Comments Posted By michael reynolds
Displaying 201 To 210 Of 839 Comments
Gayle:
Does it occur to any of you that a vast majority of Americans just do not believe in so-called gay marriage? I know that many blacks are totally against it. Try to move past your xenophobic prejudices and indulge in some actual thinking!
It also occurs to me that Serbs don't like Bosnians, and Nazis don't like Jews, and Klansmen don't like blacks, and light-skinned Sudanese don't like dark-skinned Sudanese but the fact that large numbers of people are bigoted, brain-dead morons does not make it right.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 4.11.2009 @ 16:08
Rick:
Owens was a sacrificial lamb, a nobody sent in to take a dignified beating at the hands of whoever the GOP put up there. Scozzafava would have won in a walk. Once she was forced out Owens' number went up. What does that tell you, speaking of 'day jobs?' It means reliable GOP voters switched parties rather than vote for a Teabagger. 5% still voted for Scoza apparently unable to force themselves to defect to the Democrats but still unable to gag down Hoffman. NY23 -- Republican since before the invention of the internal combustion engine -- chose to vote for a withdrawn GOP candidate or a Democrat rather than a Teabagger.
The choice facing GOP candidates now is: oppose the baggers and lose in the primary or side with the Teabaggers and lose in the general. I don't quite see where the rush of wanna-be victims, er, candidates, comes from.
I know you're trying to find a way to square the circle and make some kind of peace with these guys but it ain't happening. You're a Menshevik in a Bolshevik party. And I'll repeat what I said before: you're a member of a party that -- solely because of your beliefs -- would never nominate you for anything.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 4.11.2009 @ 11:57
Corzine deserved to lose. Hell, I probably would have voted against him just for being an arrogant Goldman Sachs douchebag.
Virginia did what Viginia always does: picks the party that isn't in the White House.
Neither of those bother me. Main bothers me. It makes me ashamed of Mainers. I had always liked them after spending a couple of years among them.
NY23 was the only federal level race of interest. Dems won a district they hadn't held since the days when Ulysses S. Grant sold firewood. They won thanks to Sarah and the Teabaggers.
The message sent was not, "Hey, I should run for Congress as a Republican!" The message sent was, "I can only run for Congress if I'm enough of a nut to appeal to Sarah Palin."
Suggestion: Stick with your day job.
ed.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 4.11.2009 @ 11:40
M. Simon:
I'm not sure everything needs to be reduced to bullet points.
The Bible in bullet points:
* I'm God, I'm running this show.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 3.11.2009 @ 14:12
* Stop being assh@les ...
* Or I will f@ck you up.
* Oh, and love you guys.
Welcome to my world. If I may steal a line from Artie Lange: Waaaah.
Yeah, no sh*t readers often don't get it. Quick story: I have a secondary character who is anorexic. Anorexics are often actually reinforced by people who only see that they're thin, not that they're in trouble. So I have a major character kind of cluelessly remark to the anorexic that she looks good. It's a deliberate choice: I'm showing that this main character doesn't get it, that he's unwittingly making things worse.
So Kirkus -- the jackasses who review books -- denounce me as sexist. Because my main character is telling her she looks good thin. And those are (in theory at least) educated readers paying close attention. So some reviewers give me starred reviews, and some decide I'm an oppressor of women.
Then there are the people who think I must be religious because out of a group of 20 or so characters I have several who are devout. Or that I must be in the pay of McDonald's because I set some scenes in a McD restaurant.
You're a good writer. But writers are not omnipotent.
You think you got problems? Jesus said " Blessed are the meek, love your neighbor," and generations of true believers have managed to turn that into witch hunts and heretic slaughters and holy wars.
Yeah - I actually became an agnostic for decades before going all the way to atheism because I began to read a lot about the crusades and what REALLY happened along the Pilgrim's Way, and in that most unholy of holy lands. Imagine a young man raised 12 years in Catholic schools coming face to face with the depredations of Medieval knights against Jews and Muslims. Gee - we didn't learn about THAT in history class.
Later, after more reading, my perception became a little more balanced when I discovered that those same poor, innocent Muslims slaughtered in Jerusalem murdered their way across much of Europe - also, in the name of religion (I didn't read Norton until I was in my 40's).
At any rate, I wonder if I will really learn to accept what I wrote above? Should be interesting to watch what I write in the comments over the next few weeks.
ed.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 3.11.2009 @ 11:26
Ah hah hah hah hah. NY23 goes to the Democrats for the first time since dinosaurs walked the earth.
Thank you Sarah Palin. Thank you Rush Limbaugh. And thanks to all of you who commented above and stood up for the right of Republicans to screw themselves in the service of extremist ideology.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 3.11.2009 @ 23:39
Reason:
You put your finger on the problem: many people calling themselves "conservative" are no such thing. But it doesn't matter to them because it's just a brand or a team name. It's identity politics at this point.
When you point out to people like Richard that Ronald Reagan sensibly withdrew (or cut and ran) from Lebanon after terrorists killed 241 Marines they literally cannot process that information. It conflicts with their dogma and must therefore be dismissed.
Just like when one points out that Reagan made arms deals with the Soviets, sent missile parts to Iran, never submitted a balanced budget, avoided taking any action on abortion. They stick their fingers in their ears and yell because reality conflicts with their personal needs -- their need to belong to a team, to have an identity beyond their own lives, their need to see themselves as more important than they are, their need for scapegoats to rationalize failure.
It's not conservatism, it's narcissism and psychological neediness. These people are closer to Oprah than to Buckley. Which is why Rick is wasting his time talking to them. Rick is an actual conservative as opposed to these lifestyle conservatives. Two entirely different tribes.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 3.11.2009 @ 10:41
Richard:
My point remains the same: the middle ground is for lazy people.
That could be a direct quote from Osama bin Laden, Lenin, Hitler, Savonarola . . . any of the great ideologically fanatical monsters of history.
Stupid people love simplicity. Stupid people hate shades of gray because they're complicated and require thought. It is this fact, the fact that stupid people demand and require absolute certainty, that empowers every tyrant.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 3.11.2009 @ 09:10
Sorry, that should be 2/3 not 60 votes to beat a veto.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 2.11.2009 @ 16:25
David:
Show me where Reagan ever submitted a balanced budget.
Show me where Reagan ever tried to make meaningful cuts in Medicare. Or tried to close a department of government. Did the Democrats have 60 votes to override a veto? No, in fact Reagan had a Republican Senate.
In other words, Democrats facing a GOP Senate and Reagan in the White House had no power to pass final legislation at all.
You prove my point: given the choice between reality and comforting myth people like you prefer the myth.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 2.11.2009 @ 16:23
