Torture as a negotiable virtue

“A civility that considers torture a negotiable virtue is a civility long past redemption.

I will take my values real but rough, and leave ‘values’ of a David Broder or David Brooks where they lie — abandoned in the name of centrist balance, hollowed from disuse, weakened so as not to offend or provoke.

I would rather face God with this voice than the other.”
—Hunter, commenter on “Why I’m mad: An open letter to David Broder from a fellow journalist” defending “vituperative, foul-mouthed bloggers on the left”

The linked article, from Will Bunch, a senior writer for the Philadelphia Daily News, is also a great read.Continue reading

An unlikely vehicle

“Ned Lamont is an unlikely vehicle. It’s always unlikely people who turn history. It must be God has a funny sense of humor. In my imagination, I see the meeting in heaven when they say it’s time to really deal with this war: ‘We need a messenger to send to the Democratic Party.’ And an angel says, ‘I got this guy in Connecticut, a real goofy, rich Greenwich, Connecticut, white guy who in Harlem would be like Gomer Pyle. Let’s make him the candidate.I can see everyone falling down laughing. And look where we are this morning. I tell you one thing: I don’t think Joe Lieberman is laughing. No matter how this night ends, he ain’t laughing. They’re gonna have to rethink the whole centrist strategy. Democrats everywhere are going to have to rethink their strategy. It’s just amazing.”
—Reverend Al Sharpton, quoted in “The Kiss of Death

I think this quote because God has a sense of humor.Continue reading

Which side of history will you be on?

“This is about honest government. This is about preserving our civil liberties. This is about separation of church and state. This is about competence. Anyone that doesn’t have grave doubts about this administration after these past six years is not interested in anything but power.

This is a defining moment in American history. Which way are we going to go? Are we going to let our fear of terrorism turn us into something our forefathers would not recognize? Or will we come to our senses and realize that we have faced much more dangerous threats in the past and we survived without giving up all of our civil liberties?

Which side of history will you be on?”
—Proud Liberal, comment on Balloon Juice

Caca over macaca

“I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
Mahatma Gandhi in reply to a query by Missionary E. Stanley Jones who asked why Gandhi why he quoted Christ so often.

capelza brings up a great point on this thread on George Allen: “Oh and while we are on the macaca thingy…that was nasty, but does everyone forget what Allen then said to to him…‘Welcome to America?’”
Continue reading