Comments on: That kind of sums it up

By: TFG

TFG — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 01:14:17 +0000

Elephino. Seriously, one day, I’d like to understand the thought process. It’s so out of kilter with our foundings. I know I’m not perfect in that regard, no one is, but I sure as hell strive for it and not in the other direction. Ach…hard to fight.

By: charles austin

charles austin — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:40:19 +0000

I thought the joke went, “I’m from the governnment and I’m here to help.” How did that become anyone’s pragmatic anything?

By: dstanley869

dstanley869 — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 22:56:27 +0000

Liberals are always looking to pass some new law. It justifies their slobbering at the public trough. Most of the crep they pass does no one any good at all. Except when they slip a little footnote in to pay off one of their friends.

By: TFG

TFG — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 04:48:19 +0000

Well, first off, quite clearly, the Bush administration does not think that the government solution is always bad. That should be crystal clear. I haven’t had a government in my lifetime who doesn’t first look to government to solve problems. That’s the way governments work, even ours, the finest on earth. It bugs me that we have citizens who support them in this, despite the evidence to the contrary.

Second, one would hope it sets off alarm bells to a free-thinking individual, and the point was driven home rather clearly in my mind throughout your post. I think it was finely written. You did a fine job putting your position out there.

Third, I didn’t necessarily pass over it, so much as ignore it. The pronouncement of ‘moral vanity’ is part & parcel of the guilds. “We know better than you ever could.” Fine, whatever. My masters accumulate before me, in a heap as high as the sun. All with books to sell, it seems.

By: Thomas Nephew

Thomas Nephew — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 04:25:12 +0000

Let me try to explain, then (I’m the author). There’s a difference between government run by people who are out to prove “government as solution for some public problems” is always bad — the Bush administration — and those who think it can do some good.

But I think I see where my quote of Alterman there would set off alarm bells. I make it sound as if he was saying “for any problem, always look first to government, only then elsewhere”. I don’t think that, nor does Alterman. And that’s not what he said, that was badly written on my part because I was more interested in other parts of the discussion.

I’ll listen to the CD again and try to get the part that I described there right. I was disappointed in Alterman about the ‘moral vanity’ bit you passed over. But I agreed with him in other respects including the one you noticed, but that I described poorly.