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Wednesday, July 30, 2008
You Got Some 'Splainin' to Do.
Evermore things I don't get. Perhaps you can explain?
1. How is McCain a hero?
His military credentials are never questioned, and he is unquestioningly considered a "hero" because of his experience in Vietnam. It's as if not calling him a hero means that you have nothing but battery acid in your heart for all military people. And of course, they're ALL heroes once they put that uniform on, right? They just stop being heroes when they come back and need medical care or a place to live or some such.
I say fuck it, though. I'll question his status, appearances be damned. From what I understand, he was making a bombing run and saw an incoming alert thingiebob (That's the military parlance. It means something is flying at you to blow your ass up). Instead of taking immediate evasive measures, he chose to continue bombing for a few seconds, after which his wing was blown off. Good judgement there. When he came down, he was almost torn apart by civilians but was saved by one. When I hear that part, I wonder how many of us would save an enemy soldier that was shot down while bombing us from an angry mob. Anyway, he was then hauled away to a prison camp where he was either the toughest nut in Hanoi or the ugliest songbird, depending on the report. This understanding is what I have from hearing this thing from all quarters over the last year.
So which part is heroic? Really, it sounds like he blew his mission all to hell and back. Shouldn't a "hero" be someone who did something right? In war, bullets are flying everywhere. I consider the true hero not to be the one who blunders into a bullet, but one who steps into one on purpose to save someone else. Or maybe even the smart guy who figures out how to save the other guy without getting shot. Let's not sell that guy short. That guy never gets far, though, because real heroes tend to get themselves killed sooner more than later.
Beside that, can anyone explain how McCain "knows how to win wars" when most of his war experience was as a prisoner during a war we didn't actually win?
2. How did conservation become a liberal cause?
It seems strange, doesn't it? Especially when you consider that the national park system was the baby of a very famous Republican, one Teddy Roosevelt. The same thing with the ACLU. You'd think that dogged adherence to the Constitution and equal application of same would be a conservative issue more than a liberal one. I think it's because people really have no idea what liberal and conservative are even supposed to mean anymore. A few years ago, I did a little poll of people that I met over a week's time, and asked them if they knew. I was dealing with some very well educated people at the time, but zero out of ten people could give me the definition of either. This is despite the fact that these people has very strong feelings about which word described them. It's no more meaningful today than the names of two opposing football teams.
3. Why is there a bike rack on the bus?
I'm on my way to class, or getting home after a long afternoon, and I'm hanging on a strap watching someone try to put their bike on the rack (and it always takes them several tries), and I'm thinking why don't you just ride the fucking bike?????
4. Why is calling something "political" supposed to be an insult when it comes from a politician?
Is this nutty or what? "That was just a political move on Sen. Bigballz part!" Of course it was. Sen. Bigballz is a politician. What he does is political. What mechanics do is mechanical. What artists do is artistic (Pollock notwithstanding). Why does anyone listen to such tripe from a politician, knowing that by definition it too is political?
5. How can anyone promote the idea that by voting for McCain this year they'll make the rest of us vote for Hillary in 2012?
That has to be the weirdest strategy I've seen since playing RISK on mushrooms. I keep seeing it, though. Are these people really serious?
Posted at 09:07 pm by Joe_the_Troll
 | | | nat
July 31, 2008 05:49 PM PDT
Ok, I'll bit on #3. Back in the early 80's, when my ex and I lived in the Ocean Beach area of San Diego, he worked at NAS North Island in Coronado. We had no car, so we both biked to work: I biked to the end of Point Loma (almost entirely uphill to work, 2.5 - 3 miles), and he biked it to a bus stop downtown. I don't know that biking over the bay bridge to Cornonado was even legal, so he put the bike on a rack on the bus to finish his commute.
Let's just say it was incentive to buy a car! | |
| | | Don
August 2, 2008 10:27 AM PDT
#2 And the EPA was started by Nixon. I think what happened is conservation evolved into an anti-business anti-capitalist sort of mentality and went overboard, and you had yer Reagan fellow-travelers who didn't understand it and the breach widened. Plenty of Repubs are conservationist, they're just not nuts about it and can't join up with the core movement. For my part, I think of conservation is inherently conservative, because short-sighted money-making at the expense of the environment is not conservative, and fix-things-quick make-everyone-equal socialism is not conservationist. | |
| | | Don
August 2, 2008 10:30 AM PDT
#1 honestly I don't know much about McCain except he was a POW five years and demonstrated levels of leadership, evidently, above the POW norm. It means he's proved himself, albeit a long-ass time ago, but he still contrasts well with that arrogant smooth-talkin' whipper-snapper. | |
| | | Don
August 2, 2008 10:31 AM PDT
#4 Cuz only the OTHER guy is a Politician whereas the guy talkin' is, you know, a regular guy called to public service, here to whip them Politicians into line. | |
| | | Don
August 2, 2008 10:34 AM PDT
#5 I haven't heard it but maybe I'm not plugged in enough. HC and BO were bad choices, I don't get why that party can't nominate someone serious, and McC's a one-hit wonder, so 2012 will be interesting as hell, especially since the world will end six weeks after the election (12/21/2012). | |
| | | Don
August 2, 2008 10:36 AM PDT
#3 I'm thinking there's a weird symbiosis between the greenwhores who need to be seen biking the final three blocks to work and the greenwhores on the City Council who need to tell the bus company how to run their business. Ooh, I answered all five, this was fun! | |
| | | Cody Bones
August 5, 2008 06:16 AM PDT
Sorry Joe, I put up some excellent comments last week, and then went out of town. Much to my surprise, they were not posted. I'm an idiot. Ok, now that that's agreed on lets tackle these again.
1. John McCain refused early release from the Hanoi Hilton based on who his father and grandfather were. He chose to stay with his fellow inmates until they were all released. To me, that is heroic, but I understand that some people don't see it that way. I would highly recommend that everyone read "Faith of our Fathers" by John McCain, and "The Audacity of Hope" by Barack Obama to get a better idea of who is actually running for President. After reading these books, you won't call Obama a Socialist, and you won't call McCain, Mcsame. I would NEVER put McCain in the same class of man as W. Just my opinion.
2. Environment=Liberal
Conservation=Conservative
I guess it's a matter of which means and methods are used. Greenpeace vs. Ducks Unlimited.
Be very careful of ceding the government powers in the name of the "environment" as well as you would be in the name of "security"
3. To remind us of George Carlin
4. Because there are a lot of stupid people in this world.
5. Don't get it. | |
| | | arkonbey
August 5, 2008 11:22 AM PDT
#3 Actually, bike racks on buses make a bit of sense. For example if you live on the edge of the bus line and want to ride your trials / trick bike around the city; riding a bike with no seat or a singlespeed with 20" wheels for miles ain't no fun.
The real reasons are that some folks have a greater distance to go than their fitness allows and the fact that some areas are not as conducive to riding as others. I never use 'em myself (I'm a big rider and also cannot figure out a bus schedule) | |
| | | Joe the Troll
August 5, 2008 12:55 PM PDT
"I would NEVER put McCain in the same class of man as W. Just my opinion."
Cody-
Of course your opinion is valued. I don't say that he's the "same class", although he certainly doesn't seem like the same guy I saw running in 2000. What bugs me, though, is that his policy ideas as he states them now seem very much like "let's keep doing what we've BEEN doing." That is, except for the stuff he borrows from Obama. :-) I think that's what people are referring to when they say "McSame." He simply doesn't seem like the same "Maverick" he was, especially when he changes his tune on energy policy just before raking in a cool million from the oil companies.
Don, you hit my attitude re: #2 right on the head, although I think our foreign policy could use more smooth talk and less cowboy hubris. It certainly doesn't need jokes and ditties about bombing another country. In high school, we know that people who act tough aren't that smart. Why do we lose sight of that in adulthood?
Arkonbey and Nat-
I see your points, but my bus journey isn't anywhere near the edge of ANYTHING. | |
| | | Cheezy
August 7, 2008 01:37 AM PDT
#1: I don't know whether McCain was truly 'heroic' in the Hanoi Hilton or not, but what I DO doubt is that it's particularly relevant to how good a leader he would be... Still, it would make a change to have a President who's not a chickhawk for a change, I guess... y'know the type, one who would do anything for war except actually fight in one.
#2: I can't really expland on what Don said about this. True conservatism has utterly lost its way. The word has been hijacked by thugs, wackos and radicals.
#3: We don't have these in London but they sound like a pretty good idea to me. You might want some help with those hills!
#4: I know what you mean... I always wonder how someone who thinks that badly of politicians could choose to become one!
#5:I didn't know this was being mentioned... Sounds like a 'frying pan- fire' scenario to me... | |
| | | Tim
August 19, 2008 08:42 PM PDT
McCain WAS a hero for vollunteering to let another POW go home and to remain in the Hanoi Hilton. I respect him for that. There was also an incident when there was a fire on his carrier and he risked his life to help save some of his shipmates. That being said, I will not be voting for him. His ideas are old and will not take us in the direction. Joel, attacking him is fine, but do it on the basis of his platform and don't attack his service. I'll give somewhat of a pass because his campaign is obviously attacking Obama for things that have little basis in reality, but I know that you are more intelligent and don't have to resort to doing that when McCain's platform is, to use a military term, a "target rich enviornment".
Conservation and Enviornmentalism are different. Conservation is mainly about hunters protecting habitat and managing game so that they have a "target rich enviornment"
Enviornmentalism is more about impeding economic development and "making big business pay!". There are areas where they could work together, but many enviornmentalists, like PETA, are such self rightous assholes that they would never work with the Conservation movement.
The bike rack thing? I don't know. I don't ride the bus. That's for broke college students and not sucessful manly men like myself ;).
How do you know when a politician or a lawyer are lying? When their lips are moving!
Anyone who wants Hillary to be president is too much of a loop de loo to be taken seriously in the first place. | |
| | | Name
September 9, 2008 02:26 PM PDT
Not to be off track here - but where'd you go? | |
| | | Joe the Troll
September 18, 2008 06:24 PM PDT
I'm not sure who wrote that, but whoever it was can write me at riograndejoe@yahoo.com | |
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