deep thought...
Got to thinking today. As a Vietnam veteran who is now a left-leaning pacifist and very much against the totalitarian nature of globalised capitalist imperialsm, what do I really want to say about that from a veteran's perspective, and I realised that I need to give this matter a lot of deep thought.
I would welcome advice/comments on this.
Till then... Thinking is...
I would welcome advice/comments on this.
Till then... Thinking is...
posted by The Editor at
11:08 PM
20 Comments:
Gerry...
I suggest that you just tell us how you feel, openly and honestly. Additionally, try and be as unlike MajorDad as possible, as I've had enough of vets telling me they hope I get felt up while traveling. (Saw your comment on Fox's blog and I couldn't resist, as I've been wanting to say something of that nature for a while, and you seemed like a guy who wouldn't mind).
Jenni
Touché, Jenni. Hit some kind of nerve, did I? Well, you're more than welcome to tell me all about it. I am not the kind of vet who wishes you to get felt up. I just lost my patience with Major Pain, I'm afraid. He embodies everything I find appalling about pig-ignorant patriots.
I should probably dial back my previous comment. If you wanted to express an opinion similar to MajorDad's that would be fine with me. Just please leave out the wishes that I get felt up. Basically, I think everyone should be more respectful of other's opinions, both within their own country and internationally. I don't agree with a lot of what conservatives have to say, but I respect the diversity they bring to the debate.
In any case, good luck with your thinking.
Jenni, I guess you're saying I've been a bit too harsh on Major Pain. Or is it my "anti-American" rants that
yank your chain? I'm not sure exactly what you're trying to say. Come on, spit it out, I'm up for it. :-)
Oh no, that is not it at all. Major "Pain" actually did suggest that he hoped I got felt up the next time I traveled in the U.S., and didn't respond when I said I hoped he was joking. Ah, well...I guess that is what I deserve for being a liberal. Today he also accused me of forgiving the 9/11 terrorists because I said that radical Islam exists in part because they feel threatened by the West. I probably wouldn't go as far as you did in saying that he has a master plan to spread his conservatism, but I think he is much less polite than many believe.
Basically, it was just nice to see someone express the same feelings I have been having about the Major. :) And don't worry about your Anti-American rants. You are certainly entitled to your opinion, and I would openly admit that America far from perfect.
'Major "Pain" actually did suggest that he hoped I got felt up the next time I traveled in the U.S.' Jenni, that must be the "diversity" conservatives bring to the debate. I wonder how he'd react if someone said that to one of his daughters - or his wife.
His writings say volumes about who he really is.
Glad you weren't pissed off with what I said, Jenni. Thanks for dropping in. Hope to see you often. Good luck.
I'll certainly make my way back again, hopefully to post about something happier than Major...I have a soft spot in my heart for Australia as I nearly ended up living there permanently, so how can I pass up an Aussie blog? Have a wonderful...day, I think it is there now.
I'll look forward to it. Hope you find this blog interesting. Sorry about my uneducated style and manner but I do the best I can (usually).
There's a WeatherPixie graphic in the right-hand sidebar of this blog which shows you what the weather, temp, and the time of last update (usually no loder than two hours) from the nearest airport weather station. this helps figure out what time of day, etc, it is over here.
Thanks for the hint on the weather pixie. That will come in handy as one of my friends leaves for Australia tomorrow. Also, no need to apologize about the content of your blog. I'm sure mine does not sound entirely educated all the time either. We can't all compete with urban fox!
Compete with the fox? I know when I'm outclassed!
But look, we'd better stop this for now, or people will start to talk. You know how they are... :-)
I've enjoyed the chat. Thanks.
Welcome to the PBA! Tasmania's beautiful. I went hiking there once.
Hi Karlo. Thanks for the welcome. Yes, Tasmania is a great place. If only we can keep it out of the hands of the developers, miners and the loggers. Other forces for "progress" are far too eagerly eying the place off.
Hi Gerry,
Just passing through via Fox's blog. I know where you were coming from, but I have to say that I'm going to stick up for MajorDad - I don't agree with a lot of what he has to say, but I do like the fact that he goes to the trouble of presenting a case to back himself up and that he encourages debate. One of the things I like about Fox's blog is that there is a fairly sensible level of debate over there between people from very different ends of the political spectrum.... all too rare in the 'blogosphere'.
In fact, I've just been over to Major's site and put up my thoughts on Iraq. They weren't terribly articulate, and I've already been kind-of set upon by somebody (although having been over to her blog, it was a bit like being savaged by a limp lettuce). Made me feel depressed at the level of debate though.
Anyway - I'm rambling again. I feel your pain and I welcome your views. I'll be back here.
Take it easy
ST
Thanks for your kind thoughts, Toni.
My problem is that I don't see "reasonable debate" the way you guys see it. I see it as ideas that justify the killing of thousands and millions. I see the bodies again. And I see it all dressed up as "liberation" and "democracy" again, and all the other crap that sounds so "reasonable" and "respectful" and "polite" and believable.
And then there are the bodies, the physically and mentally mangled survivors, the rubble that was once a nice town or city. All of it explained away and justified with lies dressed up as truths and delivered oh-so-resonably, oh-so-respectfully, oh-so-politely, oh-so-elegantly, oh-so-convincingly on a blog near you...
But there will be no speakers-for-death on THIS blog.
Gerry...As promised, I've made my way back. Good for you for sticking up for what you believe in. Being a veteran yourself, you bring a perspective which many of us are lacking. Thanks for sharing your side of the story.
Jenni, thanks for your supportive comment. As to my perspective, it's simple: Nothing we did there was sane or made any sense. What it did do was to bomb a country whose clear majority wanted to develop a different economic model than the capitalistic one right back into the economic stoneage so we could prevent it from creating a viable alternative. Then we cynically said "See, socialism doesn't work." But in order to stack the deck we killed three million Vienamese, traumatised a nation, and turned our naive young soldiers into killers for The Corporations.
Fox, I totally agree that you should run your blog the way you see fit. I've studied your debates with Major Pain both on your blog and on his.
If you enjoy verbally jousting with someone whose writings I interpret as being a bunch of obfuscations and deflections flying in tight formation, bigoted, xenophobic and racist; someone who I think would endorse ethnic cleansing; someone who refuses to allow himself to be informed sufficiently to understand what you're trying to lay before him, then that's fine by me. I diagnose that kind of activity as being intellectual masochism.
You're not going to get through to him and he's not going to change his ossified ideology. I venture to say all you will get out of it is frustration and pain. But, hey, good luck in you adventures.
I just can't read his stuff without wanting to rip his crown jewells out and shoving them into his smug gob, but being a committed pacifist I will refrain from physical violence. So until I attain satori, I'd best not frequent blogs that feed oxygen to this apologist for American and Israeli terrorism.
I'm sorry, Fox, but that's my call. I don't want you to do anything on my account. You have to make your own decisions as you see fit.
And you see, had I had the wisdom to just walk away from your blog without making that comment, you would not now be having your dilemma. I'm sorry for the trouble I have caused, Fox, but remaining silent was never something I could do. My only hope, I guess is in learning to say things "nicely". Well, maybe next life time... :-(
Fox, whan you said "if there's a single conservative reading who hasn't yet made up their minds on everything" you may not have realised it but you had lovingly crafted an oxymoron.
One can't be a conservative and not have made up one's mind on everything. Minds wide shut I'm afraid. They've been deliberately dumbed down to reject anything which doesn't match their brainwashed American world view. An open mind is not something they know what to do with. I wish you luck with your missionary work.
As you can see, my acidic commentary style is best kept quarantined within the thickly glazed walls of this specially consructed blog.
Seriously though, I must learn not to go apeshit on other people's blogs. I must learn not to go apeshit on other people's blogs. I must learn not to go apeshit on other people's blogs. I must learn not to go apeshit on other people's blogs. ahhhhh...
Now where did I put my medication...
God I wish Blogger comments had a feature which allows the author to go back and edit/correct their comments after they've been posted. That couldn't be too hard, could it! Come on, God!!!
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