Two weeks ago I wrote about Al Gore's new movie on global warming. I liked the film. In response, I instantly got more than 1,000 e-mails, most of them praising Gore, some calling him the usual names and some concluding there was no such thing as global warming, if only because Gore said there was. I put the messages aside for a slow day, when I would answer them. Then I wrote about Stephen Colbert and his unfunny performance at the White House correspondents' dinner.
Kapow! Within a day, I got more than 2,000 e-mails. A day later, I got 1,000 more. By the fourth day, the number had reached 3,499 -- a figure that does not include the usual offers of nubile Russian women or loot from African dictators. The Colbert messages began with Patrick Manley ("You wouldn't know funny if it slapped you in the face") and ended with Ron ("Colbert ROCKS, you MURDER") who was so proud of his thought that he copied countless others. Ron, you're a genius.
Truth to tell, I peeked into only a few of the e-mails. I did this because I would sometimes recognize a name I thought I knew, which was almost always a mistake. When I guilelessly clicked on the name, I would get a bucket of raw, untreated and disease-laden verbal sewage right in the face.
Usually, the subject line said it all. Some were friendly and agreed that Colbert had not been funny. Most, though, were in what we shall call disagreement. Fine. I said the man wasn't funny and not funny has a bullying quality to it; others (including some of my friends) said he was funny. But because I held such a view, my attentive critics were convinced I had a political agenda. I was -- as was most of the press, I found out -- George W. Bush's lap dog. If this is the case, Bush had better check his lap.
It seemed that most of my correspondents had been egged on to write me by various blogs. In response, they smartly assembled into a digital lynch mob and went roaring after me. If I did not like Colbert, I must like Bush. If I write for The Post, I must be a mainstream media warmonger. If I was over a certain age -- which I am -- I am simply out of it, wherever "it" may be. All in all, I was -- I am, and I guess I remain -- the worthy object of ignorant, false and downright idiotic vituperation.
What to make of all this? First, it's not about Colbert. His show has an audience of about 1 million -- not exactly "American Idol" numbers. Second, it marks the end of a silly pretense about interactive media: We give you our e-mail addresses and then, in theory, we have this nice chat. Forget about it. Not only is e-mail too often a kind of epistolary spitball, but there's no way I can even read the 3,506 e-mails now backed up in my queue -- seven more since I started writing this column.
But the message in this case truly is the medium. The e-mails pulse in my queue, emanating raw hatred. This spells trouble -- not for Bush or, in 2008, the next GOP presidential candidate, but for Democrats. The anger festering on the Democratic left will be taken out on the Democratic middle. (Watch out, Hillary!) I have seen this anger before -- back in the Vietnam War era. That's when the antiwar wing of the Democratic Party helped elect Richard Nixon. In this way, they managed to prolong the very war they so hated.
The hatred is back. I know it's only words now appearing on my computer screen, but the words are so angry, so roiled with rage, that they are the functional equivalent of rocks once so furiously hurled during antiwar demonstrations. I can appreciate some of it. Institution after institution failed America -- the presidency, Congress and the press. They all endorsed a war to rid Iraq of what it did not have. Now, though, that gullibility is being matched by war critics who are so hyped on their own sanctimony that they will obliterate distinctions, punishing their friends for apostasy and, by so doing, aiding their enemies. If that's going to be the case, then Iraq is a war its critics will lose twice -- once because they couldn't stop it and once more at the polls.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/09/2006 11:29 ||
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#1
This is more a problem with free, anonymous speech and the extremely rapid and cheap communications now made possible by the internet. Up until the last 5-10 years, it had not been practical for any writer to receive and scan responses from 3,499 of his readers within 4 days of publishing something. The next innovation after blogs will have to be a program to process massive amounts of email responses to blog posts and comments on blogs. Especially useful would be software to identify memes and verbal formulas which occur repeatedly in emails.
#2
Some Democrats - like Cohen, Estrich, and Carville - understand all too well what use can be made of such hate by an opposition party. Their fear is palpable. There is a wry irony in this, for their crowd used similar (though never as foam-flecked) hate from the right masterfully and with devastating effect themselves, to Bill Clinton's advantage.
The Left is their own worst enemy. The more they talk, the more they scare regular folks away from voting Democrat.
I think it's more likely than not that the few sane Democrats like Cohen do NOT move the howlies in their own party and that the hate, derogatory and condescending rhetoric, and maps of "Jesusland", etc., continue ad infinitum, with the inevitable effects on any plebiscite.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
05/09/2006 16:30 Comments ||
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#3
I'd love for the Kos kids and DU blatherers to be given a public platform to show their real ideas/ faces....Mainstream America would revulse at the bile spewed in "mainstream democratic forums"
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/09/2006 17:20 Comments ||
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#4
The donks have a big generational problem. The generation of '68 is now retired or old bulls. They hogged all the spots for the last 4 decades, so there hasn't been much room for new blood to seep into the machine. Meantime, the trunks had the opportunities and the ideas (that happens when there's no where to go but up). They've captured all the growth areas on the map and slowly eroded the donk strongholds.
Now the donks are hitting bottom and have no adult supervision to control the young turks. For the next two decades, they'll wander in the wilderness, mumbling to themselves, sort of like the trunks in the forties, fifties and sixties. Then the next generation will come along with some new ideas to deal with the new problems. By then the trunks will be getting long in the tooth and will be ready to be toppled. And topple they will.
Actually a reason why term limits may be good for the party but not the incumbent.
January 25/26, 1997: 25 at Wandhama-Ganderbal
March 20, 1997: 7 at Sangrampura
April 18, 1998: 27 at Prankote
June 19, 1998: 25 at Chapnari
July 28, 1998: 16 in two villages of Doda district
August 8, 1998: 35 at Kalaban
February 20, 1999: 4 at Muraputta, 9 at Barlyara and 7 at Bllala
June 30, 1999: 15 in Anantnag district
July 19, 1999: 15 at Layata
February 28, 2000: 5 near Qazigund
March 20, 2000: 35 at Chatisinghpora
August 1, 2000: 31 Amarnath Yatris at Pahalgam
August 1-2, 2000: 27 in Qazigund and Achabal
August 2, 2000: 11 in Doda district
February 3, 2001: 6 in Mahjoornagar in Srinagar
February 11, 2001: 15 in Kot-Chadwal
March 2, 2001: 15 in Manjkote
March 17, 2001: 8 near Atholi in Doda
July 21, 2001: 13 including 7 Amarnath pilgrims at Sheshnag
July 22, 2001: 12 in Cheerji and Tagood in Doda district
August 4, 2001: 15 in Ludder-Sharotid Har area in Doda district
January 7, 2002: 17 in Ramsoo
February 17, 2002: 8 in Rajouri
March 30, 2002: 12 at the Raghunath temple in Jammu
May 14, 2002: 32 at the army camp in Kaluchak, Jammu
July 13, 2002: 20 in Kasim Nagar, Jammu
August 6, 2002: 9 Amarnath pilgrims at the Nunwan base camp in Pahalgam
August 24, 2002: 10 in Rajouri
November 24, 2002: 14 at the Raghunath Temple in Jammu
March 24, 2003: 24 in Nadimarg
April 29, 2005: 13 in Udhampur district
April 30, 2005: 22 in Doda district
Wonder what these numbers refer to? Yes, these numbers refer to the innocent people who have been massacred by Islamist terrorists in the state of Jammu & Kashmir during last few years. And this is not a comprehensive list by any means. It just highlights the major massacres that have been undertaken by Islamist terrorists in recent years. In addition to these major massacres, there have been targeted killings going on at regular intervals all through these years.
And do you know what was common among these innocent victims? Yes, all these victims of Islamic terrorism were innocent Hindus, who believed in the Indian national flag and Constitution.
Targeted killings of Hindus in J&K continue unabated but nothing moves our state and central government. Instead of any concrete and decisive response, we hear oft-repeated sound-bytes from our politicians and policy makers. Here is how they reacted to the latest massacre in Doda and Udhampur:
Militants kill 22 in remote Doda village
'People of Kashmir have rejected and rebuffed terrorists repeatedly,' said our Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.
'We have advised the state authorities to review the security measures for the minorities in the state. This incident clearly shows the desperation of the terrorists who want to derail the peace process in the state,' said Home Secretary V K Duggal.
Our Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal chimed in: 'The terrorists do not want the peace initiatives being taken by the Centre to succeed.'
And finally J&K's Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad topped it off by saying: 'The killers will not be spared. We will not allow them to succeed in their designs. We would rather give a big push to the peace process. I want to make it clear once and for all that we will not bow to any pressure from terrorists. They will not be allowed to get away with their acts of mass murders.'
Mr Chief Minister, which planet are you living in? They have been getting away with these acts of mass murder all along without any punitive repercussions and you talk about not allowing them to get away. I know it is said that ignorance is bliss but not in this case. Please wake up and try to see the reality on the ground.
Do these sound bytes sound familiar? How many times have we heard these already? At this point, we don't even need to ask these politicians for their reaction. Don't we already know what they are going to say?
And what do the Opposition parties do? The age-old call for a bandh. That is what the National Conference and Panthers Party have done -- called for a Jammu bandh. The BJP has not even done that. It has totally given up. It might as well close the shop and go for a perpetual Rath Yatra touring every village of India. That will keep the BJP and its remaining leadership busy for a while.
The worst but most-repeated statement that the Government of India issues is: 'These killings will not affect the peace process with Pakistan.'
WHY NOT?
Why shouldn't these killings affect the peace process with Pakistan? Why shouldn't India withdraw from all the peace processes and so-called confidence building measures? Why shouldn't India demand the absolute closing down of the entire terror infrastructure in Pakistan and the verification of the same by joint Indo-Pak forces? Why shouldn't India be forthright and blunt about blaming Pakistan for this scourge of terrorism? Why does India have to play nice while its innocent citizens, including little children, are getting killed day in and day out by these Islamist terrorists who are supported and sponsored by Pakistan?
Until and unless Pakistan stops all the support -- moral, political, diplomatic, economic and military, to terrorists, India should not entertain any offer of talks from Pakistan. India just needs to focus on eradicating terrorists from J&K and I propose the following 13-step process to achieve that with immediate effect:
1. Stop all confidence building measures that are in process with Pakistan;
2. Suspend all diplomatic relations with Pakistan;
3. Suspend the Caravan-e-Aman bus service between Srinagar and Muzzafarabad;
4. Cancel the scheduled meeting with Pakistan's puppets, the Hurriyat Conference;
5. Seal the entire border with Pakistan and Bangladesh;
6. Declare internal emergency in J&K, without suspending the constitution;
7. Appoint someone like K P S Gill as the internal security czar in J&K, who will oversee the entire security operations in the state and will report directly to the Prime Minister's Office;
8. Let the civilian state government, elected by the masses, handle the civilian operations within the state;
9. Give appropriate and required authority to security forces and agencies;
10. Ask all foreign reporters and so-called Amnesty International observers to leave J&K within 24 hours;
11. Give an ultimatum to all the citizens of J&K to stop shielding and supporting terrorists. Anyone found shielding and supporting any terrorists will be charged accordingly;
12. Give an ultimatum of 3 weeks to all terrorists in J&K to lay down arms and surrender or face the wrath of the security forces and; 13. Then let the show begin.
At the South Asia Journal conference organised by South Asia Free Media Association, Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said, 'The dialogue process with India is underway. However, its pace is not very good and there is need to speed up this process.' He also said: 'Both countries now should move towards dispute resolution rather than dispute management.'
India should tell Shaukat Aziz to shut up and instead focus on his internal mess. It is about time to tell Pakistan to go to hell. India has no obligation to listen to Shaukat Aziz or any of his minions.
India does not have to worry about how the US and other European nations will react to her strategy to deal with terrorism. It is India's problem and India needs to deal with it in the manner that is in the best interest of India and its citizens. When a nine-year-old girl is killed in Doda district, it is the blood of India that flows. We need to be crystal clear in our dealings with US and other Western nations and tell them categorically that Indian blood is as precious as American or European blood.
If the US and other Western nations can take all the extreme measures, which they should and they are, to protect their citizens and land, India has the absolute right to do the same. When a terrorist hurts an innocent Indian child, s/he is hurting the whole nation of India and India will not tolerate that at any cost.
So I have only one question for our honorable Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh:
Having already lost so much innocent blood, what will it take Mr Prime Minister?
Lalit Koul is the editor and publisher of Kashmir Herald, an online news-journal available at http://www.kashmirherald.com He can be reached at editor@kashmirherald.com
Posted by: john ||
05/09/2006 19:58 ||
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This guy was a colonel in the Pakistan Army. I shudder to think that his fellow officers have their finger on a nuclear button
By Lt Col (R) M Zaman Malik
The US has established an image of uncouth administration which has been destroying countries and regions constantly one by one in each decade after World War-II. It does not follow any code of conduct or principle and considers it justifiable enough to use its might, simply because it has got it more than many times of all the other great powers put together. Having caused destruction and mayhem by making use of its latest weaponry and equipment, produced by Zionist owned industries, spread across America, it begins to carry out reconstruction of its own victim, thus benefiting the Zionists in the first place, and then also through its exports of expertise which reap rich harvest in the rebuilding and reconstruction phase. Darwinian mentality justify its cruel actions ignoring the humane code of conduct spelled out clearly in the Holy Scriptures, Conventions, and UN Charter.
The people of America are trapped by Zionism with its monopoly of US industry, Capital and Gold - reserves. No politician can ever aspire for victory without Zionists huge financial support. Any person from President down to a peon cannot get appointed without Zionists choice for him, which was never altruistic. If ever a President or any other person Cabinet Secretary, Pentagon stalwart or Congress man does not tow their line of thought, he is removed with disgrace or eliminated. In the meantime, Zionism continues espionage and sabotage much more comfortably and comprehensively; directing and controlling US crucial decision making.
Yet, no one can claim today that United States rules Supreme or inspite of its stupendous 500 billion military budget it is able to impose its will on the whole world. Just about four years back, President G W Bush spoke of Americas unparalleled strength and influence. which, he pledged will be used to confront regimes that supported terror and extend the benefit of freedom and progress to nations that lack them. Infact, having displayed itself as the Indo-Israeli Proxy, it is by itself being widely regarded as terrorist. Israeli-Indian nexus had earned this notoriety long time back and the Zionists have been making use of US superpower after Einstein got the atom bomb for use by US at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Then the Jews portrayed themselves as the most victimized peoples by the Nazis, though in the same America, because of their Crucifixion of the Jesus Christ and their conspiratorial nature they were considered aliens and allowed only to live in ghettos, until the end of World War-II. They had to wear the trousers with yellow patch at the buttocks. Dr Henry Kissinger has been lynchpin of all the US policies, through which the Zionists have been and still are benefiting them.
He was, like the elders of Zionism, the extraordinary champion of Pre-emptive by US. Sorry to say, US today, is more hated than ever before. The war in the Middle East could have been won more adequately by capturing the minds of the people concerned, by cultivating mutual respect and by affording facilities in US institututions for the students and jobs to others. Through the current policy Israels security will never be guaranteed. Infact, the more it captured and annihilated, Palestinians the more insecure will it feel. It will be an unending process, which would lead the world to the farthest end and anything any time might happen. Bipolarism already seems to be in the offing. UN is not being trusted. Kofi Annans statements in the second and third week of March 2002, and his wailing cannot be erased from minds for quite sometime.
The picture that is emerging is of an American colossal unable to impose its leadership and engaged in fighting off challenges from many different directions. Now, America is sending Fifty thousand troops with complete nuclear paraphernalia to Japan, which will be located there, somewhere, to retaliate against North Vietnam and China. Japan has had it once in 1945. How come it dares expect the same curse for others from its soil? Infact, it should fight tooth and nail against the very existence of these weapons. Or, has it forgotten the past devastation caused to it by US atom bombs, and has engrossed itself too deep in the economic rivalry against China in the company of US? Russia has made up for its economic weakness by the oil exports during the last years. Latin American countries like Venezuela and Brazil have rebelled against US dominance.
But Iraqi insurgency is dominating the US administrations minds too badly and it might suffer the defeat not unlike that of Vietnam. Then, Iran, Syria and Hamas have pinned down US minds. America must change its policy before its too late. UN should not be treated by it as its own handmaiden. It must start respecting UN Charter, Conventions, and human rights. Why doesnt it invoke The International Court of Justice, to settle the trivial issues with justice and fair play? It must implement UN long standing resolutions. In these days Roman Empire or Neo-Colonialism cannot be imposed. Yes Justice, Justice alone is one power that can translate the dawning consciousness of humanitys oneness into will through which the necessary structures of global community life can be confidently erected. With justice in front US must remove root causes of war rather than siding with culprits at the cost of entire mankind. A genuine universal framework needs to be adopted.
Posted by: john ||
05/09/2006 18:31 ||
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#1
I wonder if he was passed over because of his grades at War College.
News story: Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sent an eighteen-page letter to President Bush. No work on whether it was hand-written in tiny type, margin to margin, and wrapped in tinfoil. Herewith are some excerpts.
Dear Infidel Crusader Zionist sock-puppet Saudi-lackey depoiler of Mesopotamia woman-touching pigdog fiendish (293 words excised) Shah-licking son of a toads offal: I trust this finds you well. I have much on my mind, and have taken the pen to unburden my breast. I have enclosed a self-addressed stamped envelope should you wish to reply.
(429 words concerning Jewish penetration of the Postal System excised)
. . . Do you not realize you are beaten, as a donkey is beaten, but knoweth not his donkeyhood is cursed? Your comics have turned against you in your own lair, and mock you without mercy. We have seen the videos of the Meal of the Correspondents, and we know how your left regards the men of the laugh as prophets and seers. It is only a matter of time before Johnny Carson (applause be upon him) returns from occlusion to request that you, Mr. President, take the Slauson cutoff, get out of your car, and cut off your Slauson, Hi-yo, salaam. And a third part of the Slauson shall be stained with the tears of the womenfolk, and (9323 words excised)
. . . Our people glow with pride over our nuclear efforts, sometimes literally. I repeat that the enrichment is for peaceful purposes only, and we seek only peace, and peace is our goal, and there is nothing more we love than peace. Except death. Sorry; forgot. Death is definitely number one. In third place of things we love, well, there were those nice ice-cream desserts they had at this little place in Tehran. When I was Mayor I had them brought in on Fridays. Good times, good times. But once I found a hair.
(2356 words excised concerning Jewish penetration of the Iranian Dessert-Industrial complex)
... Na na na nah, nah, everythings underground! And your Congressors cut funding for the nuclear bombs which permit the busting of the bunker. Na na na! I do a taunting dance and cock my hips mockingly! In sudden seriousness, please to be thank them for this, although we lost a days work in the labs due to the celebration. I even permitted the drinking of whiskey, and decreed that the suppliers of alcohol be only lightly killed. (549 repetitions of na na na na excised)
. . . and if you had the problem I have with razors you would know why my beard seems so tentative at times; if I may speak with you man to anointed hastener of the Apocalypse, how do you get such a smooth shave? A hot towel? Perhaps the Five-Blade Razor of which we have heard muttered rumors? Personally, I use an exfoliating agent which (8343 words excised)
. . . and Jack Bauer will not be able to save you this time, my friend. If there is an attack on our country we will double our aid to the Iraqi patriots, double our funding to Hezbollah and its female auxiliary wing Sisboombah, and double again our attempts to secrete through your borders weapons both chemical and biological.
Ah er, reduce everything I said in the previous paragraph by half. We will START doing those things. Yes, that is the thing that is the ticket: start. We will also use our fearsome weapons of unspeakable lethality to destroy your planes before they are even built, let alone launched. We can sink your mighty aircraft carriers by shouting in unison, so great is our national will.
. . . Seriously, when I came to the UN and you didnt even send a fruit basket, it hurt. Did you not see how well I was received? Did you not see the light of God that surrounded me when I spoke, how no one blinked as I related our message, how doves came out of my mouth and the pants of all were filled with flowers. Did you not note how the exact number of letters I spoke divided by the sum (in Euros) we paid the Chinese engineers was the winning lottery number the following week? Including the Powerball? And you seek to confound my work to bring back the Messiah and bring the world once more into the arms of Islam? Including all penguins?
What are you, nuts?
Sincerely and Death to America,
Mahmoud, descendant of Xerxes, 34th degree Mason, personal valet of the hidden Imam, and not just a member of the Hair Club for Men Im also the President! Death to America.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/09/2006 16:40 ||
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#1
Funny, but...
LGF is reporting the letter invited Dubya to Islam, which could be interpreted (by the Ummah, Ulema, Learned Elders and so on) as a declaration of war if the invitation is declined.
#1
But Dean Esmay says Islam is nothing to worry about! After all, his copy of the Koran says there's no compulsion in religion, and he's never heard anyone say that verse was ever contradicted!
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/09/2006 17:21 Comments ||
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#1
"No one did more than Freud to reduce women to sexual objects" - Mohammed and his followers have done a better and more lasting job of this than Freud ever did.
#2
I always enjoy reading Spengler's essays whether or not I agree with him or can even follow him. This essay uses Freud as a whipping-boy for some larger current cultural issues.
"What impels so many young people in Anglo-Saxon countries toward slow-motion suicide? " is followed several paragraphs later by "The therapeutic community has perfectly valid explanations for anorexia and self-harm at the individual level. But it reminds me of a doctor who explains with great precision how a metal object has passed through your body wreaking damage on various organs without also mentioning that the city in which you live is subject to aerial bombardment. Without addressing the cultural catastrophe, the therapeutic profession will be hard put to save many of the individuals." and "the morbid refusal to reproduce that condemns most of the industrial world to depopulation and eventual extinction, not to mention the epidemic of suicide attacks in Iraq and elsewhere in the Muslim world."
He links sexual objectification and self-centeredness to a community-wide failure to preserve and propagate: "Women can expect only a brief flowering of beauty before age and child-bearing attenuate their sexual attraction. The love of a life partner, the shared love of their children, the honor of the community and the knowledge that the human life cycle is linked to something eternal are the consolations to women for the loss of their beauty." These types of consolation provide support, not just for mothers, but for fathers, and also for servicemen and -women facing a premature death on the line somewhere in Iraq or Afghanistan. Something to think of as Memorial Day approaches.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
