Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (116854)	5/28/2005 5:16:01 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793600

Smartland Damn! That's a good essay. Made me think of the Sherlock Holmes bit about "the dog that didn't bark." He didn't bark because he recognized the murderer as a friend. That may be why the media isn't tougher on the Muslims. In a way, they recognize them. As people who don't like Bush either.

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (116854)	5/28/2005 6:05:25 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793600

I don't agree with Orson Scott Card on everything, but I think he's onto something here: That was a passionate, effective essay. I'll just make a few small points about it. Our country is at war. And it’s a war in which victory absolutely depends on the Muslim world perceiving it as a war between the US and its allies on one side, and fanatical murderous terrorists on the other....If it is ever perceived as a war against Islam, then we have lost. The world has lost. I think that's a good point. So good, in fact, that I've made it myself over they last few years. I made it first back when Bush thoughtlessly spoke of our "crusade." I made it often when the freepers and their ilk went on and on about what a vicious, dirty religion Islam is and when they talked about dispatching Muslims to be with their virgins. I don't recall ever seeing or hearing statements like that from the progressives, who can be way too deferential to Islam. When the lefty press reports incidents that sound anti-Islam, they're not reporting their feelings but rather reporting those of the "patriots." Now the author can reasonably argue that they should be magnanimously patriotic and let the "patriots" get away with it rather than calling attention to it lest the enemy get wind, but you can also argue that if the patriots didn't do it in the first place, there would be nothing to report. And if the "patriots" weren't quite so hypocritical about it, there might also be less reporting. Even if the allegations about Quran desecration were completely and absolutely verified, why in the world would you publish the information during wartime? Because somebody will. Realistically speaking, it will get out. If it isn't released by US media, then it will be somewhere else. I'm not condoning what Newsweek did, but if they really believed that the Pentagon was going to publish a report, a plausible belief, then why shouldn't they report on the report? The Pentagon sets the tone on information sharing and they've been conducting and publishing reports of their investigations. There are advantages and disadvantages to any approach and this is one of the disadvantages. It’s Smartland. This part of the essay could have been written by CB. <g> Seriously, I get this. But I also get that there's this great big red (what they used to call) inferiority complex out there that seeps into everything. And it really has nothing to do with the main point of this essay. It's just an expression of angst and hatred and a bonding exercise. I think it's non-constructive to foster this counter-productive attitude plus the distraction weakens his argument. The anti-Smarties are every bit as bad as the anti-Bushies.

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (116854)	5/30/2005 1:02:54 AM
From: KLP	Respond to of 793600

Nadine, once again, Thanks for posting the comments from Orson Scott Card. In so many ways, I think he is more than 'on to something'....And thank you and karen holt as well for a most interesting point-counter point.... It's too bad we don't have such good writers and original thoughts coming from the MSM editorials. If the Islamists ever ruled the world – and only a fool thinks that history offers some guarantee against it – then America’s unpatriotic elite will realize ... No they won’t. Whom do I think I’m kidding? They’ll still blame it on Bush or the Christian right or the oil companies, because the central tenet of their belief is that their side can do no wrong. Wow. That sounds just like “my country, right or wrong.” Only instead of a country with borders, they have Smartland, the nation of people who know far better how to order the world than those ignorant unwashed masses of voters that keep electing morons who can’t pronounce “nuclear.” They’re fanatical Smartland patriots. So fanatical they don’t hesitate long enough to get their facts right before running a story that seriously weakens America’s position in a deadly war that has already blown up the two tallest buildings in the capital city of Smartland. Because they haven’t recognized yet that Smartland only exists as a parasite, sucking the blood out of the Heartland that they have such contempt for. One thing is for sure: At Newsweek, nobody better ever say again, “We don’t make the news, we just print it.”