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Lessing says Sept. 11 attacks not so bad (Nobel laureate)
The Associated Press ^ | Oct. 22, 2007 | staff

Posted on 10/22/2007 1:36:23 PM PDT by Baladas

MADRID, Spain (AP) - Nobel laureate Doris Lessing said the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States were "not that terrible" when compared to attacks by the IRA in Britain. "September 11 was terrible, but if one goes back over the history of the IRA, what happened to the Americans wasn't that terrible," the Nobel Literature Prize winner told the leading Spanish daily El Pais.

"Some Americans will think I'm crazy. Many people died, two prominent buildings fell, but it was neither as terrible nor as extraordinary as they think. They're a very naive people, or they pretend to be," she said in an interview published Sunday.

"Do you know what people forget? That the IRA attacked with bombs against our government; it killed several people while a Conservative congress was being held and in which the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, was (attending). People forget," she said.

Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks. About 3,700 died and tens of thousands of people were maimed in more than 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland. The Irish Republican Army guerrilla group, which caused most of the deaths, disarmed in 2005.

Attempts by The Associated Press to reach Lessing in London for comment Monday were unsuccessful. Her agent's office said the author was unavailable because she was not feeling well.

In the El Pais interview, Lessing had sharp words for both President Bush and his ally, former British premier Tony Blair.

"I always hated Tony Blair, from the beginning," El Pais quoted Lessing as saying. "Many of us hated Tony Blair, I think he has been a disaster for Britain and we have suffered him for many years. I said it when he was elected: This man is a little showman who is going to cause us problems and he did."

"As for Bush, he's a world calamity," added Lessing. "Everyone is tired of this man. Either he is stupid or he is very clever, although you have to remember he is a member of a social class which has profited from wars."

Iran also came in for a lashing from Lessing, who was born to British parents who were living in what is now Bakhtaran, Iran.

"I hate Iran, I hate the Iranian government, it's a cruel and evil government," she was quoted as saying.

"Look what happened to its president in New York, they called him evil and cruel in Colombia University. Marvelous! They should have said more to him! Nobody criticizes him, because of oil."

The author of dozens of works from short stories to science fiction, including the classic "The Golden Notebook," Lessing won the Nobel Prize for literature earlier this month. She was praised by the judges for her "skepticism, fire and visionary power."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 911; bds; dorislessing; ira; nobel
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Yeah, I think she's crazy.
1 posted on 10/22/2007 1:36:25 PM PDT by Baladas
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To: Baladas

Very crazy.


2 posted on 10/22/2007 1:40:27 PM PDT by abercrombie_guy_38
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To: Baladas
"I hate Iran, I hate the Iranian government, it's a cruel and evil government," she was quoted as saying.

So what would you do about it? Just threaten to hate them more? Impose sanctions that are mostly ignored? What is your solution? Little people like her have the luxury of criticizing those that are actually charged with defending a nation.

What a silly, pathetic woman.

3 posted on 10/22/2007 1:42:08 PM PDT by GOP_Party_Animal
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To: Baladas

The distinction is that 9/11 killed more people in a single day than several decades of IRA attacks. OTOH the IRA did more harm to Ireland than the Islamists did to the USA when one considers their impact on the economy and society.

Another thing to bear in mind is that the British and Europeans have been accustomed to terrorism at home in a way that the Americans never were. The IRA, Red Brigades and Bader-Meinhoff were quite busy back in the 1970s while North America was pretty quiet.


4 posted on 10/22/2007 1:42:59 PM PDT by Squawk 8888 (Is human activity causing the warming trend on Mars?)
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To: Baladas

Nobel laureates are irrelevant.


5 posted on 10/22/2007 1:43:33 PM PDT by bayareablues
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To: Baladas

I actually tried to read one of her books several years ago.

I could not get through it.


6 posted on 10/22/2007 1:44:28 PM PDT by Radix (When I became a man, I put away childish things)
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To: Baladas

She must be angling for another liberal prize.


7 posted on 10/22/2007 1:44:50 PM PDT by joebuck
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To: Baladas

The Nobel prize used to denote brains. Now it denotes lack of.


8 posted on 10/22/2007 1:45:24 PM PDT by samtheman
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To: Baladas
the IRA attacked with bombs against our government; it killed several people while a Conservative congress was being held and in which the prime minister

Never could read more than a page or so of her works. It might be noted that the attack was planned to be much bigger and did include the White House and probably the Capitol building in session.

9 posted on 10/22/2007 1:45:38 PM PDT by RightWhale (50 years later we're still sitting on the ground)
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To: Baladas
People like this make their money by “pontificating.” Not to be confused with “defecating.”

Under their deep intellectual veil always lies a crude simple beast that makes its living not by any worthwhile contribution, rather by explaining the world and the actions of others around them and rallying those with this cause that then buy her product. Like all others who live and die by the media, she has to make her statement. If it wasn’t this, she’d tell us she’s gay, or that she wipes her rear with a single sheet of toilet paper.

10 posted on 10/22/2007 1:46:16 PM PDT by Red6 (Come and take it.)
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To: Baladas
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

"Doris, you ignorant slut."

What a deranged crackwhore.

11 posted on 10/22/2007 1:46:36 PM PDT by lesser_satan (READ MY LIPS: NO NEW RINOS | FRED THOMPSON '08)
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To: Baladas
"They're a very naive people, or they pretend to be,"

Don't you just love these Euro-elites? They are a bunch of has-beens, trying desperately to convince themselves and everyone else that they are still relevant!

12 posted on 10/22/2007 1:47:07 PM PDT by Redleg Duke ("All gave some, and some gave all!")
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To: Baladas
Either he is stupid or he is very clever

Apparently, Ms. Lessing, you are too stupid to figure out which it is.

13 posted on 10/22/2007 1:48:19 PM PDT by MEGoody (Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.)
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To: Baladas

14 posted on 10/22/2007 1:48:22 PM PDT by smonk
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To: Baladas

Hateful b!tch.


15 posted on 10/22/2007 1:48:30 PM PDT by matthew fuller (Crop-circles and UFO'S are caused by GLOBAL WARMING!)
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To: Baladas

She should have been there,maybe that would have impressed her.If she survived it that is.


16 posted on 10/22/2007 1:48:37 PM PDT by Farmer Dean (168 grains of instant conflict resolution)
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To: Radix

She wrote a couple of decent books when she was very young, and then she wrote one called “The Good Terrorist,” which I thought was excellent. It was about a spoiled, dissatisfied brat who joins a radical left terrorist group and somehow moves out of the sphere of normal human decency because of her combination of bizarre self-righteousness and manipulation by the group’s leader. I never figured out how such a moonbat as Doris Lessing was able to write such a good book.


17 posted on 10/22/2007 1:48:52 PM PDT by livius
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To: Baladas
Hey, I know! Let's compare 30 years of IRA violence with a single attack by Islamofascists on innocent Americans. That's a meaningful and intelligent exercise, to be sure!

It's disgusting what passes for scholarship these days.

18 posted on 10/22/2007 1:49:32 PM PDT by TChris (Cartels (oil, diamonds, labor) are bad. Free-market competition is good.)
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To: Red6
People like this make their money by “pontificating.” Not to be confused with “defecating.”

A distinction without a difference in this case.

19 posted on 10/22/2007 1:49:42 PM PDT by tsmith130
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To: Baladas

“I always hated Tony Blair, from the beginning,”

“As for Bush, he’s a world calamity,”

“I hate Iran, I hate the Iranian government,”

“She was praised by the judges for her “skepticism, fire and visionary power.”

Doesn’t take much to hate!!!


20 posted on 10/22/2007 1:50:32 PM PDT by blue-duncan
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To: Baladas

“...Lessing, who was born to British parents who were living in what is now Bakhtaran, Iran.”

LOL. She’s insane. The IRA killed it’s own people to kill a few Brit cops or soldiers...her response...move to a country run by terrorists. And we’re naive. Hey Lessing, blow me.


21 posted on 10/22/2007 1:51:14 PM PDT by gate2wire
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To: Baladas
you have to remember he is a member of a social class which has profited from wars.

commie

22 posted on 10/22/2007 1:52:45 PM PDT by mjp (Live & let live. I don't want to live in Mexico, Marxico, or Muslimico. Statism & high taxes suck)
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To: TigersEye
"Some Americans will think I'm crazy. Many people died, two prominent buildings fell, but it was neither as terrible nor as extraordinary as they think. They're a very naive people, or they pretend to be," she said in an interview published Sunday.

Doris, I think you are crazy & I can't post how I truly feel about you. But I will tell you I think you are a moron & a scummer. ~Pandora~

23 posted on 10/22/2007 1:53:21 PM PDT by pandoraou812 ( Its NOT for the good of the children! Its BS along with bending over for Muslim's demands)
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To: gate2wire

Helen Thomas class woman. Please, no more pictures.


24 posted on 10/22/2007 1:54:06 PM PDT by The_Media_never_lie
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To: Baladas

What an idiot!!! It’s “not so terrible”, so that makes it all right???

Not just an idiot, a moral leper.


25 posted on 10/22/2007 1:54:10 PM PDT by chesley (Where's the omelet? -- Orwell)
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To: Baladas

What a complete jackass.


26 posted on 10/22/2007 1:54:31 PM PDT by saganite
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To: smonk

"What's on the television then?"
"Looks like a penguin"
27 posted on 10/22/2007 1:55:07 PM PDT by AppyPappy (If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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To: Baladas

“September 11 was terrible... wasn’t that terrible,”

“They’re a very naive people, or they pretend to be,”

“Either he is stupid or he is very clever”

“Look what happened to its president in New York, they called him evil and cruel... Nobody criticizes him, because of oil.”

The idiot is a Nobel Prize winner for sure!


28 posted on 10/22/2007 1:59:00 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper (ETERNAL SHAME on the Treasonous and Immoral Democrats!)
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To: Squawk 8888
it was not just the deaths and property destruction that the terrorists accomplished, although that was an important ingredient; they really felt that attacking the US as they did they could bring down the American capitalist system just as the towers came down. It was an attempt to destroy the American economy. They, in fact, put a big hurt on it, but Americans are resilient, especially under a determined President.
29 posted on 10/22/2007 2:01:30 PM PDT by elpadre
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To: Baladas

She sounds like Mama-T...


30 posted on 10/22/2007 2:02:09 PM PDT by johnny7 ("But that one on the far left... he had crazy eyes")
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To: Baladas

BTW, she used to be a member of the communist party.


31 posted on 10/22/2007 2:03:18 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper (ETERNAL SHAME on the Treasonous and Immoral Democrats!)
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To: Baladas

I take it the woman is a “pacifist”, i.e., one who sits idly by while others put their butts on the line to protect her “freedom”.


32 posted on 10/22/2007 2:07:59 PM PDT by 45Auto (Big holes are (almost) always better.)
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To: Baladas

But it’s all about her, doncha know?


33 posted on 10/22/2007 2:08:07 PM PDT by savedbygrace (SECURE THE BORDERS FIRST (I'M YELLING ON PURPOSE))
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To: Baladas

Does she actually like anyone or anything? I’ve never heard anyone so filled with hatred. On every subject and every person it was “I hate...” How sad for her. She needs help.


34 posted on 10/22/2007 2:12:22 PM PDT by henkster (The dems have reserved your place on the collective farm.)
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To: Squawk 8888

You also have to add in attacks against the US outside the country, i.e., Khobar Towers, our embassies in Tanzania and Kenya [over 5000 killed or wounded] and the USS Cole. Plus many other attacks like Bali, Spain, Iraq, and the UK. AQ has killed or wounded far more than the IRA. And they are far from done.


35 posted on 10/22/2007 2:12:38 PM PDT by kabar
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To: 45Auto

In the article did she ever take sides regarding the war against Irish terror, or is she just taking potshots at those who see terrorism as something worthy of fighting against?


36 posted on 10/22/2007 2:22:04 PM PDT by tupac (When the chips are down, the buffalo is empty.)
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To: Baladas
Lessing says Sept. 11 attacks not so bad (Nobel laureate)

A Nobel prize winner selected so that she'll have a world stage
to criticized the USA.

Whoddathunkit?
(/SARC)
37 posted on 10/22/2007 2:25:00 PM PDT by VOA
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To: livius

“I never figured out how such a moonbat as Doris Lessing was able
to write such a good book.”

She lived it?
(as they say “Write what you know.”)


38 posted on 10/22/2007 2:27:37 PM PDT by VOA
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To: Baladas

She is full of hate.


39 posted on 10/22/2007 2:46:49 PM PDT by Right Wing Assault ("..this administration is planning a 'Right Wing Assault' on values and ideals.." - John Kerry)
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To: Baladas
Nobel laureate Doris Lessing said the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States were "not that terrible" when compared to attacks by the IRA in Britain.

There are 3,000 dead people who would beg to differ with that opinion, Doris.

40 posted on 10/22/2007 2:51:00 PM PDT by pray4liberty (Watch and pray.)
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To: VOA
Everbody here said it so perfectly, that I for once can just smile and smile and not add a single word.

Thanks!

41 posted on 10/22/2007 2:53:03 PM PDT by katya8
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To: VOA

That’s true - or possibly one of her kids did. But her point of view was pretty sound, and that’s what amazed me. It sounded like she was distancing herself from the old Stalinist “can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs” mantra that was so popular among left-wing killers in the 60s and 70s.


42 posted on 10/22/2007 2:58:17 PM PDT by livius
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To: Baladas

If they gave out prizes for stupidity, this moron would win.


43 posted on 10/22/2007 3:04:51 PM PDT by Kirkwood
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To: GOP_Party_Animal
So she also hates her native land. Obviously she never read those well-known lines by Sir Walter Scott from The Lay of the Last Minstrel ("Breathes there a man with soul so dead..."). Of course Scott used the word "man" so they wouldn't apply to her.
44 posted on 10/22/2007 3:06:02 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: Baladas

At the end of Orianna Fallaci’s last book,’The Force of Reason’, there is an endnote (actually, the text of an address) wherein Fallaci said that if the Nobel Committee ever nominated her for its prize, she would sue for defamation of character.


45 posted on 10/22/2007 3:24:57 PM PDT by tanuki (u)
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To: Baladas

“Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks. About 3,700 died and tens of thousands of people were maimed in more than 30 years of violence in Northern Ireland.”

So, nearly the same number of people died in ONE DAY as compared to over 30 yrs. What a clown.


46 posted on 10/22/2007 3:46:08 PM PDT by enough_idiocy (www.daypo.net/test-iraq-war.html)
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To: Baladas

I think it moreso, that she is a jaded and resigned masochist, who has been contemplating her own subjugation, mutilation, and death, for so long, that she now secretly hungers for it.


47 posted on 10/22/2007 3:50:08 PM PDT by DGHoodini
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To: lesser_satan

Much too kind, but I think we’re of the same mind. LOL


48 posted on 10/22/2007 3:52:34 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (Old Chinese Proverb (well sorta) say dance with the one who brung ya. Yes we very much like Crinton.)
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To: Baladas

She’s got a lot of hate there.


49 posted on 10/22/2007 3:53:46 PM PDT by Psycho_Bunny (Islam is a clown car with guns.)
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To: Baladas
Nobel laureate: Nuff said.
50 posted on 10/22/2007 3:54:03 PM PDT by windsorknot
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