There is no nobility in America anymore, certainly not among our politicians.
Question: what is nobility? One may well ask now that America has lowered itself to the status of some despotic third-world nation from the Middle Ages with our elected officials passing a bill that gives our President the power to decide whom and how to torture.…
Article comments
26 - Baronius
JR, I don't know the $186,000 reference, so no, I don't know how to run up an electrical bill that high. Tell me, did you know how to donate $6,870,000 to charity in 2005? If the answer is no, don't worry. Al Gore couldn't figure out how either. According to the most recent data I could find online, Gore missed that mark by 99.995% with 1997 charitable donations totalling $353. I didn't adjust for inflation, so maybe it's more like 99.992%.
27 - JR
Well, I suppose one of my pet causes would be helping to buy land to conserve habitats; I don't think I'd have any trouble spending tens of millions of dollars in such donations. Whether I would is unproven, but I certainly know how, so I'm not worried.
I haven't seen anyone call Al Gore the most noble man in politics. I wouldn't, so I'm not sure why I should defend his donations (or lack thereof).
Personally, I don't consider torture "the right thing for the country", but if Dick Cheney really believed it was necessary despite the fact that it belies this country's values, he can go ahead and authorize it and defend his actions in court, just as the rest of us have to do when we decide the ends justify the means. THAT's taking responsibility, and if I were on his jury, I'd give him a fair hearing.
Trying to change the law so he can torture in the name of all the rest of us is pure chickenshit.
Kind of like a young, able-bodied man supporting a war which he seeks deferments from fighting himself.
The man seems to have looked out for himself rather well in this life. And he's paid the price by... being called names. What a martyr!
28 - Bliffle
One good thing about Mel Gibson is that you know where he stands. Drunk and sober.
29 - Nancy
Profiles in courage is NOT what anybody sane thinks of in connection with Chickenhawk-in-chief Cheney, the coward who had "better things to do" & got 5 deferments and then got married in order to avoid the draft. He's yellow through & through. He only has courage when he's safe behind the utter security of vast wealth & the Secret Service, safe in the knowledge he & his will NEVER be in danger or have to suffer or bear the results of his own bloody policies, even in a court of law. Yeah, that's courage all right. God damn his scheming, cowardly, vicious, psychopathic soul to eternal hell where it belongs.
30 - Nancy
Zing #9 that IS pretty funny. Don't often get a laugh on such a sobering line of blog. Thanks! Baronius, you may very well win me over on other aspects, but never on the world-class villanies of Bush & Cheney, especially the latter. Bliffle, LOL - how true!
31 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Adam,
The rocket therapy of the Hizballah changed a lot of minds. A lot more people think a lot more like me.
To summarize;
Olmert's support has been reduced to his family and the members of the Knesset who do not think they'll be re-elected - like Peretz.
A lot of people would rather not think about the Lebanon War, indicating to me that they do not think it was a good thing.
The loony left in this country are still willing to start peace talks with the butchers who run "Palestine."
Presently, the only "talking" going on with Hamas is taking place with missiles and tanks. The "Palestine" government barely exists.
Peace?
The only time there can be peace is when the pigs who control the Arabs and the thieves who run Israel have been ditched - literally. At this point, there are two avenues to peace. The one I have outlined in my articles elsewhere on this site and foreign takeover of Israel.
I'm betting on the latter.
32 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Mike, - (comment #20)
I have no trouble killing murderers and people who have attempted murder. An awful lot of the Arabs in jail are held for that precise reason.
When we have about twenty or thirty million Arabs in our jails to be killed held there for the sole reason that they are Arabs, then if we kill them, can we accurately be compared to Nazis.
If you want to call me a terrorist, that's fine. It does tell me a lot about what you do not know about terrorism.
Finally, the debate for the fate of my country is a debate over destiny, and that debate is framed within a religious context. That is a reality that all your fancy talk can't get around.
This means that the search for a solution to the destiny of this country needs to be conducted within the context of religion, whether you or others like it or not.
33 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Adam,
I do not mean to attempt to hijack this article.
Given the choice between cowardice and uselessness, it strikes me that you have little choice at all. It also strikes me that the pathetic choices you have are the ones you'll be stuck with...
It ain't any better here.
34 - Baronius
My elder brother Ruvy, sometimes I think we're the only people keeping this site interesting.
35 - Zedd
Adam, I LOVE YOU. That is the most rational, unsentimental, clear thing that I have read in ages!! Not to mention funny as heck!!
I thought, THERE IS HOPE. There is a brain cell left in this great land of ours. There is a person who understands irony, inuendo, rhetorical banter, humor, cause and affect, deductive reasoning. I thought who is this person and who bread him??? Did they make more like him? Where are they bread?? Then I read that you were from the RSA originally and I nearly wept. Hopes for rearing children with good reasoning skills or them finding partners with half a brain cell were dashed. Offcourse you are from South Africa..... sigh
Lekker broer!
36 - Zedd
JR:
Baronius: There is probably no more noble person in politics today than Dick Cheney... I don't know if I'll live to see Cheney get the recognition he deserves, but he should be remembered as a man of the caliber of Clay or Marshall.
JR: Wow.
Just... Wow.
I feel you so deeply. What else can be said.
37 - Adam Ash
Zedd:
I love you.
Check out my blog
Leave a comment, maybe we can email.
Baie lekker broer
Adam
38 - Zedd
Ruvy:
WE BOTH believe THAT A DESCENDENT OF KING DAVID WILL RULE HERE!
Whats wrong with believing that the most popular person that has EVER lived on the planet, who happens to be a descendent of King David, could have been that person?? Why couldn't Jesus have been that person.
I mean he's:
1. Jewish
2. Out of the house of David
3. The most popular person to have EVER lived.
I cant imagine a greater "king". Is it because you missed it when he came so you don't want to go along with the idea that he was IT.
I mean bigger then Jesus in todays skeptical society? You think that people will go along with anyone who says "hey guys I'm the messiah". He'd have to come as a rock star or something.
I'm just asking.
But it looks sorta like you've hit the big one already.... now can we move on now and stop holding the rest of the world hostage with your silly wars.
39 - S.T.M
Ruvy wrote: "Mars Bar, sweet bullshit that tastes good but is worthless."
Does taste good bloody mate, and this is completely off topic, but are Mars Bars available in Israel and if so, I assume they are kosher. They are not quite worthless as they do give you a decent burst of energy in readily useable form. That's my excuse, anyhow. Since giving up smoking, I am going through a few Mars Bars (stopped the KrispyKremes) so if I ever get to Israel, I need to know this.
40 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Asking about why Jesus can't be King of Israel, Zedd writes,
"I mean he's:
1. Jewish
2. Out of the house of David
3. The most popular person to have EVER lived."
You have a tiny problem with the grammar there, Zedd, and it has nothing to do with speaking or writing Afrikaans either. Jesus, like the Lubavicher Rebbe, is dead. So insteas of "he's", you need to write "he was". You need to be breathing to sit on the throne. One of them little technical points.
Please don't throw Biblical passages at me trying to prove that the guy is still aive. It sounds funny reading a Habadnik citing all your arguments to prove that the Lubavicher Rebbe, a man who had a very public funeral, is really alive. They sound just like Christians in their arguments, and it really pisses them off to be told so. But from you guys, it's just boring. I mean after five decades of listening to the stuff...
The next king of Israel is someone that you haven't met yet or read about. I may have, but I wouldn't know it. G-d keeps His Own counsel...
41 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Stan,
We have Snickers bars, Klik bars and Élite candy bars. You can buy m&m's but they are very expensive here. You would think they were selling them to jet pilots in X-15's or something...
My personal favorites are the Snickers bars tossed in the freezer for a few hours. It would be nice if'n I could afford them, though...
If you ever do get here, be sure to give me a shout. I know at least one Aussie here, a great guy. I thnk he's a Sidneysider. He talks like an Englishman, though...