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Roland (CA->WA)'s avatar

Hey, I don’t have a problem with anyone nice-talking the enemy. And then while someone is nice-talking them, hit them with the

effing sledgehammer. Pass SB1, eliminate gerrymandering and the other bogus crap, and relegate those people to permanent minority status. All the while people can sweet talk them. Who cares about talk.

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Peter Burnett's avatar

Roland, Lynn, there is a danger in all this for the country's defenders: you're dealing with deluders and the deluded. And... this remark of Karl Popper's has become like a jack-in-the-box in my mind:

"To attack a man for talking nonsense is like finding your mortal enemy drowning in a swamp and jumping in after him with a knife."

Someone mentioned the need for thigh boots when wading into this swamp.

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Lynell(VA by way of MD&DC)'s avatar

Lynell Abbott3 min ago

Hey, Peter. Not sure if you are talking to me here (some people call me Lynn) but just wanted to clarify that my comment went more to correcting the source of the line TC used re pulling a gun over a knife. It wasn't from the movie Raiders, but the movie The Untouchables.

This got me to thinking, since TC is pretty accurate in his comments. So I did a search and came up with this from SNOPES:

"As it turned out, the comment was indeed made by then-Senator Obama at a fundraising event in the City of Brotherly Love, and it was not ignored by mainstream media outlets at the time. The New York Times, reported on 14 June 2008 that:

"Senator Barack Obama was fund-raising in Philadelphia. But he was talking about 'the Chicago way.'

"Channeling the mob drama, 'The Untouchables,' Mr. Obama said in reference to the general election rumble with the Republicans: 'If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.'”

Just FYI: Being a fan of living in a civilized society, I am not invested in the use of either a knife or a gun to make things "right." But I do enjoy the fantasy of a good movie where all kinds of laws are broken in the pursuit of justice. Just sayin'.

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TPJ (MA)'s avatar

"Mr Ness, I do not approve of your methods!"

"Well, you're not from Chicago."

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Peter Burnett's avatar

No, Lynell, I seem to have had an attack of the gremlins and don't know where "Lynn" came from. I was responding to Roland and (I guess) Diane Love.

I'd noticed the talk of guns and knives, but the quote from Karl Popper was nothing to do with all that. Just about the difficulties and dangers of dealing with knaves, suckers and their swamp, without getting drawn into it.

I'll admit to making frequent use of other men's sayings, but surely there's no harm in that when they express my thoughts better than I could express them myself. My hackles are raised by secondhand thinking -- when people adopt readymade prejudices. And I don't care whose prejudices we're talking about. I just want to ask people, what do YOU think, what do YOU feel?

That is what I appreciate when reading this thread.

If I said yesterday that, for me, David Carroll was welcome to ask his questions and put his views, I still feel the same way. What I'm not interested in is what his granddad or his party told him he was supposed to think. But the same goes for everyone, from right, from left, from center.

There's no interest in anyone, let alone politicians, who just says the right thing. We need to be one with our word.

(Having said which, I hope I can live up to it!)

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Lynell(VA by way of MD&DC)'s avatar

Great perspective you have, Peter. I've read your comments. My opinion is you do "live up to it"!

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TPJ (MA)'s avatar

How refreshing to be part of an online community where people quote Karl Popper. Alas, that thoughtful conservative would be a liberal in America's conservative party, or more likely, unwelcome altogether. Alas!

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Jay Jordet's avatar

Beware Logical Positivism bearing gifts to world hunger. It is cold hearted.

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TPJ (MA)'s avatar

I don't endorse Popper's views; it's just gratifying that LFAAers operate on an intellectual level high enough to encompass him.

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