By now I should no longer be amazed, shocked, or dismayed at the verbal and moral superiority that spews forth from the mouths (or fingers) of those unfortunate misbegotten individuals who call themselves liberals. In many ways it is amusing. In other ways it is very daunting.
My late, great 11th grade English teacher once said that individuals who resorted to the use of profanity and verbiage that is not acceptable in the main-stream of “polite” society are reflecting their poor education and lack of social and moral standards. It is also indicative of a rather pathetic and limited vocabulary.
I’ve always felt she was correct.
The verbal slings and arrows which greeted Part I of my little cultural and political experiment prove the point. The comments on the article are nothing more than the typical attacks we conservatives and Republicans have been subjected to on a daily basis for the past eight years.
They also prove that Judy Beatty’s theory that individuals who must resort to profanity to express ideas are also indicative of a less enlightened mindset. It is rather fascinating. Obliviously, the “dumbing down” of our educational standards have rendered the average person – liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, incapable of recognizing satire or sarcasm.
This is quite sad.
Once, when we lived in a more graceful and enlightened age, both sarcasm and satire were recognized as acceptable tools of political discourse. Of course that was during a day when differing political parties were, though vicious at times, tolerant of one another’s viewpoint.
Today’s abject blanket of silence placed on anyone of a conservative or Republican voice is something new, and rather terrifying. If only one party is allowed to speak, we will become a dictatorship.
Liberals and Democrats need to comprehend the fact that we Republicans and conservatives have just as much right as do they to speak our mind, and not be subjected to the vile harassment that has been heaped upon us for the past 8 years.
This lack of tolerance also appears to be indicative of a culture where the less enlightened individual personalizes national political discourse to the point where they cannot separate their personality from that of the "great" leader.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Dr Dreadful
Which particular comments did you have in mind?
2 - roger nowosielski
Oh, my goodness. Here she comes with part two. I suggested to her earlier, on another thread, that if she means to be mean, she might as well go all the way.
Way to go, SJ. Now you're smoking.
3 - Baritone
Yes, SJ - you said a lot without really saying anything. Be specific. Or are you afraid to be?
The Democrats and all us lefties have been so overbearing that the Republicans have only been able to hold the WH 36 out of the past 56 years.
The image of Republicans quaking in their wing tips at the prospect of taking on the left is really quite laughable. I know that just here at BC we dastardly lefties have made Dave, OA, Baronius, Al Barger and the other right winger/conservatives here speechless and fearful of our filth ridden rhetoric.
That your beloved Republicans lost is a reality. Live with it. Neither you nor anyone else lost the right to speak your mind. No one has broken into your home to smash your keyboard and break your fingers. The last time I looked, Rush and the rest of the rightwing pundits are still spewing their hate filled blather on radio and the tube. No one has suggested that they should be silenced.
So, you just keep on boohooing. It becomes you.
Oh, and just an observation: Your claim that lefties are somehow mentally stunted belies the fact that the great majority of the best artists, writers and people in virtually all creative pursuits are liberals. The fact is that the greater portion of conservatives have little imagination or creative instinct. Again, as I noted on another thread - conservatives see only black and white. Moderates and liberals note the existence of grays and the full spectrum.
B
4 - roger nowosielski
"the fact that the great majority of the best artists, writers and people in virtually all creative pursuits are liberals"
Did she really say that? I don't read her anymore.
Now, she's a Luddite with respect to arts. Just a Christian conservative, I guess. To each his own.
Happy life!
5 - Silas Kain
Quite liberal in her disdain and now I am pissed off and here's why:
The rabid Conservative faction of the Republican Party must go.- Yes, Republicans believe in LOWER taxes and guess what? So do Democrats! Do you honestly believe that Democrats want the average American to be overburdened? A Republican Administration in tandem with a Democrat Congress bankrupted this country. This is not the time to continue playing the name game. This is not the time for propaganda, it's time for bold action. The boldest member of the GOP is Meagan McCain. Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter are distractions who help drive up cable news ratings. GET REAL.
- strong national defense â€" Again, who does NOT believe in a strong national defense? There are different approaches to national defense. One side believes in weapons dominance as the answer. The other believes that a strong national defense includes more factors. Well our nation is strongest when our citizenry is happy and not worried about how to make it day to day. So, right now our national defense is at rock bottom.
- emphasis on the individual, individual freedoms â€" Put your money where your mouth is. If I hear one more rabid Right Winger scream about individual rights in one breath and tell me in the other that I cannot marry a person of my own choosing I swear I'll explode. You people talk about individual freedoms yet you are the first to delegate anyone who does not subscribe to your dogma as trash.
Moderate Republicans, Moderate Independents, I BEG YOU. It is time for us to take back the Republican Party from these Lincolnian impostors. These people have no more regard for your personal freedom than Osama bin Laden has for George W. Bush. The Far Right Wing of the Republican Party is America's chief domestic enemy. There I said it.6 - Clavos
Sorry, I'll have to disagree with you on one point, Silas.
IMO, America's chief domestic enemy is its own federal government.
7 - Silas Kain
You got me on that one, Clav. OK, can the Far Right Wing be Miss Congeniality?
8 - roger nowosielski
I wouldn't give in on that so easily, Silas. What Clave is offering is a cliche. And I'm certain he knows it - unless he wishes to educate us to the contrary by posting an article rather than a measly comment.
9 - roger nowosielski
Sorry for misspelling, Clavos. Not intentional.
10 - Silas Kain
Hmmm, Roger. How about America's chief domestic enemy is the group of Far Right Wing Conservative Members of Congress serving in the Federal Government? That's specific without being cliche.
11 - roger nowosielski
I don't want to say that, Silas. I'd like to believe that in their own, misguided way they regard themselves as patriots.
Although to tell the truth, I have less confidence as regards some of the voices here. They seem to espouse the virtues of capitalism and free enterprise even if it means the demise of America.
This is what's most perturbing to me - that kind of misplaced loyalty to the ideological tenets of the economic system rather than basic freedoms and liberties which for so long have been identified with, and symbolize by, America.
What they are misidentifying, of course, is economic freedom with all other freedoms, failing to realize that all these freedoms come together, part and parcel; and furthermore, that none is more important than the other. They're all of equal value.
12 - Jordan Richardson
Four pages of this stuff? Wow...
13 - roger nowosielski
SJ will be SJ. Let her be.
14 - Cindy
My late, great 11th grade English teacher once said that individuals who resorted to the use of profanity and verbiage that is not acceptable in the main-stream of “polite” society are reflecting their poor education and lack of social and moral standards. It is also indicative of a rather pathetic and limited vocabulary.
I’ve always felt she was correct.
It doesn't bother you that most of what you said there contradicts reality?
No, I guess not. Like O.A., apparently distorting reality is no problem for you.
15 - Jordan Richardson
One more thing, just because I had the "audacity" to look at SJ's website.
The following is at the top of the page:
Rejoice always,
pray without ceasing,
give thanks in all circumstances;
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Thess 5:16-18
I also noted that there was a selection of Proverbs posted on the website. The author of these rants would be well served to follow some of the advice given.
Furthermore, I noticed SJ's reference to the Blogcritics discussion of her post:
The reason I’m noting this is to point out the abject filth that has been thrown at me in their comment section. I’m talking PURE FILTH and some very foul, abusive language, so please read it away from the kids.
Yeah. Okay.
16 - roger nowosielski
I suggested that, too, Jordan & Cindy - since Ruvy referred me to her site, saying she's a Christian.
The texts: St. Augustine's "Confessions" and Paul's letters to the Corinthians.
I doubt, however, whether she'll follow suit.
But then again, Christ himself was outraged at the money lenders at the Temple. He kicked ass and took names - so she's following his example, I reckon.
17 - roger nowosielski
Another text of note:
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
There's hope for you, SJ. I mean it, for your sake.
18 - Clavos
What Clave [sic] is offering is a cliche.
The thing about clichés is that they are truths which became clichés because of constant repetition by people who recognize the truth therein.
19 - Jordan Richardson
Ah, the money lenders story. So many interpretations, so little time.
No matter what one thinks about Christ, whether he was real or not or the Son of God or not or whatever the hell, there was one overarching message based on two similar concepts that cannot exist without the other. I see no evidence of these two concepts in this post or any of SJ's posts. Those concepts are, of course:
Compassion and love.
Of course, we could get into tolerance, understanding, faithfulness, kindness, meekness, humility, and all of that, but let's just try the basics so far. In her defense of Ann Coulter, is SJ defending a compassionate, loving soul? Hardly. She's defending one of the most vitriolic, hate-filled individuals in the United States. And in defending this monster, she turns herself into a monster as well. In my view, money lenders or not, that is the polar opposite of Christ's message.
20 - roger nowosielski
Exactly, Jordan. That's why there's always room for righteous indignation and right kind of anger - but there's also got to be the right kind of motive.
I'm more than snotty more often than I'd care to in many of my comments - and sometimes I'm at my wit's end, knowing not what else to do. But I do know where I'm coming from. I'm always trying to reach. I'd like to be able to see something of that nature in SJ's piece. I'll try to give it a shot rather than dismiss all of it summarily.
So that's my next task.
21 - Jordan Richardson
Good luck to you, dear sir!
22 - Silas Kain
I have a problems with the writings of Saul of Tarsus. In my mind he usurped the authority of Peter rather underhandedly. And secondly, I read Paul and I think Amway.
23 - roger nowosielski
Sorry, I happen to disagree. Paul's mission was to the Gentiles and he was authorized.
Anyways, my reference was the First Corinthians, the part about love ...
On a further note, Silas, I'm also talking about Pauline theology - for the Protestant Churches, I admit, and away from the Catholic dogma - of "salvation by faith." A very powerful concept in my thinking.
But of course, if you're a Catholic to the core, you might have a problem with that. I do not.
Sorry about this disagreement, but let me assure you, it's honest.
24 - El Bicho
"The thing about clichés is that they are truths which became clichés because of constant repetition by people" who are lazy and uncreative in their thinking and writing.
25 - Silas Kain
Roger I was raised a devout Catholic but had a wonderful religion teacher who taught us to question every dogma of faith as our test of faith. My tests led me down the path of the Unitarian movement of which I am a proud member. I understand where you're coming from on the Pauline approach to the Gentiles and your point is well taken. His First Letter to the Corinthians is beautiful prose if it is, in fact, an accurate translation. Of that I have my sincere doubts.