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Fish and guest bloggers
Well, time to sign off and let the natural order resume. My blog isn’t exactly fixed but it is useable and so therefore open for business.
I can’t thank Tim Blair enough for granting me temporary entry here, and as usual the offer is open to him at my place should the need arise. Also thanks to Andrea for setting up the access.
Of course, I’ve felt like a fish out of water in these parts, but we secular lefty types kind of like that image. Maybe I’ve evolved.....?
Anyway, thank you for your attention and your comments and for keeping the spitting to a minimum. At tim’s request I’m going to write a post about my brief spell here, so I hope some of you have a moment to contribute a few thoughts in the comments section once its done.
In fact, drop in anytime..... (Actually, I’d be interested in getting some thoughts on this post about Marla Ruzicka.)
Thanks again.
No, I was just identifying myself. I wrote a recent post about it but I can’t link to it unfortunately as my archives are playing silly buggers.
Posted by Tim Dunlop on 2005 04 18 at 06:36 PM • permalinkTim, I will say that it has been an interesting experience and one that I think should be replicated again. I doubt I, for one, will ever agree, or possibly even be deluded enough to believe, everything you write, but it is always good to get a different perspective on things. Good luck in the future.
TFK, there are religious lefties and secular (atheist/agnostic/whatever) conservatives too, so why not secular leftists? Your ire is strange.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2005 04 18 at 07:05 PM • permalinkTim D
I posted a comment on your site about Marla.
Basically I was saying that its good to see a practical lefty and thats where the movement HAS to go to recapture its relevance.
The overarching problem is basically an Accounting one. With the “Government as Business” model/mindset we have in the postmodern age governments of all persuasions have to cut humanitarian (leftist) programs because of the problems of moral hazard, adverse selection and free riders.
Those on the right have an honest arguement within their own ideology for these cuts, shared responsibility, small government, free markets etc etc. While those on the left have to rely on subterfuge, spin, and rank dishonesty, nobody like the nanny state!!!
Posted by knuckleheadwatch on 2005 04 18 at 07:45 PM • permalinkGlad you could drop by. Y’all don’t sweat much for a librul.
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 04 18 at 08:09 PM • permalinkWell Tim, glad to meet you and all. I might drop by your place now that I met you. Hey, um, now that you’re leaving, will your cohorts be leaving with you?
(holds screen door open, holds out coat)
Posted by wronwright on 2005 04 18 at 08:43 PM • permalinkTim, I left two meaningless comments at your blog already. I’ll comment on the Marla Ruzicka issue here.
Yeah, I read the NYT’s article on her at lunch. Sad. And I would certainly say that it seems that she was trying to do something positive.
And yet ...
I don’t know exactly what disturbs me about her. Maybe it’s the fact that she chose Iraq to bring her one person campaign to help the injured. Why not elsewhere? Is there no other country that desperately needed her help? Say, Zimbabwe. Or Angola which is currently struggling with the horrific Marburg virus. Or the Congo. Or, well, just take one of many.
Why Iraq? Is it because that is the one country for which Ms. Ruzicka could make a stand against the crimes of war committed by the US, allowing her to take the moral high ground?
So what was her motives? To do good for the people of Iraq? Or to do good for Marla Ruzicka?
Posted by wronwright on 2005 04 18 at 09:11 PM • permalinkIn addition to my post 5. I’d like to see the media consider the actions of the “insurgents” and run this line.
1) Marla was a western civilian in Iraq trying to do good practical work and helpout people.
2) Marla was indescriminately murdered (like 1000’s of other civilians) by terrorists cowards using a remote detonated bomb.
Posted by knuckleheadwatch on 2005 04 18 at 09:49 PM • permalinkWith exception to a few dickheads, it’s been rather enjoyable, Tim.
Posted by Aging Gamer on 2005 04 18 at 10:41 PM • permalinkBut I think TFK is asking why Tim D feels the necessity to qualify his leftist political stance as secular.
It’s something academic people do over here. One of the classes I took before I fled the university screaming (well, that was mostly money-related screaming) was Contemporary Multicultural Humanities—or maybe it was Multicultural Tempo-- well you get the idea. Anyway, the instructor told us about how at meetings of other doctors of the cause (she was a PhD & head of some folk-art thing and so on) they introduced a convention whereby everyone would introduce themselves thusly: “I am so-and-so, a Middle-Class, European-Descended (with some Cherokee on my mother’s side, but I have no reservation experience because that was back during the nineteen hundreds), female, Caucasian, Arthritic-American” blah blah blah. This must have slowed the meetings to a crawl… But see, it was all so everyone would know everyone else’s total background and family history and thus the possibility of inadvertently insulting someone (perhaps by speaking harshly of 1/18th Cherokee Arthritic-Americans not knowing there was one in the room) was supposedly lessened. I got a migraine just invisioning this wondrous event, and my theory that the ultimate goal of “progressives” everywhere was to get humanity jammed into cold metal folding chairs in large, crowded, inadequately heated/cooled meeting rooms, and while we are trying to massage the cramps out of our legs the self-proclaimed elite will have taken all the money, booze, and good food and escaped to a tropical island lair.
Seriously, I am not entirely against labelling oneself as part of a particular group or set of beliefs—after all, we have only a limited time on earth and labelling people and things is our way of dealing with the onslaught of information thrown our way. But it can go too far. Then again, remember we are each individuals—just like everybody else.
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2005 04 18 at 10:46 PM • permalinkAndrea,
Your former Contemporary Multicultural Humanities class sounded like fun. I would have described myself as a white, middle class, slightly overweight, meat eating conservative who smokes and drinks too much. I then would have dared anyone to offend me by attacking any of those characteristics.
Does anyone remember a Sir Joh interview where he was rattled by a question about the ‘separation of powers’?. What was that all about?.
Posted by Lucky Nutsacks on 2005 04 19 at 05:12 AM • permalinkMea culpa! I’ve posted on the wrong thread. Someone slap me please! (hoping I only get slapped by my imaginary girlfriend Miss Andrea) :)
Posted by Lucky Nutsacks on 2005 04 19 at 05:18 AM • permalinkSir Joh was asked if he could explain the “separation of powers” - separation of government and the judiciary - and he could not. Given the way his state was run, it was obvious that even if he did understand it he did not want to support it.
The corruption which was subsequently revealed by the Fitzgerald Inquiry surprised nobody.Hi Andrea,
Yes, of course you can have a secular conservative - that was precisely my point. I personally am an example of a person to the political right of centre who both believes in small government and rejects all religious dogma.
I don’t think my response was particularly loaded with “ire”. I was just wondering why Tim D tried to distinguish himself from the majority of readers of this blog by describing himself as a “secular lefty”. That implies that most of us are not lefties, with which I agree, and that most of us are not “secular”, which I do not think is correct.
By the way, I reckon that a person can be both profoundly religious and secular. In the sense of not wanting religion to intrude into politics and government. My guess is that most of Tim’s readers are “secular” in this sense. Whether most have a religious faith, I don’t know - it’s not something we talk about much, after all.
TFK
Bye Tim and him tim. Glad you aren’t a member of the lefty echo chamber.
Posted by Some0Seppo on 2005 04 19 at 10:23 AM • permalink
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Funny you identify yourself as a “secular” lefty, Tim D. Do you think that non-left politics and religious belief go hand in hand or something?
I detest self-delusion in all its forms, whether that be left wing politics or religious dogma. How can you respect anyone who believes shit just because they want it to be true?
TFK
PS: I am not an atheist, either. Go figure!