What is the difference between the Taliban threatening violence and radical religious types like Randall threatening violence?
I was intending to complete a post I've worked on for days regarding my opposition to the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the US Supreme Court prior to her June 2 confirmation hearings when the news broke about the murder of Dr. George Tiller. That post will now have to wait until I get these thoughts off my brain.…
Article comments
26 - Doug Hunter
True. Had Saddam stepped down to avert a war, I wonder how much different the world would be today?
A different feeling in the country? A different economy, and possibly even a different president. Would the momentum and focus have been more on Afghanistan leading to possible captures of Bin Laden or at least more success in that arena. Abu Ghraib would not have happened and without context of other atrocities and failures Quantanamo would not seem as bad. With Saddam down and Libya's new openness Bush might have looked like a genius and had an entirely different legacy.
In retrospect, Hussein did get the last laugh in his feud with the Bushes. Sure he died a violent death, but such is the destiny of vicious dictators (if not us, it would have been his sons or other political opponents). He likely accelerated the downfall of the most powerful nation on earth on his way out.
27 - Baronius
Doug, are you saying that the killing of Tiller was justified?
28 - Doug Hunter
No, I was just addressing the question in the article. Killing the abortion doctor is more equivalent to killing the military recruiters than it is to killing a woman for going outside alone or learning to read.
I do squirm a bit at the thought of late term partial birth abortions enough to understand how that could be considered killing. Someone who kills an abortion doctor probably believes strongly that abortion is murder. In that state, he thinks he is killing a killer, much like attacking Nazi death camp guards or something.
If I had to make value judgements among murders, killing who you believe to be a killer, like Dr. Tiller or the recruiters, is probably a slight improvement over indiscriminate killing like 9/11 or disproportional killing like for breaking minor (my view of course) social codes.
29 - Baritone
It's all a matter of perspective, isn't it? Radical muslims look upon the education of women as a serious afront to islam. They see the west as a serious threat to islam. It's all ludicrous bullshit, but it is apparently a matter of life and death to them.
Whether murdering a girl walking to school, thousands of people sitting in an American office building, or a doctor in Kansas who performs abortions, it's all based in an idiotic notion of religious fervor and self-important delusions that they are serving their god.
Religionists always believe it is their god given duty to meddle in other people's lives. I stick by my statement above. All who rant against people like Dr.Tiller on the tube and/or on the internet share in the responsibilty for his murder. No doubt they are happy about it. They should just own up and admit it.
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30 - Doug Hunter
"It's all a matter of perspective, isn't it?"
True. From my perspective the greatest genocides and mass murders in history have been perpetrated by leftist atheists. From my perspective it is governments who fight wars and exterminate large groups of people, not religions, and not individual nuts.
31 - roger nowosielski
Great article, Realist, not to mention your use of language. I'd make it more concise if I were you - we don't need that many examples.
If your main point was that fanaticism underlies both the Taliban policies and the nut-job's action, then I entirely agree and don't see how anyone could - especially Dave who wrote another article along those lines.
As to the hypocrisy on the part of the Christian Right and the inflammatory tactics by O'Reilly and such - that's another matter.
32 - Bliffle
Dave says:
"in case you didn't notice, we invaded first..."
Zing, I'm afraid you are misremembering the history.
So, are you going to show how Iraq actually invaded us first?