Well, I’m back from my deployment and wouldn’t you know the first post I make is as earth-shattering and gob-smacking as this:
I agree with what Bill Maher and Andrew Sullivan have to say here:
“If we are to retain equal citizenship, everybody should be responsible for their actions, not their thoughts.” – Sullivan
Some other good lines:
“I think the law should send the message, ‘You know what? Even if you’re emotional, you can’t commit a crime.'” – Maher
“No one is defending hate here, okay? We’re defending liberty.” – Sullivan
“The right of a bigot to walk down the street is the same as the right of a drag queen to walk down the street.” – Sullivan
“If pranking people on the basis of what every prank is–often involved, which can often be bigotry…if that is now 10 years in prison, then half the country is going to have to be locked up” – Sullivan
“I just think this is what gives Liberals a bad name.” – Maher
(on Ravi): “He insists that he did not do this out of homophobia. Some court decided what was inside his mind–for him. And he risked a lot to insist that he wasn’t a bigot.” – Sullivan
“I believe that a free country is freedom for bigotry. I really do. I think it’s freedom that they should be able to say whatever they want. But shutting people down–Criminalizing them–is not a free country.” – Sullivan
(and please forgive me, my blogging skills–as they ever were–are rusty and so I don’t known how to imbed this video from RCP…perhaps Dan or Bruce can help me out?)
I used to read (and agree with) Andrew Sullivan a LOT. I read him back in the BoiFromTroy days that got me involved with this blog in the first place. (Those were some haydays, no?) When he abandoned much of what he had pre-FMA supported, I was pretty disappointed to say the least. Here it’s good to see he hasn’t completely lost all his bearings, and perhaps I should take a look again?
– Nick (ColoradoPatriot, from HQ)
If you have that kind of time on your hands, sure. A couple predictions for you: (1) he hasn’t dropped the Trig Trutherism, (2) come November he is absolutely, positively, 100% going to end up endorsing Obama. Let me know if either of those predictions is wrong. Thanks for looking at him, for me 😉
And – glad you’re back!! Thanks for your service, congrats on making it back safe.
I have always thought all crime was hateful. What can be more hateful than depriving someone of their life, liberty, or chance to pursue happiness? Ahhh…but darn it all…the Constitution, as a charter of negative rights, fails to explain how the government can determine what constitutes “hate” and protect our citizens from “hate.” Maybe the Founders were unfamiliar with hate…oh, no…wait…tarring and feathering did exist in the 18th century, among other examples of “hate crimes” that were used against those not in line with one’s thinking.
So long as there are humans, there will be hate and jealousy. So long as we have hate and jealousy, there will be crime. I would suggest to Maher that perhaps the cultural abandonment of certain religious memes (thou shalt not kill, covet, give false testimony, love thy brother, turn the other cheek, etc.) that atheists such as himself demand, results in the degradation of the ability to discern right from wrong. Instead of living a life that contributes to society, narcissists like Maher, embody the notion that “I” am all that matters. If you have no higher being to answer to, no belief in an afterlife, or karma…then why would you care what harm your actions cause another human being. You sacrifice empathy for others when you allow your gratification to become a schema for your outlook on life. Our priest recently spoke of William Murray (good article here: http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2000-03-15/features/0003150203_1_madalyn-murray-ohair-atheist-madalyn-school-prayer) and how he found his faith after being raised an atheist. He is a very interesting man who has turned his life around with his faith but who I am sure Maher would denounce as “religulous.”
Good luck with Sullivan. I used to be a big fan of his when I first started coming out. As a gay conservative. But he went off the deep end years ago. Even a broken clock…
Hate crime, hate speech: both deeply dangerous ideas, inimical to liberty. It is not the role of the State to tell us how or whether to feel.
I’m still of the opinion that Sullivan is one the best thing to ever happen for the democrat party.
hellocat – “there will be hate and jealousy”
Yes, and there will always be rich people and poor people too. I wish people would just get over it.
The parable of the broken clock comes to mind. But Maher and Sullivan aren’t exactly motivated by a love of liberty here so much as a love of their own right to say nasty things about Sarah Palin.
Richard…I concur. (Reinforces the whole notion of not coveting…)
A professor of mine once explained, in simple terms, why communism will always fail:
If, by government decree, every citizen was entitled to one red shirt each year and the local Circle K provides said shirts on the honor system, there will always be some asshole who believes he or she is entitled to two. They’ll help themselves and screw their fellow citizen.
Agreed Nick, 100%, with those quotes. If we’re going to have a First Amendment that means anything then it has to apply to all parties, no matter how much we may despise them.
Back 10 years ago I followed Andrew Sullivan religiously and thought he was the cat’s meow. A year or two later though and I was done with him for good. I’ve never been a fan of Maher, even for a second. So it’s interesting and encouraging to see those quotes from them. Perhaps Maher realizes that what’s happening to Rush could be easily applied to him.
And thank you for your service to our country!
CP – Welcome back!
I tend to agree with VtK in #6 but I agree with the sentiment.
Mark Steyn has made the point that if we’re to live in a multi-culti society (not sure that’s possible but here we are) then people need to grow thicker skin.
It’s OK to agree with the quotes, certainly.
But in the case of Maher and Sullivan, one should remember that their core rule is, “Do as I say, not as I do“.
And welcome back! Glad you’re safe and well.
Oh, and welcome home Nick!
What if I’m the dog, and the cat is a Black Panther named Muhammed who’s calling upon his fellows to kidnap a man who hasnt neen charged with any criminal wrongdoing.
Or maybe the cat is a filmmaker who tweets the man’s address in hopes that some more unhinged cat will kill him.
Can we have them neutered???
Welcome back, Nick! Thank you for your service, my man!
First of all Colorado welcome back and thank you for defending what truly matters in this country… and under the conditions set by this President who allegedly considers himself an American who is transforming our military into a demented Alice in Wonderland re-enactment.
And wow, it is so wonderful to read I’m far from the only for whom Andrew Sullivan spoke nothing but conservative truths until he allowed himself to go completely off his own patriotic ranch into the pathetic Obama sycophant/laughingstock he is today.
I avidly read his blog from the late 90s into 2009 and made a few contributions including a great View from My Window which I was tickled to see published on his blog and then again by a contributor in a funny photo-shopped form. I was in grad. school when he published the Conservative Soul (his last solid moment of writing) and I even worked his book and blog into one of my final term papers.
The magic bullet that provided me the sense of mind to break with him was loaded back in 2007 when I read about this fascinating governor of Alaska who to me provided a promising example of what conservatism could be again… and seemingly a perfect example of what Sullivan claimed to want for the movement in his recent book. I’m ashamed to admit I let him lead me down the garden path a little over the Trig birth obscenities until I realized that as more and more evidence came up disproving this theory, he continued to entrench himself in this mindset in the face of good sense. I read him less in 2009. Then in 2010 it sunk in how utterly obscene the Obama administration was; I checked the Daily Dish and incredibly Sullivan was doing nothing but given Baracky the benefit of every doubt and I finally turned away from him in disgust.
Don’t look again, he has lost all his bearing, sure from time to time he says something intelligent, but he has become so hateful that it negates all that.
It’s good to hear from you Nick! I missed your insightful opinion.
On a related note, the left displays its vaunted civility in the wake of Dck Cheney’s HeartTransplant.
On a related note, the left displays its vaunted civility in the wake of Dck Cheney’s HeartTransplant.
Hmmm…I would question one’s mental stability and legal status to vote if they chose the handle “Jedimasterbator.” Something tells me Junior’s mom needs to check up on the 14 year old’s online activities.
Or…maybe that is his SWTOR name and so mom still may want to check up on her 30 year old’s online activities.
Now, I am not gonna deny that I may have, at one time or another, wished Nancy Pelosi ill will…but it was all in fun. A run in her hose…to show up wearing the same outfit as Hillary…or a Congressional investigation into how her husband benefited financially from her insider knowledge…but I would never go so far as to wish a horrible and painful death on anyone (child molesters and murderers are the exception.) I would rather defeat those I oppose on the basis of logic and through effective debate. But, as I have learned this weekend on twitter, the left tends to drag us back to the school playground with taunts of vulgar slurs and profanity that even makes me blush. *sigh* I, for one, hope Cheney recovers and lives a long time…just to spite all the jerko butts out there.
May I make a small suggestion? Can we please not pay ANY ATTENTION WHATSOEVER to what the sewer rats on left wing blogs tweet, blog or post? Why give them the traffic? They’re not going to change their little BB sized minds and they don’t deserve the “hits” on the interwebz. Besides, we all know WITHOUT EVEN GOING THERE what they’re posting. It’s all so predictable. And pathetic.
Bastiat Fan, it is always good to expose the rats for who they are. Sure, most regular readers of this blog will likely be familiar with the left’s disgusting behaviour, but it is possible that there are people reading who aren’t.
Welcome back, CP…and thank you.
Welcome back, Nick!!