[lit-ideas] Re: C'mon people now - or almost rhyming

Mike Geary averred that
On the old Phil-Lit there was a brief discussion of "fascist" and "fascism". I argued then that I considered "fascism" moral authoritarianism enforced by the state. I now think the term has just about lost of it's meaning -- like the word "God" -- it means whatever the user needs it to mean. For most Americans, I think, the word still carries a negative connotation, but what's negative, and therefore fascistic, is dependent upon one's politics. I love calling people I disagree with "fascist" because I know the opprobrium it carries within my heart and it relieves me of having to go through the tedious argumentation that both I and my fascist opponent know will never come to any agreement. So bring it on, fascist bastards!!! I'm ready to call you out.
For several years in Senior Symposium we read Robert Paxton's The Anatomy of Fascism. Don't ever let Paxton hear you say that 'fascism means whatever the user needs it to mean.' He's especially good when it comes to things that you might think were fascism but aren't. If you believe fascism is a small, iridescent beetle, Paxton says, 'Bring it on!'
I suggested to Lawrence that he might like this book, but I don't know if he ever got around to reading it. 

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Out here where the West stops, a citizen-student has sued to be allowed to carry his concealed weapon on the campus of Western Oregon University. Those pointy-headed liberal gay junkies are trying to stop him from exercising his God-given right to feel secure on the quad.
There's also a movement underway to make the names folks who have concealed weapon permits a matter of public record. Same bunch of cowardly mortgage defaulters are behind it. 

Robert Paul.
all rifled up in the 'burbs
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