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A question

How do the Israeli authorities allow a family to commit serial murder? No arrests after the first, the second.....?

I thought they had a civilized country of reasonable laws...no?

Are you gathering up the tears...

Thank you for this perspective on what we face in the world today.

Hmmmm....

I tell you, this is one real reason why we decided to cancel our satellite service, and are giving up most television watching. There is evil out there, and we need to be aware of, yes, but we don't need to be bombarded every day with an endless rampage of all the sick goings-on out there.

There is much good in the world as well, but how often do you see that displayed in the media. No, the media likes to shove all the c**p down your throat in an attempt to show you how awful things are.

Yes, there is evil in the world, but if you rely on the media, you would think that 90% of all the people around you are evil and murderous and sick. The fact is, the good vastly outnumbers all of the evil acts you see in the media, whether by print or by television or by radio.

As another poster has suggested, this numbs us to the presence of evil. It also gives us a jaded view of the world.

When I told the representative of DSL that I wished to discontinue the service and she asked me why, I was straightforward and blunt about the reasons. I let her know when the various channels can clean up their act and quit shoving all of their crap at us, then I will consider watching television again.

This is not a call for censorship, rather a statement that no longer am I going to let the networks try to indoctrinate me in their sick, twisted world view.

Do It Anyway

Mother Theresa wrote a beautiful poem call "Do It Anyway"

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered; Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, People may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.

It goes on and all good people should read it when discouraged.

I thank God

that I'm an American. This country IS the greatest in the world. If you don't agree, go live somewhere else and you'll see. I did for a time, and I couldn't wait to come back to the USA. There are lots of evils in the world AND in our own country, but I wouldn't live anywhere else because the founders knew what they were doing when they formed our democratic Republic. We as Americans are TRULY BLESSED. The ABSOLUTE only country I would consider moving to (after some horrible attack on our country, worse than 9/11)would be Australia. God blesses the USA always, and our wonderful free enterprise system, where the ordinary person can become very wealthy. It's happened many times.

Mom in Wisconsin

Prager's selective outrage

Dennis Prager (aka Mr. Happy) is lamenting the evil done by all of those people out there, but he has no outrage whatsoever for an administration that cherry picked WMD intel and totally fabricated stories about ties between Iraq and al Queda in order to fool the American people into believing that we needed to invade and occupy Iraq; an adventure that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of casualties, millions of refugees, and the destruction of the infrastructure of an entire country.

It's easy to point to all of the evil that other people are doing. It's quite a bit more difficult to look at the evil we ourselves are doing. Prager seems to be only capable of the former.

People like Prager, who only see the evil that others are doing, are the people who cause all of the problems in the world. As we speak, Prager's counterpart in the Islamic world is preaching about all of the evil that America does, without recognizing the evil being perpetrated by his own people. If he and Prager get their way, we're all in big trouble.

Phylo out.

Lisa

I have read that wonderful poem. Its prominently on the wall in the principal's office at the school where i work part time. Brighten the corner where you are was always my favorite song at Sunday school. Its what keeps chaos from enveloping us.

The Evil Men Do

Edmund Burke is supposed to have coined the phrase, "Evil prevails when good men do nothing," but many Americans do not even recognize evil. For example, the liberals who praise Cuba are blind to the Cuban dissidents who are killed, tortured or imprisoned or hounded out of their country.

Another example, according to the WSJ, the U. of Massachusetts and Michigan State U. awarded honorary degrees to Robert Mugabe, dictator of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia), after he massacred thousands of members of another tribe.

It seems many leaders, formal and informal, of civilized countries do not want to look evil in the face because then they would be forced to do something about it.

The dirty little secret: Evil is tolerated because the cost of overcoming it is perceived as too high a price to pay.

Dennis

You skip the part where the US actually joined many of the evil doers in the world - torture is a crime against humanity and the US used and uses torture. We were the good guys; now our reputation is very badly damaged. Thank goodness we can begin to repair the damsge in 09

Typical (pedi) Phylo

Straight from the Hate America First lips of people like Phylo, he/she can never accept that we English speaking nations and the US in particular, albeit imperfect, are far superior in almost every way to every nation in the world. We can do better and would do much better if we could rid ourselves of the plague and shackles of liberalism and its ever striving insanity. While liberals seek utopia they cause the failure of all they intend to help with "unintended consequences" or better said, "ignored understood future outcomes" as understood by all but the neo-libs that is.

These are the last days, good will be called evil and evil good, so we fight the good fight, raise our children well and insulate them from libs with both truth and education. Thank you Mr. Prager!!!

dream on hal

I see that Moveon assigned you to troll Prager's column today. By posting here you have provided us with yet another example of the evil in the world today.

Honoring Mugabe

"Another example, according to the WSJ, the U. of Massachusetts and Michigan State U. awarded honorary degrees to Robert Mugabe, dictator of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia), after he massacred thousands of members of another tribe."
----

This would be OK so long as they honored him with the Third Degree.

Earth's Temperature Is Evil?

Lon's evil (Global Warming) is one "evil" we can just ignore. In fact, if good and sensible men do nothing about the fantasy of AGW we will have more resources to actually help starving Africans.

AGW is being exposed on a daily basis as a gigantic scam.

Environmental wackos belong to that ancient tribe of fanatics who grab hold of one idea and pursue it to idiotic extremes, no matter how much damage they do to fellow rational human beings.

Jerseyvet

The whole AGW flap isn't so bad. Logically, as time shows the fallacy, the sensible people should be able to beat the unthinking lemmings over the head for years with it. Sadly, they will just go on to the next red herring, meanwhile ignoring real problems. Perhaps the most frustrating thing about so many on the left is their short memory and unwillingness to learn. A left wing idea is shown over and over to be false. Does it matter? No, they cling to it to the point of insanity. The very definition of crazy.

Hal D

Hal,
Please keep your inane posts short like you did at the beginning. It takes less time to scroll past it and read something important.

Lon

I hadn't heard about Palestinians dying because they can't get to hospitals quick enough due to Israeli checkpoints, but assuming it's true, I still have no sympathy whatever for the Palestinians. This is a consequence they've incurred upon themselves because of their years of slipping suicide bombers into Israel. If they want to wage war upon Israel - well, this is part of the price they pay for that war. To equate this as being on a par of evil as the examples Prager cites is totally ridiculous. The Palestinians are not innocents here; they're active combatants who are feeling part of the results of their campaign of combat. If you want to be a bleeding heart for the Palestinians, that's your prerogative, but don't try pinning it on me.

Would Mr Prager..

..have considered the actions of Pinochet and Batista evil or are atrocities in pursuit of a free market economy permissable??

time bomb

time bomb wrote: "Also the truth has been found out that Saddam was sheltering high level al Qaeda operatives - giving them a place to hide out or disappear to for a while, if they needed it."

Did you miss the recent news that the Pentagon came out with a report stating that there was no evidence found in Saddam's papers indicating operational ties to al Queda? It wouldn't surprise me. If you only get your news from right wing outlets, you wouldn't have seen it. Go ahead and google it. You'll soon see that I'm right.

This is also what the CIA said before the war. It's also what the 9/11 Commission report said.

So, we have the Bush administration saying their were ties. Versus the CIA, the Pentagon and the bi-partisan 9/11 Commission saying "no there weren't".

And you're going with the administration?

And as far as WMD goes, the evidence for WMD's was non-existent. They never had any actual proof. And most of the intel pointed away from a conclusion that Saddam had WMD, not towards it. They cherry picked it to suit their agenda. That's a fact. The aluminum tubes story and the Niger story had more hole in them than a sponge. Yet the administration sold them to us as absolute certainties.

This BS that other countries thought there were WMD is irrelevant. They were basing their opinions on supposition and on what our administration told them. They believed it because they trusted us. Their opinions were not based on facts or hard evidence.

get informed time bomb

Phylo out.

Hal Donahue

It isn't the conservatives who don't want to care for and maintain the police and soldiers. Check to see what the liberals are doing to them. Check to see what happened to the military during Clinton's 'reign'.

Phylo

If your so disgusted with this country and the way that this administration runs it, feel free to take your sorry pathetic hypocritical racist sorry arse somewhere else. We need less of you racists and hypocrits around here anyway! Have a good day lame duck.

SSGT

If John McCain gets elected, you just might get your wish. Eight more years of this administration's policies would doom this country.

By the way on Iraqis Phylo

Since Saddam killed roughly 1 million of his people per year for each year of his reign, although we have perhaps killed "100,000 per year" (a highly inflated number in my view that is not proven, rather alledged by the press (MSM) and not challenged), we have saved millions of their citizens in effect...don't ya think?

Savage Alum

Phylo is not interested in any good things going on in Iraq. I fear you just wasted muscle strength posting that to him!

Phylo

Please tell me you're running late for the next social studies lecture. You can't be a grown adult in the work force with those warped opinions and attitude...

Woody from Iowa

Savage

Saddam did not kill a million Iraqi's per year––not even close. He is accused of killing thousands of Kurd separatists. I'm no fan of Saddam, but some would call that quelling a violent revolution. If liberals were to start a violent revolution in this country, and Bush slaughtered thousands of him, would you think he was as evil as Saddam?

Really

"that I'm an American. This country IS the greatest in the world. If you don't agree, go live somewhere else and you'll see."

Really? using what standards? It is not #1 in standards of living, not #1 in education, not #1 in life expectacy, #1 in the levels of infant mortality, not #1 in economic freedom and on and on. To say one country is the greatest is simply stupid, there is no one greatest country. And I have lived someplace else and I disagree, so there.

Standshisground

I am not surprised that there are people who did have no sympathy for the deaths of innocent Palestinians due to occupation. Unfortunately that is part of human nature. It is kind of the point of Prager's column above. That is why it is a shame that he only included the examples that fit with his politics because it gives an inaccurate picture of the banality of evil.

Oh and Mom

"...and our wonderful free enterprise system, where the ordinary person can become very wealthy. It's happened many times."

Both Singapore and HK are freer economically, in case you were curious. The US is #4 in 2007, but was tied in 9th place in 2006.

Phylo

I must have missed your posting of the democrappers comments on Iraq from 1998 to 2003. I also wonder what the DOW was when Klintoon left office? Do you have those stats?

Of course you don't. You know why?

YOU ARE A HYPOCRITE AND A RACIST! Common, say after me:

HYPOCRITE

RACIST

LIAR TO BOOT. And I can prove all of it!

Hey Georgetwin

good day to ya! Personally, me thinks Hal Drunkahue and Phylo both stayed out late last night boozing it up! The only difference is that Phylo (out of his gourd) woke up to early today!

Akagi writes:

Oh and Mom
"...and our wonderful free enterprise system, where the ordinary person can become very wealthy. It's happened many times."

Both Singapore and HK are freer economically, in case you were curious. The US is #4 in 2007, but was tied in 9th place in 2006.

And both have less freedoms and rights, than any democracy.

Because

Time Bomb:

Mexico has a much lower standard of living than the US that is why, same reason people from Africa break into Spain and France. Countires with higher standard of livings attract those with lower ones.

Actually Canada and Australia are, they accept more immigrants per capita than does the US as well, but you are correct, the US does have one of the most liberal immigration policies in the world.

And Rob:

"This country has more to offer people coming in than anywhere."

Guess that depends on the standard employed.

Akagi -- What "Rob" and "Time Bomb" said

OK, If you've lived other places and they're better than the USA, feel free to leave our horrible country and live somewhere else. As former Australian Prime Minister John Howard said - paraphrased - 'In this country there is freedom to live as one chooses, and if you don't agree with this system, you can take advantage of one more freedom -- the freedom to LEAVE.'

Mom in Wisconsin

Mom

Care to point to a post where I said the US was a horrible place to live?

Not a big fan of Australia myself since it is so pro-Beijing and views the "Taiwan issue" as an internal Chinese matter, but to each his own.

On war, Lon

When one people makes war on another people, one risk the war-making group runs is that it is subject to having its innocents killed by the people it is making war upon. The solution is for the leaders of a would-be war-making people not to go ahead and make war on another people. Israel ended its occupation of Gaza over two years ago - and the response of its Palestinian inhabitants was promptly to turn it into a warbase against Israel, just like Hezbollah has turned Lebanon into a warbase against Israel. If the Palestinians are going to continue to pursue war against Israel, they're going to continue to see their civilians killed - and they know it. Apparently, that's fine with their leaders, so if you're so upset with supposedly innocent Palestinians being killed, your argument is with the Palestinians' leaders who can stop that killing tomorrow by simply ceasing their combat operations against Israel, not against an Israeli leadership that has every right to protect its own citizens on its own soil from those who want to turn that soil into a killing field.

And I can already see what you and those who think like you are thinking right now: that my line of thinking therefore justifies WHATEVER terrorists have done and are plotting to do to America, because America supposedly have made war on their people. America has never been at war with Egypt, so what justified the actions of the 4 Egyptians who were among the 19 9/11 hijackers? We have also never attacked Pakistan, which is not even part of the Middle East in the first place, so what accounts for the willingness of Pakistanis to take up arms against us with Al Qaeda or to let its territory be used by Al Qaeda as a warbase against America? If you say American policies brought this on, Salman Rushdie had the definitive comment on this when he said that to excuse terrorism by blaming it on American policy is to deny the basic foundation of morality: that individuals are responsible for their actions.

Well Rob

"And the conservatives have shredded the Constitution by allowing the government to spy on it's own citizens and by disregarding laws passed by congress.“

Even conservatives have issues with this one, which is one of the reasons why Bob Barr left the GOP and is seeking to run as the LP standard bearer.

Rob/Akagi

Just a tidbit. The US is number one in hours worked but number seven in productivity

Evil is everywhere

All we can do is all we can do. I discussed this with the income tax man (who was a Hindu, it actually came up in the conversation so you can imagine how widely it ranged) as he was charging me $103 to get $185 in refund. He said that there is so much poverty and crime and bad feeling in the world, what can we do. And I reminded him of the Jewish saying "Who saves a single life, saves the world entire." Don't do nothing just because you can't do everything.

And learn to discern between those who need your help and those who want your help. Frequently the ones who need your help are quietly going down for the last time because they are too proud to ask for help.

Standshisground

Israel has never ended its crippling control over Gaza's borders. The idea that Israel offered the Gazan's peace is more a reflection of the ignorance with which the subject is discussed in this country.

It is possible to defend Israel's maintaining a continued state of war with the Palestians for the last 40 years. But this suggestion that Israel made a peaceful move towards the Palestinians who shockingly continued fighting anyway is more a reflection of the fact that people in this country do not really think of the Palestinians as human beings. That is repugnant, but not surprising. There are too many sources of evil in the world, so people look for any excuse to rationalize away suffering when they can. Certainly the babies who have died in the occupied territory are to blame for not having convinced their leaders to accept a peace that no human beings would accept. Don't they know how much better it would be for us if they simply accepted a sub-human existence so that we could feel better about ourselves?

Again, this is just a reflection of the degree to which Prager's thesis was correct, but his application of it was self-serving.

akagi

Don't let the door hit you in your pompous a**...

Woody from Iowa

Hal Donahue

You say: "Ahhh see this is the freedom you want to take away. You want to invade our bedrooms and bodies and build walled boarders. You want the country to return to an era that actually existed for a generation or two after the civil war."

Don't you know? Liberals don't mind all the unborn babies. They obviously figure the loss of a little 'fetal tissue' is not significant - compared to the necessity for there not being any loss of the "human right" to indulge and even help out to promote irresponsible sex.

Evil?

Hmmm? Sort of interesting and revealing topic, I suppose.

I don't really believe that there is evil beyond human being's actions. There's not some evil cloud that floats around the planet infecting people's minds and making them rape, murder, and steal.

There are evil people and there are people that do evil things, but I don't really believe in "evil" separate from people's actions.

So, yes, there are some really terrible things that people do in this world (and yes, even the United States has evil people who do evil things; I don't think even the most patriotic among us will disagree with that).

But, what's the point of this discussion? Prager ends by saying that for some people evil is so great that they choose to ignore real evil and focus on supposed inventions like carbon emmissions. Sure, I guess that's true. People focus on animal rights or global warming or threats to Christianity or school prayer or any number of issues that are not really that important to human survival and achieving a just and peaceful world.

Hmm . . . I guess my answer or response to this article would be that we should all try to think more critically about what is truly important and worth fighting for. We should not rely on faith or trust to help us determine what acts are evil and what is not. We should rely on our own intelligence, experience and judgment to come to reasoned conclusions and we should act to make the wrold better.

Do it yourself!!!!

OMG

AudiR10 writes: Tuesday, April, 08, 2008 1:40 PM

. . .I discussed this with the income tax man (who was a Hindu, it actually came up in the conversation so you can imagine how widely it ranged) as he was charging me $103 to get $185 in refund. . .

ARGH! Dude your taxes are not that difficult. DO THEM YOURSELF and save that 100 bucks. You can download turbotax or some other program that walks you through the process the same way that tax preparer did.

Signed, Concerned Liberal

Time bomb

"Don't you know? Liberals don't mind all the unborn babies. They obviously figure the loss of a little 'fetal tissue' is not significant - compared to the necessity for there not being any loss of the "human right" to indulge and even help out to promote irresponsible sex. "

HUH???? All I want is for the government to stay out of my body and my home. Does the Constitution say abortion is illegal? Compromise and be done with it like most of the civilised world. Why is it all you extremists can think about and fret over is sexual?

Lon

Babies who have died in the occupied territory are to not be blamed for no one having convinced their Palestinian leaders to accept a peace that 'no human beings' would accept?

How much better it would have been for us if Arafat had simply accepted a subhuman existence so that there could have been peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians? That was when, under Bill Clinton’s peace efforts, Israel offered Arafat more than 90% of what he was claiming that Palestinians wanted?

Instead of accepting and then working on the remainder Arafat walked away from the deal. Had he accepted, then perhaps could everyone not have felt better about their Selves?

How is it that Palestinians not really wanting peace with Israel but rather to wipe it off the map, is the fault of Palestinians,’ or any other's babies?

Reply to tubbs

Evil? That's what you begin with and you suggest that it does exist for sure and your conclusion is that "we should act to make the world better"

My question is, how can we do that if we all have a different opinion of what is evil and what is better? It seems to me that the only way we could make a difference was if we agreed upon a standard of good and evil. Where would that standard come from? It could not come from within us because we will always disagree. So, without an objective source from without us, we are at an empass, or are we?

Maybe there is a way to a better world out there. I believe there is, yet none of the comments I'm reading ask the right questions that Dennis's article brings to light. We need to work the problem...the real problem...all this toying with it by saying, "let's just all get together and make a better world" is absurd. We are not intelligent enough t make that a reality. But still, there is a way.

Standshisground/Lon

"....If Israel has a right to exist in your mind, then what do you suggest they should be allowed to do to stop its enemies from turning its soil into killing fields? Clarify, please. "

What is all this about Israel? They are an ally supported by a large portion of all US assistance. Should they be any different than the UK? When the IRA was bombing London we did little.

Time bomb

"Self-regulation and channeling of the human sex drive are what produces citizenship in civilization. If you won't do that for yourself, civilization kicks you out. You prefer to live like a bonobo in the rain forest? They have sex without restraint all the time. "

SELF regulation not a cop sitting in our bedrooms. What I find totally interesting is you think that sex defines civilization WOW. The Greeks and Romans were not civilised?

Hal "LMAO®" Donahue writes:

"All I want is for the government to stay out of my body and my home."

Spoken like a true bi-sexual leftist.


I'd like the government to stay out of my wallet. Why is THAT concept so difficult for you leftists?

Akagi

your comments imply that you believe all religions are equally valid, equally invalid, or that the Ten Commandments are offensive to your particular faith.

Which one?

Time bomb

"...Civilizations which fail to continue in that tend to decline as their citizens become increasingly animalistic like monkeys and apes in the rain forest. "

The facts say otherwise the periods of greatest achievement and progress are often the very ones least "structured". But your concept of sexual behavior defining civilised is literally amazing LOL

Hal "LMAO®" Donahue replies:

"Well deadbeat you have a lot more paying to do so stop complaining -- all this debt plus the cost to repair and replace all the infrastructure you and your ilk used up,"

Well, Hal. If the government needs more money to cover the things you mentioned, perhaps it could stop throwing money at the "War On Poverty" that you said yesterday ended when LBJ decided not to run for re-election.

Or - better yet, lower taxes even further. That ALWAYS increases real tax revenue.

Agaki, Hal Donahue, et--al

People of the true religions who legally immigrate here to the United States generally recognize the kinship of the Judeo-Christian tradition with what they are familiar with as the Best in their own traditions, from whatever part of the world they came from. When they immigrate here, they don't complain about the judeo-Christian religion having informed the founding documents of the United States, or seek to drive it from public view.

Yes, p.r.

There is a concept known as tyranny of the majority, didn't you learn that someplace?

Time Bomb

In context, I don't have an issue with the 10 Commandments, and in general being a non-Christian I don't really care all that much if they are displayed or not, but when someone brings in a multi-ton piece of rock, then that is a little much even for someone as permissive as I.

I don't have an issue with the manger scene on the court house during Christmas either as long as it is displayed with other symbols of the season (e.g. Santa Claus).

Hal Donahue

It is a matter of Self-regulation. When you won't do that, civilization steps in to do it for you. Whatever you do in your own bedroom is your business, but if it is perverse, you will pay the price of having a degraded nature if you keep doing it. Then if you bring that degraded nature into your public affairs, Civilization will deal with you according to Law in regard to what you do in public. Those Laws are becoming all too much a matter of politics. The deleterious consequences of that cannot however be Legislated away.

uh-oh

Akagi got me. I forgot about those dang Vogons.

tubbs

you say, "there's just people doing evil things."

you say, "I think people can be evil and commit evil acts."

Yes, yes, yes. I agree. My question isn't whether it is real and expressed through human beings. My question is, where did this idea of evil come from? It must have come from somewhere? Or did we just make it up?

Only one answer for the source of morality suffices. Some believe morality is an illusion. Some believe it is a product of chance. The only other option is that it comes from an intelligent designer. Universal moral laws that have genuine incumbency require an author whose proper domain is the universe, and who has the moral authority to enforce such laws, and the power to offer justice in light of such laws.

If you believe that morality (evil vs. good) comes from within the intelligence of human beings and nowhere else...isn't it amazing that even the youngest of children experience ethical pain (true moral guilt) even before we have an opportunity to intelligently teach them right from wrong. How does a child know that lying is wrong, cheating is wrong, and injury to others is wrong?

I respectfully disagree with you. Morality, in this case evil and good, does exist outside the human (sentient) experience. I believe the very presence of the knowledge of good and evil within you and I proves that there is a general revelation of good and evil available to all of us--regardless of our country of origin or religious experience. If it just happened by chance the outcome would certainly not be uniform as it appears to be. This general revelation must have come from somewhere or someone intelligent outside of you and I.

Agaki

Tyranny of the Majority?

Is that really your argument? Next time you read a history book, look very hard for the Tyranny of the Majority. You'll have a hard time finding it if you are honest. Instead, you'll find over and over and over the Tyranny of the minority.

History is cyclical so if you want to fear anything, don't fear the tyranny of the majority...instead, fear the tyranny of one person, or a small group of people who rise up with radical and tyrannical ideas.

Did we fight WWI, WWII, or the current war because of the tyranny of the majority? No.

"tyranny of the majority" what a cop-out?

Hal Donahue

This business about Israel is that Lon lamented in his post of 9:39 a.m. that Prager didn't mention as one of his examples of evil in the world the fact, according to Lon, that Palestinians are dying because they can't get to hospitals fast enough on account that they are being impeded by Israeli checkpoints. I took issue with Lon's characterization of this as evil, opining that even if I take Lon's facts that this process is really happening at face value, that this is not a consequence of Israeli evil but rather the consequence of the Palestinians war-making effort against Israel and its territory, and therefore one of the ancillary effects of its war against Israel is the suffering of some of its civilians in this way. So Lon and I have been going back and forth on this.

Agaki

no, p.r. reside in Texas, not Puerto Rico

p.r.

p.r. I hope you are a priest so you can adequetely answer tubbs inability to take the leap.

Carlos (but not the Jackal we assume)

"I like your explanation, makes sense to me."

Yes and since you also seem to think "liberals" have all of a sudden discovered Xizang (aka Tibet) and think Iraq is able to substain a democracy, I am sure many things make sense to you...like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny

hal...deep breath

Hey hal, take a deep breath,quick sombody put a
plastic bag over his head and handcuff him! smile
Hal....you just a teensy bit off about cons not caring for the vets! The stinking gvmnt. which consists of both parties screwed up and still screwing up!
Now, hal should like this, durn it! A couple of years ago 2 moderate democrats(crap, I didnt know there was such an animal) pushed the state of Illionois to officially admit and recognize the fact that gvmnt. in that state during joseph smith's days acted illegally,terrible,etc. And didnt even allow the mormons protection of the law!! Iam talking basic protection that all citizens should be allowed! It didn't come from conservatives! That was a real eye opener!
Iam against gay marriage,blanket abortion,
illegal immigration, gun control,iam a hawk on military issues(w/in reason),I want less welfare,
politicians income to be reduced, etc. BUT...
sometimes us cons need to take a deep breath...
and look at some needy social matters and not always say tough crap, fellow! Smoking in crowded
areas when 2nd hand smoking was proven dangerous
was pushed by moderats/liberal? Geez, a balance
is needed...isnt it????
Where I fault the liberals...is too many to list
but a hint- every time somebody stubs their toe
oh, gee, the poor soul, lets put 'em on welfare,
or when a murdering rapist goes into this bit about ohhhh gee my daddy was a grouchy guy..so Iam getting back at society,etc.Barf!
elvis

Much Ado About Nothing

We know about this particular evil, but it is no more or less evil than what has been going on for millenia. Today, we think, because the media dishes it up to us, that we should do something about it. Or some do. Vendetta and honor killings have been around for thousands of years, and there are fewer today than there were, when it was even more widely practiced. The author mentioned a handful of items - out of over 6 billion people. What about the 5.99 billion about which nothing newsworthy was printed, because they did nothing evil? Murders have been around since before Cain and Abel. We kill what, 15,000 or 20,000 or more every year in the US? Do the sobsters cry tears for all of them? Do they also read the obituaries? After all, 10,000 people die every day in this country. My, I could have a permanently broken heart.

The author needs to get a grip and a little perspective. Of course, there's evil. But as a Police Lieutenant pointed out to me once, 3% of the people commit 95% of the crimes. And, through-out the world, that same figure applies. We have what, 156 or more countries, and it seems a dozen or so are always basket cases. Just substitute your favorite name from today, or 10 years ago, or when-ever.

Nothings changed. So, why dwell on it? After all, if it's so upsetting, then by all means grab the next flight to Darfur. Me, I'll pass. And, whereas I certainly don't like the messes some people have, I'm not about to advocate doing something about it, nor do I think America should pretend to be responsible for it.

We didn't seem to have this problem before the media saturated the earth - what's the point today?

elvis

"...smile Hal....you just a teensy bit off about cons not caring for the vets! The stinking gvmnt. which consists of both parties screwed up and still screwing up!"

Actually no for six years at least the true voice of veterans has been the Ds. The cons refuse to fully fund VA or fix military medicine and when it comes to the actives they deliberately worked to prevent properly armoured vehicles reaching the marines because it would hurt favored vendors - nope the last six years the conservatives have treated the troops and vets like Craig's and Vitter's tissues - disposable

loosen up hal....

Interesting...but..you seem to never lighten up on any issue...maybe Iam wrong because I normally don't read you blogs...just being honest
sorry.
Just remember a little sugar helps the medicine go down..according to mary poppins and me!
I dont even know what those two words are concerning disposables!!?
elvis

Akaqi

Hey I'm sure we could raise funds to get you a one way ticket to any country of your choice other than the US. Please, go, as soon as possible. Which country have you chosen?

Narcissism...

"Self-preoccupation, lack of empathy, and unconscious deficits in self-esteem."

Sounds like the "typical" Townhall Liberal to me.

Self-absorbed in a text full of famous quotes. Deficit in the concept of human suffering, and a complete inability to see the failure of magical thinking. An Ego crushed and perverted by a disturbed mother who rejected it's image in infancy.

Sad.

tax cuts in a time of war

"Evil is the greatest threat to mankind. Fighting evil is quite dangerous."

Hopefully, we will be able to endure and hold onto our precious tax cut.

Time for Americans to be thankful

In an age when muslim murder is required of muslims and murder of Tibetians is required of the Chineese military. In a time when europe is fast sinking into an islamic toilet, full of decaying fecal material and europe's desire to atone for decades of murder. In a time when the freed soviet states can barely stay ahead of anarchy. Get on your knees and thank the God of Moses for your fortune. Visit ANY middle eastern or african country and then call me a liar. The leader of islam is a pedophile with a six year old bride. Who do you follow?

Hal Donahue

You were quoting with reasonable accuracy what I said, and then asked the following:
“It is a matter of Self-regulation. When you won't do that, civilization steps in to do it for you."
If that is true then why is this true? And it certainly is.
The facts’ say otherwise, the periods of greatest achievement and progress are often the very ones least "structured.”
If you are longing for a return to the garden of An Eden, then having sex all the time will not bring to you the kind of intelligence required to understand why you will need to learn to channel your sex drive into other kinds of creative pursuit necessary to eventually return there.
Bonobos in the rain forest do not have civilizations although they have primitive societies and are ‘getting it on’ almost all of the time.
When I say that civilization steps in to restrain you, it means that if you will not do so for yourself, civilized people will. Civilized people cultivate sexual morality in order to do their part to return again to the garden.
If you don’t want to go along, then you may eventually have the option of going to live in either the rain forest or the Zoo. That is with the bonobos, chimpanzees, or perhaps other of the monkey or ape species that approximate humans DNA by about 99%.
If you choose a Zoo that might be a good place. You could live there happily because those going there to view may throw peanuts and, when they do, you can throw part of your poop back at them.

tubbs...lisa

thanks for the honest dialogue...I enjoyed chatting with you and reading your comments.

Redlac

"we didn't seem to have this problem before the media saturated the earth."

Not an excuse to ignore evil. With knowledge comes responsiblitiy. It makes much better sense to understand that since the media is so good at informing us of the evils on the earth, we now have a much greater responsibility than ever to do something about it.

Your worldview may be totally in opposition to mine, however, from my perspective, when I stand before God I will be more responsible for my actions, in reference to the needy and oppressed, than previous generations were, simply because I am more informed. With knowledge comes responsibility.

Great article, Dennis.

Regarding “human evil is so great that most people choose either to ignore it or to focus their concerns elsewhere”, you’re right. We simply don’t have time to fix the world up. All we can really do is to fix up our immediate environment by leading by example. That’s really the best we can do. So ignoring evil elsewhere is not “wrong”. We’re not God or superman.

Agree that the “world is filled with evil. Always has been”. And that “thanks to communications, we are far more aware of much of it.” Exactly – it SEEMS like it’s a hell hole. But the good news - I would wager that evil is less than at any time in history, because we are now aware & the law has a greater strectch than at any time before in more places around the globe.

The irony in the “sexual harassment” elementary school kids & “global warming” fighters is oh so true. Well said!