Comments Posted By dymphna
Displaying 11 To 20 Of 30 Comments
I don't put MLK in the pantheon you have lined up. However, Mr. King's genius lay in his ability to fire the imagination and to make people believe that love is possible and evil is reversible. Even more than that, he did that without being in the corridors of power, as Lincoln was, or emerging from the elite, as did the Founders.
He belongs with Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and others who rose from anonymity through the sheer power of their words. These people changed the tone and direction of the American conversation.
King was heroic...and only someone who wanted to deflect from his heroism would bring up his foibles.
The Founding Fathers had foibles enough to outlast any of King's. We could start with Franklin's womanizing, neglect of his family, and kowtowing to the British and from there move on to "ain't gonna serve in no Army" Jefferson. In fact, he ran away from the British. And he seriously wounded Adam's presidency with deceit and slander. Not nice.
Our Founders were not saints. Neither was King. But they were admirably human, all of them.
Comment Posted By dymphna On 18.01.2006 @ 11:44
PUBLIC EXECUTIONS: LIVE AND IN COLOR?
the people who would watch executions are the same ones who read "People" magazine, watch inane 'reality' TV and generally lead vicarious lives.
Ah, the blessed silence of a living space with no TV, radio, or newspapers.
I'm in favor of the death penalty. I don't think human nature has changed much: we showed up for public executions in the Middle Ages and they do so now in Iran.
Plus ca change, Rick.
Comment Posted By dymphna On 14.12.2005 @ 22:08
"A TERRORISTS DREAM: AN AMERICAN NIGHTMARE"
Rick--
It sounds like there are scare holes everywhere...in space, science, the infrastructure, etc.
Are we returning to the "hide-under-desk-unitl-the-blast-passes" exercises kids did in school back in the '50's?
I don't think there is enough scientific intelligence among the Evil Ones to carry out the missions which would create your scenario. Local strikes on gas/electic/utility structures seem more likely. Local mayhem.
The more I read about these people, the less likely the Doomsday scenario seems. There are thousands of Americans-turned-Islamists living in sleeper cells all over this country. They live off the fat of gummit entitlement and do their guerilla training and wait for orders from Pakistan. Are they a threat? Some. But nothing that could be nation-wide.
The irony? We produce our own enemies from within: they are recruited from prisons and find some spiritual meaningfulness in their channeled hatred of our evil ways.
Where will it lead? Who knows? Can we halt the cultural sink that produces these people who end up in prison? Maybe.
That's one thing that is leading me to believe a way out is to declare the "War" on Drugs the Peace Settlement. Let's legalize drugs and open up the prisons to free the non-violent drug offenders. It can't be any worse than what we already have going. The bad thing, of course, is that people holding equity in private prison building will see their net worth fall...c'est la vie...
But that's only one small change. Don't want to take up your space with others...
Comment Posted By dymphna On 8.12.2005 @ 00:20
SYRIA AND THE HARIRI CONSPIRACY
While the boy is definitely not cut from the same cloth as his father, the frayed cord tying Lebanon to Syria would've had to break sometime, especially given the monumental changes sweeping the Middle East.
Great clarity here, Rick. Thanks.
Comment Posted By dymphna On 26.10.2005 @ 21:32
Rick--
I notice someone mentioned NPR as a reliable source. Ever since I was cured of them after their gazillionth "the sky is falling" they're the last ones I'd pay attention to.
You, on the other hand, being of sound mind, I DO trust. I wish I didn't. I am morphing into a survivalist.
My paternal grandmother died in the last global flu epidemic and it smashed my family for generations. I'm preparing for this one.
Comment Posted By dymphna On 29.09.2005 @ 15:54
THE WILD, WILD, WILD, WILD, AND WACKY WORLD OF CINDY SHEEHAN
Rick, you ask if we should pity her loss...
Do you mean her loss of dignity, integrity and sanity?
Yeah, I guess so. It's sad to watch the spectacle she makes but what is even sadder is this:
(a)the "journalists" who follow her;
and
(b)any of us -- including moi -- who discuss her or let her (as they say in AA) live rent-free in our heads.The kind and compassionate thing would be to ignore her, much as you would old and dribbling Uncle Harold at the dinner table. He can't help his condition and she probably can't anymore, either.
There may have been a time she was in control of her faculties but that period has looong since passed.
OTOH, were the "journalists" and the American people to turn away from the spectacle, even if out of kindness, she would probably implode. Attention may be the only reason she has to go on now, and the fascination with her has the same sensation one has when passing a particularly brutal car smash-up. Kind of a "prayer-and-despair" feeling.
Care to predict how all this will end?
Comment Posted By dymphna On 21.09.2005 @ 12:46
AL QAEDA'S "MEIN KAMPF" BLUEPRINT
As usual, brilliant and dispiriting. I get two choices: the Avian flu or dhimmied to death.
Thanks, Mr. Moran!
This is a great post, dammit.
Comment Posted By dymphna On 25.08.2005 @ 00:10
Winds of Change posted on this with lots of good links. I did an homage of sorts, with stories about my family's experience, which continues down to the 4th generation now.
Yesteday, my co-blogger, the Baron, did a post on the pig slaughter in Indonesia:
The money quote:
Experts worry that pigs infected with both bird flu and its human equivalent could act as a “mixing bowl,†resulting in a more dangerous, mutant virus that might spread to people more easily — and then from person to person.
I envy the sang froid of your commenters who think we're too rich and too healthy to be a target of this virus. It killed off the young and the healthy last time...
Please keep ringing this bell.
BTW, Joe Katzman has *excellent* links on his post re this whole mess.
Comment Posted By dymphna On 3.08.2005 @ 14:38
ISLAM GUILTY AS CHARGED? NOT EXACTLY
Northern Virginiastan ran a post on this issue...
CAIR is just like the rest of Islam: supremacist, ultra-sensitive, and absolutely sure they're right. All you need to do is put some hoods and white sheets on 'em and it's deja vu for a different murderous intention...
Comment Posted By dymphna On 30.07.2005 @ 10:44
an interesting juxtaposition. When I was growing up, the husband of my mother's best friend died while working at NASA. The powers that be decided the stress had killed him and awarded his widow a large enough settlement to raise her children well. It was their idea, not hers. All grown now, but the little ones who lost their daddy way too young didn't fare so well -- the hole he left was too huge and too dark to fill.
Now, truth to tell don't you feel *old* with Scotty gone? I had no idea he had attained such an age.
Comment Posted By dymphna On 27.07.2005 @ 21:46
