Fellowship of Punditry

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Cul Heath

Mick Arran

Jeffrey Barbose

Inspector Lohmann

Eric M. Fink

Michael Lane

Rep. Mark B. Cohen

The Fellowship is accepting new members. Inquire within.

The Sages

  • David Weinberger
  • Jon Lebkowsky
  • Jay Rosen
  • Rebecca MacKinnon
  • Nova Spivack
  • Dan Gillmor
  • Jim Moore
  • Lawerence Lessig
  • Ed Cone
  • Jeff Jarvis
  • Joi Ito
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  • Jim Hightower
  • Wonkette
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    Distinguished Colleagues

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  • wood s lot
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  • Cut To The Chase
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  • ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES
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  • Into the Blogosphere
  • George Orwell

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    Political language -- and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists -- is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

    In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

    If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.

    But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.

    Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious.

    Whatever is funny is subversive, every joke is ultimately a custard pie... a dirty joke is a sort of mental rebellion.

    In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics.' All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.

    All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome.

    At fifty everyone has the face he deserves.

    Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering, and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise.

    John Stuart Mill

    Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.

    The amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of the time.

    The general tendency of things throughout the world is to render mediocrity the ascendant power among mankind.

    Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called and whether it professes to be enforcing the will of God or the injunctions of men.

    A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

    Mark Twain

    Don't let schooling interfere with your education.

    All generalizations are false, including this one.

    A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.

    Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.

    Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.

    The Public is merely a multiplied "me."

    Only kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial "we."

    Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

    Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet.

    Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.

    Winston Churchill

    The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

    I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.

    Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash.

    Never hold discussions with the monkey when the organ grinder is in the room.

    Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.

    However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.

    In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.

    Otto Von Bismarck

    When you want to fool the world, tell the truth.

    I have seen three emperors in their nakedness, and the sight was not inspiring.

    Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied.

    Be polite; write diplomatically ;even in a declaration of war one observes the rules of politeness.

    Voltaire

    A witty saying proves nothing.

    If God created us in his own image, we have more than reciprocated.

    When he to whom one speaks does not understand, and he who speaks himself does not understand, that is metaphysics.

    I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: "O Lord make my enemies ridiculous." And God granted it.

    To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.

    Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.

    It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

    The best way to be boring is to leave nothing out.

    Karl Marx

    Philosophy stands in the same relation to the study of the actual world as masturbation to sexual love.

    All I know is I'm not a Marxist.

    The writer may very well serve a movement of history as its mouthpiece, but he cannot of course create it.

    Tuesday, October 05, 2004

    A Milblogger in Iraq Takes On the Swift Boat Vets

    By Mick

    News seems to travel slow to Iraq, internet or no internet. My favorite milblog (of the list of my favorites that remain standing), A View From A Broad (I just did a lengthy review of it at LitBlogs), is hosted by a self-styled 'broad' for whom the phrase 'mincing words' doesn't exist. Apparently she has just been apprised of the Swift Boat Vets. They may have sunk off our radar at this point, but Ginmar is pissed.

    If you don't know Ginmar, you should fly over there right now and catch up. Here's one of the reasons:
    The Good War and the Prodigal Son
    The Swift Boat Veterans for Lies say they're loyal to the military, to other vets, whatever.

    They're not.

    Loyalty is not the friend who tells you that no, your ass isn't fat, your boyfriend isn't cheating, and your haircut is cute. Loyalty isn't when your mother says, "Oh, no, even though my boy got caught with a kitchen knife and a body under his bed he couldn't have done it." They're not helping you when they do this: what they're doing is concealing their part in making a monster.

    Loyalty is the mother who long before her kids reached critical mass demonstrated to them that while she loved them, she wouldn't tolerate shit. Some friends, too, will lie about your hair, your boyfriend--whatver--- to spare your feelings---and keep you weak, and needy. How to tell the difference? The same friend who lies to you in such a way that you're exposed to discomfort much later and more often is also the same friend who thinks nothing of rubbing good fortune in your face when you have it and she doesn't. A real friend gently waits for the moment you can handle it, then tells you the truth so you can protect yourself before you've been embarrassed before all the world.

    The SWBL are telling us the lies we want to hear.

    The Second World War was the Good War. A Good War means Good Soldiers, so they say. And Good Soldiers who fought the Good Fight don't have problems afterward.

    Except of course, they do. War means killing, and in that war there was the added horror of genocide. Those soldiers were expected to come back safe, sound, and happy. Mission accomplished. There was no recognition of the fact that no matter what the moral dimension, killing is killing, and that has to be dealt with. How many of those vets suffered in silence and shame from symptoms they thought they weren't supposed to be feeling? They fought in the good war and they were good guys, therefore they should have a good time afterward.

    Therein lies the danger of the SWBL's 'loyalty.' Goodness---decency---is not something that one attains once and then can count on for the rest of one's life. Loyalty is not something one decides upon once and then never changes for the duration. Sometimes true loyalty to a person or a concept can feel like betrayal if you're on the receiving end. It gets tested, and sometimes it gets withdrawn. It's a dance of hostages and negotiations, and if one person is weak, it can over balance in one side's favor really fast. Who wants to be told that your hair makes you look like Gomer Pyle, that Sugar Pie is boffing the checkout girl, that your ass really is huge? Well, if you want to do something about it, you do.
    This is what I wish someone with her authority had said when the controversy was raging and Kerry was taking it in the neck from the 'troop supporters'. Go read the rest. It's brilliant.

    posted by Mick at 10/05/2004 07:51:00 PM |

    Comments: Post a Comment

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    "Netpolitik is a new style of diplomacy that seeks to exploit the powerful capabilities of the Internet to shape politics, culture, values, and personal identity. But unlike Realpolitik — which seeks to advance a nation’s political interests through amoral coercion — Netpolitik traffics in “softer” issues such as moral legitimacy, culturalidentity, societal values, and public perception." - The Rise of Netpolitik

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