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Friday, March 21, 2003

Some more quick points

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Mike: I wasn’t bring up any particular issue in re: University of Michigan. I just hate them because I’m an Ohio State fan. But thanks for the insightful commentary.

As far as the connection between communism and fascism, there are many similarities - state control of economy, police state policies, brutal oppression, etc. They were two sides of the same coin - one side plated with internationalism and class warfare, the other with nationalism and race warfare. That’s probably why they hated eaach other so much, and why calling a political opponent a Nazi is still the greatest insult someone on the left can lay on an opponent. (If Stalin and crew weren’t communists, why did they insist that they were? Socialism evolved into many things, one of them was fascism.)


Posted by Buckethead on 03/21/03 at 03:32 PM
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Thursday, March 20, 2003

Another quick response

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Yes, Saddam used to fall into the category, “Yes, he’s a bastard, but he’s our bastard.” The fact that he fell out of that category was due to 1) the end of the cold war, as I’ve discussed earlier; and 2) he went to far. The Cold War distorted our perceptions of international politics enormously. Ideology is a bad thing. 


Posted by Buckethead on 03/20/03 at 10:19 PM
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Two quick responses

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Johno, on Reagan:

Yes, Yes, and about as close as we’re likely to get

Mike, on Alien and Sedition:

I don’t think its very likely. The amuzement factor of someone calling Bush a Nazi in Lafayette Park right north of the White House, yet remaining magically unarrested, was about a 9.5. Civil Forfeiture is unalloyed, unconstitutional, unacceptable wrongness. Yet, there is a movement to reverse it. All is not lost. There are many bad things in this country. I could talk about them for hours. But overall, things are not just better here than elsewhere, they are good in an absolute sense. We have freedom and wealth and knowledge unimagined in history. And the basic structure of our institutions is sound, though always threatened; threatened more by expediency and good intentions than by malice. There’s a lot of things I’d fix, but many more that I’d leave alone.


Posted by Buckethead on 03/20/03 at 10:16 PM
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Clarification

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Gentlemen,

Points of clarification always seem a necessity to me after a post. Let’s begin.

1) Scare quotes. I will respect sensibilities and will refrain from the use of scare quotes.

2) Frustration. The frustration to which I referred was with the utter uselessness of dissent, not the members of our cyber-panel. Nor was I claiming that I had been attacked, nor was I expecting one. I just didn’t want to leave the impression that I intended to be less than civil. Neurotically so, perhaps. As to my frustration with the futility of dissent, like I said, I and anyone else can oppose, oppose, oppose, and decisions have already been made. Objections are irrelevant. It is the way of the world, but it bugs me. On a similar topic, the Bucketman’s optimism is duly noted viz-a-viz representative republics. But in my short lifetime I have seen so many governmental abrogations of individual rights and liberties, such as the de facto dismissal of the Fourth Amendment, that my pessimism makes me wonder just how representative the American republic will be in the future, and whether or not it will even be a republic. I often used to say that America needs its lunatic fringe, as they are really the protector of individual rights, but they have been increasingly marginalized. The ACLU is often perceived as an aggregate of clowns and fools when they attempt to protect those rights. Given the current outbreak of war, my pessimism forces me to ask, will we be revisited by the Alien and Sedition Acts? Iraqi nationals have already been detained. On the other hand, Daschle really blasted the President, and unlike the Democratic-Republicans of the Federalist era, specifically Matthew Lyon, he has not been imprisoned. So we’ll see, but I’m never optimistic. No, I’m not a Libertarian, because I am virulently opposed to laissez faire capitalism, but I am a great-great-step- grandchild of the Enlightenment. Postmodernists would call me a racist and an elitist because of that, and they can stick it up their ass. I think what I think and I don’t care so much what side that puts me on. According to academic perceptions, for example, I’m a right-wing extremist. Funny how that happens.


Posted by Mike on 03/20/03 at 04:38 AM
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Tuesday, March 18, 2003

Re: Touche

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Except that they’re not going up.

(and you jumped in too early, there is a Spiderman Part II coming.)


Posted by Buckethead on 03/18/03 at 10:07 PM
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Touche’, except that

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the number of civilans killed also seems to be rising. Which is the reason for my objection. The last thing we need is for soldiers to become complacent about the quality of their technology.


Posted by Johno on 03/18/03 at 03:54 PM
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Thursday, March 13, 2003

Hey

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Bucket, I’m not sure that painting European leaders as pimps and Clintons is exactly constructive, or apt. I mean, I’m on your side in this, and the worst that can be said about Chirac or Schroeder is that they are dim, small-minded calculating opportunists. And in the sucking-up-to-tyrants department, let’s not forget that Boston College recently gave a visiting professorship to a former dictator, with more to come.


Posted by Johno on 03/13/03 at 08:15 PM
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