Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Middle Responds to Moose
Bull Moose doesn't allow comments, so I was going to write a post on my blog responding to his post from yesterday on the rioting Islamic zealots and the Mohammed cartoons. More specifically, about his theme that's becoming a meme among Right-of-Center bloggers: The Silence of the Left.
I didn't write it, because:
1. I've been slammed with work up to my eyeballs;
2. The little voice of common sense whispered to me, "He doesn't mean you, schmuck. He means blogs like Kos."
Fortunately, Michael Reynolds at the Mighty Middle expressed what I was thinking in a way that made me point to my monitor and say, "Yeah, that's what I was thinking!" Italics are the Moose's original post:
That, and I'm so friggin' tired of defending myself against something I didn't do.
Anyway, read the whole thing while I go make soup. It's freezing today. And read Eric's commenters, too, 'cause I kept pointing to my monitor and going, "Yeah, what she said...and kinda what that guy said...and the first three sentences of what that guy said."
I didn't write it, because:
1. I've been slammed with work up to my eyeballs;
2. The little voice of common sense whispered to me, "He doesn't mean you, schmuck. He means blogs like Kos."
Fortunately, Michael Reynolds at the Mighty Middle expressed what I was thinking in a way that made me point to my monitor and say, "Yeah, that's what I was thinking!" Italics are the Moose's original post:
On a related note, Eric at Ezra Klein responded to a similar post from Tigerhawk:
Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee will begin hearings on the Administration's surveillance program. That is their oversight responsibility. Last week, the Director of Intelligence gave a sobering overview of the multiplicity of threats to America, but it seemed that all the Intelligence Committee's Democrats could focus on was not Al Qaeda or an Iranian Hitler obtaining a nuke, but the possibility that NSA had intercepted a call between two terrorist suspects without a judge's approval.
Moose, it's not an either/or. A person can simultaneously harbor murderous thoughts for Al Qaeda and be suspicious when an administration declares itself above the law. Witness this blog.
We are not in a competitive chest-thumping contest here. We don't have to choose between blowing our enemies to hell and preserving our system of law and of checks and balances. We can fight the Japs without interning the Japanese-Americans. We can fight the Commies without unleashing Joe McCarthy.
Yes, I think it's bad that religious fundamentalists overseas are having conniptions about a set of cartoons. I think it bad when religious fanatics anywhere get all fanatical about perceived provocations in the media. I think it bad when Christians cancel TV shows and declare a counteroffensive against the made-up war on Christmas. I think fanatics are bad. And while various folks will unleash spittle-flecked tirades for the perceived equivalence I'm drawing, so be it. I tend to think fanatics are fanatics and my readers are smart enough to draw their own conclusions when nutcases attack. That I haven't dedicated 60 outraged posts to it isn't confirmation that I think it unimportant, but that I think my opinion on it derivative.Yeah, that's why I didn't write anything! It would have been derivative.
That, and I'm so friggin' tired of defending myself against something I didn't do.
Anyway, read the whole thing while I go make soup. It's freezing today. And read Eric's commenters, too, 'cause I kept pointing to my monitor and going, "Yeah, what she said...and kinda what that guy said...and the first three sentences of what that guy said."
