Holy crap. What does it take to be a 'Special Research Scientist' these days?

Ace,
You should be a journalist. You cleverly took my comment completely out of context to prove something. Are you sure you are not part of the big bad liberal media?

This is how my comment came about:

And just a thought to any liberals reacting to this crisis: Do something to help and stop looking for someone to blame.

Posted by Nickie Goomba at December 29, 2004 03:12 PM
Nickie,
This has got to be one of the biggest natural disasters/tragedies most of us have seen in our lifetimes. Why why why would you so quickly start pointing fingers? Liberals & conservatives alike are distraught over this event. This has nothing to do with politics. There is nobody to blame for this. There are 100k+ people dead and/or missing. The world community has to work together to help those directly affected. Please don't politicise this tragedy.

Posted by Ryan at December 29, 2004 03:17 PM
Why why why would you so quickly start pointing fingers?

Ummm, because UN socialist douchebags already began finger-pointing, and the liberal douchebag media is already hot on the story of how Bush's Christmas vacation is somehow "insensitive" given this tragedy?

Don't sit there and pretend that this tragedy, like every other, isn't being used by the left to score political points.

Your words about us all being in this together and all equally distraught are no doubt true. But I would suggest you're addressing the wrong audience.

Posted by ace at December 29, 2004 03:25 PM
Ace,
You seem to have a lot of misdirected anger.
You are not a welcome opponent in an argument as it always seems to come down to the mythical liberal media and all the crybaby liberals doing this or doing that. Start using logic, start being rational. That goes for you and your psychotic rightwing followers who sit there and scream all day long about how stupid, evil, uncaring, weak, do-nothing liberals are. You clearly have no world view. Its your view, for better or worse. You have a square peg view and will cram it into the round hole world. There is no bend, there is no compromise.

Don't tell me that the liberals use every event for political gain. That is wrong and just sad. And so are you Mr. Of Spades. Go stick that in your little blogerator you closed minded nerd humper.

Posted by Ryan at December 29, 2004 03:49 PM

Dear Ryan:

I can think of a round hole we would like to ram our conservative square peg into. Would you please bend over?

LOL. Ryan calls you a "closed minded nerd humper".

Ohhh, if only Johnny Coldcuts was here to rebut that example of leftist "sensitivity" and "logic" he just might have something to say about that. Something like:

"Ryan, you fuck-faced fuckshit of a fucknut, the last thing you need to be doing is impugning others sexual proclivities. Last night, when I was cornholing your mother for the 3rd straight hour, she kept whining about the fact that she still has to put rubber sheets on your bed to keep the pee stains from ruining the mattress. Then, after I'd shot my wad in her ever receptive oral orifice, she wanted to know if you would ever move out of the basement.

Finally, I told her that if she wanted you gone, all she had to do was cancel your subscription to Maxim and announce that from now on toilet paper and hand lotion expenses were coming straight out of your allowance. You may foll her, ya preening asexual twit, but ol' Johnny knows why you spend so much time in the bathroom.

Now take my advice, Chief. Grow a pair, get a job, try to get a date with a real woman instead of Rosie Palm and her sisters, and driink deeply from the container marked 'shut the fuck up juice'. You may not be a better person for it, cause you are pretty f'in worthless, but the rest of us will be happier.

Your pal,

Johnny Coldcuts"

Yes..If only Johnny were around......

I have just spent the last hour listening to a liberal radio show vent spleen about how it took three whole days before Bush would say anything bout this calamity (as if speeches are somehow useful in this situation)- and how his inauguration is going to cost millions that should go to the tsunami victims- and how come we cant come up with more money right away, it sure seems like we're being stingy- and what the Hell was Bush doing in Crawford on 'vacation', etc etc. etc.

And then the moonbats barking on other channels that we are to blame for the tsunami!

No, Ace, don't know where you ever got the idea that the left is using this tragedy as an attack platform.

I dunno. I think the President or Cheney should hop on a plane quick. This may be the biggest environmental tragedy of our lifetime. And I'm not too pleased to see him in Texas. My father has also done a complete doubletake. If W or Cheney took a fast plane over it would do a lot to stave off the image of the Ugly American. And I think we need to donate a hellava lot more $. Not only is this amount too too low, by increasing it we could mend some fences in Indonesia (with its Muslim majority). Don't get me wrong though. I don't think there's even room to discuss benefitting from this tragedy. It's just a natural result. Let me leave it at that...

Um...Ryan, I don't think the additional exposition exactly bolsters your point.

Also, when you are quoted in a couple of paragraphs going on about a particular point, I don't think that is especially out of context. If is is, then every newspaper interview I have ever read has been "out of context" as well. Quoting you as saying "you close minded nerd humper" is quoting you out of context. What you were was plain ol' quoted.

Let's face it, the sort of people who are bitching at Dubya now over the disaster would not swoon at his feet and sing his praises if he did exactly what they wanted.

They would just bitch about something else.

To paraphrase W himself, he's more concerned about actually doing something to help than going in front of microphones to feel their pain.

Interesting that you have spent an hour listening to a liberal radio show. I can barely find one. For that matter I can barely find a liberal on TV. But what am I seeing on TV? I am seeing a ton of news about this calamity. Online? Well on CNN, MSNBC, AP, Reuters, BBC, FoxNews, WP, Yahoo I am seeing news about this tragedy. Then I keep clicking and find my way to bloggerville and I hear you all bitching about the liberal media and all the liberals politicizing this tragedy. Oh wait, there was a letter in the NYT? Holy liberal propaganda batman! What was that? Somebody commented on W remaining silent for 3 days about the greatest tragedy our world has seen since WWII? LIBERAL MEDIA RUN AMUCK!

Or is it rightwing bloggers ISO something to complain about?

The mainstream media is reporting on the facts. Of course if you dig, you will find what you are looking for - a liberal being an ass. But while you are digging I am sure you can find just as many conservatives being just as ridiculous.

Nick: W didn't say that, Scott McClellan did. And it was a cheap shot at Clinton. Talk about liberals looking for ways to attack W. Just look at what W's own publicist is doing!!! We have to stop the political put downs to find a middle road. Or the Repubs and the Dems are going to face lower and lower voter turnout. and voter apathy will continue to grow.

Ryan: Rightie troll posts rarely come with reason or factual support. Usually rightie troll posts are nothing but gratuitous insult.

If you spend time cruising both sides of the blogosphere, IMO there is a marked difference in overall tone between right and left. But generally, leftie bloggers post about current events and explain (with reason and factual support) what the blogger likes or does not like about said events. And generally, rightie bloggers just spew out hate.

The bald truth is that to be a Bush supporter means that you are (a) ignorant of what's going on; (b) suffering massive cognitive dissonance; or (c) are a soulless sociopathic bastard.

{Link deleted by Ace.

Dude, if you want to advertise here, go to BlogAds and plunk down some change.}

One last thing:
This chain started when I responded to Nickie Goomba who chastized Liberals and told them to do something. I was not commenting on any article or story, I was not commenting on Righty blogs vs Lefty blogs. I simply said that this is an imense tragedy that does not warrant finger pointing or politicizing. I said the world needs to get together and help with the healing. That is all.

Geez, a troll who can't even create an html link. In a repeat post.

Nice.

Yeah, yeah, yeah...Leftwingers are intelligent, logical, thoughtful, and civil.

Rightwingers are insult-spewing hatemongers.

Yawn.

Ryan, find me a conservative blaming the tsunami on liberal politicians.
Find me a Republican blaming liberals for not doing enough to help.

When something like this happens, you send an initial aid package, and at the same time assess what more will be needed on an ongoing basis. To jump in and call people stingy right off the bat leads one to believe you are a liberal ISO a way to slap Bush yet again for something which is not his fault.

What I dont get, with all the complaints about how W isn't sending enough, is why isnt anyone pointing out that he can't. Only Congress can authorize spending. Assuming anyone actually read the Constitution nowadays.

Wow, there are some real jewels in the last couple of posts.

"For that matter I can barely find a liberal on TV."

Try turning it on. ABC, CBS, NBC are good places to start. Liberal media bias permeates them, completely, from the choices of which stories to cover, to the angles they choose to take on the stories, to whether or not they even bother showing a viewpoint that they don't agree with. When was the last time you saw (on any of the big 3, or CNN), oh, a positive story on Iraq? A story on how taxes are too high? A story embracing a conservative viewpoint on any major issue?

You haven't.

Or, that wonderful, logical, factual, reasoned post from someone who apparently will remain nameless. Arguing with facts and logic must mean name-calling in a liberal's book. I'm glad to know that I must be uninformed (wrong), suffering cognitive dissonance (wrong again), or sociopathic (maybe, but I don't think so... at least, no one's ever proven it). This, followed by a link to Mahablog, where arguments need not involve anything other than the feelings of the poster.

The irony is palpable.

LauraW: You make a good point about taking time to find out how much money is needed and where it should be directed. I agree with you. But I do think the President should have come out sooner with a statement. It's been several days now. I'm not thinking along conspiratal lines when I wonder why the adminstration took so much time to make a statement and what the political concerns were. And why, when the WH spokesperson finally "spoke" it was a rib against Clinton. Think 2008.

This poke at Bush is the same crap the left employed with the "My Pet Goat"/Why didn't he return to DC? canard w/r/t his whereabouts and immediate reaction to the 9/11 attacks.

Lefties, more often than not, seem to think and act reflexively these days and cannot comprehend a measured, thought-out response to a crisis. It's much easier (and less risky in the era of a 24 hr news cycle) to reach for the emo-guide book and look up the PC reaction.

In the real world a leader needs the courage and wisdom to know when to act and when not to act, when faced with incomplete information. Bush wisely, IMO, wanted more info before sticking his neck out. The Left is primarily interested in W's neck being stuck out, anything else is gravy.

Oh, and Ryan, you *look* with your eyes, you *see* with your head. Perhaps it's wedged someplace it shouldn't be?

Good grief. Someone, somewhere, SAVE US from this sort of moronic liberal rhetoric!

There is nothing misdirected about conservative anger. It's pretty simple and understandable from our point of view; it's just tough to deal with Stupid People without getting testy from time to time.

As Stupidity Brokers, liberals are not faced with the constant frustration stemming from the political equivalent of "The Sky is Brown" arguments and refuting them in a remedial enough fashion for liberals to comprehend...and even when they DO understand, they pretend not to because it devastates their core beliefs. If you don't think that is justifiably annoying, then you're not thinking...which really isn't surprising. American liberals, by definition, can't base their beliefs upon logic because liberalism is the antithesis of the freedom we enjoy, and to say one believes in both liberalism AND freedom is contradictory. I can't tell you how many times I've explained that to a liberal (using small words) and quite literally have watched it zing over their heads....and what, am I supposed to be, like, HAPPY about this? I personally wouldn't care what these dolts want to believe -- thanks to conservatism, this IS still a free country -- but for the fact that liberals are desperately trying to take my freedom away, and ya know what? I don't like that. Misdirected, my ever-lovin' tail.

So why don't you whiny freaks just shut up for a few seconds about "misdirected anger" and spend all that effort you put into analyzing others' emotions into a pursuit a li'l more productive -- like taking a long, hard look at the damage you're doing to the United States? Maybe then the effing blinders the lot of you so willingly don will fall off and you'll engage in an experience known as "keeping your filthy paws off my rights."

Later,
bbeck

You are so wrong, Ace. I saw this documentary about global warming, The Day After Tomorrow, it's all in there. And NOW there's tornadoes in L.A. JUST LIKE IN THE MOVIE.

What do you say now, Mr Big Shot 1 Year Old Blogger???

I think we can safely assume, with all the normal international protocol associated with the office, that Bush was not only doing his job, but giving his condolences to the governments affected and arranging aid during this time.

Three days? We can't live without the comforting words of our Dear Leader for three days?

I'm kidding of course.
Cogs grind quietly in the background of our lives, vital tasks are completed, and yet nobody gives a press conference! Amazing isn't it, the things that get done without lip service to accompany them.

What do you suppose the President does in Texas? I have an inkling that he may be one of those newfangled telecommuters. Others think he is just sitting around watching tsunami coverage, and eating pretzels...carefully.

The following quote is a wonderful example of how ostensibly smart people can be utterly stupid. Drowning in subjectivity and without conscious awareness of it, these perception morons freely remake reality depending upon utility in the moment. And because of the magic of subjectivity, inconsistency, irrationality, and illogic are never limiting factors. Poof! "I choose not to see that."

They're reptile-brained. Everything revolves around primitive considerations, like territoriality, herding, fear, aggression, rank, dominance, in-group/out-group identification, etc. Everything. Thus, the linkage of the fucking tsunami to Bush, for goddsake, and the sudden social acceptability of trying to score political points at a time of mourning like this--before tens of thousands of dead are even identified, much less buried or burned. The magic of subjectivity can rationalize any bad behavior.

Most of their political "arguments" follow the same form: A ritualized repetition of articles of faith, cannons of orthodoxy, and the obligatory and overarching assertion of superiority--presented with minute variation in differing contexts. And you can see a little of all of this in the quote below:

But generally, leftie bloggers post about current events and explain (with reason and factual support) what the blogger likes or does not like about said events. And generally, rightie bloggers just spew out hate.

The bald truth is that to be a Bush supporter means that you are (a) ignorant of what's going on; (b) suffering massive cognitive dissonance; or (c) are a soulless sociopathic bastard.

Perception morons have many different tools. Here we have splitting, projection, and subjectivity so opaque the dullard has no fucking clue about the self-referential internal inconsistency. And it's staring him right in the face. It's like there isn't a smidgeon of self-awareness. Disgusting. But entertaining.

Like I said above, they're completely unaware of it, and the perception filtering takes place mostly sub-consciously. So when you hold up an undistorted mirror to them like this comment, they'll forget all about it in a few minutes. It never happened. "I'm surperior, after all." They'll sacrifice anything to prop up that self-view.

FromTheHip:

You're being silly. What possible good would it do for Bush to be anywhere near the affected region? Considering the security issues it would only serve to disrupt aid operations that are already facing great difficulty getting materials from the airports to where they're needed. When a US C-130 lands with thousands of tons of food, water, clothing, and medical supplies, that is all the presence our President needs on the ground there until it would no longer create burden for him to visit.

Eric: you're right. It's Powell who should rightfully go to each country, visiting with the leaders and touring the destruction and hospitals. This is a common practice and I should have named Powell and not W or Cheney. Thanks for pointing out the silliness.