[lit-ideas] Re: Stasi on our Minds
- From: "Lawrence Helm"<lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 30 May 2007 19:09:39 +0000
It is entirely legitimate for me to ask (following the Leftist historian John
Esposito) are the Islamists (terrorists, radicals, et al) a serious threat or
not? He asked the question and argued that they were not a serious threat. He
argued that the idea that they were a serious threat was a "myth." He has
been thoroughly discredited by most of his peers because Islamism has done
considerable damage to America & its allies since Esposito wrote his book in
1992. But we have been fighting them for a good long while; so how are they
doing? Perhaps in the long run Esposito will be proved right. An extremely
interesting discussion of this matter appears in the article
http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/6848137.html, the title of
which is "The Myth of the Invincible Terrorist." I was immediately enamored of
the title and began writing "The Myth of the Intellectual Leftist," but gave it
up after the first paragraph. That is as far as a Leftist can read and I
couldn't say everything in one paragraph.
Will the Dodgers win against the Nationals today? Yes or no? Ah, Lawrence, I
think you are being bipolar. Did you forget your meds? It might be a draw and
be rained out. A comet may hit the field and kill all the players. Canada may
declare war and baseball put on indefinite hold. Invaders from Mexico may
surge across our porous borders and set up camp on the baseball field. So you
see you mustn't try and answer this question in a simplistic polaristic manner.
Fie, Lawrence. No yes or no to this question for you.
And then Mike expresses abysmal ignorance over any correlation between the
assertions made by Leftists and those of the Islamists (immediately after
making assertions consistent with those made by Islamists). And when Lawrence
blithely attempts to educate him by pointing to the expert on this subject, he
says, "who cares what Horowitz has to say?" Well clearly Mike doesn't care
which is probably just as well because he either doesn't want to know that he
agrees with the Islamists, or he doesn't want anyone else to know.
And when I responded to his assertion that the U.S. was a "brutal, vicious,
violent culture," by asking (since I have been reading about Islamic nations
which are far far more brutal, vicious and violent) Mike "compared to what?"
He retorts with a compare me not to any comparisons, I made an absolute
statement. America is absolutely brutal, vicious, and violent, and since this
is a free country I can say whatever I like without being held accountable.
Well, yeah, sure Mike. But if we look around at the rest of the world, we here
in the U.S. live in one of the least brutal, vicious and violent cultures. I
know you count this differently than I do. You think we should have rolled
over and invited a belly-rub after 9/11, but most of us wouldn't call national
defense a sign of brutishness, viciousness, or violence. We,ve discussed this
ad infinitum -- until you shrieked, "no one is saying we shouldn't defend
ourselves." Whatever you meant by that.
And then the absurd, tired, utterly discredited but still cherished by every
Leftist heaping all the deaths in Iraq on U.S., shoulders. Notice what an
expert (see above article) has to say on what is going on now: "The prime
reason for Shiite deaths in Iraq today is terrorism by Sunni minorities, not
the U.S. occupation." Well of course! Any fool knows that . . . well almost
any.
Lawrence
------------Original Message------------
From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wed, May-30-2007 6:30 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Stasi on our Minds
LH:
>>He [Esposito] concluded the Islamic Threat to be myth just as you and Andreas
>>do.
I never said whether I thought it was a serious threat or not. Don't put words
in my mouth. I simply refuted your assertion that it's an either - or
situation. I do think that Bush's war in Iraq is seriously increasing the
threat, and if you think the threat is a serious one, then you should certainly
be opposing this war. From my perspective failure to do so is giving aid to
the enemy, tantamount to treason. Are you treasonous, Lawrence?
>>Hast thou not heard of David Horowitz?<<
Who hasn't heard of Horowitz? Who cares what Horowitz has to say?
Reading your list of dislikes about America would lead one to believe that
you're a conservative. Are you a conservative, Lawrence?
>>As to your references to "brutal, vicious, violent culture," I would ask
>>"compared to what?"<<
Why would you ask that? I wasn't making a comparison to any other country, I
merely accused our country of being brutal, vicious and violent and I don't
like that about America.
>>Some Europeans are learning that the Islamists have a patent on "brutal,
>>vicious and violent."<<
The US is responsible for the deaths of between 150,000 to 600,000 Iraqis
because Bush wanted a base in the Middle East. Tell me who has a patent on
brutal, vicious and violent.
Mike Geary
Memphis
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