Recent Comments
If you think we should stay in Afghanistan...
Comment posted by Bill on Mar 18, 14:37:
In fact, the word for musicians and public performers in Pashto -- dum -- is also a derogatory term! I love the used-without-irony exclamation point. As recently as the 1950s, entertainer was still an at least vaguely disreputable profession in Christendom. Thank goodness we've overcome that primitivism! ... [More]
Zippy’s back
Comment posted by Zippy on Mar 18, 12:59:
possibly an attack on the west coast similar to 9/11Yeah, because surprise had nothing to do with the successful terrorist attack on 9-11. A west coast attack of the same kind would have been just as easy for al Qaeda to pull off after 9-11 as before, and they would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for those meddling kids. (Not that it matters to the question of whether we should or shouldn't torture prisoners).But to proceed, if true does not a dilemma present itself for our consideration? On one ha ... [More]
Zippy’s back
Comment posted by johnt on Mar 18, 12:39:
Ah come on Zippy, whatever you are born with, or not, you read the Catechism, you talk moral law, get involved. Try this; Suppose, just suppose, that the war criminals Cheney and Rove are telling the truth about the results of their satanic, medievalist barbarisms, & in passing, providing us with an opportunity to feel grand about ourselves. That supposed truth being that information was gained which contributed to the saving of lives, possibly an attack on the west coast similar to 9/11,{hate to remind yo ... [More]
If you think we should stay in Afghanistan...
Comment posted by dymphna on Mar 18, 11:20:
Yes, for pity's sake let's leave. The Afghans aren't worth it. They are violent, cruel, woman hating, modernity hating, child abusing in-bred cretins. You can't work with that. ... [More]
If you think we should stay in Afghanistan...
Comment posted by Kurt on Mar 18, 10:35:
Steve, Although I agree with your conclusions, I don't think that Matthew Hoh ought to be considered a strategic expert with respect to Afghanistan. Yes, he's a great American and a bright young man. But his service in Afghanistan was local and of short duration. He's a Title 5-3161, not an FSO. That means that he was hired temporarily and for a specific purpose. He's not a career diplomat (that doesn't mean that FSOs have requisite expertise to understand Afghanistan either). And if you were to see w ... [More]
If you think we should stay in Afghanistan...
Comment posted by Zippy on Mar 18, 09:35:
If being the sort of people who feed girls their fingers for calling into a radio station isn't enough to get you called "nuts," I don't know what is. Would "horrible and evil" be preferable?As they say in blogland, I would like to associate myself with Lydia's remark. And yes, "horrible, evil, vile, disgusting, and wicked" would be a better, as in more objectively accurate, set of qualifiers. ... [More]
If you think we should stay in Afghanistan...
Comment posted by Mike T on Mar 18, 09:10:
It should also be pointed out that nation-building is to the right, what domestic welfare is to the left. The hundreds of billions we've spent on rebuilding Iraq is no different from the billions that Robert Byrd has pumped into West Virginia in the overarching goal and effectiveness. ... [More]
If you think we should stay in Afghanistan...
Comment posted by Mike T on Mar 18, 09:06:
Don't tell me what it is or isn't productive to call somebody, or, yeah, you do start sounding like a moral relativist. Calling them nuts is the same thing as when the left calls members of the right "ignorant" for disagreeing with them or behaving a certain way. It's not really ignorance then, and it's not "nuts" for a family to that to their daughter. It's evil, it's barbaric and the sort of thing for which every participant should be strung up in a just society from the nearest lamp post outside of a mo ... [More]
If you think we should stay in Afghanistan...
Comment posted by Lydia on Mar 18, 08:52:
and it isn't productive to call them "nuts". While I'm fully on-board with condemning nation-building, I really get annoyed when people say things like this. Right. If being the sort of people who feed girls their fingers for calling into a radio station isn't enough to get you called "nuts," I don't know what is. Would "horrible and evil" be preferable? Don't tell me what it is or isn't productive to call somebody, or, yeah, you do start sounding like a moral relativist. ... [More]
Zippy’s back
Comment posted by Zippy on Mar 18, 08:32:
Zippy, so what if you're not a Catholic?<irony>Why, then you are damned, of course.</irony> It isn't that I don't like formal heretics. Some of my best friends are formal heretics. It is just that some people are born with an ecumenical charism, and I'm not one of them. ... [More]
Zippy’s back
Comment posted by johnt on Mar 18, 07:49:
Zippy, so what if you're not a Catholic? I have it on good authority that not everyone reads the catechism. I mean, CC2297 is powerful stuff, but it could be missed, and is that an excuse for those practitioners of "raving non sequiturs"? Will God in His infinite wisdom and mercy forgive them? I realize that that last is a matter of opinion, but feel free. ... [More]
If you think we should stay in Afghanistan...
Comment posted by johnt on Mar 18, 06:47:
step2, I especially appreciated your first block quote, with sauce or without? I really don't see the problem here, apart from dietary oddities that is, let's just pull out,cancel the whole deal, and concentrate on the baseball season. I'm sure we will be left alone by islamists hither and yon, though I won't be accepting any dinner invitations from them. I mean, the whole thing is just a misunderstanding. ... [More]
Everything's Up to Date in Kansas City!
Comment posted by Mulder on Mar 17, 23:49:
And don't even get me started on the endless cascades of cash flushed down the toilet of Spec. Ed. And this is where I'm coming from! Spec. Ed. is where the cash is. The more students in there, the more cash for a school (a crude equation but you get the idea). I simply don't trust the current system, or even a reformed system, to make these correct judgments, at least when there's cash involved. Students can be pushed into Spec. Ed. who may not really belong there. An interesting author on topics lik ... [More]
Zippy’s back
Comment posted by MikeT on Mar 17, 21:41:
You'll have to explain what your point is. The father will be angry and distraught. Those are good reasons to distrust his impulses. My point is that he'll cross those boundaries, and by his own admission, cheerfully do so toward the man he believes is part of a crime against his daughter. Then, when the dust settles, and he finds out what he did, I wager he won't be man enough to take the full punishment for harming an innocent man. Instead, he'll expect the state to show him mercy in light of his daughte ... [More]
What's Wrong With Distributism
Comment posted by Just Some Guy on Mar 17, 20:59:
"What some of us take issue with is the notion that it is big business simply in virtue of being big that makes it evil." It's not the bigness per se that's evil, but the fact that when when a company gets so insanely big it tends to lose what might be called its constituent humanness. In other words, I think that the bad practices of mega-corporations are, in fact, directly related to their size. "if a guy starts a business small and, doing things wholly in virtue of good business and good wholesome act ... [More]
What's Wrong With Distributism
Comment posted by Tony on Mar 17, 20:17:
JSG, I think most of us agree that big corps getting in bed with government via clout and laws strangling their competition is bad pretty much across the board. What some of us take issue with is the notion that it is big business simply in virtue of being big that makes it evil. We have had this debate with Maximos, and this isn't the time to air the whole thing, but here is one basic reason to doubt the validity: if a guy starts a business small and, doing things wholly in virtue of good business and ... [More]
Zippy’s back
Comment posted by Zippy on Mar 17, 20:07:
Tony: What procedure would you recommend in your hypothetical if the combatant was uniformed? ... [More]
Zippy’s back
Comment posted by Tony on Mar 17, 19:44:
Ugh! Yet another torture debate. But those conditions probably do not apply to any present conflict in which we are involved. I don't really think the necessary conditions are very unlikely to come up in almost ANY large conflict. All you need is a unit that is temporarily cut off, holding a captured spy / non-uniformed combatant, and being forced to stealthily get the hell out of Dodge because a much bigger enemy force is coming down the pike. You can't be realistically confident of retaining th ... [More]
Zippy’s back
Comment posted by Step2 on Mar 17, 18:49:
Mike T, You'll have to explain what your point is. The father will be angry and distraught. Those are good reasons to distrust his impulses. ... [More]
If you think we should stay in Afghanistan...
Comment posted by Step2 on Mar 17, 18:15:
Obsidian Wings' Eric Martin posted an email he got from WSJ's Anand Gopal in December 2009 that is equally pessimistic. Mullah Omar...[is] not that far removed from the society he came from. The Taliban did not just drop out of the sky one day--they are expressions of the rural, pre-modern, reactionary outlook prevalent in the Pashtun hinterlands. Women are essentially enslaved in these rural Pashtun areas, and this has little if nothing to do with the Taliban. Take a trip through the Pashtun countryside a ... [More]
Everything's Up to Date in Kansas City!
Comment posted by steve burton on Mar 17, 17:18:
Jeff Culbreath @ 1:05 a.m. + Mike T @ 7:51 a.m. - what can I say but: high five! ... [More]
Everything's Up to Date in Kansas City!
Comment posted by Lydia on Mar 17, 17:15:
Steve, very well-said. Mulder, I hope that if my kids really were below average I would have the intelligence, knowledge, and honesty to say so. Because I don't believe in giving out a lot of highly personal information in open Internet forums, I won't go into a discussion of the relative academic strengths and weaknesses of my children, but believe me, they have them, and I am probably considered by other people who know me personally to be almost brutally honest in discussing them and comparing them. As ... [More]
Everything's Up to Date in Kansas City!
Comment posted by steve burton on Mar 17, 17:11:
Paul, I was nodding my head in total agreement until I got to this: "After about 3rd grade, our educational system increasingly selects for the bright and talented students, and neglects the dull and modestly-gifted..." No, no, no! The truth is precisely the opposite. The higher the grade level, the more resources get wasted on trying to force "the dull and modestly-gifted" into the academic mold, while the bright and talented students sit in the back sleeping, or playing video-games or text-messaging on ... [More]
Everything's Up to Date in Kansas City!
Comment posted by steve burton on Mar 17, 16:06:
Mulder - I think that it's just crazy - and deeply destructive - to say that to track people into the career paths in which they're most likely to succeed is to "give up" on them. Based on a lifetime of experience, I'd say that the average plumber or fencer or nurse practitioner lives a better life and contributes more to the community than all but a very, very few academics. Forcing the academic path, starting with stuff like geometry and algebra, on kids who hate it and who have no talent for it and who ... [More]
Zippy’s back
Comment posted by Mike T on Mar 17, 14:36:
You've admitted a total disregard for legal and moral boundaries. And yet, if he finds himself in Paul's scenario, he'll no doubt be begging those who handle him to abide by both sets of boundaries with all grace and mercy. ... [More]
What's Wrong With Distributism
Comment posted by Just Some Guy on Mar 17, 14:26:
I loathe PC in all its forms. But that is not the type of thing I'm talking about, really. I'm referring to such situations as are described in Food Inc., which is why I referenced the movie. Situations in which huge corporations lobby Congress for laws that favor them over their smaller competitors, for instance, and because of their bigger clout get those laws passed. It bothers me, for example, that one big corporation has almost complete control over the U.S. soybean industry, by virtue of the fact ... [More]
Zippy’s back
Comment posted by Step2 on Mar 17, 13:44:
Trust me, no power on heaven or earth would keep me from extracting the information necessary to save my daughter and believe me I would get good reliable information. Why would I trust you or your method? You've admitted a total disregard for legal and moral boundaries. ... [More]
The BNP: Don't be Fooled
Comment posted by Sam on Mar 17, 13:41:
Hello everyone. I'm voting BNP this year because i oppose mass immigration. England is now officially the most densly populated country in Europe. Labour have caused this problem and their Tory rivals also have the same history. Are people voting BNP because they are racist? Yeah a few probably. For me it's about space NOT race. More people means "even more" cars, roads, traffic, crime, queing and competion to name only a few. They say immigration gives us a better economy. Yeah it gives the gorvenment more ... [More]
Zippy’s back
Comment posted by Zippy on Mar 17, 12:51:
I have been told that Geneva Convention permits the summary execution of unlawful combatants. Where do you stand on government forces giving such combatants a simple choice: tell us what we want to know, or you're a dead man?(1) Execution of the guilty can be morally licit when it is necessary. (2) I have no issue in principle with abbreviated due process as long as that abbreviated due process is accurate in determining the truth of the convicted man's guilt and the justice of death as punishment, and ... [More]
Zippy’s back
Comment posted by Scott W. on Mar 17, 12:29:
Dog pile on Zippy! And here I was going to offer a meek "welcome back". What was I thinking? :) ... [More]
Zippy’s back
Comment posted by Mike T on Mar 17, 11:38:
Zippy, I have been told that Geneva Convention permits the summary execution of unlawful combatants. Where do you stand on government forces giving such combatants a simple choice: tell us what we want to know, or you're a dead man? ... [More]
Zippy’s back
Comment posted by Mike T on Mar 17, 11:36:
I know I just took it in a direction you didn't intend, but my scenario, not yours, is the one in which fathers in the real world are significantly more likely to find themselves in when thinking along your lines. ... [More]
Zippy’s back
Comment posted by Mike T on Mar 17, 11:34:
I wouldn't "enjoy" doing it but trust me, I wouldn't hesitate one single second. A lot of men talk like this in defense of their daughter. It rarely occurs to them that the rapist might actually be her boyfriend and that that act of rape may have been consensual sex (usually is) that she didn't want daddy to know about. Go ahead, pull the trigger without finding out. His dad will have every moral right to come gunning for you if you got it wrong. ... [More]
What's Wrong With Distributism
Comment posted by Zippy on Mar 17, 10:22:
I would hope so. ... [More]
Zippy’s back
Comment posted by Paul J Cella on Mar 17, 10:06:
The "confederate" turns out, under your tortures, to only be a poor victim whose own daughter the rapist has under the knife to coerce his cooperation. The rapist, suspicious because his "confederate," delayed by your torments, has failed to check in, murders both girls. Now you have tortured an innocent man and hastened the slaughter of two girls. Sleep well, buddy. (As you can see, anyone can spin out hypotheticals which strengthen their argument. It is a modest intellectual talent of little use in true ... [More]
Zippy’s back
Comment posted by Doren Hagen on Mar 17, 09:44:
Zippy sounds a bit addled in the brain to me. My daughter is held by a rapist. I have in my possession his confederate. Trust me, no power on heaven or earth would keep me from extracting the information necessary to save my daughter and believe me I would get good reliable information. It might not be pretty but I would save my daughter NO MATTER WHAT IT TOOK and not lose one teensy weensy wink of sleep. I wouldn't "enjoy" doing it but trust me, I wouldn't hesitate one single second. What sort of bar ... [More]
What's Wrong With Distributism
Comment posted by Lydia on Mar 17, 09:42:
Can we all agree, then, on deploring PC tyranny? ... [More]
Everything's Up to Date in Kansas City!
Comment posted by Mike T on Mar 17, 07:51:
What idiocy! And what a recipe for failure, alienation and despair for those unfortunate enough to be on the wrong side of the bell curve. The problem doesn't stop there. Most college degrees are of little value to employers, but students are continually suckered into those paths by a system which encourages them to believe that a degree, any degree, is a ticket to a better life. The problem becomes a real injustice when those students go tens of thousands into debt for those degrees. I've met a few girls ... [More]
What's Wrong With Distributism
Comment posted by Zippy on Mar 17, 07:17:
This is what flummoxes me about modern American conservatism. It constantly bewails the overstepping and accumulation of power in Washington, with which bewailing I heartily concur, but turns a blind eye to the obvious role of corporatism in these very abusesThere is this idea out there that PC tyranny is bad for business, an external imposition on benign corporations by bad government. But PC tyranny isn't bad for big business, it is only bad for small business. In fact it gives big business yet another ... [More]