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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Volsi Mimir who wrote (10972)	10/23/1998 8:23:00 PM
From: one_less	Respond to of 67261

<<Death is death.>> Why does this extremely unprofound statement of the obvious keep getting posted? I just did it again, I think it's gone out of our control.

To: Volsi Mimir who wrote (10972)	10/23/1998 8:25:00 PM
From: jbe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 67261

Ho, ho, ho, eddy, you ole loony you.... Didn't know it was that easy to get tagged a leftist, eh? Hahahaha... jbe

To: Volsi Mimir who wrote (10972)	10/23/1998 11:12:00 PM
From: Johannes Pilch	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 67261

>I didn't realize it could be so easy.< Now you know. >I thought I had to be intelligent, knowledgeable and open minded.< Well. This describes a rational person (save for a traditional dose of the latter attribute), one who would not claim the support of the death penalty with the rejection of abortion to be, ipso facto, hypocritical. I happen to support the death penalty and I also reject abortion, and while my doing so may appear logically inconsistent to you (though I hardly think it in fact is), your calling my belief hypocritical is to employ a typical leftist tactic-- no argument, merely the ad hominem. Now I happen to believe the well placed ad hominem a dandy thing, despite its potential fallaciousness; but the ad hominem used to argue a point in a context such as this, is a leftist tactic (hence my use of the term in association with you. The term is mine, used by me fallaciously, often in response to those who use the ad hominem to argue their positions /ex:. RR, homophobe, RW, bigot, fanatic, CS, etc). Typical liberal usages: "You think homosexuality a philosophically untenable perversion? Then you are a Right Wing Homophobic Religious Bigot. You think abortion necessarily destructive and philosophically untenable? Then you are a misogynist. You think a conspiracy exists to harm society? Then you have the paranoid style. You support the death penalty and yet reject abortion? Then you are a hypocrite." It is possible (indeed where I am concerned it is the fact) that in each of these cases a person can hold these views and yet not be a bigot, misogynist, paranoid, or a hypocrite. It is reasonably argued that homosexuality and abortion are contradictory to human existence, that there exists a natural conspiracy of sorts to harm society, the origin of which is not human, but one that is nevertheless perpetuated by human frailty (a collective inability to embrace principle). It is reasonably argued that "death is not death". It is nevertheless the rarest of liberals who is willing to discuss these issues without hurling insults, subtle or otherwise. In the presence of insults, I find it not at all problematic or contradictory to wisdom to answer a fool according to his or her folly--indeed I enjoy it. When insults are nowhere to be found, I thoroughly enjoy a friendly locking of horns with those with which I disagree. While I so much prefer the latter, I will, when I have time, negotiate the former. Perhaps you are indeed confused on the issue of the death penalty/abortion, and instead are a non-leftist. Perhaps you are not confused, but see a legitimate inconsistency in supporting the death penalty and rejecting abortion. Whatever the case, hypocrisy is a moral determination not to be applied to belief, but to human character. So to ascribe the attribute of hypocrisy to my belief, is to then apply it to my character. It is to establish a disrespectful environment, and I have no problem whatever frolicking with anyone therein.