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Monday, 9 December 2002
0859 - Sneering at courage
Eric Raymond, once again, does a masterful job of taking apart the leftist view, this time on the basis and need for physical courage, in his latest essay. I've never quite understood why the left wants us to knuckle under instead of defend ourselves; while the usual conspiracy-theory explanation does hold water, it's a bit unsatisfactory as the final word.
An editorial by New York commentator Deroy Murdock, printed in today's Minneapolis Star-Tribune, describes how we should deal with the bodies of Islamist terrorists. He argues that we should bury them in a way designed, according to the tenets of Islam, to deny them entry into Paradise. Works for me.
Those who oppose hunting in any form would do well to read this editorial by Greg Breining, also from the Strib. He outlines the differences between game management as practiced in the US and the experience of China, which doesn't manage game at all, instead banning hunting after letting it run rampant for a few years.
Finally, I note that the Transportation Security Administration is relaxing rules that closed parking within 300 feet of airport terminals, and is working to reduce the number of searches at the gate. Yay. Perhaps we'll get real security instead of feel-goodism.
current mood: ![[mood icon]](https://www.livejournal.com/img/mood/neko/kaokitty/calm.gif) calm
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Comments:
As I understand it, it's not a question of "knuckling under vs. defending ourselves", it's a question of "whether it's a good idea to provoke Saddam or not". That comment had to do with defending oneself personally, rather than the current situation with Iraq. Ah.
[lazy turkle goes off to actually read the essay]
Hmm. My mom uses the phrase "testosterone poisoning", but never to refer to acts of courage. Just acts of obnoxiousness, mostly involving traffic situations. Like the guy who cuts ya off on the freeway. Or that guy in the parking lot in the luxury car with tinted windows who was backing up toward us with our cart full of groceries and was about to hit us and didn't stop until Mom slapped her hand on the guy's fender, and then he thought we rammed his car with our cart or something, got outta the car and threatened to "sue" Mom's "ass" if there was so much as one scratch or dent in his car, and then when he found a tiny ding in some area of the fender we hadn't even gotten anywhere near, she had to argue with him to convince him we didn't put it there. This was no act of courage; it was a petty power trip. That's what "testosterone poisoning" means. |
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