Comments on: Vietnamization vs. Iraqization

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By: Assistant Village Idiot

Assistant Village Idiot — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 07:00:00 +0000

Yes, anything that advances the glorious new society, eh comrade? That is what they taught us at the Ministry of Truth.

By: Richard Aubrey

Richard Aubrey — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 07:00:00 +0000

Assistant.
Some lefties might not agree, but will think–or so it seems to me–that Moore and his tactics are going someplace useful.
Ends and means.
Eggs and omelets.

By: Assistant Village Idiot

Assistant Village Idiot — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 07:00:00 +0000

It is a fair criticism that many of us use the phrase "the left" to cover a lot of flesh with one poncho.

Let me allow that there are varieties and shadings which I often neglect in forming my arguments.

I will offer a partial justification for this oversimplification on my part. When some conservative makes an idiotic comment, many other conservatives will be at pains to refute the idea and disassociate themselves from it. I do not see this same discipline applied by those on the left to their nuttier colleagues.

If you (plural, generic) will not disassociate yourself from Michael Moore, then you will often be lumped with him even though you may not agree.

By: Assistant Village Idiot

Assistant Village Idiot — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 07:00:00 +0000

troutsky — an interesting criticism, but not of the point I made.

By: erasmus

erasmus — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 07:00:00 +0000

Got no quarrel with you–my grandparents (farmers in Hungary, then left after WWI for Vienna, same story…)

But I was really asking about the woman in the WSJ story. She didn’t want money. But, given what she earned and her ability to get around, why might there not be a Safeway or…within reach? She was proud that she could and did support herself and her son, but as the story made clear, no attempt was made by the grocery chains, the city officials et al to make a stab at healthful nutrition accessible. She knew about it, but…No, it isn’t anyone’s “responsibility” to put a store near her, nor is it her “right” to have one near. But the absence of one does not exactly make the playing field level.

By: Jp

Jp — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 07:00:00 +0000

Erasmus: There you have it, the difference between lefty and neocon. A lefty thinks that can be fixed, I know it can’t. Provide assistance for her (monetary, time off from work, etc), and pretty soon, 80 percent of the people using that assistance are taking advantage of it — it’s human nature, path of least resistance and we have 5,000 years of proof. That applies to money and politics, too. My grandparents were dirt poor and they never took money from anybody. They were too proud to go on “relief,” as they called it. Today people are proud of it – think they deserve it. There’s nothing wrong with a little good old-fashioned shame. The bottom line is that everything we have in this world came from the scientific method, not from political correctness. People that are successful use logical models, people that don’t spend a lot of time bitching about it.too. My grandparents were dirt poor and they never took money from anybody. They were too proud to go on “relief,” as they called it. Today people are proud of it – think they deserve it. There’s nothing wrong with a litle good old-fashioned shame. The bottom line is that everything we have in ths world came from the scientific method, not from political correctness.

By: erasmus

erasmus — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 07:00:00 +0000

Jp
I agree with you that we have developed a victim culture, but I’m not so sure its roots are in liberal illogic than in a kind of therapeutic attitude (the human potential movement) gone over the top. It has led to entitlement for its own sake: I am entitled to be thin, even if I consume Hostess cupcakes, potato chips and burgers all day long.
And yet, what do you make of the Black woman, described in a series of WSJ articles a decade or more ago: she works hard all day cleaning in buildings, comes home to her Chicago housing project on the bus by 7:30 pm, but cannot get to a decent supermarket to buy vegetables, fruits etc. for herself and her son without travelling on two buses, 30-40 minutes each way. So she buys the “bad” stuff available at the nearby bodega–and you know the fattening results. Is she a “victim?” If so, of what?
On the whole, I agree with you. At the same time, people (as this woman) get caught and tied up by forces to which they did not contribute and without much power to affect them.

By: Goesh

Goesh — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 07:00:00 +0000

It is somehow easier to make villains of the Left and lump them all into one camp – better to throw stones across a line than to have to single out targets in your own ranks. It’s always been that way in human affairs, but it does leave us short on dialouge or at least the potential for it. On occasion, ‘one from the other camp’ wanders in to engage, but not often. There is some comfort in reading posts from people with similiar leanings however. Guys like Trotsky, who are still espousing the worker’s paradise in Cuba and North Korea, offer little in the arena of informed debate but can provide opportunity for some sport and baiting, though most here are above that sort of thing. I’m not and I must say that any man who stands with his balls in cold water trying to catch a fish is obviously deranged (he purports to be a trout fisherman). I will credit him for living on the edge, so to speak, by being a Commie in cowboy Montana. One wonders how often he has had to flee lynch mobs up there. Perhaps he comes here out of lonliness. There can’t be much sympathy coming from the hard-scrabble ranching/farming folks when Socialism is preached.