Archives for 2004

The other day, Brad DeLong wrote (via Mark Kleiman):

There is a certain kind of Berkeley professor who I am losing my tolerance for…

You know (or maybe you don’t): the kind who believes that your first duty is to sympathetically understand where people are coming from. Unless they’re Republicans. You have a duty to enter into the thought processes and sympathetically entertain the understanding of the world of a guy in Nigeria who as a picture of Osama bin Laden in his car, or a bureaucratic functionary working for Fidel Castro, or somebody who thinks that Bangladeshis should not be allowed to work in the textile industry. But Republicans? They are Blue Meanies. They are one dimensional. They are baaaaad.

And, of course, they appear to have no ironic consciousness of the huge disconnect in their intellectual stance at all. To say in one breath that we must not succumb to the temptation to turn those who express sympathy for Osama bin Laden into alien, hated, one-dimensional OTHERS; and then say in the next that those who express sympathy for Paul Wolfowitz are alien, hated, one-dimensional OTHERS…

The problem is, it isn’t just a few Berkely professors- it appears that this attitude is rampant in the mainstream left and right. Today, Oliver wrote the following:

According to the fundamentalist religious right, Armageddon was supposed to come knocking today because… some people got married.

Still waiting.

This type of hyperbole is rife among the mainstream of the Democratic party- if you oppose gay marriage, well, then you are just the same as John Derbyshire and this jackass.

Most people who oppose gay marriage, I am willing to bet, are not hate-mongering jack heels who think that armageddon will occur overnight. Most are probably quite reasonable, and probably just think that there is no reason to elevate same-sex union to the same level of a traditional marriage, some may have doubts about the necessity, some may have doubts about the implementation, others may have doubts about the long term effect this may have on marriage in general.

But hell- why not just villify your political opponents- it is so much easier than debating them.

*** Update **

I should probably point out that I am agnostic on the issue. I understand both sides of the argument. For the homosexual community, the simple fact isthat they simply love their partner and want what they perceive are they same rights as heterosexuals. For the other side, there are a number of misgivings, including religious beliefs, etc.

I would whole-heartedly support civil unions. I am tepidy indifferent about gay marriage, leaning in favor of it. So I guess since I am not all out in favor of gay marriage, I am a hatemongerer.

Oliver’s Binary ConstructPost + Comments (13)

In case you didn’t believe me when I stated this before, the Democrats will say ANYTHING to get Back in power:

he campaigns for President Bush and his likely Democratic opponent, Senator John Kerry, traded accusations today about who is more to blame for gasoline prices that have shot past $2 a gallon in many parts of the country.

“Where is the president?” Mr. Kerry asked in Portland, Ore., where he made a campaign stop at a training center. “We need a president who is fighting for the American worker, the American family, at the fuel pumps, to lower the price of gas in the United States.”

He and several other Democratic leaders accused the president today of breaking a campaign promise to try to control oil prices by pressuring oil-producing nations to increase production.

Several United States senators today called on the White House to release strategic oil reserves they say would help bring down the soaring price of gasoline.”

Let’s make sure we have the events in the correct chronological order:

First, the Democrats accused Bush of not using his close relationship with the Saudi’s to lower the price of oil.

Then, they intentionally mis-interpreted Woodward’s book and accused Bush and the Saudi’s of manipulating the oil market to lower prices to help Bush get elected.

In 2000, Kerry was against tapping the strategic oil reserve.

Today, he is in favor of it.

Liars.

Lies and the Lying LiarsPost + Comments (15)