CHEW ON THIS [Hitchens to peaceniks]

TheStranger.com via Andrew Sullivan ^ | January 19, 2003 | Christopher Hitchens

[Brad’s Gramma]

Ping and saving my place for a great article!

[Jonathon Spectre]

Christopher Hitchens really impresses me. A liberal with a brain and a conscience? Surely he's not real.

[RaceBannon]

bump for later

[Utah Girl]

Ping

[ladyinred]

Who would ever have thought that mentioning Sept 11th would make some people yawn as Chris states above? Sadly, as we watch the events of the weekend, we can see that his observation is correct.

I thought we had all learned a great lesson from what happened that day, but alas, there are those who will never learn, unless it happens to them.

God bless our men and women in the military who haven't forgotten. They are risking their lives even for those who might not deserve it.

[jokar]

Bump for Monday

[unspun]

"Dozens" - you're so generous. `->

[Consort]

Surely he's not real.
A liberal with a brain and a conscience?
Hitchens is a conservative, but hasn't figured it out yet.

Hitchens doesn't seem to have an ideology or is not loyal to any ideology. He appears to be politically apolitical. He is an enigma. No matter where you stand ideologically, he will say things that you totally agree with.

[tpaine]

Sam Cree
I think I agree with you, since democracy is clearly compatible with both socialism and tyranny, but I wouldn't mind if you give an example of "states rights majority rule democracy."
-SC-

Sure:
The currant laws prohibiting 'assault weapons' as passed by my socialist majority peers in California.
Ca has no RKBA provision in its constitution, thus the state claims the 'right' to prohibit.

Amazingly enough, dozens of otherwise sane FReeper 'conservatives' agree with this madness, because it serves other single issue goals.

Connecting the War on Guns & Drugs [my title]
Address:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/820965/posts
47 tpaine

"Dozens" - you're so generous.
-unspun-

Indeed I am. In my five years of arguing this point at FR, far more than 'dozens' have used such prohibitory states rights arguments/tactics to advance single issue agendas. - They know not what they do, imo.

[El Gato]

The "potluck peaceniks" are united by only one common denominator: Their loathing for President Bush.

President Bush is only a convienient symbol for what they really hate, the United States of America. Not the government so much as the country itself, its spirit, its freedoms and its strength.

[Amelia]

This is the most fantastic article I've read all week. Thanks for posting it - I'll be sending it to all my liberal relatives & friends.

Pinging those of you who might not have seen it yet.

[MattAMiller]

Hitch does it again.

BTW, everybody should read "Why Orwell Matters."

[Billthedrill]

I like to think I could picture a mass picket in Seattle, offering solidarity with Kurdistan against a government of fascistic repression, and opposing any attempt to sell out the Kurds for reasons of realpolitik. Instead, there is a self-satisfied isolationism to be found, which seems to desire mainly a quiet life for Americans. The option of that quiet life disappeared a while back

An I-can't-believe-I-read-this-in-the-Stranger BTT. I am astonished to learn from this and some other sources which even to mention on FR would probably cause Mt. Ranier to spew molten lava, that there is a voice of real dissension in this pathetic town and that it hates Saddam with a passion for the precise same reasons that FReepers, and all believers in freedom, do. Understand, if you can, that most of these "peace" advocates are only uttering an inchoate protest against War as an abstraction and the dead people that inevitably result - as if, heaven help them, they were the first people ever to have thought of that. They're in a tough spot, ideologically - not only is their favorite bad guy - that would be us - uncomfortably in the right here, but the other fellow is so thoroughgoingly abominable - that would be dear old Uncle Saddam - that the very first thing that pops from their mouths is an immediate disclaimer that they're not "for Saddam." The problem for them is that they're against War, and against Saddam, and against the U.S., and it doesn't really leave them a whole lot of room in the real world to be for. Hence the retreat into abstraction. And into reflexive hostility toward Bush. Because without these there isn't a thing left for them, and all the shouting and spinning and pretending in the world won't throw them a line.

[Six Bells]

Yes, it's a keeper!

Thanks.

[Ligeia]

Iraq will be a treasure trove of information which will soon justify our fears and the degree to which Sadam has been in league with terrorists against the US and Isreal.

At church yesterday I was speaking with a retired employee of the United Nations who immigrated here years ago from India. Since September 11 he no longer considers himself a hyphenated American. He made the same point you did about Sadam's connections to terrorism, especially Osama Bin Laden. He said it was bin Laden's relationship with Saddam that gave OBL legitimacy in the Middle East where otherwise OBL was a nobody. This man claims we'll be stunned when everything comes to light.