plan, she took it philosophically. We used to love to sit together on election nights watching the results and discussing them. Now the gap between us is so wide that we simply do not talk about politics in any form, except to make wry little jokes about how “my vote will cancel out your vote.”
Yesterday she went off to work a phone bank. I wondered silently why she was even bothering. Was it to get out the vote for Obama in Marin County? Kind of like coals to Newscastle, no?
Was it to push for other measures, like gay marriage or unrestricted teen abortion? Come on, the same folks who will be voting gleefully for The One will happily vote for any measure that further liberates and celebrates the orgasm. Isn’t that what freedom is all about?
Anyway, I’ll probably stick to ale tomorrow at Strawberry, but will bring extra cash just in case there’s cause to celebrate by buying some drinks for others. Here’s hoping I burn through it fast.
PS: Danny: excellent, excellent post.
PSS: Deana, the latte/beer/wine’s on me if we ever run into each other.
We are a great big ship about to get a new captain. One of the choices is seasoned and experienced. The other is a dashing young charmer. The ladies swoon and the men want to be on his team. He has no record to speak of, and often he talks out of both sides of his mouth, and true, he has made some questionable friendships with some bad people- but oh, how dashing he looks in his uniform. How pleased we are to bask in his glow.
The American people are infatuated by Obama. It is a collective national crush. Sensible adults post his picture like an adolescent girl and her Tigerbeat photos. But it’s an infatuation and eventually they either earn our love, or we see the real person without the dewy glow of love over our eyes. Of course we react with denial and rationalization, and some people will rationalize themselves right into a therapist’s chair. But sometimes we see and wake up.
Obama will make mistakes, and Danny I agree with you. I’m terribly afraid that he will betray the Jewish voters who helped him get elected. I am sure he is no friend to Israel.
“Never again” to them means never again will Jews be shipped off to extermination camps. It doesn’t extend to a US president who has reservations about Israel and Palestinian allies at a time when Iran is about to get a nuclear bomb. That has never happened before, so it doesn’t qualify as “again”. Plus to them, all danger emanates from the Right, from scary hate-mongers …like Sarah Palin. Will they wake up? It will be hard. They will have to overcome lots of misconceptions, bigotry (toward the Right), and family tradition to do it. That won’t be easy. Just think of the Israelites dancing to the golden calf just because Moses took too long on Mt. Sinai, even after all the miracles they had witnessed. We humans don’t change our minds easily.
If Obama wins, I’m wondering how the political cartoonists and the media will write anything critical of him. Can they dare make fun of or criticize the thin-skinned and humorless one? If they criticize, will their papers no longer be allowed to interview him?
My hope is that if Obama wins, he will make enough mistakes, but not catastrophic ones, during his first term, so that he will be in office 4 years only, the pendulum will swing back, and there will a bunch of Conservatives entering Congress in 2 years. My hope is that we Conservatives will get our act together and take back the college campuses, and the news media- at least to the level of parity, and that we mobilize to insure that no Fairness Doctrine get enacted- unless it also includes MSNBC, CNN, NBC, the View, PBS, NPR, and the poli-sci dept of your local university.
I don’t want my president to be a Ron Dellums clone, to be ruled by UCB mentality or the DailyKos. let’s get mad, and busy taking our country back to its Constitutional mission.
Go John, go Sarah! Rudy in 2012!
I’ve read that some conservatives are sitting this election out, or are voting for Obama to teach the republicans something or the other.
A couple of years in the wilderness, lose the dead weight (not quite certain which one of us that is) and reclaim the country.
I see this more like folks going to a NASCAR race. They say it’s for the racing, but we all know it’s for the crashes. They just hope no one gets seriously hurt.
Everytime the country lurches to the left, we never seem to get totally back to center though. It’s kind of like prices during a shortage. They always seem to go up quickly and never come back down all the way to where they started.
“They say it’s for the racing, but we all know it’s for the crashes.”
There is so much that is a-propos to today in that statement, BrianE. Well said.
1lulu…not only are we electing a Captain for the ship, we already have an Executive Officer (lt Reid) and an Engineering Officer (lt Pelosi) who share most opinions on nautical matters with the “dashing young charmer” and who have very strange ideas about maritime operations and safety. In fact, the Engineering Officer doesn’t really understand how the ship’s engines work, as evidenced by her comments about natural gas not being a fossil fuel.
1Lulu, the people who choose ship’s Captains are careful about their choices because they know that misjudgements are often disasterous. They would never choose a Captain who had insufficient experience; nor one with suspect judgement; nor even one who had been insufficiently observed to determine his/her fitness.
I wish that the people who choose our Presidents were as thoughtful.
You didn’t say why you think the world will eat the US alive if Obama gets elected.
I’m writing this from Sri Lanka, and I couldn’t disagree with you more.
The world does not hate America itself; the world hates Bush, and the insular type of American that supported, and continues to support, his failed presidency and his policies (especially the unilateral decision to invade Iraq). The rest of the world believes that the Republican Party and its support of Bush has made the world a more volatile, dangerous leaderless place in the last eight years. It also believes that Bush has been terrible for America itself. (These are some of the reasons why people around the world have sent money to their relatives in the US to be given to the Obama campaign).
Bush has the lowest approval ratings in history, and even the Republican Party’s own candidate chooses to unashamedly distance himself from Bush. It is incomprehensible to me how seemingly intelligent people, like yourselves, can still believe that the policies followed in the last eight years have been correct.
Palin got her passport only in 2007. She’s clueless and unintelligent. And, McCain wants her leading the free world, if he dies on the job. Enough said. Obama, please.
Ravana — would that Sri Lanka be the same Sri Lanka to which that insular, failed unilateral warmongering Bush sent all that tsunami aid, via the U.S. Navy, and other parts of the world a few years’ back?
Incidentally, you seem to know very little about America, Gov. Palin or Democrat Congressional approval ratings (which are considerably lower than Bush’s). This might be a good time to bone-up on U.S. politics, since you seem interested. I understand, however, how you only get one very myopic view of the U.S via your mainstream media sources. Had you a more mature idea of what is happening in the U.S. and the world you might have a better idea of what is at stake. Be careful of what you wish for.
Danny – Please do me and yourself the courtesy of attacking the issue, and not the man, lest you wish to seem as incapable of doing so as your chosen presidential candidate.
Ravana:
It’s always a hoot to see somebody seriously repeat that preposterous “unilateral decision to invade Iraq” meme while taking us Yanks and Sarah Palin to task for our lack of intelligence.
I seem to recall us entering Baghdad with UN approval and several allies in tow (Great Britain, Spain and Poland among them). Funny how that skipped your mind.
Actually, Ravana, I think you are one of Bookworm’s dreaded “concern trolls.” How is it that a very small blog site like this, compared to Hugh Hewitt, or Protein Wisdom or Front Page, attracts the concern of a person 12,000 miles from the United States?
What are the odds?
Gee, Ravana…you mean you weren’t attacking Bush and Palin and only focusing on the issues? Who woulda thunk it! My bad.
T’as raison, Charles Martel. Troll Alert!
Danny, what I don’t get is why they even try. To be a conservative in the Bay Area means going up against some of the left’s best minds.
Yet the left keeps sending us its third stringers.
Unless….
Unless…
Ohmigaw, Danny! Maybe these guys ARE the left’s best!
Ay yi yi yi yi.
“The world does not hate America itself; the world hates Bush, and the insular type of American that supported, and continues to support, his failed presidency and his policies (especially the unilateral decision to invade Iraq).”- Ravana
The position of the US government is that the invasion was authorized by a series of UN resolutions dating back to 1990. Resolution 1441 declared that Iraq was in “material breach” of the cease-fire under UN Resolution 687 (1991), which required cooperation with weapons inspectors. The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties states that under certain conditions, a party may invoke a “material breach” to suspend a multilateral treaty.
Hostilities in the first gulf war, which I assume you supported, ended in a cease-fire agreement, which required Sadam to act in a certain way, which he did not. Remember it was the United States military that was enforcing the cease-fire, and our military was being regularly fired on by Sadam’s army.
In addition to International Law which allowed us to disarm Iraq, the United States Congress passed the “Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002″.
Charles,
The invasion of Iraq was illegal, and had no approval from the members of the security council.
“In early 2003, the U.S., UK, and Spain proposed the so-called “eighteenth resolution” to give Iraq a deadline for compliance with previous resolutions enforced by the threat of military action. This proposed resolution was subsequently withdrawn due to lack of support on the UN Security Council. In particular, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members France, Germany and Canada together with Russia, were opposed to military intervention in Iraq due to the high level of risk to the international community’s security and defended disarmament through diplomacy.[95][96]”
“On September 16, 2004 Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the United Nations, said of the invasion, “I have indicated it was not in conformity with the U.N. charter. From our point of view, from the charter point of view, it was illegal.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_war
Danny, Bush and Palin ARE the issue. Not me.
>>especially the unilateral decision to invade Iraq>>
Another drive-by.
23 nations not enough to be considered a coalition by you? Granted that the support was frequently small – but many of those nations had little to give in the first place. Nevertheless, they _did_ give. 23 nations. That’s hardly unilateral.
>>Palin got her passport only in 2007. >>
So what? We’re electing her to be president of _this_ nation – not the world. If you’re electing a leader…you’d make it a requirement that all candidates had passports from … what age????
Besides…Sri Lanka has problems of their own. Maybe you should expend your concern about those rather than worrying about those of the US…
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=44454
COLOMBO, Oct 27 (IPS) – Finding themselves up against corrupt politicians and indifferent governance, Sri Lankans are increasingly turning to the country’s Supreme Court for relief, even for solutions to everyday issues.
“A move to check the power of the (Sri Lanken) president came some years ago when parliament, backed by all political parties, sealed an amendment to give the legislature — through a constitutional council mechanism –the power to appoint judges, the police chief and other high-ranking officers.”
>>The invasion of Iraq was illegal, and had no approval from the members of the security council.>>
The US does not require the permission or approval from the members of the security council.
The US is a sovereign nation, and acts according to its own best interest. The Security Council does not.
Ravanna…
Perhaps this will come as a surprise to you, but Bush is not running for election.
[...] How the world will love us. (Or: Being on the menu is not a good place to be.) [...]
>>“On September 16, 2004 Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the United Nations, said of the invasion, “I have indicated it was not in conformity with the U.N. charter. From our point of view, from the charter point of view, it was illegal.”>>
So why hasn’t the UN moved to oust the US…?
Yeah. We know.
Brian E,
Please see my reply to Charles, above.
the world hates Bush
Must have been why they kidnapped and executed Americans in airliners, Lutanza hijacked flights, and US embassies: cause they hated Bush for the last 50 years.
Danny, Bush and Palin ARE the issue. Not me.
Your biases and prejudices decide the truth as you speak it. Thus it makes more sense to talk about your biases and prejudices than talk about Sarah Palin and Bush. You are closer to us in terms of communication than either Sarah or Bush, and you should know yourself, thus negotiations over your qualifications and perceptions will come far closer to the truth than simply exchanging rumors over a distant politician.
The invasion of Iraq was illegal, and had no approval from the members of the security council.
International law only exists to the extent that the United States enforces it. No enforcement means no law. We are the law and because the United Nations did not approve the invasion of Iraq and did not stay to occupy Iraq we have victory in Iraq, Ravana. It would have been far harder to convince the Iraqis to side with America after they had seen us working with United Nations corrupt bureaucrats and child molestors.
Danny, think about the complaints about the UN protectorship in Kosovo when you speak about how the UN justifies some of our actions. They don’t justify us: we justify them. Never be vague or unclear on this one issue.
The US is a sovereign nation, and acts according to its own best interest. The Security Council does not.
The US is far more than a sovereign nation, suek. The US is International Law: its funds, its arms, its bureaucracy, as well as its army of lawyers.
Ravana,
What should my position be in regard to the independence movement by the Tamil Tigers? Do they have a legitimate grievance against the central government of Sri Lanka?
Ravana:
I refer you to BrianE’s citations above.
You will note that Iraq was in material breach of the 1991 ceasefire agreement, which the UN never rescinded.
You will note, too, that while there are entities on earth that can declare the U.S. invasion of Iraq illegal — the World Court and the UN come to mind — none can enforce that decision.
However, even though the United States is not bound to obey the dictates of the world’s marxists and Jew haters, no matter what noble-sounding organizations they dominate, it somehow was the only country willing to uphold and enforce the UN’s case against Iraq.
Go figure.
PS: Puhleeze, don’t ever quote Wikipedia to me as a serious source. At best it’s good for looking up medical definitions.
PSS: Where in Sri Lanka are you? I’d like to ask you a few questions about the countryside around you.
>>We’re electing her to be president>>
Oops. That would be _vice_ president.
>>Bush and Palin ARE the issue…
the world hates Bush>>
Bush is not running for president. The world doesn’t have to worry about him.
>>She’s (Palin) clueless and unintelligent. >>
She’s not running for president either. The world also doesn’t have to worry about her.
The world can take care of itself. Our business is not your business.
>>Danny – Please do me and yourself the courtesy of attacking the issue,>>
Just exactly which issue would that be?
Suek – Your replies are a little bit all over the place. I think you’re scuttling your own defense. If you would frame them in one coherently argued response, perhaps I could reply.
I think I’ll wait for Bookworm herself to reply, if she’s interested. As much as I often disagree with her views, I find it’s more constructive than dealing with the rest of you, who seem only interested in shifting the goal posts.
Ravana,
Please let me know what the status of the Tamil Tigers. Do they have a legitimate grievance against the central government of Sri Lanka?
>>perhaps I could reply.>>
I doubt it.
>>As much as I often disagree with her views, I find it’s more constructive than dealing with the rest of you>>
It’s certainly easier to take on one person. Perhaps she’ll establish a thread just for the two of you to discuss the qualifications of the presidential candidates, instead of the faults of the outgoing president the vice presidential candidate.
>>who seem only interested in shifting the goal posts.>>
I didn’t see any goal posts. You said you disagreed that the world will “eat Obama alive” if he’s elected. You said the world hates Bush. You said that Palin was unintelligent. Ok…show me the goal posts.
TROLLERY 101
Students, in this course you will learn how to enter a thread and quickly gain control of its direction. Here is a sampling of the tactics we will cover:
Cite Wikipedia: Even though this online “people’s encyclopedia” is notorious for its highly subjective and manipulable content when it comes to political topics, most blog readers will let you slide in references from it. Take advantage of their ignorance regarding Wiki’s reliability until somebody blows the whistle.
Use the Pout: Whenever somebody deftly counters one of your assertions, claim that the refutation is an ad hominem attack on you.
Never Answer a Direct Question: If you must, insert a Wikipedia citation (see above).
Pretend to be Above (or Beside) It All: For example, say you are a disenchanted Republican who finds himself being forced to vote for Obama. Or say that you live abroad and can speak for the entire world — all 200-plus nations and 6 billion people — when it comes to pissing on the United States.
Make Bush the Topic: This is self-explanatory. (WARNING: Once Bush leaves office, you must continue to invoke his name for whatever bad thing befalls the country or world, even if The Messiah has been elected.)
Ravana,
You must be aware that news reports from Sri Lanka indicate a high level of human rights violations. We know that sometimes these agencies are biased.
Is that the case here, that groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are being unfair to the central government of Sri Lanka?
Please tell me from your perspective, the truth of the situation in Sri Lanka.
Thank you,
Human rights abuses in Sri Lanka flourish under veil of secrecy
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/human-rights-abuses-sri-lanka-flourish-under-veil-secrecy-20080502
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=4896
I have read that more than 70,000 people have been killed in the fighting between the central government and LTTE.
Which side should I support?
BrianE, allow me to answer the question about the Tamil Tigers on Ravana’s behalf:
1. If the Tigers are supported by Bush or conservatives, they are absolute evildoers who must be crushed.
2. If The Anointed One is sympathetic to the Tigers, they are God’s own and must be supported with arms and money.
3. If they do not fall on either side of Good vs. Evil, I really don’t care about them.
4. I’m not really in Sri Lanka (you’d have a better chance of finding me in Danville or Novato), so I really don’t know much about big cats. Maybe a zoologist could help you.
Folks, we’re wasting far too much time and energy on this troll. She has successfully segued the threat into talk about Tamil Tigers and other irrelevancies.
The election tomorrow and then, depending on the outcome, discussion of the candidates should be over. If Obama wins, Ravana gets her way and the rest of the world can deal with the barbarian hordes (careful for what you wish for). If McCain wins, then the Democrats to do their banana republic thing, hold their breaths and pout as lawyers descend upon the states.
Book? Can you cut her off? There’s just no there, there.
We’re on hold, Danny. When you’re on hold, you do dumb stuff to pass the time.
Think of it as Tigers playing with mice. Or something.
Good thing it’ll be over tomorrow…or will it? The eligibility suit is still out there.
Shakespeare was right – first kill all the lawyers.
Oops. Now Oz will quote _me_ as a right wing wacko extemist…!
Kill lawyers? Way harsh, suek. And what about the good ones like DQ and Book…or John Adams? I can think of quite a few who should be on pedestals. As for the others…
suek:
I think Oz might be off hobnobbing at the Pelosis, so I’ll say it for her:
You right-wing wacko extremist!
Ravanna said,
>> I think I’ll wait for Bookworm herself to reply, if she’s interested. As much as I often disagree with her views, I find it’s more constructive than dealing with the rest of you, who seem only interested in shifting the goal posts. >>
Hey y’all, let’s give Ravana some due. She (?) said she was going to wait for our High Queen to speak with her, and no longer bother with us disgusting rabble. One imagines an imperious shake of her head with the upturned nose; her subsequent sweeping approach toward the Throne Room door, outside which she waits with vast impatience and imperiousness for her admittance.
And so far… she’s keeping her word on not talking to us anymore! Congrats to her! … No! Wait! She has turned around! Her eyes flash! She purses her lips with irritation. She prepares to speak (haughtily)! No, she has changed her mind, turned her back to us again at the Throne Room Door, and again waits with vast impatience.
So, y’all! Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming…
Mike, I sent the following message to Ravana via my secret contact in the Tamil Tigers:
“Ravana, I served with Goal Posts. I knew Goal Posts. Goal Posts were friends of mine. You don’t know Jack about Goal Posts.”
Ravanna’s got some interesting mental defenses to secure those delusions.
I’m suddenly getting a picture of a football field.
Suddenly from the sidelines a group of players makes a rush to the end zone!
Ymarsaker, suek and Danny Lemieux gather at the goal post and, with a “one, two, THREE!” pull it up while Charles Martel and BrianE dig a new hole thirty feet to the right with shovels. Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle go the feet of Y, suek, and Charles, to the right; another “one, two, THREE!”, and kerplunk! The goal posts… have been moved!
They rush back to the sidelines.
Funny, Mike!