Help yourself. His record speaks for itself. You may keep on shilling for this waste of human breath if you'd like. But I'll have none of it or him.
Thank you.
Posted on 05/19/2004 2:54:18 AM PDT by Theodore R.
What do we offer the world?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: May 19, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern
"So, how do we advance the cause of female emancipation in the Muslim world?" asks Richard Perle in "An End to Evil." He replies, "We need to remind the women of Islam ceaselessly: Our enemies are the same as theirs; our victory will be theirs as well."
Well, the neoconservative cause "of female emancipation in the Muslim world" was probably set back a bit by the photo shoot of Pfc. Lynndie England and the "Girls Gone Wild" of Abu Ghraib prison.
Indeed, the filmed orgies among U.S. military police outside the cells of Iraqi prisoners, the S&M humiliation of Muslim men, the sexual torment of their women raise a question. Exactly what are the "values" the West has to teach the Islamic world?
"This war ... is about – deeply about – sex," declaims neocon Charles Krauthammer. Militant Islam is "threatened by the West because of our twin doctrines of equality and sexual liberation."
But whose "twin doctrines" is Krauthammer talking about? The sexual liberation he calls our doctrine belongs to a '60s revolution that devout Christians, Jews and Muslims have been resisting for years.
What does Krauthammer mean by sexual liberation? The right of "tweeners" and teenage girls to dress and behave like Britney Spears? Their right to condoms in junior high? Their right to abortion without parental consent?
If conservatives reject the "equality" preached by Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, NARAL and the National Organization for Women, why seek to impose it on the Islamic world? Why not stand beside Islam, and against Hollywood and Hillary?
In June 2002 at West Point, President Bush said, "Moral truth is the same in every culture, in every time and in every place."
But even John Kerry does not agree with George Bush on the morality of homosexual unions and stem-cell research. On such issues, conservative Americans have more in common with devout Muslims than with liberal Democrats.
The president notwithstanding, Americans no longer agree on what is moral truth. For as someone said a few years back, there is a cultural war going on in this country – a religious war. It is about who we are, what we believe and what we stand for as a people.
What some of us view as the moral descent of a great and Godly republic into imperial decadence, neocons see as their big chance to rule the world.
In Georgia, recently, the president declared to great applause: "I can't tell you how proud I am of our commitment to values. ... That commitment to values is going to be an integral part of our foreign policy as we move forward. These aren't American values, these are universal values. Values that speak universal truths."
But what universal values is he talking about? If he intends to impose the values of MTV America on the Muslim world in the name of a "world democratic revolution," he will provoke and incite a war of civilizations America cannot win because Americans do not want to fight it. This may be the neocons' war. It is not our war.
When Bush speaks of freedom as God's gift to humanity, does he mean the First Amendment freedom of Larry Flynt to produce pornography and of Salman Rushdie to publish "The Satanic Verses" – a book considered blasphemous to the Islamic faith? If the Islamic world rejects this notion of freedom, why is it our duty to change their thinking? Why are they wrong?
When the president speaks of freedom, does he mean the First Amendment prohibition against our children reading the Bible and being taught the Ten Commandments in school?
If the president wishes to fight a moral crusade, he should know the enemy is inside the gates. The great moral and cultural threats to our civilization come not from outside America, but from within. We have met the enemy, and he is us. The war for the soul of America is not going to be lost or won in Fallujah.
Unfortunately, Pagan America of 2004 has far less to offer the world in cultural fare than did Christian America of 1954. Many of the movies, books, magazines, TV shows, videos and much of the music we export to the world are as poisonous as the narcotics the Royal Navy forced on the Chinese people in the Opium Wars.
A society that accepts the killing of a third of its babies as women's "emancipation," that considers homosexual marriage to be social progress, that hands out contraceptives to 13-year-old girls at junior high ought to be seeking out a confessional – better yet, an exorcist – rather than striding into a pulpit like Elmer Gantry to lecture mankind on the superiority of "American values."
Holy Archangel Michael fights spiritual war and we are not angels.
As the man once said: "That's where the money is..."
Buchanan referred to Capitol Hill as "Israeli-occupied territory." (St. Louis Post Dispatch, 10/20/90)
"During the Gulf crisis: "There are only two groups that are beating the drums for war in the Middle East -- the Israeli defense ministry and its 'amen corner' in the United States." ("McLaughlin Group," 8/26/90)"
"In a 1977 column, Buchanan said that despite Hitler's anti-Semitic and genocidal tendencies, he was "an individual of great courage...Hitler's success was not based on his extraordinary gifts alone. His genius was an intuitive sense of the mushiness, the character flaws, the weakness masquerading as morality that was in the hearts of the statesmen who stood in his path." (The Guardian, 1/14/92)"
So far, there are no lies. Although the editor of the last statement would LIKE us to believe that PJB endorsed Hitler, that is simply not true. What he DID point out was that the "statesmen" of the time were pissants and that Hitler had the testosterone to move against them.
"Writing of "group fantasies of martyrdom," Buchanan challenged the historical record that thousands of Jews were gassed to death by diesel exhaust at Treblinka: "Diesel engines do not emit enough carbon monoxide to kill anybody." (New Republic, 10/22/90)
Buchanan's columns have run in the Liberty Lobby's Spotlight, the German-American National PAC newsletter and other publications that claim Nazi death camps are a Zionist concoction. "
Buchanan did NOT deny that Treblinka was a death camp. He questions the reported methodology. Of course, the context is missing. What did the REST of the column say? As to who reprints his columns, who cares? The NYTimes prints all kinds of columns, as does the Milwaukee Journal. So what? The columnist does not necessarily control WHO prints their material.
Buchanan called for closing the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations, which prosecuted Nazi war criminals, because it was "running down 70-year-old camp guards." (New York Times, 4/21/87)
OSI was, after 1975 or so, a waste of money. Should have been incorporated into Justice with same functionalities. And there IS a common-sense limit--even the Israeli Supreme Court found that some of OSI's "camp guards" were simply not guilty as charged.
At a White House meeting, Buchanan reportedly reminded Jewish leaders that they were "Americans first" --
You have a problem with this?
When Cardinal O'Connor of New York seeks to soothe the always irate Elie Wiesel by reassuring him 'there are many Catholics who are anti-Semitic'...he speaks for himself. Be not afraid, Your Eminence; just step aside, there are bishops and priests ready to assume the role of defender of the faith."
Nicely de-contextualized from the whole story. Weisel, who most assuredly IS "always irate," wished to prevent some nuns from building a convent near a deathcamp. You have to admit that Weisel does have a certain chutzpah...
"Our culture is superior. Our culture is superior because our religion is Christianity and that is the truth that makes men free." (ADL Report, 1994)
Only the ADL could imply that Christianity is malevolent. Do you agree with them?
Let me ask you a couple of quick questions. I don't want to be in a debate without a few bits of understanding of where each other comes from.
First, do you think that morality = sexual behavior?
I don't. Acting morally means more than behaving morally as it pertains to sexuality.
Second, as it deals with Thorin's example of oral sex on the school bus, do you believe that those kids do not now have oral sex because they are seperated during the bus ride?
I believe that they are still engaging in oral sex. The only person who is benefitted by this policy is the school bus driver who now does not have to see it. The other students who do not wish to engage or watch it will still have to put up with it in the classroom, bathrooms, and dark corners of the school.
Third, do you believe that there is any other nation in the world that has a more moral citizenry by your definition?
I don't. Having friends from Europe and Asia both be amazed at how many people actually attend Church on a regular basis in the U.S. tells me that this is quite uncommon in the world. There are a few countries in Africa that are heading to very moral citizenries, but they are not there yet (Kenya and Tanzania are countries with very good people as a whole for example)
My main complaint with Buchanan is that while he bemoans the decay of morality in America, he is primarily focused on sexual behavior, he is focused on specific extreme examples, and he believes that there is a more moral system (Islam) that we should associate ourselves with.
I believe that morality is more than sex, that as a people we are about the same as we have always been (we trend better or worse at times, it's hard to see up close), and I believe that we are still the most moral nation as a whole in the entire world.
The last two definitions of "ethics" comport with my somewhat less precise one. Morals are the foundation of ethics, IOW.
Help yourself. His record speaks for itself. You may keep on shilling for this waste of human breath if you'd like. But I'll have none of it or him.
Thank you.
rdb and I are not likely to agree often, but we may on this one. Can you do a little better than hearsay?
A. Pole Saddam broke the cease fire agreement and Saddam killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and invaded Kuwait, would not follow UN resolutions, murdered and tortured his own, paid families of suicide bombers and gave aid and comfort to terrorists..Many threads have been posted about this but you remain blind...
You are fueled by a belief I cannot fathom.
This moral relativist position hardly leaves you much room to pontificate on matters of ethics.
It's just about sex, right? Did you work in the Clinton White House?
>>>>>>>>But if you think that forcing the girls to wear burkhas and undergo genital mutilation will create more moral children, then by all means, advocate standing with Islam to oppose Brittney Spears.>>>>>>>>
Where does Buchanan endorse burqas and genital mutilation? Where?
As for Pat's comment about standing with Islam against decadence, this is no different from the policy pursued by the Holy See to stop the UN from declaring abortion a fundamental right in ther '90s. The principal support for the Vatican's postion, sad to say, came from the Islamic world, although some Latin American countries also stood against evil. The entire West, including Clinton's UN representatives representing this country, either openly or tacitly supported the effort to have abortion declared a fundamental right.
Ummmmm...you have this problem with context, don't you?
By the way, I read an OUTSTANDING column in Jewish World Review just the other day, written by a Jewish scholar on the topic of public education, in which he expressly advocated separating children by academic ability.
You may WISH to cast PJB as a racist--but what he was writing about was education methodology---and he was right.
When did Larry Pratt (GOA) become "unsavory?"--or is the entire FAIR website merely good at calling names without providing substance IN CONTEXT?
The way to do that is not to kow-tow to them. The way to do that is to make it clear that if they don't clean up their lunatic problem, the sledge hammer will fall on the radical and the moderate alike.
Great idea , Pat. Let's make sure to role out the Vice and Virtue Squads too. And executions for every perceived 'immoral' action.
Pat's dream, finally revealed.
Go Pat Go!
Of course he does. There is no "mechanical license" for printed material (as there is for audio recordings -- anybody may relase a cover of a song by paying a statutory royalty rate) -- either the Spotlight had explicit permission to run the column, or they were guilty of actionable copyright infringement.
At most, the matter might have been outside Buchanan's direct control, and in the hands of an agent working on his behalf. If I were him, I'd fire the guy responsible for such an embarassment.
PJB does NOT belive that Islam is a "more" moral system--but he DOES believe that the typical (not nutso) practice of Islam has prevented moral decay.
By the way, it's hardly limited to sex. Islam would have very nasty things to say about, ohhhh--Jeff Skilling, and his ilk, as well.
If PJB had direct control, he was wrong to allow Spotlight to run it. If he did NOT have direct control, he should take steps to ensure that Spotlight is NOT on the 'ok' list.
We can agree on that.
That said, Buchanan has a shtick to maintain and a specific seat to occupy in the pantheon of Beltway pundits, and that's how he earns his living. Nobody will pay him to produce milquetoast. When I see him occasionally on Mc Laugh-In Hour I get the impression he thinks it's all a joke...
"Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people." -- (attributed to) Admiral Hyman G. Rickover
It's a goofy Wilsonian vision. We're going to give every nation in the world a gift they don't want and haven't asked for and haven't sacrificed for, and we expect them to appreciate it and thank us? Would the US have existed the way it did if France had beaten England on our behalf?
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