Blogcritics: Comments on Henry Ford, the greatest benefactor in human history

Comment by Al Barger

Wed, 30 Jul 2003 15:42:31 EDT

"Flame bait" means that you are accusing me of saying something I know to be wrong simply to get a reaction. This does not describe this article because 1)I believe my statements to be true, and 2)They are demonstrably true. Yes, Ford apparently had a crappy attitude toward various ethnic minorities- as I carefully emphasized, but SO WHAT? The whole point here is that the subjective internal feelings of Ford or MLK are far less important than what they actually accomplished. IN POINT OF FACT, ON THE GROUND HENRY FORD DID MORE TO IMPROVE THE LIVES OF BLACK AMERICANS THAN MLK. MLK helped quite a bit. I don't mean to disparage his achievement, but to elevate the vastly underappreciated contributions of Ford and other businessmen. I carefully did NOT set Ford up as a "saint." However, a holiday officially recognizing his contributions wouldn't be bad. We've got too many damned holidays now, but I'd vote for trading out Labor Day for an "Industrialist Day" or "Entrepreneur Day" honoring the businessmen who contributed so much to building the country. And you are most certainly welcome to honk off with your cheap, libelous accusations of racism being directed toward ME. The anti-Semitic charge is particularly ludicrous, as I consider the children of Abraham to be the most prestigious blood line in the world. And don't accuse me (of all people) of being PC. Thank you. Thankyouverymuch.

Comment by jeffdiogenes

Wed, 30 Jul 2003 15:17:16 EDT

You say "intellectually challenging", I say "intellectually challenged". How P.C. of you, how in response, P.C. of me. But since your attempt of being politically correct is meaningless when read in context with your article, I'm going to settle on calling it flame-bait. Your ever expanding world view must apparently be that all rap is the same, and all country music is too. I guess I'll just step back and not argue with you on that one. If you don't know differences exist within each genre that are incomparable, I don't think I will convince you with a single response. It would take years of shock therapy. But it's also of my opinion you should continue to write about things you really have no clue about...This is the Internet after all, and I been having trouble finding articles such as this, and some days you just need to argue with someone. This is your purpose in life I think: To challenge the intellectual with your challenged intellect. By the way, being that you had to give two examples of 'apples' to compare to your 'orange', I think you answered your own question above. But if you can't wrap your noodle around that concept perhaps I should just argue that Henry Ford a man who was anti-black & anti-Semitic is more ably comparable in my constricted world view to YOU, and not MLK or Mother T. And here I am arguing with a fool again. Damn. Sorry mom. I was just getting worried we might end up have a new national St. Ford day because of Al.

Comment by Al Barger

Wed, 30 Jul 2003 13:31:13 EDT

You say "flame bait" I say "intellectually challenging." And what kind of constricted worldview do you have that you will consider "political rap" and "hip hop" apples and oranges? That's about as dumb as the crackers who like both types of music- country AND western. And why couldn't you compare and contrast the work of Henry Ford and Mother Theresa?

Comment by jeffdiogenes

Wed, 30 Jul 2003 13:08:52 EDT

I cannot have a good morning anymore without the highly regarded, resident expert analysis of Al on BlogCritics. Oh I'm sorry, not only his criticism but also the constant insight on wonderful comparisons of incomparable subjects. Who would have thought political rap and hip hop could be compared? Who would have thought Henry Ford comparable to MLK or Mother T? Wow, with Al's keen insight once again, maybe we can end racism, injustice, and unemployment forever. Al, did you always know you had such accurate insight? And Al can even show us he has the balls to look up benefactor in the dictionary, and then purposely misspell a derivative of that word at the end of the article! Amazingly thought out Al; So well thought out, in fact, *no one* can accuse you of writing flame-bait articles!

Comment by visualsimplicity

Wed, 30 Jul 2003 11:12:52 EDT

I wouldn't go so far as saying he was the greatest benefactor in human history, but I sure as heck would like to thank him for my lovely Mustang.