I’m fascinated by your comment. It would seem that a defining characteristic–maybe the defining characteristic–of the “left” is a desire to “perfect” the world. To purify it. Is this not a form of Puritanism? Is this not an essentially religious sentiment concerning our purpose here on the planet?

Yesterday I happened to come across the statement in a book I was reading that there is a Buddhist belief that the world has always been perfect and that all that remains for us is to recognize that. I found the statement to be so at odds from my usual thinking as to be shocking. How different from our Western (i.e., Christian) point of view. In the face of a world which is demonstrably outrageously tragic, we are faced with the necessity of somehow coming to grips with it. On the one hand, we believe that it is our God-given right, indeed obligation, to fix this broken world. This belief seems to have outlasted the belief in God itself. On the other hand, we are informed that our duty is to fix ourselves as it were, much as Roger once posted about the idea taught in therapy that one must live in the moment. Surely there is some wisdom in both points of view?

I love Bill Whittle though I haven’t kept up. I read Trinity last year sometime and gave these very same people the link. One of them (a person I actually like and admire) said it was the cruelest piece of writing she’d ever read. I was shocked. To me Trinity was joyous and uplifting and a powerful tribute to the spirit and opportunity of America.

But I understand where she’s coming from. I’ve been there myself. Whittle’s POV was fairly new to me at the time and was an eye opener. Even if one doesn’t believe a perfect world is possible, one can still strive for the vision. That is until you realize that the striving itself may be doing more harm than good.

Suddenly you see reality as something that is, instead of something to fight. Then you can work within the system instead of fighting it from outside. That’s partly what my little ‘essay’ was about.

I’m not a person who believes ‘it’s MY money, how dare you give it to someone else’. I’ve just come to believe that a central government is not the most efficient tool for doing whatever.

And one of the reasons I feel so much contempt for ‘the left’ is the anguish they make nice people like the woman above feel. It almost defines her life and is very genuine. I find it tragic.

Your comment about the efficacy of people going about their everyday lives reminded me of this one about the “web of trust”. Have you read it?

Hardly a person reading this has not sat, probably many times, on board a commercial jetliner, munching a terrible sandwich while watching television on a little screen at seven miles above the earth moving faster than the musket ball that ended the life of Sullivan Ballou.

The sheer mundane frequency of this miracle should be enough on it’s own, but I ask you to look much deeper.

Think, for a moment, about the endlessly intricate, stunning web of trust, cooperation and genius required to make this happen. Drop the obvious elements like the pilots and the air-traffic controllers. Forget the armies of people who set their alarms every day to go and build, fly and maintain these wonders.

What about the chemist who determined the correct mixture to get that reprehensible purple dye just right for the fabric on the seat back covers? Who engraved DIANE’s name tag? How many hundreds of men cut how many grooves in how many trees to make the rubber that seals the handles on the restroom faucets? What were the names of the aerodynamicists who designed the wing section before the one actually finalized in the design of the airplane? Who made the air traffic controller’s coffee? What were the first words spoken between the parents of the person who cleaned and vacuumed your seat?

How marvelous are our everyday lives, intertwined with all the other everyday lives to produce a totality which is darned near miraculous. And there’s no coercion, it’s all done and performed–the whole vast spectacle–freely by all participants. It’s worthy of Walt Whitman. “I sing the free market electric.”

As for the bit about “putting you on ignore”, I’m beginning to see a pattern here. Consider this article by Mark Steyn.

Switch on the TV these days and you’ll see John O’Neill, principal spokesman for the hundreds of Swift boat veterans who oppose their old comrade Kerry, talking calmly and patiently about the facts, citing chapter and verse and relevant footnotes, while some deranged interviewer is going berserk.

The other day it was CNN host James Carville, former skinhead-in-chief to Bill Clinton, yelling and howling all over O’Neill’s answers before brushing him aside with, “I’ve got no use for this man.”

Close your ears! Don’t listen to what they’re saying! Real open-minded folks, don’t you think?

“I told one ABB idiot that if Kerry gets elected and I don’t have a new job and a new car and a new house in a year I am going to sue the DNC for misrepresenting their product.”

LOL!

Well it seems to be all about emotion and motivation and greater truths and I’m such a nice person because I feel sorry for the poor and don’t like war. The ones I’ve hung out with for a while don’t believe they have to think because they’re artists you see.

I wrote (rather eloquently I thought) about how our system works..the free market (without ever using that term) and the billion individual transactions that occur daily in America.

And concluded that just by living our lives normally, purchasing the highest quality at the lowest price and individualy helping our neighbors and contributing to charity, we do more to help the poor than all the chest-pounding will ever accomplish. And the answer?

“I’m putting you on ignore.”

Gotta love it. LOL

Thank you for your response. So, not onlynot Christmas in Cambodia, but never in Cambodia, so whence the epiphany from brave warrior to brave protestor?

I was thinking a few days ago, remembering previously reading some of the Winter Soldier testimony, of a qestion for Kerry boosters: “Do you want a president who is an admitted war criminal or a president who falsely said he was a war criminal?” With Kerry, you can have both.

I know what you mean. And they are also insulting and obnoxious and like to start fights they don’t have the balls to finish.

I had the same discussion. I just said well Bush had to sign a form and release all of his and so should Kerry unless he is hiding something.

It just amazes me how many Dems don’t even see what the big deal is with Moore and moveon.org and just assume that Halliburton has been charged with a crime and all Republcians are evil, even if the little old lady next door happens to be one.

Like trying to have a battle of wits with an utterly defenceless opponent.

I told one ABB idiot that if Kerry gets elected and I don’t have a new job and a new car and a new house in a year I am going to sue the DNC for misrepresenting their product.

“The thing I have asked people who try to make an excuse for him is why won’t he release his records?”

I ask too. But these people _insist_ that Kerry has released his records, see, they’re on his site!

Sigh.

I actually did manage to get one of them to visit swiftvets.com. She came back full of quotes from commenters there she didn’t like.

Honestly, you’ve got to laugh at stuff like this.

Joe told me that the left side calls the right side evil and the right side calls the left side stupid and uninformed.

When I was on the left side I never bothered to listen to the right side so I didn’t characterize it much at all. But now that I’m on the right side I want to scream about how stupid and uninformed the left side is! LOL

No doubt Kerry’s testimony is part of what drives these men. Otherwise they might just have thought he was another prissy preppy glory hound and blown him off.

However, the things he said after the war just lend credibility to the questions concerning Kerry’s over all truthfullness. He lied about Cambodia. He lied about artrocities. He met with the enemy. What else did he lie about?

It seems to me that he is lucky he was not in jail. I thought mass murder was a crime.

The thing I have asked people who try to make an excuse for him is why won’t he release his records? The Democrats hounded Bush into doing it, why not Kerry? Could it be he is hiding something? Hell if I know, but you gotta wonder.

So refined. so debonair. Such great allies and friends. At least that is what Saddam thought.

I think the point we are missing is that Kerry is either a liar or a war criminal. According to his own testimony it is one or the other. Which is it do you think?

We know he does not respect any vet that fails to share his overblown opinion of himself. We know that he blames all his screw ups on the Republicans and their master mind Karl Rove. He does not fall down, remember?

Dems, face it, these swifties hate Kerry and they would be out there whether Bush was in the White House or not. This is personal.

Comforting as it may be not everything is someone else’s fault. Kerry failed to learn a simple lesson: when you are in a hole, stop digging.

Here is the link to the Bronze Star debunking:

Link…