A statement of principles from the Republican Liberty Caucus
(This was written as a personal statement to the members of the Republican Liberty Caucus, of which I am Chairman. I'm sharing it here on Blogcritics because I believe it has value in explaining the organization to a broader audience.)…
Article comments
— go to most recent comments26 - roger nowosielski
Sorry, Cindy. I didn't mean to offend you.
27 - Clavos
Forget Babelfish, Cindy, here's the Clav translation:
Poor Fernando! Turns out he doesn't speak Spanish.
What a shame!
28 - roger nowosielski
El gato está fuera del bolso.
29 - Cindy
No offense taken Roger. (I guess you didn't translate my last comment, after all.)
To no one in particular...calling any language a 'gutter language' is a sign you are a real asshole.
30 - roger nowosielski
Shoot. This is better than Berlitz's.
31 - roger nowosielski
I think Cervantes just turned in his grave.
32 - Dr Dreadful
Folks,
Turns out 'Fernando Escobar' is a well-known and oft-banned commenter around these parts. (Good catch, zing.) He is in permanent exile and all his comments have been deleted. I can't, however, be bothered to go back over everything and delete or edit all of the rest of your comments made in response to him, so this thread is just going to have to make limited sense.
Carry on.
Dr Dreadful
Assistant Comments Editor
33 - roger nowosielski
I've told you the word order was all cockeye.
34 - Cindy
27 - Clav,
That one I didn't need babelfish for. :-)
35 - Clavos
Doc,
(Good catch, zing.)
¿Como?
36 - roger nowosielski
Somehow I knew from the first he posted, something was wrong. zing had some "reasoned" discussions with him, apparently to no avail. Perhaps he identified the style.
37 - Cindy
Roger,
I still have my Swahili book as I was bound for Africa, as a b&w field photographer of giraffe neck spots (which is how they identify them), with the fellow who headed the biological sciences dept at Duquesne University. I learned that Swahili was a language of choice for international relations. Alas, I never got to go to Africa as the grant expired (as usual). Apparently professors have better things to do than study giraffes. (unlike me, who couldn't imagine anything better to do)
38 - roger nowosielski
Heckuva story. I'm glad, though, they caught on to him. He was beyond reason.
39 - Dr Dreadful
Clav,
See what is now his #141 on this thread.
40 - Clavos
Alas, I never got to go to Africa...
I've been to Africa (South Africa) twice.
In the bush, one of the most beautiful places I've been, and I've covered most of the world at one time or another while working in the airline industry.
In the cities: not so nice, except I did like Cape Town.
41 - Cindy
In the bush, one of the most beautiful places I've been...
(sigh)
42 - Zedd
You know what?.... Stop the Africa discussion. It's ridiculous how frightfully ignorant you people are. What are you talking about really? It would be like discussing Swedish and someone chiming in to say that they know Europe. They've been to Poland 3x and they loved Krakow. And starts yacking on about one type of terrain that in no way describes most of Europe. ?????
Also just for the rest of you who were imagining THE BUSH to be this mystical place with naked people running around. These are game reserves. Fenced off areas, national parks if you will. I've only been to one myself. Much like we go to Yellowstone. Scared the poopee out of me. Lions got too close to the tiny Japanese car. The roar is much different two feet away. They look much bigger than they do at the Johannesburg zoo or Dallas zoo for that matter. Even then I would have called it "the bush". It was an hour or so away from a metropolis. It was a novelty. Most people there never go to see "the bush" in their entire lives. Couldn't tell you what it is or looks like. Have TV to go by. Much like any other national park. There are lots of nice cities. The best malls in the world, music unbelievable, night life (swank lounges), food (Indian, yum), etc. THE bush???? Beaches are unbelievable at least compared to the beaches here in Texas (what the...?). Anyway there are so many different types of terrain, in just one small country. Africa is three times plus, the size of the United States. Come on folks. The bush.
What is sad is -AGAIN- is that because of your white supremacist world view, you wont think that you should be embarrassed to be so ignorant. Now let a person miss speak about some obscure, minute detail in Europe's history and oh the noses point straight up (cause it's so important) and the barrage of tisks come poring in.
It's all your world. Either try or ask questions. Many of you think your whiteness makes you innately knowledgeable about what is relevant. STOP it's called ignorance.
43 - Zedd
Dave,
I'm shocked that you would praise Reagan when he is the person that actually stoked the flame on religious fanaticism in your party.
You don't know what was going on in the Christian/evangelical community at that time. Some of us lived it. He used key phrases - meaning it was deliberate - to cause the Fundies to come alive. What you have right now in the party was Reagan's doing. Sorry.
44 - Zedd
Is Fernando a phantom poster? Not seeing his remarks. I guess he's like Santa.
45 - roger nowosielski
Cindy.
Check this out. You too, Zedd.
46 - roger nowosielski
You missed all the fun. Turned out to be long banned and banished. So all his comments were erases, except for our responses.
47 - roger nowosielski
Zedd,
In light of your #42, I'm sure glad I didn't chime in. Better sense prevailed.
48 - roger nowosielski
I'll never understand some people's fascination with Reagan.
Keep on plugging, Zulu warrior.
I like your remarks on Poland (the country of my birth). Typical tourist mentality.
49 - roger nowosielski
I guess, Zedd, the article makes some good points except, as you mentioned, the reference to Reagan. It wouldn't have suffered for the omission.
50 - Clavos
Not sure why my perfectly reasonable opinion of my impression of South Africa sparked zedd's racism, but there it is for all to see. I've long suspected that at heart she is one; that over reactive diatribe confirms it.
FYI, zedd, each of my trips over there was a month long, and was spent driving ourselves (my wife and me) in a rented camper, pretty much all over the country (as well as Lesotho and the Drakensberg mountains- Giant's Castle reserve), including Johannesburg, Pretoria, Bloemfontein (where my wife's uncle has lived for fifty years) Durban, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, and many small villages on the roads in between the cities.
Sure we visited (and camped) in the parks, including of course Kruger, Umfolozi Hluhluwe, Table Mountain, Karoo, and many others, including a number of private reserves. As you well know, Kruger is nearly the size of Florida; most of it is totally undeveloped and raw.
But I'm just an arrogant white guy -- what do I know, right?
51 - Dan
Either the GOP must advocate (and actually work to implement) the decentralized, small-government positions of Reagan and Goldwater, or it will (continue to) advocate and implement the centralizing, big-government values of Lincoln and TR. You can't advocate the values of all hour simultaneously; to attempt to do so is the politically philosophical equivalent of mixing oil and water.
52 - Clavos
Almost forgot, zedd. On the second trip we venture into Swaziland, where we explored the Kalahari and wound up in the North, at Chobe.
One other thing: in Kruger (and some of the other, larger parks) the animals aren't fenced -- the people are, as in the campgrounds and rest stops.
53 - Cindy
Zedd,
We only get to like malls, nightclubs, and beaches if we go to Africa?
Are there any giraffes in the mall Zedd? I don't like malls or nightclubs anywhere else in the world. Why would I want to go all the way to Africa to go to a mall? Really Zedd, we are white supremacists because we like parks better than nightclubs? lmao
You have a vivid imagination about what is in other people's minds. Sounds kind of prepackaged though and biased. I wonder who should be calling whom frightfully ignorant.
54 - Cindy
I was a travel agent for two years or so. Everybody always asked wanted the same things--nightlife, shopping, 'best' beaches. How dreadfully boring most people are.
55 - roger nowosielski
Cindy,
You are an exception. And I'm certain you're aware of that.
56 - Cindy
"...how tourism effects nations in the developing world. It creates an economic and political apartheid.
In many countries it creates entire swathes of a nation where the poor cannot go. Sometimes the poor are simply priced out by a parallel economic system, sometimes they are literally barred from entry by force. Tourism can also create an economic distortion that actually shifts people away from the long term work of building an economy that benefits everyone." (link)
Just say no to shopping malls and night clubs. An interest in real local life and people might be a good thing to develop instead of importing bullshit wonderlands of shopping and partying. No one needs any more 'Cancuns'.
57 - Ruvy
Zedd,
You know what?.... Stop the Africa discussion. It's ridiculous how frightfully ignorant you people are. What are you talking about really?
Gee, Zedd, that is my line for you when you attempt you "knowledge" of Israel. You are frightfully ignorant and if you think some intellectual putz writing a tome gives you knowledge, think again.
Come here and walk a mile in our shoes, Zedd. Then open your mouth.
58 - roger nowosielski
I am misunderstanding the nature of your comments, Cindy. I don't think she was saying - "see the malls, see the nightclubs" other than pointing out there are other things besides "the Bush." And because she was wrong about Clavos, doesn't mean she was wrong about most others - again, you excepting.
So what am I missing here? I wouldn't presume to know the country of her birth better than her. And I know you don't either.
59 - Cindy
Roger,
She is portraying our attitude about what we imagine Africa to be as that of dominant white culture--romanticized and ignorant--as if we are expecting to see a wild, primitive place with 'noble savages' in the vast African veldt around every turn.
She is saying people do the same thing there as here. They don't go to 'the bush'. They live in cities with nightlife and shopping malls and eat Indian food and lie on the beach in the sun (never really understood the point of that).
So, I'm not telling Zedd about her country. I'm saying she's judgmental and presumptuous.
60 - Zedd
Cindy, Clavos
The point was that you were talking about Swahili and then started yacking on about South Africa. Hence the Sweedish / Poland reference.
Places where Swahili is spoken:
Burundi
Congo DR
Kenya
Mozambique
Rwanda
Somalia
Tanzania
Uganda
Clav,
You wouldn't dare make that mistake about some aboriginal language in Latin Americ. If someone started talking about some Bolivian language and some idiot chimed in about how they've been to Matamoros, you'd that "what an idiot".
Admit it folks, it was RIDICULOUS!
Like I said, you wont be ashamed because it's Africa after all. THEY don't matter. White supremacist world view plain and simple. You didn't know how it works did you. No capes or silly outfits. Just arrogance and abysmal ignorance with no concern about EVER getting it right. Like you guys are doing.
Cindy,
You missed it.
61 - roger nowosielski
Well, I can understand at least where she's coming from - because the popular conception (if not now than in the past) is of Africa as a jungle and of natives as "noble savages." Her national pride is speaking for her here.
And I have no doubt that "the locals" don't go to the bush - because it's commercialized and can't afford it. No different, in other words than other "attractions," tourist attractions.
62 - Andy Marsh
comment #60 - Just arrogance and abysmal ignorance with no concern about EVER getting it right. Like you guys are doing.
Sort of the way you characterize all whites...
Face it Zedd, you're a racist!
63 - Zedd
Hey what about a riveting conversation about the wild west when the topic was about a Brooklyn accent.
64 - Cindy
I said that Swahili is the language of choice for international relations. It is taught to speakers of many languages so that they can communicate in a common language. I was given the book with the entire language by a professor, so that I could learn to communicate with the other researchers. People who might be German or French.
I said nothing else about it. I think you are awfully presumptuous.
65 - roger nowosielski
Perhaps more a case, Andy, of being proud of her national heritage.
66 - Zedd
Andy,
Not sure if you are okay but I'm preety sure that I named the people that I was refering to.
The question is why are you so touchy and crazed to the point of utter confusion? Do you have issues with this matter?
You don't know what a racist is. Off course you haven't had a reason to try to understand what one is. Nothing wrong with that. You are ignorant about the subject matter. No biggie. Just don't get all worked up about it. Go read. That's how all other information is gained OR you can prove my point.
67 - roger nowosielski
That is true, Zedd. And it was then that the discussion went off on a tangent.
I don't believe there was any intended connection.
68 - roger nowosielski
Now we have a spirited discussion going. It was all boring in the wee hours of the morning. Hurray, BC!
69 - Cindy
63
btw Zedd, you could use some work on your analogies. I often understand and appreciate where you are trying to go with ideas--but it would be a lot easier if you took the time to at least try and make better sense, so one doesn't have to stretch one's imagination so far.
70 - Zedd
Cindy,
Once more....
The point is the segue from Swahili to South Africa. Doesn't add up. Come on you are smart enough. Like Cockney (the slang) then segue to Budapest. It's that ridiculous.
71 - roger nowosielski
I'd have one thing to add. Cindy and Clavos would be the least persons I'd ever suspect of racism. As to the larger issue of ignorance, none of us are saints.
72 - Zedd
Like I said, you wont get the offense (or stupidity). It's the way or our world. It just is.
73 - roger nowosielski
But again, no connection was intended.
The mind just wanders.
74 - roger nowosielski
I'd better make a graceful exit before I get bruised.
75 - Cindy
I have no idea what you're talking about Zedd.
1) Roger made a statement about Swahili not being in babelfish.
2) I then made a statement about a book I was given to learn Swahili for a study of giraffes in Africa.
3) Clav then commented he'd been to South Africa.
I am not sure what is going on in your head there, but I'll try not to presume. Where was the incomprehensible segue?