tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post115162766270502677..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: Diffuse PowerAssistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-1152276072201105622006-07-07T08:41:00.000-04:002006-07-07T08:41:00.000-04:00"controls" the executive and legislative branch? ..."controls" the executive and legislative branch? What does that mean, then?<BR/><BR/>You present a false dichotomy. Your way, nobody dies, nobody gets hurt, no money gets spent. Bush's way, people die, people get hurt, we spend lots of money. The day you recognize that all courses of actions have consequences, the actual moral choices of the world will not seem so simple to you.<BR/><BR/>Peace also kills.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-1152222890492290752006-07-06T17:54:00.000-04:002006-07-06T17:54:00.000-04:00Well, AVI, you kind of prove my point. The decisio...Well, AVI, you kind of prove my point. The decisions and actions of George Bush just sort of happen to George Bush. <BR/><BR/>Whoever is responsible for starting the war in Iraq had the power to do so. Because I value the lives of my fellow citizens, I am angry about it. <BR/><BR/>You didn't answer my question about whether I can come by and steal thousands of dollars from your children. The current deficit does represent thousands of dollars a year from each child. Are you sure you would be OK with that -- because thousands of dollars is now just a small part of their future earnings? It is OK for Republicans to steal money from my children because you think it isn't very much?<BR/><BR/>The Republican party controls the executive and legislative branch. But when it suits you, the buck stops.... somewhere in the ether where nobody can really find it, so why doesn't everybody just relax? <BR/><BR/>2500 dead? Que sera, sera. 20,000 maimed and wounded? Que sera, sera. New Orleans abandoned? Que Sera, sera. Trillions of dollars stolen from future generations? Que sera, sera.copithornehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08949020666425985657noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-1151939081548448742006-07-03T11:04:00.000-04:002006-07-03T11:04:00.000-04:00Copithorne, you prove my point so well! Did you t...Copithorne, you prove my point so well! Did you think Bush "started" a war, with no input from Congress, from other nations, from advisors, from citizens, from the actions of terrorists, from the actions of Saddam? George Bush "and his partisans..." that seems to be a description of a form of government called "democracy." Coalitions are by definition formed with other nations.<BR/><BR/>The weather may have had something to do with New Orleans. Also, FEMA, local and state governments, the national guard, individual actions, the police and emergency services.<BR/><BR/>You keep bringing up this deficit thing. As a percentage of GDP it's not any worse than usual. It's not great, but it's not emergent either. And Bush doesn't run the budget.<BR/><BR/>This is exactly the misunderstanding of how the world works that I was writing about. Bush has power only in a context, and that context includes a thousant points of input. This is not to absolve any elected official of decisions they make, but to keep critics from fevered interpretations of tyranny and fascism when nothing remotely like that is going to happen.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-1151901920417553492006-07-03T00:45:00.000-04:002006-07-03T00:45:00.000-04:00To me, your post seems strangely abstracted.Is it ...To me, your post seems strangely abstracted.<BR/><BR/>Is it truly unfathomable to you that some people might be angry about starting a war that resulted in the death of 2500 of their fellow citizens, the wounding and maiming of 20,000? <BR/><BR/>Is it such a big mystery that people might be angry about thousands of dollars stolen from our children for this purpose? <BR/>If I took out a credit card in your children's name and ran up thousands of dollars of purchases, would that be ok with you? <BR/><BR/>George Bush and his partisans manifestly have the power to do those things. He doesn't seem to have the power to protect New Orleans but he has the power to start a land war in Asia. <BR/><BR/>People might also value the checks and balances set forth in the U.S. Constitution and see the exercise of power by the Bush administration as unchecked because party loyalty has replaced patriotism. But the concerns are rooted in specific policies and their consequences.copithornehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08949020666425985657noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-1151707353798292342006-06-30T18:42:00.000-04:002006-06-30T18:42:00.000-04:00Yes, I always thought it was deranged to complain ...Yes, I always thought it was deranged to complain about a president whose first act led to the deaths of thousands of Haitians, misused the FBI files of a thousand of his political enemies, sold important nuclear weapons operating systems to the Chinese, refused to let the FBI investigate the office of an important staffer who committed suicide...<BR/><BR/>Anyway, david, I'm going to use that Drucker comment in another post soon.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-1151640491409320242006-06-30T00:08:00.000-04:002006-06-30T00:08:00.000-04:00Conservatives had their own version of derangement...Conservatives had their own version of derangement syndrome going on when Clinton was in office. But these voices have a bigger outlet now with talk radio and the internet. It's sad that mature, adult thinkers (not necessarily moderates) don't speak out against those idiots.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-1151632592085911582006-06-29T21:56:00.000-04:002006-06-29T21:56:00.000-04:00Peter Drucker, who was born in Austria, was struck...Peter Drucker, who was born in Austria, was struck when he came to the US by the impression that every single group--businesspeople, labor, academics, doctors, whowever--felt underappreciated and pushed around by all the other groups. And he thought this was wonderful, because it meant that there wasn't really a single group that was as powerful and entitled as groups tend to want to be...David Fosterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15464681514800720063noreply@blogger.com