Posted on 10/24/2001 5:38:54 PM PDT by Jeremiah Jr
The Left Gears Up For Battle (Part III)
Posted 10/24/01
By Jason Maoz, Senior Editor
Ordinary Americans are more or less united in the war on terrorism, but one enters an altogether different universe when paying mind to the torrent of recent commentary from left-wing journalists, academics and entertainers.
This is the Monitor`s third installment of some of the more anti-American or sheerly idiotic (usually both) examples of what currently passes for deep thought on the American and European Left, but an exercise like this merely scratches the surface — for each piece of drivel selected, there are literally hundreds more that could just as easily have been included.
But depressing as it is to navigate the fever swamps of the left, it`s instructive, too. What hits one in the face time and again is the utter mindlessness, the instinctive and constant resort to cant and cliche, on the part of those who against all evidence fancy themselves part of some intellectual elite. And one`s appreciation is renewed for William F. Buckley`s classic observation that he`d rather be ruled by the first several hundred people in the Boston phone directory than by the faculty of Harvard University.
Leading off this week`s lefty lineup is novelist Barbara Kingsolver, who a few weeks ago let it be known in the San Francisco Chronicle that "the American flag stands for intimidation, censorship, violence, bigotry ... and shoving the Constitution through a paper shredder."
In case anyone was feeling deprived for having missed that particular outburst, Kingsolver obligingly returned with another testament to her judgment and clarity, this time in the Los Angeles Times:
"It is not naive to propose alternatives to war. We could be the kindest nation on earth, inside and out ... I`d like an end to corporate welfare so we could put that money into ending homelessness ... I would like a humane health-care system organized along the lines of Canada`s. I`d like the efficient public-transit system of Paris in my city, thank you. I`d like us to consume energy at the modest level that Europeans do ... If this were the face we showed the world, and the model we helped bring about elsewhere, I expect we could get along with a military budget the size of Iceland`s."
And what if the U.S. had followed that prescription and still come under attack? That`s easy. Here again the stupefyingly brilliant Ms. Kingsolver: "The World Court and the entire Moslem world stand ready to judge Osama bin Laden and his accessories. If we were to put a few billion dollars into food, health care and education instead of bombs, you can bet we`d win over enough friends to find out where he`s hiding."
Next up is NBC`s ever-vapid Matt Lauer, who may not be left-wing in the precise definition of the term but who, consciously or unconsciously (more likely the latter), unfailingly reflects left-wing sentiment. The Today show co-host had this to say to the Air Force general supervising airdrops of food in Afghanistan: "But you can`t deny the fact that when you drop these into impoverished areas, you`re in effect sending U.S. propaganda into those areas; you`re saying, 'Taliban bad. Here`s a gift from the U.S.`"
But even Lauer — who happens to be living proof that lack of brains is hardly an impediment to success in the world of TV "journalism" — would have had to stretch to come up with the nonsense uttered in a radio interview by the cerebrally under-endowed actor Richard Gere, who urged Americans to view terrorists "as a relative who`s dangerously sick ...we have to give them medicine, and the medicine is love and compassion. There`s nothing better."
And then there`s Dona Spring, a member of the Berkeley city council (which distinguished itself by voting to condemn U.S. military action in Afghanistan), who applied for membership in the Low I.Q. Hall of Fame with the following observation: "Berkeley has always been an island of sanity in terms of the war madness that has prevailed in this country. The U.S. is now a terrorist. According to the Taliban these are terrorist attacks."
Not to be outdone by Spring on the moral relativism front, a professor named Michael Mandel had this to say in the Toronto Globe and Mail: "The bombing of Afghanistan is the legal and moral equivalent of what was done to the Americans on Sept. 11."
Jason Maoz can be reached at...
The Left Gears Up For Battle (Part II)
The Left Gears Up For Battle (Part III)
I've always wondered why lefties are so in love with Canada's health care. If one takes into account the amount of taxes we pay for the bloody thing over the course of a lifetime in relation to the amount the average person uses health care services, we pay about the same as the Americans, yet have worse services.
"Berkeley has always been an island of sanity in terms of the war madness that has prevailed in this country. The U.S. is now a terrorist. According to the Taliban these are terrorist attacks."
Thanks, Berkeley. I wasn't sure what to call the US bombing on Afghanistan, but now that the Taliban has told me what they are, I can sleep safe.
I visualize her living in a fetid walk-up apartment with 78 cats.
In her living room is an ancient billiard table, mounded over with cat excrement, on which rests half a dozen large paper bags.
In each of the bags is the pathetic, emaciated remains of a defunct cat.
And each bag bears the name, scrawled in Magic Marker, of the cat it contains.
But, then again, I may be giving her too much credit here.
Exactly.
They're opportunistic, parasitic organisms, like the stuff that'll start to grow in your pool if you get lazy about putting the chlorine in.
Ivory Tower Idiots
You judge me too harshly. I mercifully omitted a description of what is in her refrigerator...
I like this one!
Paging you two, the reviews are in!
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