Liberalism is Not Conducive to Happiness

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. "
- H. L. Mencken

Could you possibly be referrring to all the feverish talk, paranoia, "documentaries", college and high school teacher lectures (indoctrination), about George Bush, the Patriot Act, domestic spying, etc. etc. etc. etc.?

okie wrote:

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. "
- H. L. Mencken

Could you possibly be referrring to all the feverish talk, paranoia, "documentaries", college and high school teacher lectures (indoctrination), about George Bush, the Patriot Act, domestic spying, etc. etc. etc. etc.?

It appears you can't tell the difference between politicians and citizens okie.

There is a big difference between a politician saying there is an outside threat and only he can save us and the citizenry saying the politicians are a threat.

Mencken was refering to the former.

If a hobgoblin is supposed to signify some imaginary threat that Bush dreamed up, I guess the terrorists really don't exist, they are just a figment of our imagination.

Every once in a while, the Democrats come up with a new talking point or term to use, and before long you are inundated with the new term or phrase. It is really comical, but very transparent.

So, I'm not exactly sure what that -- I know that it sounds bad. I know that if, you know, in America today it's as though somebody has stoked fear in this country. I don't know who that might have been but it appears that the country is poised to react, let's say reflexively with a certain xenophobic zeal.

I never took Prozac. I'm not on anything, even when Clinton was in office. I will admit I sleep a little better at night knowing we have adults in the White House now. We don't have people cavorting with and giving away nuclear technology to the Indonesian mafia and Chinese Military in exchange for campaign funds and who knows what else. Instead of Prozac, I listened to Rush and then went fishin and camping and forgot about it all.

P. S. No wonder some of the posts here don't make sense here if the libs are all on pot. I should have known that.

okie wrote:

If a hobgoblin is supposed to signify some imaginary threat that Bush dreamed up, I guess the terrorists really don't exist, they are just a figment of our imagination.

Terrorists really do exist. But as a threat to the lives of Americans, they are trivial compared to traffic accidents, high blood pressure, swimming pools, and similarly lethal menaces. Yet Mr. Bush is selling terrorism as a threat so severe that Americans should sacrifice some of their liberties to their defense against it. It is the magnitude of the terrorist threat, not its mere existence, that serves as the administration's hobgoblin here.

I am beginning to realize that even reading the Bush cultist delusions that are posted here is a complete waste of time.

Thomas, you really can't be serious? You compare terrorists to traffic accidents, high blood pressure, and swimming pools? Chemical and biological weapons do not exist? Nuclear weapons and the possible suitcase nuclear weapon are not threats? Anthrax and other similar agents are not a very real possibility? Terrorist networks openly vow the extermination of western civilization, and have amply demonstrated the seriousness of their claims, and yet you classify this as merely a nuisance problem compared to "traffic accidents, high blood pressure, and swimming pools."

The statements you make about the seriousness of terrorism really demonstrates the heart of the problem that we have here and around the world in coming to grips with the problem and doing enough about it.

To compare the two methods of dying is not a very appropriate comparison. Perhaps statistically, more Jews have died from high blood pressure throughout history than by being thrown in ovens by the Nazis, so I suppose Hitler really was not any worse than high blood pressure? Thomas, I really would think you would need to rethink such a silly assertion.

Thirty new terrorist organizations have emerged since the September 11, 2001, attacks, outpacing U.S. efforts to crush the threat, said Brig. Gen. Robert L. Caslen, the Pentagon's deputy director for the war on terrorism.
"We are not killing them faster than they are being created," Gen. Caslen told a gathering at the Woodrow Wilson Center yesterday, warning that the war could take decades to resolve.

Guards fault Homeland Security protection

LARRY MARGASAKAssociated Press

WASHINGTON - The agency entrusted with protecting the U.S. homeland is having difficulty safeguarding its own headquarters, say private security guards at the complex.

The guards have taken their concerns to Congress, describing inadequate training, failed security tests and slow or confused reactions to bomb and biological threats.

For instance, when an envelope with suspicious powder was opened last fall at Homeland Security Department headquarters, guards said they watched in amazement as superiors carried it by the office of Secretary Michael Chertoff, took it outside and then shook it outside Chertoff's window without evacuating people nearby.