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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (18863)	12/6/2003 6:29:13 AM
From: kumar	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793758

A minor moron moment making its way on the talk shows today are the new lyrics by Eminem: Minor Moron is probably the best description. I watched Fox News last night, beating this to death. Finally switched channels because IMO it is not a credible threat.

To: LindyBill who wrote (18863)	12/7/2003 2:03:31 AM
From: KLP	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793758

And on the same topic... ~~Why is the Patriotism of the Left Off the Table? December 06, 2003 americandigest.org Responding to an article about Patriotism at Robert Prather's site, Spoons raises an interesting point in SPEAKING ILL OF THE LEFT Should conservatives really not question the patriotism of much of the Left? Frankly, I've never understood the taboo. To my way of thinking, this is a really neat trick that the Left has pulled off. They take their most vulnerable weakness, and convince everyone that it's rude to talk about it. I'll give an example: Jimmy Carter. The man cozies up to the worst of America's enemies, and bad-mouths us all around the world. I absolutely do question his patriotism, and won't apologize for it. I do not believe that he thinks the United States is a fundamentally good country. The same would go for Dennis Kucinich, or Al Sharpton, or Sheila Jackson Lee, to name a few others. I likewise don't see how any of those involved with the communist anti-American anti-semites at A.N.S.W.E.R. can be called patriots. I don't believe any of these people honestly love this country. Is it wrong to say so? Spoons is correct in noting that the Left has pulled off an interesting hat trick in moving this item off the table. But then language control is one of their favorite tricks and they are quite good at it. (Having been a member of the Left in the distant past gave me a number of opportunities to watch this tool used to great effectiveness.)</b Perhaps we shouldn't be too ready to give up the point that there is such a thing as being unpatriotic in this day and age. Perhaps we need to see that there are acts that reasonable Americans can see as not only unpatriotic but treasonous. That's not to say that seeing treason and trying Treason are the same thing. To conflate the two is another slight of hand item the left is good at. One the one hand "Treason" considered as a crime is something for a Federal Court. As we learned in the Johnny Taliban from Marin episode, Treason has very specific requirements in order to be prosecuted. But the crime of Treason on the part of the government and the perception of attitudes, actions and expressions that seem to the private individual to be treasonous are not the same. I could, if I wished, stand in front of the Carter Library announcing Jimmy Carter as a traitor to his country and his God. That would be within my right. I would, however, have no power to try and punish Mr. Carter. That would be only within the gift of the government and I don't think they're up for it at the present time. Likewise a charge of being "unpatriotic" is the same only, I imagine, of a softer key. While a traitor is obviously unpatriotic, a person may be unpatriotic but not be a traitor. In a way, the confusion of this is similar to the "innocent until proven guilty" meme that permeates talk shows and converstation. A court must treat an accused person as innocent until proven guilty. A citizen is under no such obligation. Convincing people that one can criticize the United States and never, ever, be tagged as "unpatriotic" is a neat trick. But it only works as long as people buy it. Me, I'm fresh out of spare change for that trick. Just more linguistic 3-card Monte. The next time I'm confronted with a person who tells me, "You cannot question my patriotism!," I'm going to ask him just what part of the right to free speech he fails to understand. Posted by Vanderleun at 02:37 PM \| Comments (1)