25 Comments

1. Hovig:

You’ll love this Victor Davis Hanson piece from Jan 2003 on NRO: The Tyranny of “BUT”. You’ll especially love his conclusion: “To dethrone the reign of BUT, I suggest a revolution led by therefore — a better adverb which follows from, rather than sidesteps or elides, the truth: Saddam Hussein murders his own, attacks others, and threatens us; therefore let us remove him.”

Jan 31, 2005 - 10:56 am 2. Kevin P:

Roger:

I heard Michael Ledeen on Dennis Pragers show and he read from an editorial from, now everyone sit down, Le Monde praising the election results and they even regonize that President Bush ignored the naysayers and stuck with his election schedule, ignoring the conventional “wisdom” that stated that a delay would be more realistic. Laura Ingraham has been calling the comma-nists But Monkeys on her show. I feel sorry for the Kennedy, Kerry,Boxer crowd. They can’t be like le Monde and give credit to Bush because there whole political future rests on Iraq falling apart. they predicted that setting up the provisional Allawi government was premature, they predicted that the January elections would be a failure and that Bush insisting on going ahead was an example of a leader who wouldn’t listen to their wise council and was surrounded by yes men. The only way for them to survive is to try to downplay the stunning success of the elections. If Le Monde can eat crow, the Democrats should step up and ask for their black bird with a nice cream sauce. Crow a la quagmire.

Jan 31, 2005 - 11:24 am 3. Terrye:

When you base your entire philosophy on rooting for disaster then commaism is all you are left with.

No matter which way it goes there will be a lot of folks that wish you would shut the hell up.

Jan 31, 2005 - 11:33 am 4. Bostonian:

I find myself really wondering what Kennedy, Kerry, and their fans thought was going to happen on Sunday.

Did these idiots truly think that the Iraqis would stay away from the polls?! How could they think that, with the recent counterevidence of Afghanistan? How could they think that people who’d been brutalized for decades would MISS an opportunity to choose their own representation?!

How can these guys have such an astonishingly poor grasp of human nature?

(And yes, I’d like to fire both those lackwits.)

Jan 31, 2005 - 11:42 am 5. Roger:

test

Jan 31, 2005 - 1:26 pm 6. Katherine:

Bostonian,

ìHow could they think that people who’d been brutalized for decades would MISS an opportunity to choose their own representation?!î

Because these brutalized people do not quite qualify as people. Can you imagine how they would stick out at the most modest cocktail party thrown for the right set? Unless they would be serving drinks, of course.

Donít you know that most of the human race actually enjoys to be ordered about? So many bloody dictators out there, and every each one has popularity ratings of 100% – we donít include any dissidents in the count, as they are clearly insane and anyway they cannot express their opinions as they are currently enjoying nice stretch in mental institutions to help them to recover their reasoning powers.

Jan 31, 2005 - 2:02 pm 7. Knucklehead:

More of what Lileks calls the Damning But. We knew it was coming but damn their butts anyway. How stupid are they or how stupid do they think we are?

Jan 31, 2005 - 2:28 pm 8. Catherine:

I’m going to do a count of exactly how long it takes my husband to utter the word ‘debacle’ again.

I swear.

Starting today.

Jan 31, 2005 - 4:00 pm 9. Catherine:

Maybe we should start a pool.

Jan 31, 2005 - 4:01 pm 10. Catherine:

ambisinistral if you’re around—–

So last night I said something about how I wondered whether the Salafists would be able to sustain the same level of violence now that the election has been such a roaring success, or would their financial and physical support decline?

My husband said, “The who?”

And I had to say, “The insurgents.”

Jan 31, 2005 - 4:04 pm 11. Knucklehead:

Like a bajillion others, I found Like Millions Of Iraqis, I Made A Long Journey To The Nearest Polling Place Today at Instapundit. In many ways a very commendable piece. A young man taking some shaky first steps toward becoming an adult. Unfortunately he is not quite ready to run with a revelation:

You may think that you have felt dumb before, but let me tell you something: until you have stood in front of a man who knows real pain and told him that you are against your country’s alleviation of his country’s state-sponsored murderous suffering, you have not felt truly, deeply, like a total fucking moron.

I still am no Bush fan, and I know that America got lied to. I know we shouldn’t have gone, and I think Rove is as evil as they come. But through all this deception and lying, through all this dismemberment and pain, America has wrought a beautiful, fantastic side effect: joy, freedom and a hope for peace. Does it take lies and misdirection to do this?? Is this what the other side of justice is? I feel like such a whiner and I don’t know what to think anymore. Ultimately, in total defiance of my mother and grandmotherís teachings, two wrongs have made a right and my moral compass is tired and busted.

This young man will, yet again, feel “truly, deeply, like total fucking moron.” It will happen someday when he realizes that “his moral compas is tired and busted” yet he used it to condemn another human being, an entire category of human beings, as evil. The poor kid – growing up is hard to do.

Jan 31, 2005 - 4:09 pm 12. Knucklehead:

Catherine,

Whattaya ’spect from a Francophile?

Jan 31, 2005 - 4:13 pm 13. Katherine:

Knuck,

ìThe poor kid – growing up is hard to do.î

No, it really isnít.

I suspect that I was all over political spectrum (with the exception of the Marxist fringe) during the period of my maturation but I knew one thing for sure: hurting other people is wrong, even if you proclaim the best intentions for your victim. Imposing your world-view on others by force is wrong; persuasion is another matter. So you argue, you persuade, you try to win an argument by the power of reasoning and facts behind you, but you cannot make people think like you by force.

What is so hard about that?

Jan 31, 2005 - 4:34 pm 14. Syl:

Sometimes I think Bush is a genius.

Other times I think I’ve simply been lied to and have lived under delusions for so long that when I finally awoke to practical, real, solutions they looked like genius to me.

It is a paradigm shift, like happened in Iraq yesterday. Iraq will never ever be the same again, to us or to its people.

And neither will I.

The nation-state is the highest form of organization our planet will currently support. So, to me, the ‘Progressives’ are finished. Nevermind their top-down vs bottom-up approach, we will not have one unified world until or unless we meet a civilization from another planet.

But I do not dislike all liberals. Part of me still agrees with some of their positions..the ones that offer one side of the push-pull that is necessary in every society.

But to those liberals who are naysayers and terrified of Bush I offer no peace proposals nor compromise. Keep your yes-buts if you please, but you will never get my vote again.

Jan 31, 2005 - 4:50 pm 15. chuck:

Kevin P:

they predicted that the January elections would be a failure and that Bush insisting on going ahead was an example of a leader who wouldn’t listen to their wise council and was surrounded by yes men.

It actually reminds me a bit of memo-gate, where the Democratic follow up attack had jumped off even as the the CBS artillery support was being wiped out. In this case I think they were betting on failure and widespread violence in the Iraqi elections and had prepared their talking points on that basis. So everyone was primed and ready to go, but, well hell, the damned Iraqi resistence didn’t do their part.

Principle beats fantasy based machination once again. With leaders like these the Donks aren’t going anywhere soon.

Jan 31, 2005 - 4:51 pm 16. Syl:

Knucklhead

I read his entire post and was quite moved. I would treat his thoughts with a bit more respect, I think. He tentatively put his foot on another path, and is still hesitant. A bit of barking might very well scare him away.

Jan 31, 2005 - 5:00 pm 17. D Anghelone:

Comma Dia D’elle Arte?

Jan 31, 2005 - 5:01 pm 18. Syl:

Chuck:

“I think they were betting on failure and widespread violence in the Iraqi elections and had prepared their talking points on that basis.”

They believed their own hype. Do they have a clue what happened to them? Again the MSM has unknowingly let the Democrats down. All the negativity reported with little to nothing positive left the Democrats assured of failure in Iraq.

The first time their beloved MSM betrayed them was in allowing Kerry to win the primaries…the MSM didn’t vet him properly.

Jan 31, 2005 - 5:05 pm 19. richard mcenroe:

Sadly, though, it looks like Senator Bayh has decided that his future in the Democratic Party involves a fast stampede to the left fringe… I really doubt that party can throw up a leader of quality anymore.

Jan 31, 2005 - 5:08 pm 20. Katherine:

Syl,

It happened before with Schwarzenegger and CA recall. Almost to the last day the MSM outfits such as LA Times were publishing polls in which Bustamante (D, Mecha) was in double-digit lead. And then came the election Ö.

Mark Styenís commented afterwards: ìremind me to never complain about the liberal media.î

This is the fate of people who believe their own press releases.

Jan 31, 2005 - 5:24 pm 21. jedrury:

If Evan Bayh is the future of the moderate

wing of Democratic Party, he better vastly improve on his appearances in prime time.

He was the proverbial deer in the headlights on Russert yesterday. He was so bad, so scripted, so squinty eyed; I felt sorry for the guy. Almost.

Jan 31, 2005 - 5:29 pm 22. jerry:

I wonder what Comma-ist Barbara Boxer is thinking tonight about those mthical “discouraged” Ohio minority voters who didn’t vote because they had to stand in line in the rain? Might she be thinking that if only those voters had the intestinal fortitude of the average Iraqi, John Kerry would be President today? Nah, she is probably working on her “but.” After all, Democracy isn’t all it cracked up to be…the “wrong” side might win.

John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Barbara Boxer, etal think the Sunnis should rule because they always have. It’s like the shock of the 1994 mid-terms where the Democrats found themselves out of Congressional control for the first time in two generations.

These “Progressives” are our Sunnis.

Jan 31, 2005 - 6:51 pm 23. Katherine:

ìI wonder what Comma-ist Barbara Boxer is thinking tonight (..)î

Thinking? Barbara Boxer THINKING?

The poor dear, if she had to engage in such high-risk activity she would suffer from aneurism.

She is reading and memorizing the talking points provided to her by DNC and her personal political aids.

ìThinkingî, forsooth.

Jan 31, 2005 - 7:03 pm 24. richard mcenroe:

D. Anglehone ó Good one!

Jan 31, 2005 - 10:46 pm 25. D Anghelone:

D. Anglehone ÔøΩ Good one!

Thanks. Diplomad’s ‘comma-ists’ seems awkward. ‘Commadeists’ or ‘commadiasts’ would at least be pronounceable.

Feb 1, 2005 - 6:58 am

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