The Watering Hole
2003
Shinbone
readers bend a few elbows, and fire back
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9/16/03
"I hope you can find the time to inspire the next generation of sex-free leaders."
This is one of the funniest quotes I have read in a long time. ... This guy Daniel Clark must be a total moron if he took it seriously for even a second. Wow!
Pawel
-- Obviously, you don't read often enough, so I'll give you another opportunity to read the column you should have read before responding to it: Franken's Fraud: Is the Left this desperate for a hero? (8/31/03). Clearly, I'm calling Franken on his hypocrisy in criticizing Ashcroft and the others for not taking his failed practical joke at face value. He talks as if the recipients of his phony letter were obliged to send him stories for publication in the book he wasn't writing in the first place. Up until now, I thought he was the only one who was confused about it. -- DC
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9/9/03
Your ignorance is pitiful ... and so typical of how insular Americans are.
I have done a lot of reading on the Middle-East crisis and Aphganistan from articles written by Eric Margolis (20 years a well-known correspondent in Aphganistan) David Potvin, and of course Scott Ritter who was only a high ranking American weapons inspector post '91. They are all shamefully embarrassed at how their friend and family (the gov't of the United States) is very corrupt.
Sons & daughters of innocent fathers and mothers are dying each day in a land that was needlessly invaded in the manner that it was, for the reasons that are stated and most terribly, the real reason ... Oil.
It's George Bush's time for big business payback for getting him into the White House. I wonder if $87 mill is what it takes to get a president these days.
So continue doing your part in the war for best propaganda. What's it like to live in a world of lies?
Terry
& I Am Canadian
-- I'd been wondering where Comical Ali has been since fleeing Iraq. Thanks for the update. -- DC
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4/23/03
If Black voting was so supported by the 15th Amendment then there would never have been a need for the voting Act in the first place. [The Voting Rights Hoax: Racial scaremongers collide (3/2/00) ; All An Act: Dems assault voting rights (11/5/02)]White people are so quick to scream about how different the face of the country is today. I wonder if you are just too afraid to admit that you are all bigots. Ok maybe not everyone of you is a bigot. But they are so few and far between that it is unnoticeable. Anyway I had to give my two cents.
Willie
-- Personally, I don't think this almost-all-you-white-people-are-bigots malarkey is worth two cents, but that's just me. -- DC
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4/22/03
I'm amazed at your neat system of classification for non-conservatives! Where does a feminist go who is NOT a man-hater, a liberal who is NOT for gun control or against the death penalty, a critic of some government policies who is NOT, (by some strange "logic") also anti-American go to find others like her? Is there any individual thought left in the world, or do we all have to ally ourselves with an organization and march in line? Hmm ... maybe if we find something to deride in others they'll come join us! After all, respect is conditional, based on whether others agree with us or not, so the biggest bully will have the most friends. Obviously, that mentality has nothing to do with the real world. Thanks for helping me see that! I'm off to terrorize some abortion clinics and impose my view of "life" on others, now. See you there.
Peace, love and rabbit food,
A.C.
--Ah, yes. If there's one thing you self-described liberal feminists can't stand, it is to be categorized.
I really don't know where a feminist who is not a man-hater would go, but I know that one would not go anywhere near Martha Burk, or any of the affiliates of her National Council of Women's Organizations.
... Since you brought it up, this publication does not condone violence at abortion clinics (and by this I mean actual violence, not obstruction, "verbal abuse" or other nonviolent behavior that is falsely used to inflate NARAL's statistics), but I do encourage you to visit as many clinics as possible. If you ever become inquisitive about what goes on there, it just might add another NOT to your list. -- DC
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3/15/03
Are you the newspaper quoted in Who shoot Liberty Valence, the genius movie from John Ford?
Well, as a French man, it may not be a good time to start friendly requests to a U.S. newspaper?
Best
Amicalement,
Francois Mauss -- President-Fondateur, Grand Jury European
--Any friendliness from the French is certainly welcome, now more than ever.
The title of The Shinbone is indeed a reference to The Shinbone Star, the newspaper founded, written and edited by the honorable Dutton Peabody in John Ford's classic The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. For further explanation of this, please read The Shinbone Manifesto. -- DC
*Editor's note: "Grand Jury European" is not a judicial body within the EU. It is a group of European wine-tasting experts, whose goal is to provide a more reliable alternative to ratings from independent wine critics. Since Mr. Mauss was kind enough to write, I think it's only neighborly to provide a link to his organization's website: http://www.grandjuryeuropeen.com/
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2/13/03
I am writing in response to a comment made in one of your columns in response to Howard Zinn. [America's Enemies' List: 70 names you need to remember (6/29/02)] You write:
"In an interview from last year's Sundance Film Festival, Zinn criticized the Gulf War by saying, 'The elder Bush sent a military force into Iraq ten years ago in 1991. I would call that 'imperialism.' Really? What country did we take over? Somebody ought to tell Zinn to look up the word 'imperialism.'"
I would suggest that you do also look up the word "imperialism." In case you haven't noticed, American corporations have taken over the world. That's economic imperialism. Not to mention that you can go just about any place in the world and, if there's a movie theater, there's likely a Hollywood movie and, if there's a mall, you'll likely be able to buy Levi's jeans. That's cultural imperialism. Imperialism does not only involve military force and occupation. In fact, it's far more profitable to influence the will and desires of citizens of other countries by convincing them that their way of life is less desirable than ours; I think when Napoleon did this with his conquests in the 19th century, it was called imperialism. So what makes the U.S. today, and throughout the 20th century, any different.
In response to the question, "what country did we take over" -- we didn't take over a country. We took over the world. And I happen to agree with Zinn, in that a great part of it started when Columbus "discovered" the "New" World. Sure it can be traced back much further than that, but the conquest spawned by the desire for wealth and power in the modern age has led to the state of global imperialism that is thriving today.
And if you think that we fought the war with Iraq in the early 90's for the sake of "democracy," I think you better look up "democracy" and see if the country we "liberated" is democratic. While you're at it, check and see how many U.S. citizens participated in the last elections and ask yourself why we are enforcing democracy on countries throughout the world, when we've abdicated that power here at home.
John -- Tampa, FL
-- "Imperialism," as the term was originally coined, is a national policy of exerting power over others through the acquisition of territory, especially by force, as is characteristic of an imperial government. There has been developed a second, excessively broad definition of "imperialism" which refers generically to any extension of influence by one entity toward another. Zinn's application of the term to the Gulf War, and your accusation that the U.S. has taken over the world, obviously employ the first of these definitions, which is the one that implies a moral judgment against the imperialists.
I suggest to you that Zinn was himself aware of his inaccurate use of the term when he qualified it by saying, "I would call that 'imperialism'," instead of objectively stating, "That's imperialism." You'll notice that I cited a similar evasion on his part when he said of the 2000 election, "My feeling is that we are living in an occupied country." He doesn't simply say that we are, because it's so obviously false, but who can dispute that he feels it?
Your reference to "cultural imperialism" uses the second definition, but tries to lend it the gravity of the first. Ergo, you assert that we are oppressing the peoples of the world by selling them blue jeans. Really. If I were to adopt this same logic, and apply it to the contents of my own closet, I would have to conclude that the United States has been conquered by Pakistan and Thailand.
I don't recall ever saying that the Gulf War was fought for "democracy," or that Kuwait had a representative government, and I certainly wrote no such thing in response to Howard Zinn. As for your reference to Napoleon, I wouldn't be so quick to divorce his reputation as an imperialist from his many military conquests. If, in addition, he sold pants throughout Europe, I'm confident that history will forgive him for that. -- DC
The Shinbone: The Frontier of the Free Press