Nails It
Red State Rabble have been doing their homework. This morning's post is a thoughtful, informative, insightful analysis of what can happen if we are not vigilant.
The New Iconoclasts
Read it.
The New Iconoclasts
Read it.
posted by JimK at 3:36 PM
21 Comments:
Andrea - not anon- said
Margaret Atwood was not trying to write fiction when she wrote "the Handmaid's Tale"- it was future history -one which I hope we can still prevent.
Andrea
For LGBT and allied high school youth in MD, DC and VA who read this blog:
There is a combined event, called "It's a Prom" and "Passing the Torch" on June 2 in Arlington. You can find more about the former at www.itsaprom.org
The LGBT and allied Prom will be an elegant event, with a fancy dinner and an evening of dancing. Sandwiched within that is the 7th annual "Passing the Torch", where youth and adults speak about changing school climate, we honor certain people, and we have this nice candle-lighting ceremony.
If you would like to attend, email me the following at rrigbyjr@yahoo.com
1)First Name
2)Last Name
3)Age
4)School Name (if you are HS age but not in school, let me know; you can still come)
5)School District
6)GSA Sponsor Name (if any)
7)GSA sponsor email (if any)
8)Dance music suggestions (title and artist)
Deadline for registration is May 31. If TTF will forgive me, I'll post one more reminder a week before the event.
Robert Rigby, Jr.
Well, if Jim recommends reading something then I had better get to it! So, I read "it"...all 1,921 words of leaden and feverish prose.
Wow.
My favorite part? Oh, without a doubt it would have to be this,
Making predictions about the future is a risky proposition. Events rarely play out in the real world as they do in our minds.
LOL! Talk about hedging one's bets! And I thought paranoia on the right was bad...yikes, the fevered swamps of the left are not much better.
I found this quote much more interesting:
While the aims of Christian Reconstructionists may seem fantastic, they are nevertheless firmly held by adherents who work diligently to achieve them. Ahmanson has invested many millions from his large personal fortune to put these ideas into action.
Mr. Ahmanson is not alone. Pat Robertson's 700 Club is pushing Markeplace Minstries.
Marketplace Ministries
...Bob Fraser, author of Marketplace Christianity.
Fraser used to think he was 'wasting his life' in the secular world till God brought powerful revival right inside Fraser's business.
"There was a period where there was more happening in my business -- spiritual activity -- than in any church I'd ever been a part of," said Fraser.
He eventually started up a ministry called The Joseph Company to pass on what he learned in that revival to other Christian business leaders.
"They're starting to discover 'I have a purpose. God created me in this unique place called the marketplace to bring His Kingdom,'" Fraser said...
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/151512.aspx
First, Jim writes posts that are way too long to be appropriate for blog material. If you got that much to say, the better medium would be a book.
Now, he just directs to the overlong posts of others. Doesn't even bother to write it himself.
I'm not biting - but I will comment on his brief remark:
Vigilant is another word for extremist.
Extremism in the pursuit of tolerance is a vice.
Anonymous writes: "First, Jim writes posts that are way too long to be appropriate for blog material...Vigilant is another word for extremist. Extremism in the pursuit of tolerance is a vice." That last comment tells me a lot about Anonymous; perhaps he would feel much better about himself and the world if he simply excused himself from participating in the TTF discussions. If he doesn't like what Jim has to say he could simply say "goodbye"; the rest of us will definitely not miss his psycho-neurotic rants and raves.
Anon claimed Vigilant is another word for extremist.
Vocabulary lesson for the day:
VIGILANT
Main Entry: vig·i·lant
Function: adjective
Pronunciation: 'vi-j&-l&nt
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin vigilant-, vigilans, from present participle of vigilare to keep watch, stay awake, from vigil awake
: alertly watchful especially to avoid danger
synonym see WATCHFUL
VIGILANTE
Main Entry: vig·i·lan·te
Function: noun
Pronunciation: "vi-j&-'lan-te
Etymology: Spanish, watchman, guard, from vigilante vigilant, from Latin vigilant-, vigilans
: a member of a volunteer committee organized to suppress and punish crime summarily (as when the processes of law appear inadequate) ; broadly : a self-appointed doer of justice
EXTREMISM, EXTREMIST
Main Entry: ex·trem·ism
Function: noun
Pronunciation: ik-'stre-"mi-z&m
1 : the quality or state of being extreme
2 : advocacy of extreme political measures : RADICALISM
- ex·trem·ist/-mist/ noun or adjective
Anonymous1 writes,
First, Jim writes posts that are way too long to be appropriate for blog material. If you got that much to say, the better medium would be a book.
I thought the person doing the blog gets to decide that, and then readers can decide whether or not they will read it. Still, some of the entries do strike me as a tad on the long side, in which case I try to skim and hope that my attention span holds up.
Now, he just directs to the overlong posts of others. Doesn't even bother to write it himself.
I rather liked what I read...or should I say I found it both amusing and revealing. Wasn't it Freud that posited that dreams are a deep seated reflection of our fondest wishes? If that is the case, then the "Nails It" piece is surely a reflection of paranoid secular fantasies, a sort of Margaret Atwood meets Jerry Falwell, or something vaguely similar.
I'm not biting - but I will comment on his brief remark:
Vigilant is another word for extremist.
Extremism in the pursuit of tolerance is a vice.
Time to break into a copy of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (might I recommend the Terence Irwin translation by Hackett? ISBN 0915145669 - Amazon has copies in like new condition for a buck!, plus $3.49 S&H). Sorry, but I shy away from extremism, or what I would call chucking what is the good for what is thought to be the best.
Anonymous2 replies,
Anonymous writes: "First, Jim writes posts that are way too long to be appropriate for blog material...Vigilant is another word for extremist. Extremism in the pursuit of tolerance is a vice."
That last comment tells me a lot about Anonymous; perhaps he would feel much better about himself and the world if he simply excused himself from participating in the TTF discussions. If he doesn't like what Jim has to say he could simply say "goodbye"; the rest of us will definitely not miss his psycho-neurotic rants and raves.
Now that was a bright rejoinder, how about engaging his advocating extremism? Still better, Jim's ever so brief comment that, This morning's post is a thoughtful, informative, insightful analysis of what can happen if we are not vigilant.?
Puleeze!!! What with the fevered secularist fantasies, not to mention self-referencing (theocracywatch.org? LOL!) and that bastion of all media neutrality Salon and The New York Times, if I bought into all of that I too would be scared. But I am not because there are all sorts of societal "checks and balances". Need an example? Ok, I'll give you one...
I am driving back from Denver last night from having heard a hoo-hum pro-life speaker and my passenger is commenting on this and that, and how the local right to life president is looking for people to help him out. This same person replied to an email I sent a few months ago, reacting to my suggestion that he moderate his goals and rhetoric. The reply I received was so filled with over-heated religious rhetoric that it would make a zealot look moderate. So, when this passenger suggested I assist this pro-life whack-job I merely acknowledged the suggestion, all the while thinking to myself, "NEVER". There is no way I will ever lend a hand to someone so extreme that they will surely discredit arguments intended to persuade others to the Culture of Life side.
Secular extremists need to take a collective cold shower to cool off...
Orrin,
I am not familiar with the groups described in the blog to which Jim linked.
However, I would not blithely assume that the things represented in the blog are inaccurate reporting of certain facts about the groups mentioned. Might be worth investigating independently. Maybe the blog is overwrought, but perhaps it is not. There is certainly enough evidence out there to suggest that the Red State Rabble blogger is warning against real dangers, not imagined ones.
If the reporting is accurate, wouldn't those groups be like your passenger, whose approach you dismiss?
Here is a problem we all have to deal with: There is always a danger that those on the Right will minimize extremists on the Right, just as there is a danger that those on Left will minimize extremists on the Left.
You, Orrin, appear to be able to resist the extremists on the Right. But in so doing, be careful not to assume that people like Jim are unable to do likewise on the Left.
People who are most engaged in issues are often those most sensitive to calling out the extremists on their "side" of the purported Right/Left divide.
Here is an example: My mother, who will soon turn 88, was an admirer of Democratic Socialists Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas, and a vigorous opponent of the Communists in the 1930s. The biggest piece of advice she gave me when I went off to college in the 1960s was to be careful about signing petitions: To make darn sure that I not only believe what I was thinking about signing, but that I know who was doing the circulating. She knew from her own experience how so many Communists operated.
In the 20th Century, America did a pretty good job of avoidng the extremes of Fascism and Communism. Extremist ideologies may have taken on different forms and different names in this century -- often, sadly, representing themselves as religious faith. We must be ever Vigilant -- yes, Vigilant -- to avoid the pitfalls of these forms of extremism.
"I thought the person doing the blog gets to decide that, and then readers can decide whether or not they will read it."
They do indeed but constructive criticism is always apropos.
We don't just say: well, the restauranteur gets to make the food and the customers decide whether to eat it. I mean we do, but we don't limit ourselves to that. We spread the good or bad word, we read reviews, we complain to the waiter.
I'm sure Jim will use the comment to improve his product. He's interested in the whole blog phenom, you know.
I'm sure Jim is much more receptive to constructive criticism than some people.
No matter how many Americans want to bring our troops home now, no matter how many Americans say it is lunacy to keep trying the same send more troops tactic over and over again, the numbers of US and Iraqi dead keep increasing. You'd think after all this time and suggestions, we'd try something else, but no. Same old same old.
Orin said:
"There is no way I will ever lend a hand to someone so extreme that they will surely discredit arguments intended to persuade others to the Culture of Life side."
I echo that sentiment. There are people on the side of LGBT equality who make me cringe every time they put pen to paper or mouth to microphone.
That said, whenever we've spoken before county boards or school boards here in Northern Virginia, our speakers speak of equality, diversity, inclusion, tolerance, while there is always (and I mean always) someone on the other side who brings up things like consuming feces and semen, or fisting, or something like that. Extremists do their points of view much more harm than their opponents can manage. It seems to me that LGBT equality brings up so much bile in some people that they just can't help themselves (for example, Matt Barber, also known as "Anon").
Robert
"It seems to me that LGBT equality brings up so much bile in some people that they just can't help themselves (for example, Matt Barber, also known as "Anon")."
Rather than defame someone as an "example", why don't you just describe the act or statement you so object to?
I don't know about you Anon, but Robert's statement was rather clear to me, this one:
"someone on the other side who brings up things like consuming feces and semen, or fisting, or something like that"
Long time readers of this blog know that Ben Patton and Tres Kerns, one time officer and speaker for the CRC respectively, have both spoken publicly on the topic of fisting, which has absolutely nothing to do with the health curriculum. Ruth Jacobs' favorite topics discussed during her public comments have been equally vile and also have nothing to do with the human sexuality curriculum (steriods, swirlies, and soaking penises in acid).
How about those for examples?
Since when is it defamation to put a name to some anonymous public comments?
"I don't know about you Anon, but Robert's statement was rather clear to me, this one:"
Robert made the comments you referenced about public speakers at school board meetings.
The question to him was what "bile" did "Matt Barber, also known as Anon" produce. This was his "for example".
The only posters I've heard talking about that stuff here are Jim and Co. when whining about CRC comments at MCPS board meetings.
From Robert:
I'm poking at Matt Barber, who is the new "Family and Culture Issues" guy at Concerned Women for America (he succeeded Robert Knight), because Mr. Barber's papers are invariable snide and vitriolic. He clearly dislikes LGBT people, and his comments are rude and uncivil. I don't mind reading comments that disagree with mine when they are well-thought-out and polite (e.g. Orin), but Matt Barber is just rude. He should be sent to his room without supper. I think that spokespeaple such as him do more damage to their cause than any counter-argument that can be made.
In other words, I don't like Matt Barber because he's mean. If you want to see what I mean, go to www.cwfa.org and read his various papers.
Robert
Oh, OK, Robert. You weren't talking about any anonymous comments here then, right?
No. I just anon sometimes reminds me of Matt Barber in his level of being gratuitously insulting to people.
rrjr
When I refer to bile and vitriol at school board meetings and county board meetings, I'm specifically referring to a series of Fairfax County School Board meetings in which people talked about the issue of adding "sexual orientation" to FCPS' nondiscrimination policy, to a Fairfax County Board of Supervisors' meeting in which people talked about adding "sexual orientation" to Fairfax' nondiscrimination ordinance, to some Loudoun County School Board meetings at which people talked about a play with gay characters, and to some random Loudoun school board meetings at which this character called Paul Goze railed against LGBT people.
I've never been to an MCPS school board meeting; I understand some people talk about fisting and feces, etc. there too. It must be so much fun to be a school board member
Well, we appreciate your apology for insulting the anonymous posters here.
Must have been a "covert" apology.
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