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12/07/2003 Archived Entry: "How you get from here to there is beyond me."
How you get from here to there is beyond me.
Man, people are able to draw some crazy conclusions in this country.
Since my name turned up linked to 'miserable failure' in a few news stories, I've gotten some wild-ass emails. Most of them you know about - the ones that call me a 'communist,' the one that called me a 'baby-killer,' and one guy in Texas who posed as a reporter and ended up accusing me of 'hating America.'
I have a few things to say to the lot of you, and in a perfect world I'd only have to say them once, but you know how that turns out...
First, accusing me of being a Communist is just so 1954. Joe McCarthy and Roy Cohn have both been dead for a long, long time (despite Ann Coulter's rhetorical mouth-to-mouth on the pile of discredited dust that was once Tailgunner Joe's corpse), and for that matter so has Communism. I'll give some of you half-credit for qualifying your insult with the tacked-on 'Chinese,' but still - you're using your father's insults here. Calling me a Communist has about the same effect as calling me a bad tipper or a flesh-eating alien. In short, it makes no sense.
As for the 'baby-killer' charge, I'll go on the record right now to state that I've never killed a baby, and I have no plans to kill any babies this week or next. In fact, looking at my detailed Five Year Plan (every Communist has one, y'know), I'll note that killing a baby is not listed anywhere.
And for the guy who accuses me of 'hating America' - if you were standing in front of me, I'd laugh in your miserable face. This is a great country, despite the best efforts of Bush and his thugs to turn it into a bad imitation of a third-world banana republic. I'd like to have a house on the Riviera or an apartment in London, but I like my life just fine here on the outskirts of New York City.
This country was founded on the ideas of those who exercised dissent against the powers that be. I carry on that tradition by speaking up against people and policies whose goal it is to erase or change that tradition.
And I'll point something out to the lot of you - George W. Bush is not America. To quote Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now, he is an errand boy sent to collect a debt. He is only an occupant of the White House, and when you stack him up against those who have occupied the White House before him, he looks mighty puny. There were men who became president who actually had bigger ideas than breaking fund-raising records, believe it or not. Many of those who came before him actually wanted to make this country a better place, and they had bigger things on their minds than looting the treasury and ignoring anyone who disagreed with them. Imagine that.
George W. Bush, in my opinion, is hardly worthy of carrying the American flag, seeing as how he was a wartime deserter. To claim that by criticizing Bush I somehow 'hate America' is not only ascribing too high a stature to the prevaricating, short-sighted one-trick pony in the White House, it is insulting to this country. It's roughly the same as saying since I didn't like a McDonald's hamburger I am insulting filet mignon.
So from now on, if someone accuses me of being a Communist, or being a baby-killer or hating America because I choose to criticize the current occupant of the White House, I will provide the link to this post. In the meantime, try to come up with more relevant insults. Thank you.
Replies: 20 people speak up
It's roughly the same as saying since I didn't like a McDonald's hamburger I am insulting filet mignon.
Amen brother.
But I wouldn't even call Bush a McDonald's hamburger. He's more like rancid, rejected hot dog meat infected with mad cow disease.
Posted by Night Owl @ 12/07/2003 01:01 PM NY
Well said. To borrow from Lyndon Baines Johnson, Bush isn't even 'chicken meat', he's 'chicken shit', just like Nixon, which is whom Johnson was talking about.
Posted by Andre @ 12/07/2003 01:11 PM NY
Looks like you've been having a fun few days there, Editor. Good post, well articulated.
While I doubt that your critics would be able to understand this, you might want to toss in there that it's not just our right, it's our civic duty to call into question our government when we feel that it is acting inappropriately. Anyone who claims that you 'hate America' for questioning the Prez is, by definition, showing their anti-Americanism (possibly you could suggest they go back to Europe where they belong?)
No insult intended to our European neighbors, but you folks do have a lot of monarchies over there, constitutinal, democratic or otherwise.
Posted by Mixer @ 12/07/2003 02:33 PM NY
you!!you!!blogger
Posted by lurker @ 12/07/2003 02:35 PM NY
This is SO well-written, so perfectly clear and to the point, that I think this should be the cover letter to every left-leaning blog in the 'sphere. DAMN, Stranger-- you HIT IT!
Holy Moley-- make this the DNC Talking Point of the YEAR!
-Tony B.
Posted by Monkeyfister @ 12/07/2003 04:01 PM NY
Well, I support GWB, but still think google-bombing him is hilarious. For what it's worth, I'm sorry for all the hate mail.
Posted by Magyar @ 12/07/2003 04:22 PM NY
Magyar -
Thanks for being a change of pace from what's become the norm here.
I can handle the hate mail - after all, 'If you can't stand the heat, etc.' - but it's a matter of degrees.
If you disagree with me, tell me my ideas suck. Don't tell me i hate the country I was born and raised in. There's a difference, and I'm surprised that many people don't even see it.
Thank you for weighing in, and happy holidays.
Posted by editor @ 12/07/2003 04:30 PM NY
Magyer-- Thank you for your comments. It really is nice to hear a calm voice of dissent. You've got my respect, and gratitude.
You're doing the right thing by taking in both sides of what is an incredibly devisive issue, and it's more than apparent that you, like us, are trying to get to the SOLUTION, and the TRUTH.
You've found a good place to find as close to both as I've found.
The very best you you.
Tony B.
Posted by Monkeyfister @ 12/07/2003 06:42 PM NY
Badass post indeed, man.
How about this Brando/Apocolypse quote: "They train young men to drop fire on people but their commanders won't allow them to write 'fuck' on their airplanes - because - it's obscene."
Damfacrats see an analogy (although a bit twisted) between Col Kurtz and Wes Clark.
"He just wanted to go out like a soldier, standing up," after the "corporation" turned its back on him and made him resign. So he ran for President.
"As for the charges against me. I am beyond their timid, lying morality," says Kurtz/Clark.
OK, we are starting to sound a little crazy ...
Peace for all, even the hate-mailers.
Posted by Damfa @ 12/07/2003 06:49 PM NY
Damfa -
Thanks for that Brando quote. It'll come in handy for that John Kerry story.
Posted by editor @ 12/07/2003 07:38 PM NY
Write On!
Posted by ThomasWare @ 12/07/2003 08:07 PM NY
Looks like the snow has brought out your eloquence. May we have many snow storms this winter.
Posted by Metropolitan99 @ 12/07/2003 09:09 PM NY
Bravo!
Well said.
Posted by TechnoPeasant @ 12/08/2003 12:24 AM NY
I do have to say about the baby-killer comment: I've killed fewer babies than Bob Barr has.
Posted by Dr. Squid @ 12/08/2003 11:16 AM NY
Magyar supports Bush: why?
Which of his policies does he like? What does he consider Bush's successes to be?
Is Mr. Bush a "nice man"? Well, by all appearences, surely! He is nice looking, he has a pleasant voice, reads some speeches very well, and while he certainly talks funny, what the heck.
It is a problem many managers face everyday, and certainly stuff I faced as a manager at IBM: how do you fire a "nice person" who just cannot do the job? Who actually hurts the work of others? Who might be well connected besides?
If you are a good manager, it is simply your job and others depend on you. Do it professionally, do it without rancor when none is deserved, but do it.
I won't question your judgment if you like "Married with children": that's a personal choice. I probably don't even want to know.
But more is expected if you "like" Bush and support his being chief executive of the largest power on earth ever (The US). On the other hand, under the guidance of Bush, that power must and will fade, and if we must have Bush, then I can only sadly celebrate our demise.
Posted by gberke @ 12/08/2003 12:41 PM NY
your all a bunch of anti american baby eating communists, (and so am i) on another topic however, there is a complete transcript of apocalypse now online at http://www.corky.net/scripts/apocalypseNow.html
i use it often when writing, because it holds true for so many occasions.
Posted by justin @ 12/08/2003 01:04 PM NY
and by the way, if you are going to call anyone a baby killer, you should point a finger at the man who keeps dropping bombs on them, not those of us who oppose him (lets not forget the 9 children, i mean terrorist suspects, that they just blew up in afghanistan)
Posted by justin @ 12/08/2003 01:07 PM NY
oh, wait i forgot. it is only immoral to abort unwanted children who are not yet even viable fetuses. killing already born children with parents who both want and love them is perfectly ok, as long as it is wrapped in the flag of war. i get it. gotta love these assholes, no moral ambiguity at all there
Posted by justin @ 12/08/2003 01:10 PM NY
Here's a piece of a similar rant I made:
"The cause of America can no longer tolerate a weak leader who blames criticism for his miserable failures. A real leader is one who uses his strength to defend his opinions, rather than make the ridiculous and childish claim that one is with him or with the enemy.
When I see dissent, competition, and debate, I can only think, THANK YOU OH DEAR GOD I'M AMERICAN, where I can speak, think, and pray as I want, and where it is my American DUTY to do so.
What kind of sick, twisted, utterly PERVERTED mind could ever believe that the American way is a weakness? That Americanism lowers America's resolve? That Americanism is un-American? The concept is beyond my comprehension.
To those who believe they can impose a tyranny over the mind of man, let me say this: America has NO lack of resolve! America has a lack of leadership."
http://blog.forclark.com/story/2003/12/2/102622/155
Posted by Heckraiser @ 12/08/2003 02:16 PM NY
You are an excellent wordsmith, and have intelligence to go with it! Well said.
I'm new to your site, and obviously will have to spend some time in your archives to try and determine how having an opinion and the ability to express it makes one either communistic or a practicer of infanticide....
Posted by Maggie @ 12/09/2003 08:29 AM NY
