Posted on 07/03/2002 5:08:54 PM PDT by anncoulteriscool
Reminds me of a woman I know who dabbles in Islam - goes to workshops etc. She has been unfaithful to all of her husbands and had abortions instead of children. Still she insists that Islam would welcome her. I am not making this up.
Through their enervating dialogues and endless concerns with constitutional process, liberals have made themselves incapable of feeling hate for the enemy. Refusing to take sides in this war, they busy themselves wailing about every security precaution taken by the Bush administration
"The most important occurrence in the life of a nation is the breaking out of a war. In war a people act as one man against foreign nations in defense of their very existence. The skill of the government, the good sense of the community, and the natural fondness that men almost always entertain for their country may be enough as long as the only object is to maintain peace in the interior of the state and to favor its internal prosperity; but that the nation may carry on a great war the people must make more numerous and painful sacrifices; and to suppose that a great number of men will of their own accord submit to these exigencies is to betray an ignorance of human nature. All the nations that have been obliged to sustain a long and serious warfare have consequently been led to augment the power of their government. Those who have not succeeded in this attempt have been subjugated. A long war almost always faces nations with this sad choice: either defeat will lead them to destruction or victory will bring them to despotism."
Yeah, but The Cat in the Hat beats Atlas Shrugged hands down not only for its intellectual value, but also for its plot design, unrelenting psychological tension, and its subtly nuanced yet compelling character development.
As a philosopher and author, Ayn Rand ranks just below whoever wrote the Sears Kenmore washer owner's guide and just above the author of The Desiderata.
You are ingenuine.
Ann Coulter is here to teach Conservatives how to take back this country.
Smash the Liberal Lies with Searing Wit, Merciless Ridicule and Devastating Attacks of Reason.
Never Negotiate With Evil. Kill it.
I would bother refuting you, but your own laughable hyperbole torpedoes you far more effectively than I could manage in four pages of exposition.
And as for the characters in Atlas Shrugged, they are the way they are because the book is an allegory. Perhaps when you reach high school and learn about such things in English class, you could come back and try again.
Read the last two paragraphs again.
I studied under Foner in graduate school. He was a decent guy and a legitimate authority on Civil War Reconstruction. Incredibly, he could write a historical text remarkably free of the leftist drivel for which he is well known.
Amazing how so gifted a historian and talented a writer could be such a complete idiot when it comes to political philosophy.
Forgive me for saying anything complimentary about a bona fide leftist, but the contrasts in the man are truly striking.
I've had college professors who were like Foner. Some were exceptionally interesting lecturers, while being actual communists. One in particular stood out. He's dead now, but I was stunned when he defended Stalin in class once. It's a shame that intelligent people fall for the leftist line. But leftists need something to believe in also, and radical socialism is their religion.
You bring up several important point in your post. Many Americans labor under the illusion that somehow, in a university education, there exists the beginning of wisdom. This is a fallacy. Wisdom comes from the inherent values the student brings to the table. And they better have said values before they get to college or the enlightenment of their education will have little more effect than a Cambodian Re-Education Camp.
Foner, for all his brilliance, honestly believed America was the most evil empire in human history and Republican administrations were no better than Hitler and the Nazi regime. This is nothing new for leftist thinkers (and you're right about the distinction between leftists and liberals).
The very fact that such people are so deluded is proof positive that the university in the 21st century is a breeding ground for treason the likes of which we have not seen this side of your garden variety Soviet Politburo. If the war on terrorism accomplishes nothing else, hopefully it will clean out this nest of traitors once and for all.
Many good points in the article. But some are silly. May I ask a couple of questions? Do you honestly believe that everyone who is not behind John Ashcroft 100 percent is not a "real American." If Janet Reno, God forbid, were in the same situation and took the identical actions as Ashcroft, would you feel the same way? Would you read off dissenters as not being "real Americans?"
I am honestly not trying to start a fight here. But it bothers me a lot to not only be read out of the Republican Party, but to be read out of being a "real American" because there are legitimate questions about some of Ashcroft's actions. And it's not only me, it's many people like me whom I know, people who were giving money, manning phone banks, fighting lonely campus fights in the late sixties/early seventies--probably before Coulter was born--who are being read out of your doctrinaire thinking. It isn't heroism, it wasn't "suffering", it was nothing compared to VN soldiers, and it wasn't anything to be necessarily proud of: it was just the right thing to do. But it WAS lonely, bitter, and tough to get through to keep a flame alive for the johnny-come-latelies. And it is even tougher now to be tarnished with the ad hominem argument of not being "real Americans."
I suppose we are anachronisms. And we old farts will be dead soon, so the young will be ascendent. And that's good--the way it should be. But with thinking like that, I believe, the Republican Party will be an anachronism in 20 years.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.