Disqus - Friends of Idiosyncrat

Re: Comments moving to Disqus

shaun — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 03:18:52 -0000

Too cool, Tyrone!

Re: Comments moving to Disqus

shaun — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 10:15:52 -0000

Idiosyncrat:

Now that I've seen your mug I better understand those karate chop comments you leave. (!!!)

Re: The Civilian Body Count Controversy & Other News From The Forever War

shaun — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 11:17:31 -0000

Both Rudi and Idiosyncrat make valid points. Of course the National Journal has its own biases, but it does point out in some depth what would seem to be serious problems with the study.

For what it may be worth, I don't typically quote from the NJ, but because I had gone on record more or less buying into the study, I believed that it was important to write about the NJ story.

Re: Why It’s Suddenly Okay For the World To Feel Good About the U.S. Again

shaun — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 13:01:59 -0000

DLS:

You are more tiresome today than usual. Please articulate why the world view of your dear leader should not be so dark. Otherwise, stop taking up bandwidth.

Re: Why It’s Suddenly Okay For the World To Feel Good About the U.S. Again

shaun — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 14:32:31 -0000

DLS:

Run for the high bushes, lad. Run, run , run. Not a peep about why the world view of Bush should not be so dark.

Re: It’s Time For Ron Paul to Go Bye-Bye

shaun — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 12:10:56 -0000

Cosmo:

I'm not anti-Paul and did note that there are things he stands for with which we can agree. And Amanda makes a good point about him pushing the rest of the field.

Richardson, Thompson and Hunter are dead meat and it's also time for them to turn out the lights because they don't even meet Amanda's test.

Re: Rumors of Clinton’s Death Greatly Exaggerated; McCain Rises From Ashes

shaun — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 12:14:09 -0000

Rudi:

Fewer younger voters went for Obama in New Hampshire than Iowa. Clinton did better among older voters in both states.

Re: Reading Between the Lines

shaun — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 12:21:15 -0000

As someone who from long practice put the outlines of my New Hampshire story together before the polls closed, I was a little chagrined when I awoke from a nap to see that Clinton had eked out a win.

But as I am fond of saying, polls are a snapshot in time and that time ends before a voter enters a polling place.

It is my view that Obama stayed pretty steady but Clinton surged at the very, very end. That is not poor polling, that's something that is impossible to poll.

Pick a reason for Hillary's surge. Mine is that there was an 11th hour epiphany about her among a fair number of voters who looked themselves in the eye and realized that the choice was between charm and experience . They opted for experience.

Re: It’s Time For Ron Paul to Go Bye-Bye

shaun — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 13:19:12 -0000

websmith:

I learned that I was wrong after I voted for Ralph Nader in 2000. George Bush did not make my life better.

Re: It’s Time For Ron Paul to Go Bye-Bye

shaun — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 14:47:48 -0000

All:

We're seeing an unhealthy dose here at TMV of what has happened at other blogs where writers do not toe the Ron Paul line:

Ad hominem and personal attacks. While one has to admire the enthusiasm of Paul's supporters, they don't help his supposedly noble cause by screaming that the messenger should be shot.

Re: It’s Time For Ron Paul to Go Bye-Bye

shaun — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 14:58:59 -0000

Quoting Ross Douthat:

“You know, I half-believe Ron Paul when he says that he is not a bigot or a racist or an anti-Semite. I half-believe him in when he says the inflammatory material that James Kirchick has uncovered in years and years of newsletters and pamphlets with his name on them was written by others without his supervision or direct permission. But what I'm nearly sure of is that he doesn't really care that much if some of the people around him are racists - not because he shares their opinions, but because he thinks those opinions aren't all that important in the grand scheme of things.

“This doesn't make Ron Paul a terrible person; it just makes him human. He believes in a constellation of ideas - some of them nutty, but some of them not - that have been shunted to the fringe of American political life. And people who find themselves in that position tend to be far, far more forgiving of their allies' various tics and idiosyncracies and yes, bigotries than would otherwise be the case. It's unfortunate, but it's also human nature: If someone agrees with you and supports you when the whole world seems to be against you, of course you'll be more likely to look past their tendency to suggest that Mossad was behind the 1993 WTC bombing, or their fondness for pre-apartheid South Africa. When you're way out there on the fringe, without any obvious way to reach the mainstream, it's very easy to tell yourself that your dubious friends aren't really all that bad - and that besides, if you ever start finding your way back to the mainstream, it won't be all that hard to jettison them along the way.”

Re: A Sad Commentary on These Times

shaun — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:40:05 -0000

It is important from a contextual standpoint to remember at this point in an about to be declared war the U.S. had been running secret missions into North Vietnam and that is what provoked the North Vietnams on August 2.

LBJ was flying without congressional approval (sound familiar?) and needed a pretext to get that approval.

Re: Iran Incident: The Backpedaling Begins

shaun — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 20:24:45 -0000

DLS:

It's so much easier -- and so much lazier -- to ignore my original thoughts, which are reprised above. I don't deny that the incident occurred. What I cannot deny is that my government has lied to me with such regularity that my initial reaction was disbelief.

Comprenez vous?

Re: Clintons Against the War Before For It

shaun — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 19:19:16 -0000

Cosmo:

Excellent point.

Idiosyncrat:

No, I feel no shame.

Re: Huckabee & A Tale of Two Prisoners

shaun — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 13:30:42 -0000

Rudi:

Fix made. It was indeed rape only. Thank you.

AustinRoth:

Dumond did not go on to rape and murder until after Parker had been executed.

Re: The Keystone Kops Play Brinksmanship

shaun — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 12:03:00 -0000

Cosmo:

From the linked article:

"A separate audio recording of that voice . . . was spliced into a video on which the voice apparently could not be heard. That was a political decision, and Lieutenant Colonel Mark Ballesteros of the Pentagon's Public Affairs Office told IPS the decision on what to include in the video was "a collaborative effort of leadership here, the Central Command and navy leadership in the field."

Re: McCain Gets Flagged in South Carolina

shaun — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 10:03:18 -0000

Pennywit:

Thank you for the clarification on the flag. Fix made.

Re: Meet Mike Huckabee: Financial Guru

shaun — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:07:10 -0000

DLS:

Of course he can't be blamed. But why would he continue to lend his most precious asset -- his name -- to such a shoddy venture?

Re: At Last! Signs of Progress in Iraq

shaun — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:56:52 -0000

CO:

You delude yourself. Nothing has gone according to plan since the White House said the troops would be home by Christmas 2003. Get over it.

Re: John McCain & The Republican Death Wish

shaun — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 14:35:11 -0000

One of the things that draws me to McCain as the only Republican I could vote for is that he is the only presidential candidate whose views on immigration reform are not merely based on punitive measures.

Re: What’s Wrong With Our Business Schools?

shaun — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 10:15:08 -0000

Dave:

Thank you for your nuanced response. You are quite right across the board: Biz schools get students that are pretty much already ethically inculcated, while borrowers do have responsibilities and the subprime crisis certainly has highlighted the reality that some borrowers abrogated theirs because they failed to see or didn't care about the dark side of the American Dream.

Where I somewhat disagree is that business schools, like law schools and medical schools and divinity schools, have a social obligation to hammer a sense of ethical probity into their students. It is my impression that all, most especially business schools, do a lousy job.

Re: Ronald Reagan, The Once Shining City On the Hill & Other Notes From the GOP Asylum

shaun — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 08:41:42 -0000

Cosmo:

Thank you for the kind words, but I wouldn't discount the feel-good aspect of any politician. That's important. I myself felt good in the 90s until the tech bubble burst and with it my stock portfolio.

Re: Will Bill Clinton Blow It For Hillary?

shaun — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 12:34:58 -0000

CrisWWW:

The U.S. is in deep do-do and I will not go into the voting booth in November refusing to cast my ballot for someone whom I can abide in general but don't like on particular issues.

I voted for Ralph Nader in 2000. You can call me Mr. Pragmatic in 2008.

Re: Will Bill Clinton Blow It For Hillary?

shaun — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 02:24:27 -0000

Chris WWW:

I not going to take your bait because my vote will not be based exclusively on issues. Example: I would vote for neither Clinton nor McCain just because of their stands on the Iraq war.

I am also concerned with character and leadership ability. McCain gets the edge on both of them.

Re: So Many Friedman Units, So Little Time & Other News From Bush’s Forever War

shaun — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 10:39:16 -0000

Andy:

We're both right. Petraeus said nothing explicit about force reductions except that there aren't going to be any beginning in March -- and he won't know when there will be until six months beyond a turning point that people outside of Washington understand has not been reached.

Just to be clear: I'm not twigging Petraeus. I'm calling out the dancers.