COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Sunday, April 11, 2010

CNN's Roly Poly Martin Says Confederate Soldiers were Terrorists

Roland S. Martin, CNN Political Analyst

Were Confederate soldiers terrorists?
By Roland S. Martin, CNN Political Analyst


  • Roland Martin says defenders of Confederate soldiers say they were protecting their homeland
  • He says the Civil War was fought over slavery, an indefensible institution
  • Martin says modern terrorists also say they are defending their homeland
  • He says Confederates should not be honored but should be considered "domestic terrorists"


He concludes his article by saying:

Just as radical Muslims have a warped sense of religion, Confederate supporters have a delusional view of what is honorable. The terrorists are willing to kill their own to prove their point, and the Confederates were just as willing in the Civil War to take up arms against their fellow Americans to justify their point.
Even if you're a relative of one of the 9/11 hijackers, that man was an out-and-out terrorist, and nothing you can say will change that. And if your great-great-great-granddaddy was a Confederate who stood up for Southern ideals, he too was a terrorist.

They are the same.

As a matter of conscience, I will not justify, understand or accept the atrocious view of Muslim terrorists that their actions represent a just war. They are reprehensible, and their actions a sin against humanity.
And I will never, under any circumstances, cast Confederates as heroic figures who should be honored and revered. No -- they were, and forever will be, domestic terrorists.


35 comments:

  1. A little more on the Polish plane crash:

    You have read about the tragic plane crash which killed a swath of the highest ranking leadership of the Polish Republic, including the incumbent president. Here's a small part of that story I just read about.

    If you're familiar with the history of World War II, you probably know that somewhat like General Charles de Gaulle's Free French Forces, there was also a Polish government-in-exile operating in London during the war. Indeed, the 'Government of the Republic of Poland in exile' had much more continuity with the pre-war Polish government and functioned much more like a government than the entity set up by General de Gaulle.

    What I did not realize is that the Polish government-in-exile continued in existence in London until 1990, with an unbroken succession of presidents and prime ministers-in-exile going back to 1939. And according to wikipedia, until the end, it maintained regular cabinet meetings every two weeks at its headquarters in London.

    The last president was Ryszard Kaczorowski, born in 1919. In 1990, under his leadership, the government-in-exile dissolved itself and handed over various insignia and symbols of government (in addition to some pre-war government archives) to the new post-Communist government under President Lech Walesa. Relatedly, the new Polish government recognized the legitimacy of the London-based government. So that among other things Kaczorowski received a state pension like any other former president.

    Kaczorowski, now 90 years old, was one of the 96 killed in the jet crash near Smolensk.

    --Josh Marshall

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  2. Obviously, Martin is an idiot. Perhaps he was shaken as a baby.

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  3. According to Doug, Palin and Bachman are drag queens.

    Maybe Doug - unlike Buchanan, who merely referred to them as "a couple of rodeo queens" - knows something everybody else doesn't.

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  4. Well, have you taken a good look at good old Hillary. What's up with the gray hair? And good Lord that hair style. She looks like a dyke and she's fat.

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  5. Middle age can be so cruel.

    I'm never going to be a size 4 again unless I devote myself to it full time for a considerable portion of the calendar year.

    I came close for awhile there, but then Tim Gunn assured all of us that proper cut and tailoring can minimize even an ass that you can serve tea on. (Which definitely is not the same as an ass on which you'd LIKE to see tea served.)





    I shoveled out a once-inconceivable sum a couple of weeks ago at the salon. My niece gently asked, "Did you, um, get your hair cut?"

    "Yes, hon. But you see, I paid a mountain of money to have this done, and therefor it is the finest coiffure ever, don't you agree?"

    "Mmmm."

    My mother chimes in, "High-end work release program, maybe?"

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  6. Trish, I go every 4-6 weeks to get a haircut and my son says the same thing. They don't know anything.

    As far as size goes I exorcise almost everyday and as long as I can share clothes with my daughter I'm happy.

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  7. : )


    This last salon was a crapshoot. I didn't ask for recommendations. My mistake. I've honestly not been disappointed with a haircut in probably 20 years.

    Live and learn. Hair grows out, thank God.



    I can't share much with my daughter clothes-wise because she's shorter than me. And her taste currently runs to the...USAID field worker/hippie bead shop aesthetic.

    I'm between a 6 and an 8 and can happily live with that.

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  8. A product of a public education, whit, is Mr Martin.

    His perception is many folk's reality. Get used to that.

    The winner writes the history, Mr Marin and his folk, they're in the driver seat, now.
    Even if removed from the White House, the cultural battle has been lost to the city slickers.

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  9. If any is unhappy with living between a 6 and an 8 must be...um...well, an unhappy anorexic.

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  10. What you're happy with - anorexics notwithstanding - depends I think on natural body type.

    Mine is rather string-bean. And I feel, as well as see, added weight.

    I've made my middle-age accommodation.

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  11. (Which definitely is not the same as an ass on which you'd LIKE to see tea served.)

    That is funny! And a timely clarification because I was thinking, "well, what's wrong with that?"

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  12. She looks like a dyke...

    I believe the preferred word these days is "stud."

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  13. Hey a 6-8 ain't bad... course I have always been a leg man.

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  14. MDY, I must say that I enjoy your choice of music, almost all of which is new to me.

    Generational thing I guess.

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  15. Why thank you, I'm glad you're enjoying my choice of music...still thinking about those legs because it's MLD not MDY.

    It's funny you say that about legs. Most men prefer boobs, at least all the ones I run into. I also rarely hear a woman notice legs first in a man. But I prefer legs, also. And of course a nice ass has to go along with those nice legs.

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  16. "But I prefer legs..."

    I do, too.

    And they were the first thing(s) I noticed on my husband.

    Long legs. Broad shoulders.

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  17. Not many women do, Trish, at least none of my friends. I'll take a runner over a body builder any day.

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  18. Blogger Melody said...

    If any is unhappy with living between a 6 and an 8 must be...um...well, an unhappy anorexic





    I hate to say it, but...


    ...or a smoker.

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  19. You won't believe me, maybe you'll believe the U.S. Military.

    The US military has warned that surplus oil production capacity could disappear within two years and there could be serious shortages by 2015 with a significant economic and political impact.

    The energy crisis outlined in a Joint Operating Environment report from the US Joint Forces Command, comes as the price of petrol in Britain reaches record levels and the cost of crude is predicted to soon top $100 a barrel.

    "By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 million barrels per day," says the report, which has a foreword by a senior commander, General James N Mattis.

    It adds: "While it is difficult to predict precisely what economic, political, and strategic effects such a shortfall might produce, it surely would reduce the prospects for growth in both the developing and developed worlds. Such an economic slowdown would exacerbate other unresolved tensions, push fragile and failing states further down the path toward collapse, and perhaps have serious economic impact on both China and India."


    Warning

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  20. Ash, what does smoking have to do with being unhappy about the way you look?

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  21. Here's the PDF from the Joint Operations Environment Report.

    Interesting, it's how the U.S. Military sees the world for the next 40 years.

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  22. Reading through the report. Interesting stuff. Thanks, Rufus. Here's a blurb:

    The Middle East and Central Asia

    Based on current evidence, a principal nexus of conflict will continue to be the region from Morocco to Pakistan
    through to Central Asia. Across this part of the globe a number of historical, dormant conflicts between states
    and nations over borders, territories, and water rights exist, especially in Central Asia and the Caucasus.

    ...

    The problems in the Arab-Islamic world stem from the past five centuries, during which the rise of the West
    and the dissemination of Western political and social values paralleled a concomitant decline in the power
    and appeal of their societies. Today’s Islamic world confronts the choice of either adapting to or escaping
    from a globe of interdependence created by the West.

    ...

    Iran has an increasingly important role in this center of instability. A society with a long
    and rich history, Iran has yet to live up to its potential to be a stabilizing force in
    the region.

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  23. Why that's obvious, that Iran is not a center of expanding of "Western" influence and stability.

    Clever fellas, writing that report.
    Why on earth would they expect that stabilizing a US centric system would be a priority, for the Iranians?

    When all the US and "West" has done, for over a decade, is speak of regime change, in Iran.

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  24. California Public Pensioners retire @ 50 with 90 percent of their final year's earnings.

    Rufus insists this is actuarially sound.

    Calpers Rules!

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  25. "What I did not realize is that the Polish government-in-exile continued in existence in London until 1990, with an unbroken succession of presidents and prime ministers-in-exile going back to 1939.

    And according to wikipedia, until the end, it maintained regular cabinet meetings every two weeks at its headquarters in London.
    "
    ---
    Poles rule!
    So many I know are true believers in the American Dream, none that I know of whine for their entitlements.

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  26. California Public Pensioners retire @ 50 with 90 percent of their final year's earnings.

    Rufus insists this is actuarially sound.



    I never said anything like that, Dumfuck.

    I did say, "I didn't give a fuck." What part of that was hard to understand?

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  27. At 2:00 pm Eastern we get the Budget Numbers. Those might be a little instructive as to how the ol budget is looking for the year.

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  28. California pensioners getting too much money

    Gasoline Prices going to $4.00/gal

    Which of these do you suppose will have the most effect on the economy of Mississippi?

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  29. Doug, why don't you have your wife read that Joint Operations Environment Report to you? I think you'll find it interesting.

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  30. Karzai threatens to block Kandahar offensive

    At least, until after the poppy harvest.

    Hell, I was wrong. This place is Much worse than Vietnam ever thought of being.

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