[lit-ideas] Re: The Leftist Claim

Here we have it again.

Lawrence declares me an idiot and as such claims that his views are therefore 
proven. Isn't that some kind of logical fallacy?

But just to argue the toss, this was Lawrence, on 26th September:

"If Islamists constitute 10 percent to 15 percent of the Muslim population 
worldwide, they number some 125 to 200 million persons, or a far greater total 
than all the fascists and communists, combined, who ever lived."

No mention there of party members so we can only assume that Lawrence, perhaps 
seeing the idiocy of Pipes' rhetoric, has subsequently sought to correct him. 
Of course there's no mention that present day Jihadists have no armies to speak 
of, no national boundary, no nationhood in fact. 

Past that, I'd like to ask Lawrence, again, not to project his prejudices onto 
people. He may like to believe that his Leftists are all idiots who can't read 
past the first paragraph but that doesn't make it so. It is, I can only assume, 
another logical fallacy.

Lawrence, please, find a mirror. 

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Lawrence Helm 
  To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 4:45 PM
  Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: The Leftist Claim



  Do you intend to sound like an idiot Simon?  Or do you just commit pratfall 
after pratfall by accident?  Are you retarded?  Should we feel sorry for you?  

  Notice, Simon who sounds like an idiot  the note you quote below.   Read it.  
You quoted it down below.  Look down the page.  

  Notice that I said the 125-200 Islamists exceed all the Communist and Nazi 
PARTY MEMBERS who ever lived.  You didn't read that far, Simon, did you?  You 
turned "PARTY MEMBERS" into the NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN THE SOVIET UNION because 
you didn't want to read the whole sentence. 

  And then to compound your idiocy you tell ME I'm wearing no clothes and it's 
becoming embarrassing.   I'll agree with the last clause in that sentence.  It 
truly is.

  Lawrence


  ------------Original Message------------
  From: "Simon Ward" <sedward@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  Date: Fri, Sep-28-2007 1:40 AM
  Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: The Leftist Claim
  So we should all become republicans during the span of this 'war against 
terror'. Or worse, perhaps, we need to be 'neos'.

  And how does 125 to 200 million exceed the number of people in the former 
Soviet Union? Is this a case of the neos revising mathematics?

  Lawrence, you are wearing no clothes and it's becoming awfully embarrassing. 
Go away and take a long look in the mirror.

  Simon

    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Lawrence Helm 
    To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
    Sent: Friday, September 28, 2007 7:18 AM
    Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: The Leftist Claim



    You've no real arguments Mike.  That killing for Exxon is just foolish 
nonsense.  Don't even say such stupid things.  It will corrode your brain -- 
even worse.  There are real issues.  We have a real enemy.  Get used to it.  
They aren't going away just because you twist the words of and misunderstand 
Greenspan.  Focus.  We have a real enemy.  That enemy is variously named but he 
is part of a coherent belief system with ideals, goals and a system of 
militancy.  There are more people fanatically striving to destroy us than all 
the Communist and Nazi party members who ever lived.  And they are more 
committed to it.  So this silly game you leftist play of diverting attention 
away from the enemy and onto a variety of really silly objects is truly playing 
into the hands of the enemy.  It is in effect Anti-American even if you don't 
know it -- even if you don't feel it.  What one does counts for more than what 
one feels.   Leaders like Osama have little respect for us because we have no 
staying power.  We aren't willing to fight.  We are corrupt, and they look at 
those who cut and run.    Black Hawk Down is Osama's favorite movie.  Guess why?

    Lawrence



    ------------Original Message------------
    From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
    To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
    Date: Thu, Sep-27-2007 10:53 PM
    Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: The Leftist Claim

    LH:
    >>"Of course, the claim was that most such people were neither pro-Saddam 
    >>nor anti-American: all they wanted was to 'give peace a chance.'<<

    No. Lawrence, opposition to this war is not a peacenik campaign, what the 
    world and the Americans who oppose the war in Iraq want most is that our 
    country not kill hundreds of thousands of people for Exxon (as Greenspan 
now 
    confirms was the rationale behind all this slaughter), or to establish a 
    puppet government that would allow military bases in support of our 
imperial 
    ambitions (we tried that in Iran in the 50's, if you remember, when we 
    brought down Mossadegh because he wanted to nationalize the oil industry).
    .


    >>Though hatred of America may not have been universal among opponents of 
    >>American military action, it was obviously very widespread and very 
    >>deep.<<


    Nonsense.  I have yet to meet an American opponent of this war or of the 
one 
    we waged in Vietnam (and I've known very many) who hated America.  In fact, 
    it's been their love of the ideals of America that have brought them to 
    oppose these wars. The only hostility I've ever heard in my 45 years of 
    protesting was hostility towards policies of our government that 
    contradicted those ideals.  That rhetoric gets charged when you're speaking 
    of killing people (and almost always innocent people) doesn't surprise me. 
    I've said some very hateful things about Bush, but Bush is 'Bush Policy' to 
    me, not the man of whom I have no way of personally assessing.  His 
policies 
    I have judged to be inimical to the ideals and best interest of the United 
    States and dangerous to the World.  Podhoretz obviously thinks differently 
    as do almost all of the people you quote and they have every right to think 
    as they do and to advocate their thoughts as broadly and vociferously as 
    they can.  They have their values, I have mine.  I think mine are better 
for 
    humanity and the United States than theirs.  In fact, nothing I've ever 
read 
    from the conservative camp has ever caused me to question my convictions.  
I 
    wish there had been some quibble somewhere along the line so that I 
wouldn't 
    wonder if I'm just a close-minded bigot --  naw, no way.


    Mike Geary
    Memphis 


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